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This Day, October 1, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin

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OCTOBER 1


2016 B.C.E.:  According to some the anniversary of the Origin of Era of Abraham on the secular calendar. The exactitude of this date is easily open to debate.  There is a general agreement among those who accept the existence of Abraham that he appeared about 2000 B.C.E.  This means that Jewish History spans a period of four thousand years.  What makes Jewish History unique is that it covers such a great span of time, that it is not limited to a specific geographic area and that the most ancient events of that history are an active part of the descendants of the people who made that history.

331B.C.E: Alexander the Great of Macedonia defeated the Persian army at Gaugamela.  This victory cemented Greek domination over the Persian Empire.  Alexander would be crowned “King of Asia” after the battle. Alexander’s armies were instrumental in bringing Greek culture to the lands of Asia Minor including the homeland of the Jewish people.  This would mark the beginning of the uneasy and sometimes violent interaction between the world of Moses and Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, et al.

208: Birthdate of Alexander Severus, the Roman Emperor whose respect for Judaism enabled Judah II (President of the Sanhedrin - the Jewish Supreme Court located in Eretz Israel), to obtain a revival of Jewish rights, including permission to visit Jerusalem.

855: Based on an edict issued by Emperor Ludwig II, all Italian Jews must have vacated his realm as of this date

1207:  Birthdate of Henry III king of England who reigned from 1216 until his death in 1272.  Like his father King John, Henry used the royal power to confiscate the wealth of the Jewish community through increasingly burdensome levies and taxes.  He forced the Jews to pay for the restoration of Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London.  At the same time, he enacted decrees calling for the expulsion of Jews from the realm unless they were providing a service to the crown i.e. paying taxes and forgiving loans owed by the royal house.  Additionally, Henry ended the construction of any new synagogues, a move that pleased the Church Fathers whose support he needed.

1280: Today Richard Swinefeld who in 1286 “threatened to excommunicate several of his flock who wished to attend the wedding of the daughter of a leading Jew of Hereford” was named Archdeacon of London

1404: Pope Boniface IX passed away. Unlike his predecessors and successors “he treated the Jews benevolently. He favored a succession of Jewish physicians and recognized the rights of Jews as citizens.” They were given legal right to observe their Shabbat, protection from local oppressive officials, their taxes were reduced and orders were given to treat Jews as full-fledged Roman citizens.

1499: Sixty-five year old Marsilio Ficino, the Roman Catholic priest and Christian Kabbalist passed away today.










1588: Seventeen year old Abbas I of Persia, “the 5th Safavid Shah of Iran began his reign during the early part of which “Jews prospered throughout Persia and were encouraged to settle in Isfahan, the new capital.”  As the years wore on, the conditions of the Jews worsened and among other things, they “were forced to wear a distinctive badge on their clothing and headgear.

1685: Birthdate of Charles III who followed in the footsteps of his father Leopold to make life miserable for the Jews of Hungary.

1697(16thof Tishrei, 5458):Moses ben Mordecai Zacuto an Amsterdam born rabbi, kabbalist and poet “also known by the Hebrew acronym ReMe”Z” passed away today

1739: At an auto-de-fe in Lisbon, Antonio Jose de Silva, one of the most successful and popular playwrights of the period was burned at the stake. He was a member of a New Christian family, son of a mother who had been convicted twice of Judaizing. On the night he was burned, one of his comedies was produced in the local town theater.

1753(3rdof Tishrei, 5514): Tzom Gedaliah

1759(10thof Tishrei, 5520): Yom Kippur

1777: The will of Aaron Franks, the brother of Isaac Franks, dated September 2, 1777 was “proved” today.

1778(10thof Tishrei, 5539): Yom Kippur

1779(2ndof Tishrei, 5560): The Rosh Hashanah Shofar is sounded for the last time in the 18th century.

1800: Spain cedes Louisiana to France via the Treaty of San Ildefonso.  Unbeknownst to the principles, this was the first act, in a “three act play” that would open the Mississippi River Valley and the Great Plains to Jewish settlers. Jews could not live in Spanish Louisiana. The French bought Louisiana was part of Napoleon’s grand dream of an American emprie. The dream fell apart and three years later the French sold Louisiana to the United States.  This opened all of the most of the land west of the Missiissippi and east of the Rockies to Jewish settlers.

1801(24th of Tishrei, 5561): Bele Abraham who had been born in Amsterdam in 1751 passed away today in the Netherlands.

1802:Simon Magruder Levy is one of two cadets in the first class to graduate from West Point

1803(15th of Tishrei, 5564): Sukkoth        

1803: Zalegman Phillips wrote to President Thomas Jefferson requesting that he be appointed “Commissioner of Bankrupts for the District of Pennsylvania.”

1808(10th of Tishrei, 5569): For the last time, Jews observe Yom Kippur during the Presidency of Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and a champion of the separation of church and state.

1810: John Jacob Hays, who may have been the first Jew to settle in Indiana and his wife Mary gave birth to Elizabeth Hayes who became Elizabeth Brouillet when she married Bard Brouillet.

1811: The first steamboat to sail the Mississippi River arrives in New Orléans, Louisiana. The copper for the boilers in that steamboat was probably supplied by Henry Hendricks, a prominent New York Sephardic Jew who supplie the copper fo all of Robert Fulton’s steamboats as well as those of many others.1814:  Following the defeat of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna opens.  The intent is to undue the effects of the French Revolution and return Europe to the days of the Ancien Régime. Among other measures, the victorious powers rolled back the concept that all citizens were equal before the law.  This change had a particularly corrosive effect on the Jews of Europe whose emancipation had depended on this concept.

1815: In London, Simon Marcus and Eleanor Levy gave birth to Hannah Marcus.

1817(21stof Tishrei, 5578): Hoshana Rabba

1817: Birthdate of Vilna native Mathias Strashun the Russian Talmudist and successful businessman who also served as an “adviser to the state bank.”

1818(1stof Tishrei, 5579): Rosh Hashanah

1820(23rd of Tishrei, 5581): As Jews observe Simchat Torah, Americans prepare to take place in what is the third and final of Presidential elections where the President, James Monroe, an virtually unopposed.  It was a time known as the ear of good feelings.

1825: The brig The Mary among whose passengers was English adventurer Nathaniel Isaacs foundered on a sandbank after anchoring off Port Natal

1827: In Essex, Laurence Lazarus and Catherine Phillips gave birth to Sophie Lazarus.

1828(23rdof Tishrei, 5589): As Jews observed Simchat Torah, Americans were engaged in the bitterest Presidential campaign the new nation had experienced as the supports of Adams and Jackson engaged in almost non-stop “l’shon hara.”

1830: Birthdate of Jeremiah C. Sullivan, the Indiana lawyer, who while serving as a general in the Union Army refused to enforced General Order 11.

1831: Birthdate of Eugene Pereire, the member of mutli-generational prominent French Jewish family.  Eugene was an engineer by training and who became a prominent fianancier and businessman He was the son of Emile Pereire who was one of the founders of the infamous Crédit Mobilier

1835: In Weisskirchen, Moravia, Rabbi Abraham Placzek and his wife gave birth to his “son and successor” Baruch Jacob Placzek who became “the chief rabbi at Brünn” and was made a knight the Order of Francis Joseph.

1835: Birthdate of Austrian physician Adam Politizer, a pioneer in the field of otology.


1839(23rdof Tishrei, 5600): Simchat Torah

1839(23rdof Tishrei, 5600): Sixty-five year old Joseph Perl who wrote several books about Chasidim beginning with On the Nature of the Sect of the Hasidim, Drawn from Their Own Writings passed away today in Ternopil.

1839(23rdof Tishrei, 5600): A month after The Great Fire in Mobile, Alabama, Philip Philips and his wife Eugenia Levy would be among those observing Simchat Torah in the Gulf Coast City.

1839: For the first time Simchat Torah is celebrated in Melbourne, Australia

1846: In Gratz, Prussia, Dr. Markus Moses and his wife gave birth to German judge and legal scholar Isaac Albert Moss.

1847: In New York Moses Lazarus and his wife, the former Esther Nathan gave birth to Mary Lazarus who became Mary Lindau when she married Leopold Lindau.

1848: The first edition of Ostdeutsche Post, published by Ignaz Kuranda, the son and grandson of second-hand book dealer, appeared today in Vienna.

1849(15th of Tishrei, 5610): Jews observe Sukkoth for the first and only time during the Presidency of Zachary Taylor.

1850: In Syracuse, NY, “Meier Barnet and Rebecca Hamburger” gave birth to Gates Banet, the husband of “Marion Barnet, who served as “President of the Hebrew Benevolent Society “both in Syracuse and Albany, NY.

1854: In Australia, Sir Saul Samuel began serving his first term as a member of the Legislative Council of New South Wales

1855: A column entitled "The Hebrews: A Feast of Tabernacles" published today in New York reported that "The Israelitish Festival of Tabernacles concluded on Saturday.  The Levitcal law requires its continuance for seven days.  During the whole of this period, the faithful of the city have thronged to the synagogues. The services have continued without intermission...The recurrence of these stated festivals of the Hebrews brings to mind the degree of persistency with which that ancient people adhere to their belief.

1856(2ndof Tishrei, 5617): As the Republican Party is running its first candidate in a presidential election Jews observe the second day of Rosh Hashanah.

1860:In San Francisco, “a committee of Israelites, the topmost men of that persuasion in town, have issued an appeal to the public for material aid to enable Israel Joseph Benjamin 2d to visit Arabia, and look into the causes of the suffering of the Jews in that quarter. Mr. Benjamin is now in this city. He calls himself Benjamin 2d to distinguish himself from the Oriental traveler, Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela. He is from Foltitscheny on the Moldau, where, being ruined in the timber trade, he conceived the undertaking of visiting the oppressed of his race in the outskirts of the earth. His Eight Years in Asia and Africa was praised by Humboldt and Ritter, and the Jews hereabout affirm that it is replete with information valuable to historians and geographers. They credit to him the humane task of bringing the efficient protection of Victoria and Napoleon to the rescue of the grievously oppressed Hebrews in Persia. They went to see him searching in China for the Jews that are said to sprinkle that vast hive, to hear him report upon the condition of the sons of Jacob scattered through Afghanistan, and, most of all, to have him scouring the Arabian peninsula to learn what is the measure of ill-usage of the circumcised there, and pleading with civilized Europe and America for the relief which none ask now, though it is presumed to be sadly needed.”

1860: An article entitled “Emperor in Africa” described Louis Napoleon’s visit to Algeria during which saw a wide variety of his subjects including “Moors, Maltese and Jews.” [Jews had probably been living in Algeria since the destruction of the Temple.  The community really grew after the expulsion from Spain.  Jews gained full citizenship in 1870. Jews lost their right to citizenship in 1963 when the new Algerian government decreed that only Moslems could be citizens.]

1862(7thof Tishrei, 5623): Lady Judith Montefiore, the daughter of Levi Barent Cohen who had been born at London in 1874 and married Sir Moses Montefiore in 1812 passed away today.


1862: During the American Civil War, the Jewish Ladies of Syracuse (New York) present Colonel Henry Barnum with a regimental flag to be used by the 149thRegiment of Volunteer Infantry. 

1863: “Bread Riot In Mobile” published today described the outbreak of violence spearheaded by the women of this Southern port city who were demanding food for themselves and their starving children. In his description of the violence, the reporter wrote, “In coming down Dauphine-street, two women went into a Jew clothing store, in the performance of the work connected with their mission. The proprietor of the store forcibly ejected the intruders, and threw then violently down on the sidewalk. A policeman who happened to be near, thereupon set upon the Jew and gave him a severe beating.”  [A mini-pogrom in the heart of Dixie; how ironic when you consider the number of Jews who actually took up arms on behalf of the Confederacy.]

1864(1stof Tishrei, 5625): As Jews observe Rosh Hashanah, Jews serving with General Sherman enjoy a respite from combat as they prepare for the March to the Sea which will begin next month. 

1865: In Paris, Jules Dukas, “a banker” and “Eugénie, a capable pianist”” gave birth to “composer, critic, scholar and teacher” Paul Abraham Dukas best known creating “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.”

1865: “The Jewish Day of Atonement” published today reported that “The Jewish Day of Atonement -- Yom Kippur -- which ended at sunset on Saturday, is one of the most important and generally respected of the fasts prescribed for observance among the Israelites. The origin and institution of the fast is to be found in Leviticus XVI: "And it shall be unto you a statute forever; in the seventh month, on the 10th of the mouth, you shall afflict your souls and do no work at all; the denizen as well as the stranger that sojourneth amongst you for on that day shall ye be atoned for to purify you; from all your sins before the Lord shall ye be purified. The first amongst your Sabbaths shall this day be among you, and ye shall afflict your souls. And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make an atonement for all the children of Israel from all their sins once a year." And again, in Leviticus XXIII: "And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, speak unto the children of Israel, and say, also on the 10th day in this seventh month is the day of atonement; it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls and offer a burnt-offering unto the Lord. And ye shall do no work in that same day, for it is a day of atonement, to atone for you before the Lord your God. And every one that shall not be afflicted on that same day he shall be cut off from among his people. And every soul that does any work on that same day, that soul will I destroy from among his people. You shall do no manner of work. This is a statute forever until all your generations and throughout all your dwellings. It shall be unto you the first amongst your Sabbaths, and ye shall afflict your souls; on the 9th day of the month (Visbri,) at even, shall ye afflict your souls; from even to even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath." When the Israelites were still a nation, this day was observed with the most imposing ceremonies. It was the only day throughout the year on which even the high priest presumed to enter the holy of holies, or to pronounce the name of the Deity, which at any other time it was unlawful even for him to utter. The glories of this day, while it was still celebrated in the place "which the Lord had chosen there to enthrone his name," are, in these modern times, commemorated in the afternoon service at the synagogue. At present the day is observed with no less fervor than of old, and the Jews throughout the world, however heedless of the precepts of their religion they may be occasionally, are all mindful of those which enjoin them to repent for the sins of the past on the Yom Kippur. At sunset the twenty-four hours' fast and continued prayers commenced, the service consisting chiefly of confessions of sin and utter unworthiness. It is customary in the evening for parents to bestow their benediction on their children. Whosoever meet on the day, be they previously acquainted or complete strangers, are commanded to salute each other with brotherly love and sincerity. If any quarrel exists between two Jews it is obligatory on them to become reconciled. He who is conscious of haying wronged his neighbor is bound to offer reparation. The law which ordains the observance of the day likewise commands the Jew to afflict his soul, which affliction, according to tradition, consists in abstaining from five indulgences -- eating and drinking, bathing, perfuming, wearing shoes and sharing the sensual pleasures. Yesterday the synagogues and many temporary places of worship were thronged with devout Israelites offering up their supplications, confessing their sins and imploring pardon.

1866(22ndof Tishrei, 5627): Shmini Atzeret

1866: In New York, Rosa and James (Jacob) Seligman gave birth to Angeline Seligman the future wife of Albert H .H. Gross.

1866: “The Max Strakosch Alliance put on a "grand inaugural concert" today at “Cooper Institute”

1867(2ndof Tishrei, 5628): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah

1868: In Manhattan, “Judah Solomon, a cloth dealer and Caroline Mathilda Lemanns” gave birth to Titanic survivor Abraham Lincoln Salomon the “wholesale stationer and head of Salomon and Company who was the husband of Hattie Wolf.

1867:Karl Marx publishes the first volume of his famous work, Das Kapital, Kritik der politischen Ökonomie (Capital: Critique of Political Economy).

1869: In Brooklyn, Congregation Beth Jacob was formally incorporated

1869: Abraham Hoffman began serving as Chazan of the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation at the corner of Lloyd and Watson Streets which is known as the Lloyd Street Synagogue.

1870: As Italians prepare to vote on a plebiscite that will effectively create a modern kingdom of Italy under the constitutional rule of Victor Emmanuel, it was reported today that the Italian papers have published an address from the Jews of Rome to Victor Emmanuel expressing their joy at being released from Papal rule.  The Jews had supported and fought for the unification of Italy.  With the creation of the modern state of Italy, the Jews would go from some of the most oppressed people in Europe to being full citizens of a modern, liberal society.

1871(16thof Tishrei, 5632): Second Day of Sukkoth

1871: In London, Davis Colski and Sarah Kraijsman gave birth to Barnett Colski.

1871: “Observance of the Jewish Festival of Succoth or Ingathering” published today described the commencement of “the Jewish Festival of the harvest home, a season which at all time and among all nations has been considered on hilarity and feasting.”

1872: Birthdate of Roaslie Israel who interred at the Freudenburg Cemetery in Germany when she passed away in 1906.

1873(10thof Tishrei, 5634): As Jews observe Yom Kippur, the New York Stock Exchange reopens having closed temporarily on September 20 during the Panic of 1873

1875(2nd of Tishrei, 5636): Rosh Hashanah

1876: “An Autumn Festival,” published today reported that “the Jewish festival of Sukkoth or tabernacles commences tomorrow evening at sunset and last for seven days.  This detailed piece of reporting goes on to quote from the 23rd chapter of Leviticus so that the reader will understand the origin of the festival.  The article gives a detailed description of the Lulav and Etrog as well as providing information about “the Azereth or concluding feast” and Simchat Torah which “is kept for the purpose of rejoicing over the conclusion of the reading of the Pentateuch, which is divided into weekly sections and gone through once every year.

1876: An article published today entitled “Mr. Huxley and the Bible” attempts to find harmony between the Jewish story of creation and the view of modern science.  The author finds the Jewish account to be immeasurably superior to any other version including the Persian and the Greeks.  In their versions, creation is the produce of superstitious gods and struggling spirits.  “The Hebrew narrative gives us the sublime truths of the whole present order of things have sprung from an intelligent and supreme will. The Jewish story of creation is about bringing order out of chaos which is consistent with the latest scientific thought.  The “visions or pictures in the narrative of Moses are…not intended to be” taken “literally” but are to be viewed as a dramatic and poetic description of events.

1877: The Berliner Zeitung, a newspaper known as B.Z founded today was bought by Jewish published Leopold Ullstein.

1878: Iowa native Harry G. Leopold who eventually serve as a Lieutenant aboard the “Petrel” joined the United States Navy today.

1879(14thof Tishrei, 5640): Erev Sukkoth

1880: In Lithuania, “Rabbi David Frisch and his wife Hannah (Baskowtiz) Frisch gave birth to Rabbi Ephraim Frisch the native of Lithuania who came to the United States in 1888, was ordained at Hebrew Union College and married Ruth Cohen while serving a series of congregations from Pine Bluff, AR to New York City.

1882: Major Louis Alexander Gratz, the son of Salomon and Henrietta Gratz and his wife, Elisabeth Trigg Gratz gave birth to Hugh Turney Gratz

1883: “Poverty, Wealth and Morals” an article published today that sought to described causes other than economics that produce crime reported that  “the Western Jews, who for generations have sought in personal luxury indemnification for the humiliations, are as strong, as active, as healthy as ever they were, and decidedly brighter-witted than they were in Palestine.”

1883: Among the charities that received excise moneys from the Board of Estimate and Apportionment today were the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society ($1,997.43) and Ladies’ Deborah Nursery and Child’s Protectory ($1,980.00), a small fraction of the $34,398.39 that was disbursed to all charities.

1883(29th of Elul, 5643): Erev Rosh Hashanah

1883(29th of Elul, 5643): A small group of Sephardic Jews met today and decided that there was need for a second synagogue to meet the needs of New York’s Spanish-Portuguese community.

1883: “The Jewish New Year” published today described events related to the celebration of Rosh Hashanah and its connection to the upcoming observance of Yom Kippur.  “At sunset this evening the Jewish community will begin the celebration of the festival of Rosh Hashanah or the New Year.  The coming year will be known as 5644 in the Jewish calendar, beginning on the first day of the month of Tishri.” (What makes this article significant is that it appeared in the secular, and the not the Jewish, press.)

1884: A hearing was to be held today regarding charges that three Jews – Lawrence Braham, Hyam Friewald and Benjamin Levy - had assaulted a policeman named Samuel Murphy while they were walking in Central Park on the afternoon of Yom Kippur.

1885: Birthdate of poet and critic Louis Untermeyer. Untermeyer was one of the earliest American foes of Hitler. Just weeks after Hitler assumed power on January 30, 1933, a patchwork of competing Jewish forces, led by American Jewish Congress president Rabbi Stephen Wise, civil rights crusader Louis Untermeyer, and the combative Jewish War Veterans, initiated a highly effective boycott of German goods and services. Each advanced the boycott in its own way, but sought to build a united anti-Nazi coalition that could deliver an economic deathblow to the Nazi party, which had based its political ascent almost entirely on promises to rebuild the strapped German economy.

1885(22ndof Tishrei, 5646) Shmini Atzeret

1885:In New York City, Eugene Otterbourg, the son American “envoy to Mexico, Marcus Otterbourg” and his wife gave birth to Edwin M. Otterbourg, the 1904 graduate of CCNY, the third generation attorney who “was a founder and senior partner of Otterbourg, Steindler, Houston and Rosen” where he was “a specialist in bankruptcy and reorganization law.”

1885: In addition to the services being held as part of “The Feast of Tabernacles” congregants at Temple Beth-El in New York participated in a memorial service for the last Sir Moses Montefiore.  Dr. Kaufmann Kohler delivered a eulogy in German which praised the many virtues of the great Jewish philanthropist and humanitarian.

1885: Eighty-four year old Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, “an early proponent of the Restoration of the Jews to the Holy Land” who in 1841 “provided the first proposal by a major politician to resettle Jews in Palestine.”

1885: During the year ending today, the United Hebrew Charities of the City of New York, “the Executive Committee held 39 meetings, acted upon 2,615 new applications for aid and 2,377 cases for investigation.”

1887: Annie Lee, a little girl who is claimed by a Jewish family and an African-American family is under the care of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children per the order of Justice White who has said the matter is one that will have to be settled by the state Supreme Court.

1889: “Practical Education” published today described “the excellent work done by the Hebrew Technical Institute” which was founded in November, 1883 and is currently being led by Professor Henry M. Leipziger who is the Director and Chief of Faculty.

1889: “A Great Hebrew Fair” published today described plans that are being made for a fundraiser sponsored by the People’s Free School Association, the Aguilar Free Library Society and the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Associations that will be held during the last half of December.  The sponsors hope to raise between $150,000 and $200,000 which will be used to erect a facility on the Lower East Side which will be used by the Aguilar Library.

1889: “The Practical Education” published today praised the Hebrew Technical Institute led by Professor Henry M. Leipziger as being “one of the most conspicuous exemplars of the progressive idea in education” to be found in New York City (more info for next year)

1889: In New York City, Ida and Abraham L. Kass gave birth to Davi Kass, the founder and “President of the Overland Trading Company, Director of the Trade Bank of New York, President of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun and husband of Sadie Kass with whom he had two daughters – “Helen Joy and Babette.”

1889: “His Sons-In-Law Worried Him” published today included the last wishes of Leopold Newland, a Polish Jew, that Nathan Mauric and Samuel Unger, his sons-in-law, not be allowed his funeral.

1890: “The newly-completed Hebrew Sanitarium at Rockaway Park was destroyed by fire early this morning.”

1891: Stanford University opened its doors for the first time. Currently, students at Stanford may major or minor in Jewish Studies. There are approximately 655 Jewish students among the 6555 undergraduates and 1,800 students among the 12,000 graduate students. Stanford is also home to the Rohr Chabad House and the Taube Center for Jewish Studies.

1891: “A case of diphtheria was discovered today at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and Dr. Cyrus Edison sent the patient to the Willard Parker Hospital.”

1891: Jacob H. Schiff presided over the banquet tonight at Delmonico’s given in honor of Jesse Seligman by the officers of several  New York “Hebrew charitable institutions” and the trustees of Temple Emanu-El withLewis May serving as Toastmaster

1891: As of today Herman Faust will no longer receive a salary from the synagogue in Poughkeepsie having been relieved as the congregation’s rabbi because of “gross breaches of discipline.”

1891: Starting today the United Hebrew Charities began providing work for from sixty to eighty families “with work at distance mills.”  Manufacturers provide the charity with job listings and the charity fills the work orders

1892(10thof Tishrei, 5653): Yom Kippur

1892(10thof Tishrei, 5653): In Cleveland, Ohio, a congregation of Russian Jews hold services in the assembly room of the new Young Men’s Christian Association Building having decided that the crosses on the façade do not interfere with the Jewish ceremonials or sensitivities.

1892: The University of Chicago holds it first classes

1892: As of today, “the partnership between Isaiah Woolf Jacobs and Abraham Hast carrying on business in Cambridge under the style of Jacobs and Hast has been dissolved by mutual consent.

1892: A fight took place today a group of peddlers at the corner of Hester and Ludlow Streets during Louis Krabitz, a Russian Jew was taken to Governor’s Hospital after having fallen unconscious when he was kicked in the abdomen.

1893: As of today there were the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society was providing a home for 437 boys and 352 girls, an increase of 84 from the total from a year ago while providing various services for a total of 2,339 children.

1893: “The Thalia Theatre was crowded this afternoon with members of the United Hebrew Trades who had come to hear the report of Abraham Cahan who had been their delegate to the recent International Labor Congress in Zurich, Switzerland.”

1893: “Depend on Good Candidates” published today provided an analysis of the upcoming election in Cleveland, OH, including the fact that the Democrats have nominated “ Rabbi Hahn, a Hebrew of great ability and popularity whose election” to the state legislature “is practically assured” and the failure of the Republicans to nominate any Jews as candidates for the state legislature.

1893: “Rector Ahlwardt About to Serve his Sentence In Prison” published today described the upcoming imprisonment of the famous anti-Semite following his conviction for libeling Loewe & Co, the Jewish owned company that manufactures rifles for the Army.

1893: It was reported today that a Congress of North German Anti-Semites adopted a platform that included a proposal forbidding Jews from employing German servants.

1893: Between today and March 1 of 1894, the United Hebrew Charities would receive over 18,000 applications for relief representing 50,440 people.

1894(1stof Tishrei, 5655): Rosh Hashanah

1894: “Now the Period of Rosh Hashanah” published today described the ceremonials connected with the holiday as well as the seemingly miraculous rescue of Louis Berghold who nearly drowned when he went to the bathhouse at 23 Orchard Street where he had gone to bathe prior to the holiday in keeping with “the Jewish custom of the New Year.”

1894: Council No 11 of the National Council of Jewish Women was formed in St. Paul, MN with 35 members.

1894: Rabbi De Sola Mendes is scheduled to deliver a special sermon at Congregation Shaarai Tephilla’s new sanctuary.

1894: Captain Drefyus began serving with the 39th Regiment of the Line in Paris.

1894: “No sales or real estate auctions were held today” in part because it was a Jewish holiday.

1895: Following the removal of the religious disabilities by the Hungarian Reichstag the first bride to marry under the law is the daughter of Deputy Mezel.

1895: In New York City, Paul Warburg married Nina J. Loeb, daughter of Solomon Loeb, found of Kuhn, Loeb & Company.  The couple would have two children, James Paul Warburg and Dr. Bettina Warburg.

1896: As of today, there was a balance of $42.90 in the treasury of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society.

1896: On Long Island, Robert Morse and Cambridge Livingston were arraigned today after having been charged by Samuel Burnstein, a Jewish dry goods peddler, with stealing and abusing his horse.

1897: As of today, the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children of the City of New York, has provided 35 summer excursions during 1897 and that from June 1 of this year through today, the agency has provided service to 684 people including “93 mothers with nursing infants and 591 children.”

1898(15th of Tishrei, 5659): Sukkoth

1898:  Czar Nicholas II expelled the Jews from several major Russian cities.  Seven thousand Jews were forced to leave Kiev.  This was part of the Russian policy to destroy the Jewish population through forced conversion, immigration and death.

1898: In Amsterdam, Herzl receives a call to the German consulate. Wilhelm II is inclined to take the migration of the Jews under his protection. He also wishes to receive Herzl at the head of a delegation in Jerusalem.

1899: Irene Carver of Baltimore, MD wrote to the New York Times expressing her concerns about Israel Zangwill’s “Children of the Ghetto” which she said should have been called “The Strange Story of a Strange People.”

1901: Approximately 1,000,000 British Pounds are being transferred to the British Government in connection with the estate duty of the late Baron Hirsch.



1903(10thof Tishrei, 5664): Yom Kippur

1903: The National League Pennant winning Pittsburgh Pirates and the American League Pennant winning Boston Americans play the first game of the first World Series. The World Series was the brainchild of Barney Dreyfus, a German born Jew who came to the United States in 1881.  Dreyfus settled in Kentucky where he became President of the Louisville Colonels of the National League.  The Louisville team was dropped from the National League in 1899 and Dreyfus became part owner and President of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1900.  Under his guidance the Pirates won three straight National League Championships.  During the 1903 season, Dreyfus met with the owner of the American League leading Boston Americans and proposed that the two teams meet at the end of the season.  The two shook hands and, despite opposition from National League owners, the two teams met in a best of nine series starting on October 1.  The Boston team won the first series, five games to three.  But the Pittsburgh players made more money.  The Boston team received 75 percent of the AL revenues with the rest going to the team owner.  But Dreyfus gave his team 100 percent of the NL revenues, keeping nothing for himself.  Dreyfus is also the man who built Forbes Field, the Pirates historic baseball park and he helped create the office of the Commissioner of Baseball.

1903: Birthdate of "Slapsie" Maxie Rosenbloom.  Born in New York City, Rosenbloom was light-heavyweight box champ from 1932 to 1934.  This was the Golden Age for Jewish prizefighters.

1904(22nd of Tishrei, 5665): Shemini Atzeretz

1904: In the next twelve months, beginning today, “100,388 Jewish immigrants were admitted to New York City” according to the reports of the United Hebrew Charities of the City of New York.

1904: Birthdate of Vladimir Horowitz. The Russian-born pianist was considered one of the most accomplished players of the 20th century. He is one in a long line of world-class Jewish pianists.  He passed away in 1989.

1904: Birthdate of Austrian-born English physicist Otto Robert Frisch. In 1938 he and Lise Meitner were the first to describe fission of uranium after bombardment by neutrons. During World War II Frisch was part of the British delegation to the Manhattan Project, working as head of the Critical Assembly Group. He returned to England to direct the physics department at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge. He died in 1979, one of the many Jewish scientist who fled the Nazis and enriched the West.

1905(2nd of Tishrei, 5666): Second day of Rosh Hashanah

1906: “Ivan Pavlov writes a science article which includes an early description of the phenomenon of classical conditioning.

1907(23rd of Tishrei, 5668) Simchat Torah

1909(16th of Tishrei, 5670): Second Day of Sukkoth

1910: Birthdate of Rabbi Chiam Pinchas Scheinberg,


1910: “The season of the German stock company at the Irving Place Theatre” in New York opened tonight “with the performance for the first time on any stage of a melodramatic tragedy in three acts by Paule Heyse” the German-Jewish “novelist and poet, entitled “The Veiled Statue at Sais.”  Heyse was the first Jew to win the Nobel Prize for Literature which he won in 1910.

1911(9th of Tishrei, 5672): Erev Yom Kippur

1911: In Chicago, Illinois, James and Emma Kostal gave birth to songwriter and arranger Irwin Kostal, the brother of James, Jerome and Violet Kostal.


1911: Mr. and Mrs. Joseph L. Seligman, who have been spending “their honeymoon in the West”, are scheduled to take up residence at 16 East 81st Street today in New York City.  The bride is the former Josephine Knowles of Pensacola, Fl.

1912(20th of Tishrei, 5673): Sixth Day of Sukkoth

1912(20th of Tishrei, 5673): Forty-eight year old merchant Nathan Stein passed away in Pittsburg, PA.

1912(20th of Tishrei, 5673): Eighty-year old Jacob Leo Samuel, the “president of the Spanish Portuguese Synagogue passed away today at Montreal.

1913: Birthdate of Yisrael Barzilai, the Polish native who made Aliyah in 1934 and became active in politics serving as an MK and Cabinet Minister.

1913: Morris Wolff was “appointed third deputy attorney-general for Pennsylvania” today.

1913: In Brooklyn, Morris and Pauline Rangell gave birth to Dr. Leo Rangell, a leading psychoanalyst during the heyday of classical Freudian talk therapy in the 1960s and ’70s, and a relentless advocate for the slow approach to treating emotional distress even as antidepressants and managed care made short-term treatment the norm´ (As reported by Paul Vitello)

1914: In Atlanta, Ga, Samuel Boorstein, “an attorney who participated in the defense of Leo Frank and his wife gave birth to Daniel Boorstin, author of The Americas: The Democratic Experiencefor which he won the 1974 Pulitzer Prize, the 12thLibrarian of Congress and the husband of Ruth Carolyn Frankel, the graduate of Wellesley College who “became his partner and editor for his first book The Mysterious Science of the Law.”

1915(23rd of Tishrei, 5676): Simchat Torah

1915: Birthdate of Cruz “Allen” Rivera, the Catholic Puerto Rican who a Jewish waitress, Lillian Friedman with whom he had a son Gerald Michael Rivera, known as Geraldo.

1915: The Jewish Chronicle reported that Private Abraham Lippman of the Zion Mule Corps “was in the 3rd Northern General Hospital in Sheffield suffering from an eye wound where he was met by British Army Jewish Chaplain Rabbi Barnett I. Cohen. (Jewish Virtual Library).

1915: “Jew In Czar’s Council” published today described the election by representatives of commerce and industry of the first Jew to the Council of the Empire which “has equal legislative powers with the Duma.”

1916: It was reported today that the Jews “constitute only 3 percent of the population of Russia.

1916: It was reported today that “in addition to the large number of schools” exclusively for Jewish student” permission has been granted by the Russian government “for the establishment of Jewish gymnasiums (high or predatory schools) in Petrograd.”

1917(15th of Tishrei, 5678): Sukkoth

1917: At Temple Israel of Harlem Dr. M.H. Harris is scheduled to speak on “Food Conservation.”

1917: According to remarks by Jacob Billikopf, the Executive Director of the American Jewish Relief Committee “The Yom Kippur appeal” which raised about a half a million dollars “was made possible through the generosity of Sam C. Lamport who, without solicitation, offer to pay the entire cost of the campaign.

1918: During World War I, Arab forces under T. E. Lawrence (a/k/a "Lawrence of Arabia") capture Damascus. The Arabs had the mistaken notion that capture of Damascus would result in the recreation of the Caliphate located in the Syrian city.  The British and French had other plans – plans that would help to destabilize the region that reverberate into the 21st century with the violence in Iraq, Lebanon and, of course Syria.  This is another example of regional confrontation that had, and has, nothing to with the Jews, Zionism or Israel. (In reality, it was the forces under Allenby, including the Jewish Legion that responsible for the victory)

1918: “Anti-Semitism in Germany” published today summarized information contained in a pamphlet by Israel Cohen published by the English Federation which “sketches the history of this movement from Bismarck through Stocker and Ahlvardt” and which the author says “has concealed its fangs during the war” but will, at its first opportunity “come out of its lair and begin to spread its poison anew.”

1918: The 165thRegiment including Sergeant Abraham Blaustein left La Marche today and hiked to Viocourt as they continued to advance against the Boche in the last great offensive of WW I.

1919: The London Office the Jewish Correspondence Bureau was opened today by Mr. Meer Grossman and Jacob Landau “as a private company.”

1919: Today Major General Hans von Seeckt “became chief of the newly established Truppenamt agency” “the cover organization for the German General Staff” that hid training banned by the Versailles Treaty until 1935” when, under Hitler, “the General Staff of the Germany Army was re-created.” (Editor’s note – This is but one more example of the reality that German leaders, long before Hitler came to power, were determined to undue the outcome of WW I and re-establish Germany as the dominate power in Europe.)

1919: Alexander Berkman was released from Atlanta Federal Penitentiary after having served the maximum sentence following his conviction for violation the Espionage Act of 1917 for his role in trying to dissuade Americans from registering for the Draft in World War I.

1920: On New York’s Lower East Side, Rose (née Berolsky), a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant who worked in a garment sweatshop, and  Milton Matthow, a Russian Jewish peddler and electrician, from Kiev gave birth to Walter John Matthow who gained fame as actor Walter Matthau whose most famous role may have been as Oscar Madison in “The Odd Couple.”


 1920: Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Troutfelt and Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Loeb who spent the Summer at Seagate, NY returned to their New York homes today.

1920: Two days after he had passed away, Woolf Davis, the husband of Mina Davis with whom he had four children – “Isaac, Ann, David and Leah” – was buried today at the East Ham Jewish Cemetery.

1921: As of today the “temporary officers of the newly formed Camden, NJ, lodge of the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith which has 30 members are Sig Schoenagle, President; Abe Furhrman; Bernard Bertman, Secretary

1922: Twenty-six year old Army veteran and Rutgers University football player “John Alexander made football history today while playing for the Milwaukee Badgers against the Chicago Cardinals” when “he became the first person to ever play the ‘outside linebacker position.’”

1923(21st of Tishrei, 5684): Hoshana Rabah

1924: Birthdate of President Jimmy Carter. President Carter brokered the Camp David agreements that led to the historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. In the 21stcentury he openly allied himself with the Palestinians in a book whose title equated Israel with the former white supremacist regime of South Africa. 

1924: Birthdate of Herbert Breslin, the Bronx native who used his skills as a publicist to promote tenor Luciano Pavarotti to the status of “superstar.” (As reported by Daniel J. Wakin)

1925: As the Senators were closing out their pennant winning season, Buddy Myer played in the third of the four regular season games that would mark his major league debut.

1925: Birthdate of Adolfo Kaminsky, the Argentine born Jew raised in Paris who served in the Resistance during WW II where his skills as a forger saved thousands of lives because of his creation of false identity documents.


1926(23rd of Tishrei, 5678): Simchat Torah

1928: In Joniškis, Lithuania, Ella (née Zotnickaita) and Ber Skikne, gave birth to Laruschka Mischa Skikne known in Hebrew as Zvi Mosheh who gained fame as actor Laurence Harvey whose parts were as varied as a Texan at the Alamo and a brainwashed assassin in “The Manchurian Candidate.


1929: “The Devil’s Maze” a dramatic film with music by Louis Levy was released today in the United Kingdom.

1930(9th of Tishrei, 5691): Erev Yom Kippur

1930: Birthdate of Samuel Winfield Lewis, the native of Houston whose distinguished diplomatic career included serving as U.S. Ambassador to Israel from 1977 to 1985.

1930: The Passfield White Paper, dated as of today, recommended limiting Jewish immigration to Palestine following the Arab riots of 1929.

1932(1st of Tishrei, 5693): Rosh Hashanah on Shabbat

1932: Herbert Samuel completed his service as Home Secretary under Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald.

1933: Formation of the 6th Airlift Squadron in which author James Salter would serve following WW II.

1934: Paul Guilluame, the art critic who was the first to champion the work of Italian-Jewish painter Modigliani passed away.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=13707220

1935: Actress Sylvia Sidney, “the daughter of Rebecca (née Saperstein), a Romanian Jew, and Victor Kosow, a Russian Jewish immigrant who worked as a clothing salesman” married Bennett Cerf today.

1936(15th of Tishrei, 5697): Sukkoth

1936: In Budapest, French Premier Leon Blub was “assailed” as “Red Jew during a ally of Christian National students who then went to the Jewish quarter where they broke the “windows of the chief synagogue” during “an anti-Semitic demonstration.”  (Editor’s note – these anti-Semitic attacks were not an aberration and help to explain the acquiescence in the Holocaust)

1936: “An appeal for funds to combat the widespread anti-Jewish propaganda in Eastern and Central Europe was made “today” by Morris C. Troper, the controller of the American Jewish Joint Committee” who had just returned from a tour of Europe where he said “the Jews in Germany had been deprived of their civil and religious rights and that a similar deprivation is threatened in Poland, Austria, Rumania, Lithuania and Latvia.”

1936: Sixty year old Louis Thomas McFadden, a Congressman from Pennsylvania an outspoken foe the Federal Reserve Board who blamed the board for the Great Depression and saw it as part of a Jewish conspiracy to control the economy and who inserted “excerpts from The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion into the Congressional Record” passed away.

1936: “A total of $2,500,000 was expended by the Jewish Agency for Palestine on immigration, colonization, security and other activities, including the settlement of German Jews during the year” that end today.

1937: Cambridge, Massachusetts, native Philip Rahv (born Fevel Greenberg) “was officially expelled as a Trotzkyite by the American Communist Party.” (Editor’s Note: This was part of the contest between Stalin and Trotsky for control of the Communist Party – a conflict which was literally a matter of life and death in those days but which is unknown to almost everybody at the start of the 21stcentury.)

1937: The Palestine Post reported on the festive opening of the new Haifa-Hadera-Tel Aviv-Jaffa highway, an achievement described as a "remarkable engineering feat" and "a grand step in the development of the country."

1937: The Palestine Post reported that according to some moderate Arab sources, it was the well-known band of Sheikh Izzadin Kassam which was responsible for the murder of Mr. L.Y. Andrews, the District Commissioner for Galilee, and of his driver, Constable Peter Robertson. This terrorist group, known as having committed many murders before, shot and killed Andrews and Robertson as they were about to enter the Anglican Church in Nazareth.

1937: The Palestine Post reported that according to some London newspapers, the British and French diplomats in Geneva discussed the possibility of Jewish settlement in

1938: The Polish government revoked the passports of all Jews who have lived outside of Poland for more than five years, rendering them stateless.

1938: Today following the Anschluss of last March, the medical practice of Eduard Bloch, who had one been the physician of Hitler’s family, was closed today, following which he, his daughter and his son-in-law “emigrated overseas.

1938: According to Claretta Petacci, today Mussolini said that "Hitler is a big softy, deep down." Petacci was Il Duce’s mistress.

1938: In Argentina, a decree is scheduled to go into today designed to limit the number of emigres who can enter into the country which many assume is intended to stop the flow of Jewish immigrants coming from “Greater Germany and Poland.”

1938: Civiltá Cattolica, the foremost Jesuit journal, which is published in Rome and controlled by the Vatican, calls Judaism sinister and accuses Jews of trying to control the world through money and secularism. The journal says that the devil is the Jews' master; Judaism is evil and "a standing menace to the world."

1939: “The Jewish Calendar” a pamphlet “compiled and arranged by Solomon M. Neches” “with corresponding dates for the year 5700 Anno Mundi, 1939-1940 Common Era” was listed today among “the latest books received” today.

1939: In Vienna, Austria, Übersiedlungsaktion (Resettlement action) is instituted against able-bodied Jewish men. These Jews are deported to Poland for forced labor

1939: Nazis begin the internment of Polish "mental defectives" in the Polish village of Piasnica.

1939: In keeping with the terms of their pact with Nazi Germany, Russia “poured well over 1,000,000 men with full equipment into her share of the partitioned Polish State.

1939: “Speaking tonight at the Temple of Religion” at the World’s Fair, “where Congregation B’nai Jeshurun celebrated the beginning of its 114thyear in New York, Dr. Israel Goldstein, the congregation’s rabbi assailed the ‘menace of Nazi-Communist paganism’ and advised Jews and Christians to unite ‘to uphold and defend religion and religious values.’”

1939: Today, “Edward L. Bernays announced his withdrawal as non-salaried counsel on public relations for the World’s Fair” being held in New York.

1940: The Nazis deport 6500 Jews from Germany's Palatinate, Baden, and Saar regions to internment camps at the foot of the French Pyrenees.

1940: Jews are forced to pay for and build a wall around the Warsaw (Poland) Ghetto

1940: Reich theoretician Alfred Rosenberg writes an article, "Jews to Madagascar," which suggests mass deportation of Jews to the island off the African coast.

1940: German authorities forbid Norwegian Jews to teach and participate in other professions.

1940: Young Jewish men return from the Belzec, Poland, camp to Szczebrzeszyn, Poland, after a ransom of 20,000 zlotys is paid to Nazi captors.

1940: In his New Year’s message, excerpts of which were published today, Dr. Emil Wleipziger of New Orleans, President of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, asked Reform Rabbis “to assume the strategy of audacity, whereby they might teach their congregations to give divine thanks in the hour of agony that He has kept us alive, has sustained us and allowed us to reach this day..”

1940: Wendell Willkie, the Republican candidate for President, “told Jewish citizens tonight that ‘in so far as it is within my capacity to keep so sacred a pledge, the United States of American will never harbor racial or religious intolerance and persecution.’”

1940: It was reported today, that “the Jewish New Year holidays which begin at sundown” tomorrow “will confine the kosher slaughter to three days this week” in New York.

1941(10 Tishrei, 5702): Yom Kippur

1941: On this Jewish Day of Atonement, Jews are taken from the ghetto at Podborodz, Ukraine, and killed.

1941: Majdanek, a concentration outside of Lublin, Poland began operating today. During its 34 months of operation at least 59,000 Jews were murdered there.

1941(10 Tishrei, 5702): At Zalgar, the Nazis killed 633 men, 1,017 women, 496 children.

1941(10 Tishrei, 5702): At Butrimantz, Lithuania the Nazis murdered 976 Jews in front of Lithuanian crowds seated on benches for "a good view." For more on the destruction of this Lithuanian Shtetl see, If I Forget Thee: The Destruction of the Shtetl Butrimantz (Butrimonys, Lithuania.The Nazis sent 3,000 more Jews from Vilna to Ponar where they would all be shot.

1941: The German government prohibits further Jewish emigration from Germany

1941: At the Auschwitz camp, SS officer Arthur Johann Breitwieser takes note when a comrade is rendered unconscious after accidental exposure to a disinfectant called Zyklon B. A gaseous variant of the compound will eventually be used to kill millions of Jews.

1941(10 Tishrei, 5702): Einsatzgruppen members gather Jews of the Baltic port of Libau and machine-gun them at the local naval base.

1941(10 Tishrei, 5702): Germans drown 30 Jewish children in clay pits near Okopowa Street in the Warsaw Ghetto.

1941: Seventy children in the Warsaw Ghetto are found frozen to death outside destroyed houses following the season's first snowfall.

1941: From this date until 12/22/41, the German murder 33,500 Jews in Vilna, Lithuania.

1942: Jews are deported to Auschwitz from Holland and Belgium; to the Treblinka death camp from central Poland and the Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia camp/ghetto; and to the Belzec death camp from the Eastern Galicia region of Poland.

1942: The Nazis opened Chelmek as a labor camp. The Jews there and elsewhere were  used as slave labor for the German war effort.

1942: Nazis deported 4000 Jews from Lukow, a town near Lublin in Poland.

1942: The Nazis deported 2,000 Jews from Czechoslovakia.

1942: At Novogrudok, Belorussia, 50 Jews escape from the Germans and join local resistance led by Tuvia Bielski

1942: As 3000 Jews are arrested at Pinczów, Poland, Jewish resistance is led by Michael Majtek and Zalman Fajnsztat

1942: Five thousand Jews are deported from Zawichost, Poland to Belzec

.

1942: The British Vatican Ambassador Francis d'Arcy Osborne writes in his diary that Pope Pius XII only occasionally denounces moral crimes. But such rare and vague declarations "do not have...lasting force and validity." Osborne points out that the Pope's "policy of silence in regard to such offences against the conscience of the world must necessarily involve a renunciation of moral leadership."

1942(20th of Tishrei, 5703): At a small labor camp at Budy, Poland, female German non-Jewish prisoners beat, mutilate, and kill dozens of captive Jewish women. When the massacre is over, Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss inspects the scene

1942(20th of Tishrei, 5703: Eighty-five year old Dayton, Ohio, native Louis D. Beaumont who with “his two brothers joined with David May, their brother-in-law, in the 1880s to form the May Shoe and Clothing Company, which became the predecessor to May Department Stores” and who created the Louis D. Beaumont Foundation which funded several programs at the Washington University in St. Louis passed away today.

1942: The Chelmek slave-labor camp, located in Poland near Auschwitz-Birkenau, opens to house Jews draining swamps to provide water to the nearby Bata shoe factory.

1942(20th of Tishrei, 5703):In Luków, Poland, Jewish Council member David Lieberman is told by German authorities that money he has collected to ransom Lublin's Jews is useless, and deportations will continue, whereupon Lieberman tears the money to pieces and slaps the German official in the face. Ukrainian guards kill Lieberman immediately, and 4000 of the Jews Lieberman had hoped to protect are deported to the Treblinka extermination camp, where they are gassed.

1942: Hundreds of Jews escape the Ukrainian town of Luboml but are quickly hunted down. In all, some 10,000 of the town's Jews are killed.

1943(2nd of Tishrei, 5704): Second day of Rosh Hashanah

1943: In Manhattan Gertrude Levy and Joseph Slater gave birth to “Robert Slater, a journalist and the author of more than two dozen books, including biographies of figures as diverse as the Israeli leader Golda Meir, the businessman Jack Welch and the billionaire and philanthropist George Soros.” (As reported by William Yardley)

1943: SS chief Heinrich Himmler delivers a speech at a "Final Solution" conference.



1943: The Jewish ghetto at Chernovtsy, Romania, is liquidated



1943(2nd of Tishrei, 5704): Just before their murders, several Jewish women use their bare hands to attack SS troops at Auschwitz.



1944(14th of Tishrei, 5705): Erev Sukkot



1944: Birthdate of Dror Kashtan, the native of Petah Tikva who became a leading Israeli footballer. (What Americans call soccer)



1944(14thof Tishrei, 5705): Fifty-one year old Max Ehrlich who had been a highly successful German entertainer was gassed at Auschwitz for the crime of being a Jew.

http://www.max-ehrlich.org/



1944: Three years after they began, the final transport of Jews left Cologne for Theresienstadt today.



1944: The Germans initiate death marches of prisoners from Auschwitz to camps in Germany, including Dachau, Bergen-Belsen, and Sachsenhausen.



1944 About 15,000 Jews are deported from the Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia, camp/ghetto to Auschwitz.



1944(14th of Tishrei, 5705): At the Stutthof, Germany, concentration camp, executions of Jewish prisoners begin. Initial killings are carried out by assembling inmates with their backs to an infirmary wall with the stated purpose of medical examinations. Slits in the wall behind the heads of each inmate allow a pistol shot to be fired into their brains from the adjoining room



1944: Some 150 twins, most of them children, remain in Dr. Mengele's medical block at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

1944(14th of Tishrei, 5705): The Nazis gassed 1,000 more Jews from Theresinstadt at Birkenau.

1945(24th of Tishrei, 5706): At Boleslawiec, Poland, eight Jews are murdered by an anti-Semitic Polish underground group. Yes, this happened five months after the end of World War II.

1945: David Ben-Gurion decided “launch an armed struggle against the British which resulted in the Palmach joining The Hebrew Resistance Movement.

1945: Birthdate of Rod Carew. 

1946: Today, Mrs. Belle J. Goldstein, national president of the Mizrachi Women’s Organization of America, described the conditions in Palestine following her four month visit to Eretz Israel where she took special pains to inspect the 45 child care facilities supported by Mizrachi.  She compared conditions in Palestine to those in Ireland.  She described the curfews which would come without warning leaving families without such basics as bread and milk.  She reiterated the fact that Mizrach did not condone the actions of the Stern Gang or the Irgun, she reported that most of the Yishuv was actively or passively a supporter of the Haganah.

1947: “Six British destroyers raced out of Haifa today to intercept” two ships carrying over three thousand Jewish refuges that have passed through Dardanelles and according to RAF patrols are somewhere between Cyprus and northern Palestine.  Just in case that a half dozen modern British warships were unable to cope with the threat posed by these two vessels, 3 more destroyers were standing by in Haifa should they be needed

1948: A National Palestinian Council meeting in Gaza elected the Mufti as its president and declared itself to be the provisional government of “All Palestine.”  Trans-Jordan’s King Abdullah immediately denounced the All-Palestinian government which he declared would not be allowed jurisdiction of the areas under the control of the Arab Legion i.e. the West Bank and the Old City of Jerusalem.

1950: During the Maccabiah, competition opens in Haifa for various aquatic events including swimming, diving and water polo.

1950: In an article entitled “Land of a Determined People,” famed correspondent and author Quentin Reynolds reviews Watch For the Morning by Thomas Sugrue.  According to Reynolds, this not only the latest book to be published describing Israel, “but well may be the best book yet published on the new state.  It is certainly the most exciting and most interesting.”

1950: During a play-off game between the Dodgers and Phillies which decided who would meet the Yankees in the World Series Cal Abrams was thrown out at the plate as he tried to score from second base – a play which would help lead to the Dodgers defeat.

1951(1st of Tishrei, 5712): As U.S. forces slug it out on the Korean peninsula, Jews observe Rosh Hashanah.

1954: CBS broadcast the first episode of “The Lineup” several episodes of which were directed by Dan Siegel.

1955(15th of Tishrei, 5716): Sukkoth

1955: After having premiered in New York last month, “Killer’s Kiss,” “directed by Stanley Kubrick who wrote the script along with Howard Sackler” was released today in the rest of the United States.

1955(15th of Tishrei, 5716): Sixty-six year old Soviet Jewish actor and director Alexey Denisovich Dikiy “who worked at Moscow Art Theatre and later worked with Habima Jewish theatre in Tel-Aviv” and whose career fell and rose on the whim of Joseph Stalin meaning he was a prisoner in the Gulag as well as a recipient of the Stalin Prize passed away today.


1955: At Ebbets Field, the Dodgers win the fourth game of the World Series leaving them in a tie with the Bronx Bombers.

1956(26th of Tishrei, 5717): Albert Von Tilzer passed away in Los Angeles.  Born in 1878, he was an American songwriter, the younger brother of fellow songwriter Harry Von Tilzer. He wrote the music to many hit songs, including, most notably, "Take Me Out To The Ball Game".He was born Albert Gumm, in Indianapolis, Indiana; his last name had been shortened by his parents from Gumbinski, or possibly Guminski. As a young man he worked briefly at his older brother Harry Von Tilzer's publishing company, and Albert's earliest songs were published by Harry. Within a very few years Albert formed his own firm, The York Publishing Company, and there appears to have been no further collaboration between Albert and Harry Von Tilzer, although both of them wrote and published many hundreds of songs. Tilzer was Albert and Harry's mother's maiden name. When oldest brother Harry began his song writing career he assumed the professional name Von Tilzer, adding the honorific "Von" to his mother's maiden name. Albert followed suit, as did younger brothers Will and Jules Von Tilzer, both of whom were also active in the music industry. Von Tilzer was a top Tin Pan Alley tune writer, producing numerous popular music compositions from 1900 continuing through the early fifties. He collaborated with many lyricists, including Jack Norworth, Lew Brown, and Harry MacPherson. A number of his tunes were performed (and recorded) by jazz bands and continue to be played decades later. His songs included "The Alcoholic Blues", "Apple Blossom Time", "Chili Bean", "Dapper Dan", "Honey Boy", "I May Be Gone for a Long, Long Time", "I'm Glad I'm Married", "I'm the Lonesomest Gal in Town", "The Moon Has His Eye On You", "My Cutie's Due at Two-to-Two", "My Little Girl", "Oh By Jingo!", "Oh How She Could Yacki- Hacki, Wicki-Wacki, Woo", "Put on Your Slippers and Fill Up Your Pipe, You're Not Going Bye-Bye Tonight", "Put Your Arms Around Me Honey", "Roll Along, Prairie Moon", "Take Me Out To The Ball Game", "Wait Till You Get Them Up in the Air, Boys", and hundreds of others.

1956: The Israeli delegation returned from France following highly secret negotiations on how to deal with the threat posed by President Nasser of Egypt.

1956: “The Diary of Anne Frank” “opened simultaneously in seven German cities.”

1957: Today marked the publication of the first of a 12 part series written by Alexander Bittlement for The Worker that described the liberalizing process that was taking place in the Communist Party in the wake of the exposure of Stalin’s excesses and the Hungarian Revolution.

1957: “Affair in Havana” a crime film directed by Laslo Benedek and with music by Ernest Gold was released today in the United States.

1958: “Onionhead,” a comedy-drama set in WW II directed by Norman Taurog and featuring Walter Matthau and Joey Bishop was released in the United States today.

1958: “Man of the West” produced by Walter Mirisch and co-starring Julie London and Lee J. Cobb was released in the United States today.

1958: “Handful of Fire,” a two act play written by N. Richard Nash opened today “on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre.

1958: “The Big Country” a big-screen western epic that was a popular hit directed and produced by William Wyler, with an overpowering score by Jerome Moross and co-starring Carroll Baker was released today in the United States by United Artists.

1959: Henry Popkin’s reviews of Harold Loeb’s The Expatriate Twenties: The Way It Was was published today.


1960(10th of Tishrei, 5721): Yom Kippur

1960: U.S. and Greek premiere of “Never on a Sunday,” written and directed by Jules Dassin who also co-starred in the film.

1960: “Camelot,” the Lerner and Loewe musical “premiered in Toronto at the O’Keefe Center where it disastrously ran for over four hours instead of the expected two hours.

1960: After 337 performances at the Music Box Theatre, the curtain came down on the original Broadway production of “Five Finger Exercise” written by British playwright Sir Peter Levin Shaffer, the twin brother of playwright Anthony Shaffer.

1961(21st of Tishrei, 5722): Hoshana Rabba

1961: Gertrude Berg, the actress best known as “Molly Goldberg” appeared for the third time as the mystery guess on “What’s My Line?”

1961: British diplomate Sir Andrews “was involved in the transfer of the Trust Territory of Southern Cameroons to the French-controlled-state of the Caermoun Republic” today.

1962: “A Kind of Loving” directed John Schlesinger and produced by Joseph Janni was released today in the United States.

1962: “Little Annie Fanny,” a comic series created by Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder that debuted in Playboy.

1962: Barbra Streisand signs her 1st recording contract with Columbia Record Company

1962: Brian Epstein signs a contract to manage the Beatles through 1977.

1962: “I Can Get It for You Wholesale,” a musical with music and lyrics by Harold Rome and a book by Jerome Weidman starring Elliott Gould featuring Lillian Roth and Barbra Streisand as “Miss Marmelstein” transferred from the Shubert Theatre to the Broadway Theatre.

1964: The Free Speech Movement is launched on the campus of University of California, Berkeley.  Among the movement’s leaders were several Jews including Suzanne Goldberg, Bettina Aptheker and Jackie Goldberg.

1965: Harold Brown began serving as the 8th United States Secretary of the Air Force.

1966(17th of Tishrei, 5727): Shabbat Shel Sukkoth

1966(17th of Tishrei, 5727): Seventy-one year old Latvia native Yiddishist Zalman (Salman) Yefroiken who in 1921 came to the United States where he eventually became the education director of the “Workmen’s Circle High School,” editor of “Culture and Education and the author of Jews Do Not Surrender while raising two children with his wife ‘the former Amy Goldberg.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/10/02/82905985.pdf

1966: Birthdate of actress and model Cindy Margolis.  And you thought I only knew about dead rabbis, old authors and antique actors.

1967: “Far From Vietnam” a documentary co-directed by William Klein was released in France today.

1967: In Toronto, the cornerstone was laid to the expansion project at Shaar Hashomayim. Thsynagogue, which had been designed to serve 300 families, was now serving 1,750 families which necessitated the building project.

1968(9th of Tishrei, 5629): Erev Yom Kippur

1970(1st of Tishrei, 5731): Rosh Hashanah

1970: In Philadelphia, “Arthur and Karen (Spivak) Lobel gave birth to historian Cindy Renee Lobel. (As reported Katherine Rosman)


1970: “The Baby Maker” starring Barbara Hershey (Barbara Lynn Herzstein) was released today in the United States.

1971(12th of Tishrei, 5732): Seventy-three year old “Bella Finkel Muni” the actress, sister of “director of Abe Finkel” and the wife of award winning actor Paul Muni, passed away today in Los Angeles.


1971: In the UK, ITV broadcast the first episode of “The Mary Feldman Comedy Machine” starring Marty Feldman who wrote for the show along with other including Larry Gelbart and Barry Levinson.

1971: Benjamin Marcus Priteca, the Glasgow born architect who designed  Chevra Bikur Cholim synagogue in 1912 which is now the Langston Hughes Performing Art Center, Seattle and The Alhadeff Sanctuary of Seattle's Temple De Hirsch Sinai,

1972(23rd of Tishrei, 5733): Simchat Torah

1972(23rd of Tishrei, 5733): Seventy-four year old French born American Benny Valgar who fought and lost in bout for the Featherweight Championship of the World passed away today.

1972: “Follies,” a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman was performed for the last time at the Schubert Theatre in Los Angeles.

1973: According to the Agranat Commission Lieutenant Benjamin Siman Yov, order of battle intelligence officer for the Southern Command gave his superior Lt Colonel Gadalia documents indicating Egypt's war preparations; a warning that the Commission said was ignored.

1973: The Egyptian and Syrian armies when on full alert today.  Israeli intelligence officers at the highest level ignored the potential significance of the move and did not respond with appropriate counter-measures.  This decision would have near catastrophic consequences five days later.

1974: Birthdate of Aleksandr Averbukh, the Russian born Israeli Olympic level pole vaulter.

1975: “Sylva Zalmanson begins the second week of her hunger strike outside the UN building in New York in support of her husband Edward Kuznetsov and her brothers Israel and Wolf Zalmanson who are still imprisoned in the USSR.

1975: “An unofficial group of five Israelis” that had been visiting the USSR for the last ten days at the invitation of the of the Soviet Peace Committee left today.

1976(7th of Tishrei, 5737): Seventy-four year old Goldie Feinstein passed away today.

1976(7th of Tishrei, 5737): Seventy-five year lf Tillie Feinstein of Paramus, NJ, passed away today.

1978(29th of Elul, 5738): Erev Rosh Hashanah

1979(10th of Tishrei, 5740): Yom Kippur.

1980(21st of Tishrei, 5741): Hoshana Raba

1980(21st of Tishrei, 5741): Seventy-eight Kiev native Harry Grey, the author whose works included The Hoods and the husband of Mildred Becker with whom he had three children – Beverle, Harvey and Simeon – passed away today.

1980: The West End production of “They're Playing Our Song,”  “a musical with a book by Neil Simon, lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager, and music by Marvin Hamlisch” opened today at the Shaftesbury Theatre.

1981: As of today, in the last thirty days, 405 Jews left the U.S.S.R.

1982(14th of Tishrei, 5743): Erev Sukkoth

1982: “The Last American Virgin” directed by Boaz Davidson who also wrote the script, produced by Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan and filmed by cinematographer Adam Greenberg was released in Finland today.

1983(24th of Tishrei, 5744): Parashat Bereshit

1983: CBS broadcast the first episode of “Cutter to Houston” a medical show created by Sandor Stern.

1983(24th of Tishrei, 5744): Eighty-two year old Lucille Feinstein passed away today.

1985: The West Production of the “Torch Song Trilogy” by Harvey Fierstein opened today at thw Albery Theatre

1985: President Ronald Reagan today announced his intention to nominate Richard Schifter to be Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs. He would succeed Elliott Abrams. Mr. Schifter is a partner in the law firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver and Kampelman in Washington, DC.

1985: In what is known as “Operation Wooden Leg,” The Israeli air force bombed PLO Headquarters in Tunis in response the Yom Kippur hijacking of yacht off the coast of Cyprus and the cold-blooded murder of the three Israelis tourists on board.

1987: Their Majesties King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain paid a visit to Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel in Los Angeles in a secular event in their honor.

1988: “Heathers” a comedy starring Winona Ryder (Winona Laura Horowwitz) who also served as narrator was released in Italy today.

1989: “Congress adopted the Lautenberg-Spector Amendment which contains new rules of immigration to the U.S. from USSR which include a quota of 40,000 Jews a year and direct flights from Moscow to USA.”

1989: General Colin Powell began serving as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. During Operation Desert Storm, Powell sent Patriot Batteries to Israel to thwart the Scud attacks from Iraq.  This was the first time that Israel had entrusted any part of her defense to another nation.  Israel did so not because she was unable to protect herself, but because the United States asked Israel to stay on the sidelines so as not to upset the coalition the Bush Administration had gathered to fight Iraq. 

1990: The UNESCO Courier publishes Manuel Osorio’s interview of Claude Levi-Strauss - French social anthropologist.

1991(23rd of Tishrei, 5752): Simchat Torah

1991: The Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) which had been battling Croatian forces began the Siege of Dubrovnik during which two thirds of the old city was in some way damaged, including the” including the Sephardic synagogue which is the second oldest such edifice in Europe, “where shells and grenades hit the adjacent buildings shattering the windows of the sanctuary and Jewish Community Headquarters.”

1993: The movie version of “M. Butterfly” directed by David Cronenberg and with music by Howard Shore was released today in the United States.

1993: “Cool Running” a sports movie directed by Jon Turteltaub and with music by Hans Zimmer was released in the United States today.

1993: “Malice” a thriller with a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin, music by Jerry Goldsmith and co-starring Bebe Neuwirth was released in the United States by Columbia Pictures.

1993: “For Love Or Money” a comedy directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, produced by Brian Grazer and featuring Bob Balaban was released today in the United States.

1994: The City of Anchorage, Alaska honored Rabbi Harry L. Rosenfeld by proclaiming this “Rabbi Harry Rosenfeld Day.”

1994: Abner J. Mikva began serving as White House Counsel under President Clinton.

1994: “The age of Hobsbawm: The people's historian is turning his long gaze to a short century” published today provided a review Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century – 1914 to 1991 by Eric Hobsbawm.


1995: “Piranha” the film which marked the debut of Mila Kunis was released in the United States today.

1997: Ninety-seven old Esther Gottesman who had been a “national board member of Hadassah since 1934” and who convinced her brother-in-law D. Samuel Gottesman to help finance the acquisition of the Dead Sea Scrolls passed away today. (As reported by Enid Nemy)


1997: It was reported today that the 1990’s have seen “a continuation of Jewish day school growth” with an enrollment of over “200,000 students nationwide” which is seen as being “part of a resurgence in Jewish culture.”

1997: The Red Tent by Anita Dimant is published. The novel examines Jewish history through feminist eyes, featuring Dinah, Jacob’s only daughter.  In the Bible Dinah is portrayed as a rape victim who is avenged by her brothers.

1997: CBS broadcast the first episode of season five of “The Nanny” a sitcom created by Peter Marc Jacobson and Fran Drescher who starred “as Fran Fine” a Jewish nanny from Queens.

1999(21st of Tishrei, 5760): Hoshana Raba

1999(21st of Tishrei, 5760): Seventy five year old Willem Polak, the former mayor of Amsterdam, passed away today.

1999(21st of Tishrei, 5760): Ted Arison, an Israeli-American businessman who co-founded Norwegian Cruise Lines in 1966 with Knut Kloster and founded Carnival Cruise Lines in 1972, passed away. Born in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1924, he fought in the Jewish Brigade of the British Army during World War II. He moved to the United States in the early 1950s and created Carnival Cruise Lines in 1972 in which he made his fortune. Later, he established the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts based in Miami. He brought professional basketball to South Florida with the forming of the Miami Heat in 1988, and established the philanthropic Arison Foundation in Israel and the United States. In 1990, he renounced his U.S. citizenship, in an effort to avoid U.S. Estate Taxes (and failed to meet the 10 years out of the United States rules on this matter, when he died in 1999) and returned to Israel and founded Arison Investments. In 1997 he headed a consortium that purchased the controlling share in Bank Hapoalim for more than $1 billion -- the largest privatization deal in Israel's history. His children include Micky Arison and Shari Arison.

2000:The New York Times included reviews of The Avengers by Richard Cohen and The Talmud and the Internet by Jonathan Rosen.

2000(2nd of Tishrei, 5761): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah

2000: Arab Israelis took part in violent demonstrations aimed at showing their support for the Second Intifada

2000: The 2000 Summer Olympic in which canoer Rami Zur competed for Israel came to a close today.

2001: Hamas took credit for today’s bombing in Talpiot, a neighborhood in Jerusalem.

2002(25th of Tishrei, 5763): Walter Annenberg, publisher and philanthropist, passed away.


2002: “True Courage of One Who Had to Act” published today described the life of Necdet Kent, “a Turkish diplomat who risked his life to save Jews from Nazi concentration camps during World War II.”


2003: Charles Prince replaced Sanford Weill as the CEO of Citigroup.

2003: CBS broadcast the first episode of season six of “The King of Queens” co-starring Jerry Stiller.

2004(16th of Tishrei, 5765):  Second Day of Sukkoth

2004(16th of Tishrei, 5765): Eighty-one year old fashion photographer Richard Avedon passed away today.


2004: A month after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival,“I Heart Huckabees” starring Dustin Hoffman and featuring Isla Fisher was released in the United States by Fox Searchlight Pictures.

2004: Opening of the “exhibition ‘David Bomberg en Ronda’ at the Museo Joaquin Peinado in Ronda in Andalusia that showed work by Bomberg in the city and environment which he had celebrated in paintings and drawings in 1934-35 and 1954-47.

2005(27th of Elul, 5765): A marvelous day for the Jewish community in Cedar Rapids.  Temple Judah marked the last Shabbat of 5765 with Traditional Saturday morning services.  The Cedar Rapids Gazettecarried three articles featuring Jewish topics. First, the question in the “God Squad” column began with “I don’t see why synagogues force people to have tickets for services at the High Holidays.”  Goldman and Hartman responded with a column about the need to provide financial support for religious institutions while assuring the questioner that nobody is turned away at the synagogue door because they cannot afford to pay.  Second, there was a story about Rabbi Peter Schweitzer donating his ten thousand item collection of Jewish memorabilia to the National Museum of American Jewish History.  Finally, there was a lengthy article about Kalman Feinberg winning the national Great Shofar Blast Off. 

2006: The New York Times book section features reviews of two books about I.F. Stone – All Governments Lie: The Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I.F. Stone by Myra MacPherson and The Best of I.F. Stone edited by Karl Weber.

2006: The Washington Post book section features reviews of Gonzo Judaism: A Bold Path for Renewing an Ancient Faith By Niles Elliot Goldstein and Holy Unexpected: My New Life as a Jewby Robin Chotzinoff

2006: A Lubavitcher hasid reportedly responded to a request from Yiddish scholar Itche Goldberg and help him put on Tefflin

2006(9th of Tishrei, 5767): Yom Kippur observance begins with Kol Nidre

2006: Over 100,000 people participated in the seventh annual “Yom Kippur for Everyone,” an event which brings an open and educational Yom Kippur service to community centers and schools throughout Israel.  The idea is to create a meaningful spiritual experience for those who avoid traditional religious services.

2007(19th of Tishrei, 5768): In Chevy Chase, Maryland, Israel Kugler, a leader of teachers’ and Jewish labor organizations, passed away at the age of 90. Kugler was president of the United Federation of College Teachers during the turbulent 1960s, and he won a reputation as an outspoken advocate for teachers’ rights. In 1965, the teachers’ union, under Kugler’s leadership, supported 31 professors who were dismissed from St. John’s University, a Catholic college in Queens, allegedly for demanding greater academic freedom. With Kugler’s encouragement, a number of St. John’s faculty members went on strike for a year and a half. In 1972, Kugler helped create the Professional Staff Congress, which today represents 20,000 faculty and staff members at the City University of New York. Kugler is survived by his wife, Helen; his sons, Philip of Silver Spring, Md., and Daniel of Washington; a sister, Frances Brill, who lives in Queens, and two grandsons. “He was a moral, spiritual and political compass,” said Philip Kugler in an interview with the Forward. “In addition to Little League and Boy Scouts, my father also brought me to march in New York City Labor Day parades, to picket lines, on a union bus to the historic 1963 March on Washington for civil rights.” Philip Kugler followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming a vice president of the American Federation of Teachers. Israel Kugler was born in Brooklyn on June 13, 1917, to Eastern European immigrant parents. He served in the Navy during World War II and was educated at City College and at New York University. In addition to his work as an organizer, he was a professor of social science in the CUNY system and author of the book “From Ladies to Women: The Organized Struggle for Women’s Rights in the Reconstruction Era.” Kugler’s parents were involved in the Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter Ring, which is the national Jewish labor organization, and Kugler’s own children were sent to Workmen’s Circle shules (part-time Yiddish schools). After he retired from teaching and organizing in 1980, Kugler was elected president of the Workmen’s Circle. He held the office for two terms, until 1984. Kugler was also active in other progressive Jewish organizations, serving as an officer of the Jewish Labor Committee and of the Forward Association, the not-for-profit holding company of this newspaper. “His strength was his passion for social justice, for labor,” said Robert Kaplan, director emeritus of the Workmen’s Circle. “He was a persistent fighter in every place he was. He always wanted to make sure that we stepped forward for labor, for the ordinary person.”

2007: U.S. News & World Report Magazine features a report on Judge Michael Mukasey, the Orthodox Jew President Bush nominated to U.S. Attorney General as being “a respected law-and-order man with a compassionate streak.”

2007: In a reminder of the connection between Jews and humor, Time Magazine featured a review Robert Klein: The HBO specials 1975-2005, a DVD that features “the groundbreaking, brainy, improve-based style that has influenced every stand-up [comedian] who has followed” in Klein’s trail-blazing footsteps.

2007: Vacationers visiting Charles Clore Park in Tel Aviv expressed their disgust with the filth they encountered much of which was cause people barbecuing, a practice that the municipality had banned. 

2007: Plaza Hotel owners Yitzhak Tshuva and the Elad Group paid $120,000 for the giant birthday cake that marked the 100th anniversary of the landmark New York hotel

2008: Amy Goodman was named as a recipient of the 2008 Right Livelihood Award, often referred to as the "Alternative Nobel Prize"— the first journalist to be so honored. The Right Livelihood Award Foundation cited her work in "developing an innovative model of truly independent grassroots political journalism that brings to millions of people the alternative voices that are often excluded by the mainstream media."

2008(2nd of Tishrei, 5769): Second Day Rosh Hashanah



2008(2nd of Tishrei, 5769): One hundred nine year old Boris Yefimov, “a Russian cartoonist despised by Hitler and beloved by Stalin” passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/world/europe/05yefimov.html?_r=0

2008:Professor Sarah Stroumsa replaces Professor Haim D. Rabinowitch, as rector at Hebrew University. He has served in the position for the last seven years.

2008:In the evening, at the New York film festival, a screening of “Waltz with Bashir” directed by Ari Folman

2008: Peter Salovey, is scheduled to become Provost at Yale.

2009: An off-Broadway production of “Loss, and What I Wore” a play written by Nora and Delia Ephron “officially opened at the Westside Theatre.”

2009: A.J. Jacobs discusses and signs his new book, "The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment," at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, in Washington, D.C.

2009: The Columbus Jewish Federation holds its 2009 Annual Meeting and 2010 Annual Campaign Kickoff, an event that will feature the presentation of the Ben M. Mandelkorn Award for Distinguished Service & Therese Stern Kahn and William V. Kahn Young Leadership Award.

2010: Rick Sanchez, a daytime anchor at CNN, was fired today a day after telling a radio interviewer that Jon Stewart was a bigot and that “everybody that runs CNN is a lot like Stewart.” The latter comment was made shortly after Mr. Stewart’s faith, Judaism, was invoked

2010(23rd of Tishrei, 5771): Simchat Torah

2010: “According to a short speech delivered today during Cornelius Lanczos' induction to the NIST Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Staff, his daughter-in-law, Alice Lanczos, described his return to Hungary in 1939 from his then-position at Purdue University, when he attempted to convince his family to return to the US with him due to the anti-Jewish Nazi threat” – an attempt that was only partially successfully since he was able to rescue his five year old son, but not his “wife who was too ill to travel and died several weeks later from tuberculosis”

2010: “The World of Jewtopia” is scheduled to open in Charlotte, NC.

2012: A movie based on Zuckerberg and the founding years of Facebook, “The Social Network” was released today

2011: Under the new “summer clock” to be used in Israel, today should mark the end of daylight savings time.  But since October 1 falls on Shabbat, the winter clock should have begun on the day before. But since that was Rosh Hashanah, Daylight Savings time should come to an end on October 2.

2011(3rd of Tishrei, 5772): In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, guest chazzan Ilan Caplan is scheduled to lead Shabbat Shuvah services at the traditional minyan at Temple Judah

2011: Keren Ann Zeidel, an Israeli sound designer, singer, songwriter, is scheduled to perform at the City Winery in New York City.

2011: “President Obama was considering clemency, but I told him, ‘Over my dead body are we going to let him out before his time.’ If it were up to me, he would stay in jail for life,” U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was quoted as saying during a meeting with rabbis in Florida in a New York Times article published today.

2011: An Israeli air strike wounded three Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip today, the Israeli military and Palestinian medical officials said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said the air strike targeted a militant squad that was preparing to launch rockets across the border into Israel.

2011(3rd of Tishrei, 5772): Eighty-five year old Sholom Rivikin “an Israeli-born American rabbi who was the last Chief Rabbi of St. Louis” passed away today.


2011: Gene Simmons who is Jewish married Shannon Lee Tweed who was not.

2012(15th of Tishrei, 5773): Sukkoth

2012(15th of Tishrei, 5773): Ninety-five year old “Eric J. Hobsbawm, whose three-volume economic history of the rise of industrial capitalism established him as Britain’s pre-eminent Marxist historian” passed away today. (As reported by William Grimes)


2012(15th of Tishrei, 5773): Eighty-six year old Holocaust survivor, economist and governor of the Bank of Israel passed away today.


2012: American-Canadian professional tennis player Jesse Levine achieved his career-high singles rank of world no. 69 today

2012(15th of Tishrei, 5773): Eight days before her 90th birthday, Joan Morgenthau Hirschhorn (Dr. Joan E. Morgenthau) passed away today.


2012(15th of Tishrei, 5773): Ninety-five year old “Irving Cohen, who was known as King Cupid of the Catskills for his canny ability to seat just the right nice Jewish boy next to just the right nice Jewish girl during his half-century as the maître d’ of the Concord Hotel” passed away today (As reported by Margalit Fox)


2012: The Brazilian adaptation of the Israeli hit "Be Tipul" premiered on GNT, under the title "Sessão de Terapia" ("Therapy Session").

2012(15th of Tishrei): Yarhrzeit of William “Bill” Schueller, beloved husband of Eleanor Schueller, father of Deb Levin and father-in-law of Mitchell Levin

2012(15thof Tishrei, 5773): Eighty-eight year old” Shlomo Venezia was one of the first Jews to climb out of the freight car when it came to the end of the line at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland on April 11, 1944” passed away today. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/books/shlomo-venezia-auschwitz-sonderkommando-and-survivor-dies-at-88.html?ref=books

2012: It was reported today that “archaeologists working in Northern Israel's Nahal Me'arot, Unesco's most recently declared World Heritage Site, found evidence that the genealogical relatives lived side by side and perhaps even interbred, according to The London Times.

2012: Lorraine Lotzof Abramson, author, My Race: A Jewish Girl Growing Up under Apartheid in South Africa is scheduled to be interviewed on Channel 75 in NYC

2013: Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu plans to warn the international community to learn from its mistakes with North Korea and not to be fooled by Iran’s new conciliatory attitude toward its nuclear weapons program, when he speaks at the United Nations General Assembly in New York today (As reported by Tovah Lazaroff)

2013: The JCRC and the JCC GW are scheduled to host “Environmentalism as a Pathway to Peace: Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian Hydro-politics.

2013(27th of Tishrei, 5774): Ninety-year old Israel Gutman, one of the Warsaw Ghetto fighters and editor in chief of the four volume Encyclopedia of the Holocaust passed away today. (As reported by Isabel Kershner)


 2013: The world can never cease its fight for justice and against racism, Finance Minister Yair Lapid told the Hungarian Parliament today, during a visit to participate in a conference called "Jewish Life and anti-Semitism in Contemporary Europe".(As reported by Lahav Harkov)

2014: “The historic Ellis Island hospital complex, through which many Jewish immigrants to the US passed in the first half of the 20th century, is scheduled open to the public today for the first time in 60 years. The complex of 29 unrestored buildings is located across the ferry slip from the fully-restored immigration museum.”(As reported by Collen Long)



2014: Dr. Peggy Pearlstein, former Head of the Hebraic section of the Library of Congress is scheduled to present “A Tale of Two Books: The Sarajevo Haggadah and the Washington Haggadah.”



2014: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host “Echoes of the Borscht Belt: Contemporary Photographs by Marisa Scheinfeld.”



2014: In London, the Wiener Library is scheduled to present a lecture by Roger Moorhouse, “The Devil's Alliance: Hitler's Pact with Stalin, 1939-1941.”



2014: “With a display of mutual empathy and support, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama held their first meeting today since the collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the summer’s 50-day Israel-Hamas war.

2014(7thof Tishrei, 5775): Eight-six year old Shlomo Lahat who served as Mayor of Tel Aviv for 19 years passed away today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shlomo_Lahat

2015(18thof Tishrei, 5776): Fourth Day of Sukkoth

2015(18thof Tishrei, 5776): Ninety-five year old Jacob Pressman who served as the rabbi at Temple Beth Am for 35 years passed away today.

http://www.jewishjournal.com/obituaries/article/rabbi_jacob_pressman_spiritual_leader_of_temple_beth_am_dies_at_95

http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-rabbi-jacob-pressman-dies-at-95-20151005-story.html

2015: A mother and her six month old son were when “a group of rock-throwing terrorist attacked Israeli vehicles today near the Tekoa community of Gush Etzion.”

2015: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host “French Chamber Masterpieces: Fauré Piano Quartet and Franck Piano Quintet.”

2015: In Little Rock, AR, a Sukkoth Party with the BMX Stunt show is scheduled to take place at the Chabad Center for Jewish Life under the leadership of Rabbi Pinchas Ciment.

2016(28thof Elul, 5776): Final Shabbat of 5776

2016: “Police said a 40 year old man” had been arrested this evening “after an intruder shot a security guard at Moscow synagogue with an air pistol.”

2016: “From the Diary of a Wedding Photographer” which “delves headlong into the absurdities and neuroses of matrimonial rites as an Israeli wedding photographer repeatedly finds himself embroiled in psychodramas with the brides and grooms who hire him” is scheduled to be shown at the 54th New York Film Festival.

2017(11thof Tishrei, 5778): Eight-nine year old publisher S.I. Newhouse, Jr. passed away today. (As reported by Jonathan Kandell)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/01/obituaries/si-newhouse-dead.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=thumb&module=region&region=region&WT.nav=region&_r=0

2017: “Disabled protesters blocked a road junction north of Tel Aviv today, rejecting a deal signed between other disabled activists and the government” two day ago “to increase stipends and end traffic-halting demonstrations.” (As reported by Sue Surkes)

2017: Today, “Michael Robert Marrus, a Candian history of the Holocaust and modern European and Jewish History” wrote a letter to Hugh Seal resigning his position “as a Senior Fellow of Massey College” and apologizing for poorly stated attempt at humor which would have been found offensive to “the black student” who heard it.

2017: After expressing how “dismayed he was by the Trump Administration” Charles Phillip “Chuck”Rosenberg officially stepped down from his position as “Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration” today.

2017: While delivering a speech marking the “Shiite holy day of Ashura,” Hassan Nasrallah, “the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group”…”warned Jews living in Israel to leave the country as soon as possible…” (As reported by Dov Lieber)

2017: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including After Anatevka by Alexandra Silber, At the Stranger’s Gate: Arrivals in New York by Adam Gopnik, Vanishing New York: How a Great City Lost Its Soul by Jeremiah Moss and One Nation After Trump: A Guide for the Perplexed, the Disillusioned, the Desperate and the Not-Yet-Deportedco-authored by Norman J. Ornstein.

2017: “Balfour Accomplished,” “a large-scale oil canvas by Beverley-Jane Stewart is scheduled to go on display at Jerusalem’s Machtarot Museum today as “the centerpiece of an event dedicated to the Balfour Declaration at this year’s Jerusalem Biennale for Contemporary Jewish Art.”

2017:  The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Educational Center is scheduled to host a “History of Rock and Soul: Music for Social Change.”

2018: As of Today David Michael Solomon, the Hamilton College educated son of Alan and Sandra Solomon succeeded Lloyd Blankfein as CEO of Goldman Sachs.

2018: Road To Waubeek: Discovering Jay G. Sigmund by Barbara Feller, who has taught more students Hebrew in Cedar Rapids that any other person, is scheduled to go on sale today.

2018: The Oxford University Jewish Society scheduled to host a Shemini Atzeret luncheon

2018(22nd of Tishrei, 5779): Shemini Atzeret

2019: This evening, in Palo Alto, CA, the Oshman Family JCC is scheduled to host a screening of “Bialik: The King of Jews,” a “documentary for Hebrew speaks about the life and art of Hebrew pioneer poet Chayim Nachman Bialki.”

2019(2nd of Tishrei, 5780):

Rosh Hashanah; For more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/

And https://thisdayinjewishhistory.blogspot.com/





This Day, October 2, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin

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October 2

825 BCE (22nd of Tishrei, 2936): According to tradition King Solomon bid farewell to the Jewish people who had come to Jerusalem for a 14-day ceremony dedicating the Holy Temple (1-Kings 8:66). King David had brought the Ark of the Covenant up to Jerusalem's Mount Moriah, but as a warrior he was not permitted by God to erect the Temple. However, his son Solomon did so. The Temple was the most important site in Israel -- a spiritual magnet for the Jewish nation's yearnings. The magnificent structure took seven years to build, and stood for 410 years


322 BCE: The Greek philosopher Aristotle dies of indigestion.  (Is this what you get for eating traif?) Several Jewish philosophers and theologians would be influenced or be-deviled by Aristotelianism, not the least of whom would be Judah ha-Levi and Maimonides

1187: Sultan Saladin captured Jerusalem from the Crusaders.  While the Crusaders had held Jerusalem, they had barred Jews from living in the city.  Saladin allowed them to return.  Saladin’s physician was none other than Maimonides.

1264: The papacy of Urban IV who had written“Bela, the Hungarian King who was using Jews as agents” “reproaching him for giving opportunities to the people whose own sin had condemned them to eternal servitude, to exercise official authority over Christians” ended today.

1373: Wenceslaus IV who as Emperor failed to continue the Imperial protection of the Jews of Luxembourg led to their expulsion in 1391 was named Elector of Brandenburg today.

1535: French explorer Jacques Cartier discovers Montreal, Quebec. The French did not allow Jews to settle in Canada.  Jews were only able to settle in Montreal until after the British defeated the French in the 18th century.  In 1768, 12 families arrive in Montreal from New York marking the start of one of the most vibrant Jewish communities in North America.

1596(10thof Tishrei, 5357): Yom Kippur

1596: For the first time in the history of Amsterdam, sixteen “met together for worship” at the house of Don Samuel Palache, ambassador of the emperor of Morocco to the Netherlands.”

1656: Yom Kippur services were held for the first time in Amsterdam. Neighbors thinking they were secret Catholics reported them to the authorities and the leaders were arrested. Once it was explained that they were secret Jews rather than Papists, they were let alone and the leaders released.  The oldest synagogue in Amsterdam (possibly all of Western Europe) is “The Great Synagogue” built in 1671.  According to historians, it was built so that Jews would not have to worship in clandestine places.

1682: “John George III of Saxony issued a new decree, in which the onerous regulations relating to Jews passing through the country were somewhat modified, since those regulations were found to be detrimental to the yearly fairs at Leipsic.”

1724(Tishrei, 5485): Solomon Sasportas, son of Isaac Sasportas and grandson of Jacob Sasportas who had served as the Rabbi at Nice, France since 1690 passed away today.

1734: Based on the date on the document, Isaac Franks, the brother of Aaron Franks, wrote the final version of his will today.

1755: In Medfield, MA, Thomas Adams and Elizabeth Clark gave birth to Hannah Adams, “the first woman in the United States who” was a professional write and whose works included a History of the Jews: From the Destruction of Jerusalem published in 1812 making it one of the earliest books written in the United States on this subject.




1768: Myer Moses and his wife gave birth to Rebecca Moses who became Rebecca Moses Harby when she married London born Solomon Harby who had settled in South Carolina.

1774: Birthdate of Louis-Gabriel-Ambrose Bonald the opponent of the French Revolution whose anti-Semitism ran so deep that he believed the only way Jews could become morally fit was for them to convert to Catholicism.

1777(1stof Tishrei, 5538): Rosh Hashanah

1780(3rd of Tishrei, 5541):Tzom Gedaliah

1780: Colonel David Salisbury Franks, the aid-de-camp to General Benedict Arnold was arrested on suspicion of treason following the exposure of the Arnold’s plot to betray the Americans and turn West Point over to the British. Franks was the son of Jacob Franks, a prominent Jewish Philadelphia (PA) family.  [You have to wonder if Colonel Franks was fasting on the day of his arrest.]

1783 (or 1784): In London, Jacob Israel Bernal and Leah da Silva gave birth to Ralph Bernal, who began as an actor, moved to Parliament and end up as president of the British Archaeological Society.  Along the way he converted (the price of success?)

1786(10thof Tishrei, 5547): Yom Kippur

1791(4thof Tishrei, 5552): Tzom Gedaliah

1789: George Washington transmits the proposed Constitutional amendments (The United States Bill of Rights) to the States for ratification. The First Amendment had particular for the small America Jewish community and has loomed large for the growth of the modern Jewish community.  The Amendment opens with the following declaration “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” In other words, the government would not establish a state religion and at the same time, the citizens were free to practice whatever religion they individually chose.  This simple clause, one part of a single sentence, is the legal underpinning for the reality that has made the American Jewish community different than all of its predecessors.

1793: Joseph Friedberg married Matilda Joachim at the Great Synagogue.

1798: Birthdate King Charles Albert of Piedmont-Sardinia who promulgated the Codice Albertino “which made Piedmont the first Italian state to grant its Jewish citizens equal rights and allow them to enter the military.”

1811: In London, Samson Beck and his wife gave birth to Elizabeth Beck.

1813: Birthdate of Rabbi Ephraim Israel Blucher, the native of Moravia who was “the author of Healing of the Aramaic Tongue, a Hebrew grammar and whose German translation of the Book of Ruth was published at Lemberg in 1843.

1817(22nd of Tishrei, 5578) Shimini Atzeret

1826(1st of Tishrei, 5587): Rosh Hashanah

1831: Birthdate of botanist Julius von Sachs, the native of Breslau, who held the chair of botany at the University of Wurzburg from 1868 until his death in 1897.

1835(9th of Tishrei, 5596): Erev Yom Kippur

1835: The Texas Revolution begins with the Battle of Gonzales. Jews were active participants in the Texas fight for freedom including Dr. Albert Levy became a surgeon to revolutionary Texan forces in 1835.

1835: Cécile Furtado, the daughter of Elias Furtado whose father had been a rabbi in Bayonne married banker Charles Heine, the son of Salomon Heine and the cousin of poet Heinrich Heine.

1836(21stof Tishrei, 5597): Hoshana Raba

1836: Barnett Lee married Diamond Foligno today at the Western Synagogue.

1838: MP Frederick D. Goldsmid and his wife gave birth to Sir Julian Goldsmid.

1836: In Bavaria, Seligman Baer Bamberger, the son of Shimon Simcha Bamberger and Judith Bamberger and Kela Bamberger gave birth to Judith Bamberger who became Judith Adler when she married Rabbi Immanuel Menachem Adler.

1845(1stof Tishrei, 5605): Rosh Hashanah

1845: “Charles VI,” an opera composed by Fromental Halevy was performed for the first time in French at Brussels.

1845: In New Orleans, LA, Daniel Goodman and the former Amelia Harris gave birth to Benjamin Franklin Goodman.

1846: Birthdate of German statistician Gottlieb Schnapper-Arndt.

1847: In Posen, Prussian aristocrat Robert von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg and his wife Luise Schwickart gave birth to Paul von Hindenburg

1850: Birthdate of New Orleans native Jeannette Levy Falk, the wife of Ferdinand Falk and the moterh of Arnold, Gustave, Myron and Gertrude Falk.

1852: “At Blank Place in Mallow, County Cork, “James O’Brien, a solicitor’s Clerk and his wife Kate the daughter of James Nagle” gave birth to “Irish nationalist” and Member of Parliament, William O’Brien, the husband Sophie Raffalovic, a Jewess and a friend and supporter of Michael Daivtt, the author of The True Story of Anti-Semitic Persecutions in Russia who “attacked those who participated in the riots at Limerick and visited the Jewish victims.”

1853: Austria adopted laws forbidding Jews from owning land

1854(10thof Tishrei, 5615): Yom Kippur

1856(3rdof Tishrei, 5617): Tzom Gedaliah

1856: In the United Kingdom, Israel and Rebecca Marks gave birth to Isaac Marks.

1856: Birthdate of Hyman B. Isaacson, the native of “Kozlishon, on the outskirts of Kovno” and son-in-law of Russian cigar manufacturer Reuben Pupkin  who came to the United States in 1890 and who in 1896 “started manufacturing boy’s was suits with his son Nachum” which was such a profitable venture that it enabled him to become a leader in the Jewish community as can be seen by his service as “treasurer of the Order of the Sons of Zion,” Chairman of the Board of Education of the Uptown Talmud Torah and the “vice president of the Hunts Point Talmud Torah.”

1856: The New York Times reported that “The Hebrew New Year’s Festival ended yesterday and the shops and stores of Jews re-opened today. The ‘Reformed Jews’ do not carefully observe the occasion.”

1858: A funeral notice wass published today inviting the members of the Hebrew Mutual Benefit Society to attend the funeral of Mrs. Raphall the wife of Rabbi Morris Raphall which will be held tomorrow at her residence.

1862: The Board of Alderman in NYC referred to the Committee on Sewers a petition on behalf of the Hebrew Benevolent Society to build a drain on 77th street between 4th and 5th Avenue.

1864: An article published today entitled "Prussia and Her Poles" which described the trial of several Polish gentlemen from the Grand Duchy of Posen who have been charged with treason betrayed a strange admission about Germany's treatment of her Jews over the centuries.  Dr. Gueist, the defense attorney demanded of the court, "Where are the facts?"  And if there are no facts, then are these men being prosecuted for their thoughts and sentiments -- a mode of proceeding which would carry us back to the trials of the Jews in the dark ages." How strange to hear a German lawyer admit that the Jews had in fact been convicted of crimes when they were guilty of nothing else but being Jewish.

1866(23rd of Tishrei, 5627): Simchat Torah

1867(3rd of Tishrei, 5628): Tzom Gedaliah

1869: Today, the New York Herald praised the building housing Temple Emanu-El as an “extraordinary creating of art…combining with a rare, and it might said, an unconscious harmony of six different orders of architecture – Saracenic, Byzantine, Moresque, Arabesque, Gothic and Norman – has at length reached after great expenditure of money, taste and skill, its culminating effect in the dazzling splendor of its interior decoration.”

1870: In Opava, Moravia, Charlotte and Samuel D. Klauber gave birth to Edmund Kaluber.

1870: As part of the climax to the Risorgimento or Rebirth, the name given to the unification of Italy, the Italian government annexed Rome and the Papal States. Rome was made the Italian capital.  Jews were active in the fight for the reunification of Italy.  Mazzini, Garibaldi and Cavour, the leaders of the movement believed in liberty for all Italians including their Jewish compatriots.

1870: “The oldest reform temple in Kansas City, MO, Congregation B’nai Jehuda was organized today by 25 Jewish pioneer residents who utilized acreage in Elmwood Cemetery for services until the first permanent sanctuary at 6th and Wyandotte was dedicated in 1875.”

1870: “A deputation, of which Samuel Alatri (the leader of the Jewish community in Rome) was a member, handed over to King Victor Emmanuel the result of the plebiscite by which the inhabitants of the Papal Territories declared in favor of annexation to the Kingdom of Italy.

1871: In Grand Rapids, Michigan, founding of Temple Emanuel which would employ Gustav N. Hausmann as its Rabbi.

1871:  Birthdate of Cordell Hull.  Among his other accomplishments, Hull was Secretary of State during World War II and winner of the 1945 Nobel Peace Prize.  Hull was not Jewish, but his wife Frances was described as being “half-Jewish.”  During the 1930’s when Hull entertained thoughts of following FDR to the White House, Hull’s opponents attacked him as a slave to Jewish interests.  Other critics contended that he was not as aggressive as he might have been in opening the gates of the U.S. to Jewish refugees because he feared attacks that he was a pawn of Jewish interests; that these Jewish interests had gotten us into the war; and that these charges would impair FDR’s plans to win the war.  Henry Morgenthau, who was Secretary of the Treasury at this time, was working to save the Jews of Europe.  At a meeting in 1943, he became so exasperated with Hull’s lack of action that he told him that if this were Germany, Hull would not be in the Cabinet Room.  Instead he would be in prison and who knew where his wife would be.  Hull remained unmoved.  The State Department, led by Breckinridge Long continued its policy of polite anti-Semitism and untold numbers of Jews perished who might have otherwise been saved.

1872(29th of Elul, 5632): Erev Rosh Hashanah

1872: In Amsterdam, Karel Abraham Wertheim and Henriette van Heukelom gave birth to Henri Hendrik Pieter Wertheim van Heukelom

1872: Birthdate of Jacques Abady, the son of a stockbroker from Aleppo, who began his career as a gas engineer before being called to the bar.

1872: “Rosh Hashono” published today reported that “this evening the Hebrews throughout the globe will commence the celebration of their New Year festival.  With…the solitary exception of the Day of Atonement…the New Year is more strictly observed than any other of the periods set apart for religious observances in the Jewish calendar.”

1874(21st of Tishrei, 5635): Hoshanah Rabbah

1874: In Poland, Jacobi Bornstein, the son of Aron and Sara Bornstein and Thelka Bornstein gave birth to Rosa Wittenberg.

1875: It was reported today that the cattle sale was off at the end of this with only a few carloads of Texas Cattle having been sold.  The reason for this drop off in business was the absence of the “Hebrew butchers” from the market due to the observance of “a high Jewish festival.”

1875(3rd of Tishrei, 5636): Shabbat Shuvah

1876: In “Egeln, Germany, Selig Blumenthal, the “son of Salomon and Lea Blumenthal” and his wife “Julianne Blumenthal gave birth to Willi Blumenthal

1877(25th of Tishrei, 5638): Forty year old Lyon Levy Emanuel, the native of Philadelphia and brother of Louis Manly Emanuel, who served with the Eighty-Second Regiment during the Civil War after which he pursued a business career in New York City, passed away today.

1879(15th of Tishrei, 5640): Sukkoth

1881: “Current Foreign Notes” published today includes a synopsis of a circular from Russia’s Minister of the Interior in which  he says “The Government recognizes the detriment to the Christian population of the commercial activity, exclusiveness and religious fanaticism of the Jews, which are still predominate in spite of the 20 years’ efforts to blend the population.”  He goes on to say that recent violence is because “of the monopolization of trade…by the Jews” and that “energetic measures must be taken to shield Christians from the effects of” the Jews’  “injurious activity.”  (Anti-Semitism and the big lie existed decades before Goebbels)

1881: In Baltimore, MD, “Samuel and Eliza (Millhauser) Ullman gave birth to College of Physicians and Surgeons trained Dr. Alfred Ullman, he husband of Bertha Katz, the attending surgeon at Sinai Hospital and a member of the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation.

1881: “The Jews in Germany” published today, described “the extent and progress of the new anti-
Semitic movement” and the motives of the men behind it.  They claim they are worried about “Jewish tyranny” and “Jewish domination” as if the land led by Bismarck and possession “the most powerful military machine” could be taken over by “a handful of ‘the outcast people.’”


1882(19th of Tishrei, 5643): Fifth Day of Sukkoth

1882(19th of Tishrei, 5643): French philanthropist Charles Netter passed away at Jaffa.Born at Strasburg in 1828, he” studied at Strasburg and Belfort, and then engaged in business in Paris. He was one of the founders of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, and for a long time his house was its only home. The work with which his name is most closely connected is the foundation of the agricultural school at Jaffa; and he devoted several years of his life to promoting agriculture among the Jews of Palestine. It was Netter who, at the end of 1876, submitted to the conference at Constantinople the memorandum in favor of the Jews of the East, prepared by the meeting convened about that time by the Alliance Israélite at Paris. In 1878 he went to Berlin, with some other members of the central committee, to lay before the congress the memoir of the Alliance in favor of the same Jews and to support their claims, which had been formally recognized by the Treaty of Berlin. With two other members of the committee he went to Madrid in 1880 to maintain before a European conference the right of the Jews of Morocco to protection.In 1881, when the disturbances in Russia drove thousands of unfortunate Jews from Brody and the Alliance was desirous of sending them assistance, Netter volunteered to discharge the difficult mission. He was the first to arrive there, and lived for weeks among the unhappy refugees, arranging a plan of emigration to America. On his return to Paris he was appointed secretary of the special committee established in that city for the Russian work. From morning till night his house was besieged by the Russian refugees, who found in him an untiring protector. When death overtook him he was visiting the agricultural school at Jaffa. A monument has been erected over his grave by the Alliance Israélite Universelle (As reported by Isidor Singer and Jaques Kahn

1883(1st of Tishrei, 5644): Rosh Hashanah

1883: In New York “the synagogues…were crowded during the day and evening and in many cases services were held in improvised houses of worship for the overflow from the congregations.”

1883: Rosh Hashanah “was observed by nearly all” of the Jewish “members of the New York Stock Exchange” and the market performed with “depressing dullness” due to their absence.

1883: Rabbi Isaac Noot will deliver the Rosh Hashanah sermon at B’Nai Israel in New York City.

1883: Dr. Kaufman Koehler will deliver the Rosh Hashanah sermon, in German, at Temple Beth-El in New York City.

1885(23rd of Tishrei, 5646): Simchat Torah

1885: “In Memory of Montefiore” published today included  the views or Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler who felt that it ‘was quite unnecessary” to erect a memorial to the great philanthropist and that it would be more appropriate to donate the money that would be used for such an effort to Montefiore Home for Aged Hebrews in New York. Kohler believed that the works of Moses Montefiore, like those of his biblical namesake, spoke for themselves and were his true memorial.  (Ask your friends and your children who Sir Moses Montefiore was and see if Kohler was right)

1886: Having left her home in secret, Clara Prager, the eldest daughter of Jewish businessman Julius Praeger sent a telegram to her family that she had married Horace J. Young, whom she would later have arrested on charges of abandonment after he allegedly deserted her when she became pregnant.

1886: In Paris, Albert and Camille Lazard gave birth to Pauline Lazard who became Pauline Hirschfeld when she married Raymond Hirscfeld.

1887: The “New Books” column published today contains a detailed review of Job and Solomon: The Wisdom of the Old Testament by T. K. Cheyne who has already produced the two volume work The Prophecies of Isaiah and is working on volumes covering the Song of Songs, the Lamentations of Jeremiah and the Psalms of David. (Cheyne was an English Protestant minister who became a Bahia)

1890: In New York City, the former Miene “Minnie” Schoenberg and Simon “Sam” Marx gave birth to Julius Marx, who gained fame as comedian Groucho Marx, the most famous of the Marx Brothers, who enjoyed success in vaudeville, movies, radio and television.  For millions of baby boomers, their first encounter with the famous Marx leer, cigar and wit including rapid fire double entendre came from watching his television show, “You Bet Your Life.”

1890: “A Sanitarium Burned’ published today described the financial impact of the fire at Hebrew Sanitarium where there is $5,000 in insurance to cover the losses valued at $11,000.

1891(29th of Elul, 5651): Erev Rosh Hashanah

1891(29th of Elul, 5651): Charles Bruckner the first husband of Jennie Wallenstein passed away today following which he was buried in Beth El Cemetery in Ridgewood, Queen County, NY.

1891: “Seligman Honored” published provided a list of those responsible for the banquet given last night in honor of Jesse Seligman which included a veritable “who’s who of New York Jewry” among whom were Jacob H. Schiff, Lewis May, Emanuel Lehman, Myer L Isaacs, Oscar S. Straus, Hyman Blum, Henry Rice, Charles L. Bernheim and James. H. Hoffman.

1891: After taking a child staying at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum suffering from diphtheria to the Willard Parker Hospital yesterday, Dr. Cyrus Edson “that there need be no apprehension for the other inmates.”

1892: Sixty nine year old French scholar, author and expert on ancient Middle East languages, Joseph Ernest Renan, passed away today. Nine years before his death he began work on the five volume work History of Israel the first volume of which published in 1887 and the final volume of which was published after his death.In “his 1883 essay ‘Le Judaïsme comme race et religion’ he disputed the concept that Jewish people constitute a unified racial entity in a biological sense, which made his views unpalatable within racialized Antisemitism. Renan was also known for being a strong critic of German ethnic nationalism, with its anti-Semitic undertones.”

1892: Sixty-nine year old French historian and philologist Joseph Ernest Renan who  is credited as being among the first scholars to advance the Khazar theory, which held that Ashkenazi Jews were descendants of the Khazars, Turkic peoples who had adopted Jewish religion and migrated to Western Europe following the collapse of their khanat” passed away today.

1892: The fire in New Jersey that threatens the agricultural colony established by the Jewish immigrants near May’s Landing continues to burn for a second day.

1893: “Hard Words for Samuel Gompers, et al” published today quoted Abraham Cahan criticizing “many of the present leaders of the working men” such as “Samuel Gompers, Joseph Barondess and Henry Weismann” as simple “intriguers” who “purposely keep the workingmen in ignorance of what is good for them.”  (Editor’s Note – this is a case of Jew versus Jews)

1894(2nd of Tishrei, 5655): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah

1894: On the same day that Connecticut is holding “town elections” “politicians of both parties are looking at a circular claiming that when David Callahan, a candidate for State Senator from the New Haven District, was serving as Judge of the Police Courts he dismissed a case brought by an Israelite against an Irishman because “the Judge was influenced by race prejudices” or as the pamphlet said, “It is therefore to be understood that a descendant of the House of Israel can be persecuted with impunity, unless the poor Jew can explain to the satisfaction of an Irish Catholic Judge the reason why an Irish Catholic hoodlum, backed by his crowd, should assault a poor inoffensive Israelite.”

1894: “In the Real Estate Field” published today attributed yesterday’s lack of sales at auction and general lack of real estate transactions in New York to the fact that it “was a Hebrew holiday.” (Rosh Hashanah)

1898: An informal meeting of the members of the Hebrew Infant Asylum of the City of New York which is preparing to dedicate a new home at 161stStreet and Eagle Avenue is scheduled to take place today.

1896: “Accused of Stealing a Horse” published today provided a description of charges that Samuel Burnstein, a Jewish dry goods peddler has brought the sons of Cortland D. Morse and Robert C. Livingston for stealing and abusing his horse.

1897(6th of Tishrei, 5658): Parsahat Vayeilech; Shabbat Shuva

1897(6th of Tishrei, 5658): In Richmond, VA, Lewis Gitner, who will included bequests to Jewish and Christian institutions passed away today.

1898: Rabbi Gustav Gottheil of Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan conducted the services today during which Leon M. Nelson was installed as the rabbi at Temple Israel in Brooklyn, NY.

1898: The public got its first look at “the new home of the Hebrew Infant Asylum of the City of New York” which is located at the old De Graff mansion at 161st Street and Eagle Avenue.

1898: In Detroit, Michigan, “a large gathering of citizens who are friends of Rabbi Louis Grossman was held this afternoon to testify to the high character and progressive citizenship of the rabbi who has been called by Congregation B’nai Yeshurun in Cincinnati where he will be associated with Rabbi Isaac M. Wise.”

1898: In Chicago, Illinois, during the Spanish-American War, members of Anshe Knesset Israel gathered to pray for victory for the forces under the command of Admiral Dewey.

1900(9th of Tishrei, 5661): Erev Yom Kippur

1900(9th of Tishrei, 5661): Forty-seven year old German sculptor Hugo Rheinhold creator of Ape With Skull passed away today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Rheinhold#mediaviewer/File:Affe_mit_Sch%C3%A4del.jpg





1900: Birthdate of Arturo Rosenblueth Stearns “a Mexican researcher, physician and physiologist, who is known as one of the pioneers of cybernetics.”

1900: Birthdate of Nicolai Poliakoff, the native of Dvinsk who gained fame as Coco the Clown.

http://www.circopedia.org/Coco

http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/latest-news/clowns-pay-tribute-on-40th-anniversary-of-death-of-coco-1-6340424

1902(1st of Tishrei, 5663): Rosh Hashanah

1901: Fifteen year old Maurice Gusman, the Russian born son of Jacob and Brucha Gusman and husband of Hanna C. Epstein who became a banker in Cleveland, OH arrived today in the United States.

1902: The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter the children’s author and “social reformer” who “was also passionate about expressing the dangers of incorporating Jews in British society” as can be seen from her statement that “the strongest impelling motive of the Jewish race is love of profit from any other form of money earning” was published today. (As reported by Ilana K. Levinksky)

1903: Dorothy Levitt won her class (cars costing between £400 and £550) at the Southport Speed Trials driving S.F.Edge's 12 (or 16) hp Gladiator.

1904(23rd of Tishrei, 5665): Simchat Torah

1906(13th of Tishrei, 5667): After having led the court of Sadigur for 24 years, Reb Yisrael, the youngest son of Reb Yitzchak, passed away.

1906: Birthdate of David Jacob Cohen, the Brooklyn native and University of Michigan trained lawyer.

1908 (7th of Tishrei, 5669): In Houston Texas Adath Yshurun Friday night services began at 7 p.m. with a sermon entitled “Ourselves.”

1909: The University of Tennessee coached by George Leven, tied Centre in a home football game in Knoxville, TN.

1910: In New York, Maurice Wertheim and his first wife Alma Morgenthau gave birth to Josephine Wetheim

1910(28thof Elul, 5670): Max Hamburger the long-time owner and editor of the Mobile Herald and a an Alabama State Senator  “ was found dead in a room at the Cawthon Hotel about 2 o’clock this afternoon” having, according to the county corner, died several hours earlier from “apoplexy brought on by exposure.”

1911(10thof Tishrei, 5672): Yom Kippur

1911: In London, the East End Guardians passed a resolution saying that “no child of the Christian faith is to be sent to service with persons of the Jewish Religion.”

1912(21stof Tishrei, 5673): Hoshana Raba

1912: The Council of Jewish Women meeting today at the Selling-Hersh Building heard an address today by its President, Mrs. Rose Selling who “pleaded for more cooperative work by the members” followed by the reading of a paper by Mrs. Isaac Swett which covered “the work done by the Jewish race in this past year.”

1912: Jacob Feuerwerker and Regina Neufeld gave birth to David Feuerwerker, the Swiss born Canadian Rabbi and Historian.  He was the husband of Antoinette Feuerwerker, a French jurist and member of the resistance during World War II.

1913(1stof Tishrei, 5674): Final observance of Rosh Hashanah before the madness of World War I and all the evil that has followed in its wake over the last one hundred years.

1913: Birthdate of Chaim Yosef Zadok, the native of Galicia who made Aliyah in 1935.  He pursued a career in government and jurisprudence that included service in the Knesset and government ministries including Religious Affairs and Justice.

1913: In New Haven, CT, the first annual convention of the Jewish Socialist Federation of America whose five thousand members included Jacob B. Salutsky came to an end today.

1913(1stof Tishrei, 5674): Elias Jankel Hellerman passed away today after which he was buried in the Liepaja Jewish Cemetery.

1914: “Refugees Crowd Vienna” published today described the flow of Jewish fugitives from Galicia which is overwhelming the resources of the Austrian capital and has been diverted to “various places in Moravia, Upper Austria and Salzburg.”

1914: Sixty-two year old Rabbi Daniel Lowenthal a native of Horfstenin who came to the United States in 1874 where he served as the Rabbi for B’nai Salem and then Etz Chaim passed away today.


1915: “Louis Biel, who was Vice President of the United Cigar Stores Company, left personal property amounting to at least $800,000 and real estate worth at least $20,000 according to the statement of his widow, Mrs. Rose B. Biel, in her application for letters of administration on the estate filed’ today.

1916: The American Jewish Relief Committee, the Central Relief Committee and the People’s Relief Committee have raised a total of six million dollars as of today.

1916: in St. Louis, neurosurgeon Ernest Sachs and “playwright and poet Mary Sachs” gave birth to Harvard trained neurosurgeon Ernest Sachs, Jr. the Bronze Star winning WW II veteran who landed at Normandy, survived the Battle of the Bulge and helped liberate Buchenwald and who “started his career as an Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery and Neurology at Tulane Unviersity.

1917(16thof Tishrei, 5678): Second Day of Sukkoth

1917: Just twelve days before his 21st birthday, William Shemin, who would win the Medal of Honor, enlisted in the U.S. Army.

1917:British Intelligence learned of a meeting in Berlin at which plans were made by the Germans and Turks to offer the Jews of Europe a German-sponsored Jewish National Home in Palestine.  (This stimulated the British to finalize what became known as the Balfour Declaration.)

1918: The 165th Regiment, including the recently promoted Sergeant Abraham Blaustein traveled by camion (truck) head for Mondrecourt.

1918:General Allenby leaves his headquarters at Tiberias and drives to Damascus to install the Emir Feisal as head of the local government.  Only later would the Arab leader learn that Syria was to be under French control and that his dreams of ruling the Arabs from this ancient city were merely that – dreams.  It was the mischief making by the British and French that destabilized the entire region, not the promise of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

1919: US President Woodrow Wilson suffers a massive stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed. Wilson suffered the stroke during a cross country speaking tour that was intended generate support for the ratification of the Versailles Treaty which included the creation of the League of Nations.  With Wilson out of the picture, the forces favoring ratification lost their champion.  The United States rejected the treaty and chose note to join the League.  There is a large body of opinion that the America’s failure to join the League doomed the organization even before it had its first meeting and this was one of the causes of World War II, the greatest catastrophe in Jewish history since the destruction of the Second Temple.

1920(20thof Tishrei, 5681): Shabbat and Chol Hamoed Sukkoth

1920: Mr. and Mrs. Herman Johl are scheduled to host a reception “to celebrate the engagement of their daughter Sadie Johl to Mr. F.S. Stern.

1921(29thof Elul, 5681): Erev Rosh Hashanah

1921: The newest Jewish house of worship in Camden, NJ, Beth-El Synagogue, “was formally opened” tonight with services marking the start of Rosh Hashanah led by Rabbi Solomon Grayzel.

1921: “Our nation was conceived in simplicity and frugality, and nurtured in godliness and righteousness, and by those alone can it be preserved." Rabbi Joseph Krauskopf, first head of “the National Farm School.”

1922(10thof Tishrei, 5683): Yom Kippur

1922: It was reported today that Samuel S. Koenig, Chairman of the New York County Republican Committee opposed an attempt by some of his fellow party members to propose a slate of Republican nominees to serve as Justices on the State Supreme Court. He claimed that it was party policy to endorse justices who had served well in the position regardless of their party affiliation.  Koenig’s view carried the day.  Koenig was a Hungarian-born Jew who rose to a position of power in the New York State Republican Party.

1922(10thof Tishrei, 5683): Fifty eight year old Fanny Printz, the Austrian born daughter of Abraham and Rosa Printz passed away today after which she was buried in the Rodef Sholom section of the Tod Homestead Cemetery in Youngstown, OH.

1922: It was reported today that Justice Irving Lehman, a Democrat, who has successfully served one full term on the bench is one of three judicial candidates endorsed by the Republican Party.  The Republicans base their endorsement for these positions on merit rather than party affiliation.

1923(22nd of Tishrei, 5684):Shmini Atzeret

1923(22nd of Tishrei, 5684):This morning, while he was on his way to his beloved "bondage," as he used to call his work, Abraham Solomon Freidus collapsed and died almost immediately at the foot of the Library stairs. He was the “custodian of the Jewish Room at the New York Public Library.”

1925(14thof Tishrei, 5686): Erev Sukkoth

1925: Infielder Buddy Myer who would see action in the World Series, appeared in his fourth and final regular season game for the Washington Senators/

1925(14thof Tishrei, 5686): Nine-three Berhnhardine Wetzlar Warburg, the widow of Jonas R. Warburg, passed away today.

1926: In New York today, “Joseph M. Levy, manager for Clark’s Tours in Palestine and Syria” who has just arrived from Jerusalem, reported that there was “keen interest” revolving around the first municipal to be held “under the British mandate.”  According to his figures Jerusalem had a population of 60,000, 37,000 of whom were Jewish.  He also described progress being made on railroad being built between Jaffa and Haifa, with a junction at Tel Aviv that will connect the line with Jerusalem. 

1927: The New York Times describes the vibrant music scene among the Jewish community in Palestine which includes jazz bands playing at a dance hall near Jerusalem’s Jaffa Gate and a group of musicians in Tel Aviv who have established a company that performs grand opera in which is described as “a most acceptable manner.”

1930(10thof Tishrei, 5691): As economic conditions continued to worsen after one of the what will become known as the Great Depression, the Yom Kippur supplications uttered today take an extra poignancy.

1931: Birthdate of Barbara K. Adasm, the wife of Dr. Jerome J. Abrahams, the member of the Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation who was also a member of Hadassah and the National Council of Jewish Women.

1932(2ndof Tishrei, 5693): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah

1932: Universal Studios releases the screen version of the Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman play, “Once in a Lifetime.”

1933(12thof Tishrei, 5694): Thirty six year old Ray Block who is interred at Ahavas Shalom Congregation Cemetery, passed away today.

1934(23rdof Tishrei, 5695): Simchat Torah

1934: In Philadelphia, “salesman Edward Isaac Zall” and “bookkeeper Esther (Perlestein) Zall gave birth to Deborah Miriam Zall the ‘dancer and choreographer who studied with Martha Graham.” (As reported by Marina Harss)


1935: Today, Hyman Barnett “Harry” Mizzzler, the East End born Jewish boxer “fought one of his most exciting bouts, a dramatic come from behind knock out in the eighth round against Gustave Hummery of France.

1936: It was announced today that Leo Perper who has been with R.H. Macy & Co. for the last 25 years has been named to become the new president of the Roger Kent Stores.

1936: In Los Angeles, “Louis Siegel, a banker and the former Mildred Kaufman” gave birth to Stanley Milton Siegel the host of the live talk-show “The Stanley Siegel Show” (As reported by Sam Roberts)


1938: Pitcher Sam Nahem made his major league debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

1938: Publisher Oscar “Dystel married Marion Deitler with whom he had two children John and Jane.

1938(7th of Tishrei, 5699): “Twenty one Jews including three women and ten children, ranging in age from 1 to 12 years were killed and three others were wounded” tonight “on the shores of Lake Galilee in the old Jewish quarter of Tiberias in a massacre by stabbing shooting and burning perpetrated by Arabs.”  The Arab violence was described as the worst since 1929 when “Arabs fell on Jewish men, most of whom were rabbinical students as well woman and children in the ancient towns of Hebron and Safed.”  Among those killed by the Arab attackers were Jacob Zaltz, the beadle of the central synagogue; Menachem Kabin, “an elderly American Jew” who had recently moved to Palestine and his sister who was stabbed and then burned to death; Joshua Ben Ariah, his wife and two sons, one of whom was an infant; the three children of Shlomo Leimer, “aged 8,10 and 12” who “were stabbed and burned to death; Shimon Mizrahi, his wife and five children ranging in ages from 1 to 12 years; Jacob Gross  and two as yet to be identified Jewish constables.

1939: “New Yiddish Comedy” published today contained a review of “Chever Nachman,” I.J. Singer’s dramatization of his own novel East of Eden directed by Jacob Ben-Ami playing at the National Theatre on Houston Street as well as “In a Jewish Grocery” by Nuchim Stutchkoff playing at the Second Avenue Theatre.

1939: The text of a telegram which Edward Bernays sent to the secretary of the Executive Committee of the World’s Fair explaining his reasons for withdrawing as the non-salaried counsel on public relations for the fair was published today.

1939: “Dr. Bernhard Weiss formerly vice president of the Berlin police” and who fled when Chancellor Hitler came to power because he was Jew “deprived of his nationality and property by the Nazis” and who has been earning his living by running a small printing business in London “has been interned by a Special Branch of Scotland Yard because he is classified as “German national.”

1939: It was reported today that a recently published editorial in the “atheist organ, Bezbozhnik” that in Poland “rabbis (were) acting as police agents.”

1939: The funeral procession for Frank Margolis, the husband of the President of the Ladies Auxiliary of the East Side Hebrew Institute is scheduled to pass by that institution at 10:30 this morning.

1939: Congressman John Dingell of Michigan addressed the first meeting of the American Jewish Congress since the outbreak of WW II which was being held at the Edison Hotel in New York.  The 1,561 delegates representing 420 different organizations heard his denunciation of the Nazis followed by an impassioned speech from Dr. Stephen S. Wise, president of the American Jewish Congress.

1939: WEVD broadcast “Jewish Melodies at 2pm today.

1939: Cardinal George William Mundelein, the Archbishop of Chicago, who was an early critic of the Nazis, passed away.

1939: “Effective today, Jewish men in Slovakia are conscripted for labor service.”

1939: Academy award winning composer Bernard Herrmann, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants married Lucille Fletcher today.

1940(29thElul, 5700): Erev Rosh Hashanah

1940: In New York, “the kosher kill was very light today” because “the Jewish new year holidays begin at sundown” today.

1940: In New York, the supplies of “kosher steer chucks and places” “were very light with only two large packers slaughtering” beef.

1940: Comedian Eddie Cantor and singer Dinah Shore are scheduled to perform on WEAF from 9 until 9:30 this evening.

1940: The Benny Goodman Orchestra is scheduled to perform on WABC between nine and ten this evening.

1940: “Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, chairman of the United Palestine Appeal, urged the Jews of America to give greater support to the ‘embattled Palestine Jewry.’”

1940: Dr. Israel Weinstein is scheduled to deliver a talk on WYNC.

1840: In his New Year’s message, “William Weiss, president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America called for continued optimism and faith in the midst of a world crisis and for prayers for the preservation of American democracy.”

1940: In His New Year’s message, “Dr. Israel Goldstein, president of the Jewish National Fund termed the Jewish national home in Palestine an outpost of democracy and stressed the importance of its wartime program.”

1940: “Edwin F. Jaeckle, chairman of the Republican State Committee” in New York, “said in a holiday greeting that “The period represents merely another tragic interlude in the onward march of a people whose will to live and prosper has never been successfully halted by passing tyrants or dictators since the dawn of civilization.

1940: With the presidential election just weeks away, “in a New Year’s Message to Paul Felix Warburg, vice president of the National Jewish Hospital at Denver,” “Wendell Wilkie joined with President Roosevelt in praising the hospital as ‘an effective symbol of the truly American ideals.’”

1940: “Abraham Herman, president of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society announced appeals would be made in Synagogues throughout the country for the society’s “Rescue Through Emigration Campaign” which has a goal of raising one million dollars.

1940: This evening WMCA is scheduled to broadcast Rosh Hashanah Services from Mt. Neboh Temple led by Rabbi Samuel Segal.

1940: “The New York and Brooklyn Federations of Jewish Charities prepared for special services this evening in each of its 116 welfare agencies including two series for the deaf.”

1940: “Junior Hadassah, the Young Women’s Zionist Organization of America voted” today “to contribute $5,500 for the care of underprivileged children in Palestine and cabled the first installment of $1,500 as a Rosh Hashanah offering.”

1940: At Temple Emanu-El Rabbi Samuel H. Goldenson delivered a sermon on what constitutes a spiritual blessing” saying that “we are living at a time when groups of men under powerful leadership are trying to achieve the blessings of life without regard for the sorrows that their ambitions and their achievements are bringing to masses of men all over the world.”

1940: “Congregation Habonim, made up of 400 refugees from Germany affiliated with Central Synagogue will observe its first anniversary at Town Hall.”

1940: At the Free Synagogue meeting at Carnegie Hall, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise delivered a sermon in which he said “Not once to every man and nation but a thousand times has come the choice to Israel between self-destructive disloyalty and self-maintaining loyalty, despite everything and everything. The glory of England in this hour, unbroken and even unstooping, has been the glory of the Jewish people for not less than a thousand years.”

1940: At Temple Rodeph Sholom, Rabbi Louis I. Newman told worshippers “The New Year despite its vast tribulations, should bring fresh courage and fresh hope not only to the household of Israel but to all mankind.”

1940: At Mount Zion Congregation, Rabbi B.A. Tintner addressed that issue of first time peace military draft in U.S. history saying that “Fathers and mothers in America should now be assured that the conscription policy will build up a mechanism of defense that will not plunge into war but hopefully keep war from our midst.”

1940: At the West Side Institutional Synagogue Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein said: “Let us pray that the New Year will bring new hope, new vision and a new and true interpretation of the universal Fatherhood of God and of the common brotherhood of man.

1940: At Temple Israel, Rabbi William F. Rosenblum took note of “Nazi threat to liberalism and tolerane” saying “Men are not yet awake to the real danger of losing with a decade what it took a century to gain.

1940: “The Republican National Committee made public today a message from Wendell L. Willkie addressed to Jewish citizens on the occasion of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year” in which he knew that “on this day in every land the Jewish people are gathering in their synagogues praying for peace and for the ultimate victory of right and justice” and asked “for the privilege of joining in your prayers and of pledging to you today that in so far as it is with my capacity to keep so sacred a pledge the United States will never harbor racial or religious intolerance and persecution.

1940: In compliance with War Department circular No. 5 all soldiers of the Jewish faith will be granted furloughs” starting at noon today until revile on October 5 (which ironically is Shabbat) “so they may observe the Jewish New Year.

1941:”One Foot in Heaven” a nominee for the Best Picture Oscar produced and directed by Irving Rapper and with music by Max Steiner was released in the United States today.

1941:SS Chief Helmut Knochen ordered the systematic destruction of synagogues in Paris (As reported by Aish.com)

1941:  Six Parisian synagogues were bombed.  At this time, Paris was occupied by the Nazis. As we have seen in our own time, bombing synagogues takes place in Paris regardless of who is in power.

1941(11th of Tishrei, 5702): In Zhager, a small town on the Lithuanian-Latvian border, over 3000 Jewish men, women and children were massacred by members of the Lithuanian militia. They lie in a mass grave in Naryshkin Park, the heart of the shetl.

1941(11th of Tishrei, 5702): A Nazi raid on the Jewish ghetto at Vilna, Lithuania, leaves 3000 dead at nearby Ponary. One victim, Serna Morgenstern, is shot in the back by an SS officer after he complimented her beauty and told her she was free to go.

1942(21st of Tishrei, 5703): Hoshana Rabah

1942(21st of Tishrei, 5703): At the Treblinka death camp, Jews from Zelechów, Poland, are murdered.

1942: In Moorestown, NJ, Edwin Milton "Ed" Sabol and his wife gave birth to Stephen Douglas "Steve" Sabol who, along with his father, was one of the founders of “NFL Films” which changed the way football fans experience the professional game.

1943: In Holland, the families of Jewish men drafted for forced labor are sent to the concentration camp in Westerbork, Holland.

1943: Eight year old Steen Metz and his parents were arrested today in Odense, Denmark and shipped to Thereseinstadt.


1943: The first Jewish paratroopers from Palestine landed in the Balkans. Many of them had been chosen because they were born in the region and spoke the languages of the land like natives. These Jews agreed to help organize non-Jewish underground units on behalf of the British war effort. The British agreed to let them aid other Jews once they had completed their primary mission. The British also made it clear that they would not offer support for this secondary party of the mission.

1943(3rd of Tishrei, 5704): Shabbat Shuvah; given the events that took place on this date in Denmark –see item below – the day lives up to its name of The Sabbath of Return.

1943: The Danish people rescue about 7000 Jews, only 500 of whom are captured by the Germans. The 500 seized by the Germans are sent to the Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia, camp/ghetto; all but 77 will survive the war. The Danish government will persistently check on the health and welfare of the Jews who were sent to Theresienstadt, enabling almost all of them to survive to war's end.

1943:“The Swedish government announced in an official statement that Sweden was prepared to accept all Danish Jews in Sweden.”

1943: “Some arrested Danish communists witnessed the deportation of about 200 Jews from Langelinie via the ship Wartheland. Of these, a young married couple were able to convince the Germans that they were not Jewish, and set free. The remainder included mothers with infants, the sick and elderly, chief rabbi Max Friediger, and the other Jewish hostages mentioned above, who had been placed in the Danish internment camp, Horserød, on August 28–29. They were driven below deck without their luggage while being screamed at, kicked and beaten. The Germans then took anything of value from the luggage.

1944 (15th of Tishrei, 5705): Sukkoth

1944:  On the first day of Sukkoth Jews in Palestine attempt to celebrate the Chag while dealing with a British curfew.

1944: Today, “Monuments Man” Major Ronald Edmond Balfour, the lecturer at King’s College, Cambridge who had been serving with the British Army since 1940 and who had reduced to hitch-hiking for the past five weeks in his quest to save such pieces of art as Michelangelo’s Bruges Madonna, got a truck which served him until the middle of the month when “it died” due to repeated mechanical problems.

1944: The original Broadway production of “Angel Street,” directed by Shepard Traube, transferred from the John Golden Theatre to the Bijou Theatre.

1945: “Several thousand troops of the British Sixth Airborne Division disembarked at Haifa” today.  For all intents and purposes, this elite military unit had been sent to Palestine to put an end to “illegal Jewish immigration.”

1946: Seventy-eight year old Ignacy Mościcki who in 1935 as President of Poland and despite the growing anti-Semitism in the country appointed Biblical scholar, historian and Jewish community leader Moses Schorr to serve in the Senate passed away today.

1946: “Hundreds of heavily armed British soldiers and police raided as fashionable Tel Aviv café today and seized fifty Jews, thirty of whom were immediately sent to the Rafa detention camp on the Egyptian frontier.” The raid at the Ginati Café was aimed at capture leaders of the Irgun.

1947: Cleveland Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver and a leading spokesman for the Zionist cause appeared before the United Nations during hearings on the proposed partition of Palestine.  Silver spoke in a favor the partition, which was the two state solution that was rejected by the Arabs.

1947: Birthdate of Sergio Kerbis

1948: In Queens, Gabby Faske, “a tailor and haberdasher” and his wife Helen, nicknamed “Quennie: who had been a designer and model, gave birth to Donna Ivy Faske, the graduate of the Parsons School Design known to one and all as American fashion designer, Donna Karan.



1948:Birthdate of Jack Leon Terpins, a native of Sao Paulo, Brazil, who serves as President of the Latin American Jewish Congress.

1949(9th of Tishrei, 5710): Erev Yom Kippur

1949: In Waterbury, CT, Marilyn Edith, née Heit and Air Force Lt. Col. Samuel Leibovitz gave birth to Anna-Lou Leibovitz, who gained famed as photographer Annie Leibovitz. Leibovitz was chief photographer for Rolling Stones Magazines for ten years.  She later moved on to Vanity Fair Magazine.  She was named Photographer of the Year in 1984 by the American Society of Magazine Photographers.

1950(21st of Tishrei, 5711): Hoshana Raba is observed for the first time during the Korean War.

1950(21st of Tishrei, 5711): Moses Feinberg, the husband of Elizabeth Rosenthal Feinberg, passed away today after which he was buried in the Montefiore Cemetery in “Springfield Gardens, NY.”

1952:The Jerusalem Postreported that Israel had purchased 27 Mustang fighters from the Swedish Air Force. The propeller driven fighters, known as the P-51 during WW II, were obsolete in a world of Jet Age aircraft.  But for the fledgling Israeli Air Force, they would have to do as they confronted their better armed and equipped Arab neighbors.

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the overwhelming majority of the 34,000 immigrants who arrived in Israel from October 1951 to the end of September 1952 were members of Oriental communities. There were 9,800 immigrants from Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, 3,800 from Libya, 1,350 from Egypt, 5,800 from Iran, 1,000 from Iraq, 650 from Turkey, 6,800 from Romania, 650 from Bulgaria, 160 from Poland, 170 from the US and the rest from other countries. This rapidly growing Sephardic population would eventually change the demographics of the new state.  The early settlers had been primarily of Russian, Polish and later German origins.   In other words the Ashkenazim, or those whose roots were found among the Ashkenazim, dominated the Yishuv and the state of Israel in its early decades.  Many Sephardim felt that they were treated like second-class citizens.  Interestingly enough, it would be Likud under the leadership of Menachem Begin that would give voice to these feelings.  And it would the votes of these Oriental Jews that would bring Begin to power in 1977.

1953(23rdof Tishrei, 5714): Simchat Torah is observed for the first after the guns have gone silent in Korea.

1954: Birthdate of Eran Riklis, the veteran of the Yom Kippur War and husband of Dina Riklis who went on to make such films as Cup Final, The Syrian Bride, Lemon Tree and Dancing Arabs.

1955: The Brooklyn Dodgers took a three to two lead over the Yanks when they won the fifth game of the World Series.

1955: Coach Sid Gillman’s Los Angeles Rams defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers today.

1957: “The Bridge on the River Kwai” the WW II epic produced by Sam Spiegel with a screenplay co-authored by Carl Foreman was released in the United Kingdom today.

1957: “Who’s Sorry Now?” a popular song with lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby published in 1923 and which “was featured in the Marx Brothers film A Night in Casablanca” was recorded today by pop star Connie Francis who is the only one of those mentioned who is not Jewish.

1958: CBS’s Playhouse 90 broadcast the original production of “Days of Wine and Roses” a chilling look at alcoholics starring Piper Laurie, born Rosetta Jacobs, the daughter of eastern European Jewish immigrants.

1959: The anthology series The Twilight Zone premieres on CBS television. The show was created by Rod Serling who was raised as a Reform Jew.At high school, where he edited the newspaper, Serling experienced anti-Jewish discrimination when he was blackballed from the Theta Sigma fraternity. In an interview in 1972 he said of this incident, "it was the first time in my life that I became aware of religious difference." Serling did not consider himself to be a practicing Jew and he and his future wife Carol Kramer became Unitarians.

1961(22ndof Tishrei, 5722): Shmini Arzeret

1961: In London Clive Milton, “one of the Jewish children rescued by the Kindertansport mission and brought to Britain in 1939” and Ruth Milton gave birth to Cambridge educated Conservative politician Sir Simon Henry Milton, “London’s Deputy Mayor for Policy and Planning.”


1965: Birthdate of David Nehaisi, the native of Holon who traces his lineage back to “Jews expelled from Spain” in 1491 and who gained fame as singer, composer and songwriter David D’Or

1965: Eight-six year old Julius W. “Nicky” Arnstein who, thanks the musical “Funny Girl” is best known as the husband of Fanny Brice, passed away today.


1967(27thof Elul, 5727): Seventy-six year old dancer and choreographer Albertina Rasch who was the wife of Dimitri Tiomkin passed away today.


1967: In Minneapolis, Paula Goldberg, “co-founder and executive director of the Pacer Center and Mel Goldberg the associate dean and professor at the William Mitchell College of Law gave birth to David Bruce "Dave" Goldberg the CEO of SurveyMonkey and the husband of Facebook executive of Facebook.



1968(10thof Tishrei, 5729): Yom Kippur

1968: Birthdate of actor Joey Slotnick.

1968: U.S. Premiere of “Coogan’s Bluff” directed and produced by Don Siegel, co-starring Lee J. Cobb with music by Lalo Schifrin.

1969: Robert Louis Rogers completed his service as Canada’s ambassador to Israel.

1969: Eighty-five year old William F. Bleakly the Republican who lost to Governor Lehman in 1936 and who “described David Dubinsky as a renegade Socialist who sent money to the Reds in Spain” when in fact he was sending funds raised by the International Ladies Garment Works to the Red Cross in Spain, passed away today.

1973: Birthdate of relief pitcher Scott Schoeweiss who played for the 2002 World Champion Anaheim Angels.

1972"From Israel with Love" opens at Palace Theater New York City for 8 performances

1973: Senior military officials ignore the warnings of Lieutenant Binyamin Siman-Tov that Egyptians are in fact preparing to launch a military action that will take them across the Suez Canal.

1974: “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three” produced by Edgar J. Scherick, co-starring Walter Matthau and Martin Balsom with music by David Shire was released today in the United States.

1974: “The Gambler” a dramatic film directed by Karel Reisz, produced by Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff, written by James Toback, starring James Caan and with music by Jerry Fielding was released in the United States today.

1974: “Monument of Jewish sculptor Ernst Neizvestny was installed on the grave of Nikita Khrushchev.”

1975; “Dr. Mikhail Stern’s son Viktor arrived in London to launch a world-wide campaign for the release of his father from a Soviet prison camp.”

1975: In Moscow, Premier Kosygin told Sargent Shriver that “the very idea of creating a Jewish state originated in Russia and that the USSR was prepared to guarantee Israel’s integrity providing she withdraws to the 1967 border and conforms to all UN resolutions. (Editor’s Note – In the second decade of the 21stcentury we are still hearing about those “1967 borders” which in fact were nothing more than armistice lines from 1949)

1977: Three people were injured in Jerusalem when a bomb went off in a bus station.

1977:The Jerusalem Postreported that the US and the Soviet Union, in a formal communiqué issued simultaneously in Washington and Moscow, announced that any Arab-Israeli peace settlement would have to ensure "the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people." Israel sharply criticized this statement as likely to harden the Arabs¹ stance and impede the peace-making progress. Jordan informed the US that it would not agree to the incorporation of Palestinian negotiators within its own Geneva Peace Conference delegation. Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who had a heart attack shortly before his election, was again admitted to hospital, suffering from exhaustion.

1978(1stof Tishrei, 5739): Rosh Hashanah

1978:Syrian & Palestinians battle in East Beirut, 1,300 killed

1979: In Manhattan, funeral services are scheduled to be held today for Benedict Kanter, the “husband of the late Ruth Kanter” and the father Dr. Joel Kanter.

1981: Birthdate of New York native Marek Ariel “Rel Schulman, best known for “directing the 2010 documentary ‘Catfish’” and the older brother of actor Nev Schulman

1981(4th of Tishrei, 5742): Harry Golden passed away passed away at the age of 79.  Born Harry Goldhirsch in what is now the Ukraine, Golden gained famed as the publisher of the Carolina Israelite.  Golden used his publication to advocate desegregation in the days when Jim Crow dominated the South and to provide folksy tales about his days growing up on the Lower East Side.  Two of his better known books were Only in America and for Two Cents Plain. Sometimes Golden combined his passion for social justice with his satiric wit.  One such example was the Vertical Negro Plan.  In the days of the segregated South, African-Americans were not allowed to sit down in a restaurant and eat their meals.  African-Americans were allowed to go to a window at the side or in the back of many eating establishments, order their food and take it to eat elsewhere.  Golden decided that the problem was with African-Americans and Whites eating together, but of sitting together while they were eating.  He proposed removing all chairs and stools from eating establishments.  That way, the races could eat in the same establishment without violating the time honored tradition of not sitting down to eat together.


1981:Soviet authorities in Kharkov summon factory workers to special meetings to inform them that they have “unmasked” a Zionist movement in Kharkov. They say the movement’s members will shortly be put on trial.

1981: “Paternity,” a comedy directed by David Steinberg, featuring Norman Fell and with music by David Shire was released today in the United States.

1982(15th of Tishrei, 5743): Sukkoth and Shabbat

1982(15th of Tishrei, 5743): Seventy one-year old NYU graduate William Bernbach “the founder and chairman of the Doyle Dane Bernbach advertising agency and the husband of the “former Evelyn Carbone with whom he had two sons, John and Paul – the New York attorney and patron of the arts – passed away today.


1982(15th of Tishrei, 5743): Seventy-year old Sidney Z. Vincent, the Case Western Reserve University Graduate, executive director of the Cleveland Jewish Community Federation and husband of Ruth Vincent with whom he had two children – Jill and Norman—passed away today in his home town of Cleveland, Ohio.



1983: The Israel Bank Stock crisis “erupted fully” today, “the first day after the Sukkoth holiday” when “the public sold more bank stocks than in the entire month of September.”

1983: Bonnie Franklin’s “One Day At A Time” begins its ninth and last season.

1984:Love on the Beat,” is an album by French singer and songwriter Serge Gainsbourg featuring a duet with his daughter Charlotte was released today.

1987: Release date for “Big Shots,” a film edited by Sheldon Kahn and written by Joe Esterhas.

1987: “Near Dark” a horror film co-starring Jenette Goldstein and filmed by Israeli cinematographer Adam Greenberg was released in the United States today.

1987: Refusenik Ida Nuedl learned today that she had been granted an exit visa so she could leave the Soviet Union and go to Israel.

1988: In “Goetz Estate on the Market” Ruth Ryon described the art and estate left behind by Hollywood producer William Goetz.


1989(3rd of Tishrei, 5750): Tzom Gedaliah

1989(3rd of Tishrei, 5750): Abraham Alper passed away today after which he was buried in the “Beth Joseph Agudath Sholom Cemetery in Madison Heights, VA.

1991: Grigory Yavlinsky, the son of the former “Vera Naumonvna, a Russian Jewish Chemistry teacher” completed his service as “Deputy Chairman of the Committee on the Operational Management of the Economy of the Soviet Union” today.

1992: U.S. Premiere of “Hero” a dark comedy produced and written by Laura Ziskin and co-starring Dustin Hoffman.as the anti-hero “Bernie LaPlante.”

1994(27th of Tishrei, 5755): “The Board of Trustee of Bene Naharayim honored Dr. Gourji Ray, the son of Meir and Mariam Raby “for his accomplishments both in Iraq and the United States.

1994: A revival production of Show Boat produced and directed by Harold Prince which had premiered in Toronto opened on Broadway at the George Gershwin Theatre where “it ran for 947 performance” making it the longest running Broadway production of the Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein musical based on Edna Ferber’s novel.

1995(8th of Tishrei, 5456): Seventy-five year old Quincy, Massachusetts native Bernard Adler, the stepfather of director Steven Spielberg who along with his wife of 28 years Leah Adler “operated the Milky Way kosher dairy restaurant in Los Angeles” passed away today.

1997(1st of Tishrei, 5758): Rosh Hashana

1997: Emmy award winning actress Rena Sofer completed her second round of guest appearances on “General Hospital”

1998: “Hideous Kinky” a film based on the autobiographical novel of the same name by Esther Freud, the great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud was released today by AMLF.

2000(3rd of Tishrei, 5761): Tzom Gedaliah

2000: Twenty-four year old Wichlav Zalsevky was shot by “an unknown Palestinian” today.

2000: CBS broadcast the first episode of season six of “King of Queens” co-starring Jerry Stiller.

2001(15th of Tishrei, 5762): Sukkoth

2001: Osama Awadallah, a college student with no criminal record who was one of dozens Arab men detained around the country in the days after 9/11 as potential witnesses in terrorism investigations appeared in the Federal District Courtroom of Judge Michael B. Mukasey. Responding to Awadallah’s claims that he had been beaten, the judge said, “I will tell you he looks fine to me…If you to file a lawsuit, you can file a lawsuit.”  Mukasey, an Orthodox Jew did not recues himself from this case which should have come as no surprise since he did not recues himself during the trials of the “Blind Sheik” was part of the conspiracy to blow up the World Trade Center in 1993.

2001:In a statement issued today, Aipac officials criticized President Bush's advisers who advocated support for the creation of a Palestinian state. Those advisers ''are encouraging the president to reward, rather than punish, those that harbor and support terrorism,'' the statement said.

2002: Randy Lerner succeeded his father Al as the leader of the Cleveland Browns football team

2004(17th of Tishrei, 5765): Shabbat Chol HaMoed Sukkoth

2004(17th of Tishrei, 5765): Sixty-three year old Shaul Amor, the native of Morocco who served in the Knesset as “Minister without for Portfolio” passed away today.

2004: Amy “Goodman was presented the Islamic Community Award for Journalism by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.”

2005:  The New York Times reported that Franzi Groszman had passed away at the age of 100.  Mrs. Groszman is believed to be one of the last survivors of the parents who put their children on the Kindertransport, the London bound trains that took Jewish children out of Nazi Germany before World War II. 

2005:  Books by Jewish authors or on Jewish topics were featured in several newspapers.  The New York Times Book Review Section included a review of Party In The Blitza memoir by Elijah Canetti.  The winner of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Literature is described as “a Spanish Jewish Viennese Swiss Bulgarian Refugee.  The Times also reviewed Blood Relation a biography of Harold “Heshy” Konigsberg, a Jewish racketeer and hit man.  As the review points out, Jews may be criminals, but they are not heroes.  Hehsy’s family describes him as a “shanda” which is Yiddish for ‘Shame.” 

2005: After fracturing his finger in September Boston Red Sox Kevin Youkilis returned to the lineup today the last day of the 2005 season during which he hit .278.

2006: The Washington Postreviewed Dogs of War by James Reston.  It is subtitled, “Columbus, the Inquisition and the Defeat of the Moors.”  As the reviewer says, “in 1492, Sapin expelled its Jews and crushed a caliphate.” Finally the Post also reviewed The Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Diamant.  “In The Red TentDiamant used a gaudy, Technicolor style to engineer her Old Testament visions of sex and violence, while The Last Days of Dogtown is as plain as sunlight on polished wood. But in both books, she has managed to find an appropriate (if not a true) vocabulary to conjure up a world. Like Las Vegas reproductions of old Venice or ancient Egypt, these novels are proudly inauthentic yet still entirely original.”

2006(10th of Tishrei, 5767:) Yom Kippur,

2006: The first Yom Kippur is observed with all IDF Troops out of Lebanon.

2006: As the sun set on Yom Kippur the last Rabbi in Baghdad, Emad Levy, sat down for his last “break the fast’ meal in Iraq.  As he ate the piece of cake and ranks the two glasses of milk he shared his thoughts with a Washington Postreporter realizing that next year he would be doing this in another land.

2006: Allegations arose that Alan Hevesi had fired Alexander McHugh, a receptions who had filed a sexual harassment charge.  Hevesi’s office contended that she had not cooperated with their investigation and that no evidence had been found to support her claim.

2007: Solomon Wachtler“was reinstated to the New York state bar.”

2007: The Special Olympics open in Shanghai where the 2,000-strong Jewish community has raised $20,000 to support Israel’s Special Olympics team.  The community, headed by Maurice Ohama, has provided the 38 Israeli athletes with uniforms, sports shoes as well as access to a Sukkah and kosher food.

2007: Israel eased a strict news blackout on an airstrike on stories related to the September airstrike against Syria that has been described as destroying shipments of arms for Hezbollah or a nuclear facility built with North Korean technology.

2007:Frank Lowy received the Henni Friedlander Award for the Common Good at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, United States.

2007: “Gilded Lions and Jeweled Horses: The Synagogue to the Carousel opens at the American Folk Art Museum under the aegis of guest cuator Murray Zimilies

2008: At Columbia University, the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies presents an address by renowned Israeli author Amos Oz, Agnon Professor of Hebrew Literature, Ben-Gurion University entitled “A Tale of Love and Darkness” as part of the Syliva and Joseph Radov Lectures

2008(3, Tishrei, 5769): Fast of Gedaliah,

2008: Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced today that he would abandon his earlier opposition to changing the term limits law and seek a third term as mayor, arguing that the economic crisis buffeting the nation called for continuity in municipal leadership.

2008 An “abridged version of Girl Crazy,” a 1930’s George and Ira Gershwin musical opened at the Kennedy Center.

2008: In “Rabbi Has Message, So Does Cellphone,” published today James Barron describes how Jewish businessmen are coping with the financial meltdown during the High Holidays.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/nyregion/02holidays.html?_r=0

2009:Singer-songwriter Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul & Mary fame) reads from and discusses his new song-inspired children's picture book, Day is Done, (illustrated by Melissa Sweet) at Politics and Prose Bookstore, in Washington, D.C.

2009:Icelandic experimental band mum (with a lower-case "m" and pronounced moom) is scheduled to open its European tour at Tel Aviv's Barby Club today.

2009: The Coen Brothers latest film, “A Serious Man,” opens in theatres throughout the United States.

2009: According to reports published in today’s Washington Post, “Israeli writer Amos Oz is the favorite to be picked for the 2009 Nobel literature prize next Thursday, but with the judging notoriously hard to predict, he is far from a safe bet.  Oz, who deals with life in modern Israel in his novels, and reflects decades of commitment to the Israeli peace movement in his political writing, is quoted at 4/1 by the British bookmaker Ladbrokes, meaning he has one chance in five of winning.”

2009(14th of Tishrei, 5770): Erev Sukkoth

2009(14th of Tishrei, 5770):Captain Benjamin Sklaver was killed in Afghanistan.

2009: Thin and wan, but lucid and very much alive, Gilad Shalit, the captured Israeli soldier whose fate has gripped Israel for more than three years, appeared in a video today holding a Palestinian newspaper dated Sept. 14

2009(14th of Tishrei, 5770):Seventy-six year old photographer of the famous, Nat Finkelstein, passed away today. (As reported by William Grimes)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/arts/13finkelstein.html

2010: On Shabbat, the traditional minyan at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, IA joins the rest of the world in reading Parsha Bereshit, marking the start of the new Torah reading cycle.

2010:Miki Gavrielov, one of Israel’s leading singer/song writer is scheduled to perform at Beth El Synagogue Center in New Rochelle, NY. 

2011: Israelis change their clocks as daylight savings time comes to an end.

2011: The New York Times features books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “The Swerve:How the World Became Modern” by Stephen Greenblatt, “Gustav Mahler by Jens Malte Fischer, “All Our Worldly Goods” by Irène Némirovsky and “The Mirador:Dreamed Memories of Irène Némirovsky by Her Daughter” by Élisabeth Gille

2011:Gilo is not a settlement but an “integral part of Jerusalem,” Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon stressed during a tour of the capital’s third-largest neighborhood for 50 members of the foreign media today.

2011: Today, Israel formally accepted an international proposal to return to peace negotiations with the Palestinians, but any immediate resumption of talks appeared unlikely as the Israelis and Palestinians differed sharply over the letter and spirit of the proposal.

2012(16thof Tishrei, 5733): Second Day of Sukkoth

2012: This evening, Michael Stewart, author of The Gypsy Menace: Populism and the New Anti Gypsy Politics is scheduled to discuss treatment of Europe’s largest minority at the Wiener Library in London.

2012:Vandals attacked the Franciscan convent on Jerusalem’s Mount Zion early this morning, spray-painting it with anti- Christian graffiti in the third “price tag” attack against a Christian site this year. The vandals painted the words “price tag” and “Jesus is a bastard” on the door of the Franciscan convent, located adjacent to the Dormition Abbey cathedral.

2012: Funeral services for the late Stephen O. Frankurt, former President of Young & Rubicon will be held today

2012: “Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, Julius Berman, Colette Avital and Rafi Eitan were among those who spoke at the funeral of Holocaust survivor and Israeli economist Moshe Sanbar which was held at the Kiryat Shaul Cemetery today.

2012: Five people, including Likud activist Moshe Feiglin, were arrested for a confrontation on the Temple Mount this morning during Feiglin’s monthly trip to Judaism’s holiest site. Towards the end of Feiglin’s visit, a group of Muslims surrounded the Jewish worshippers and started yelling “Alalu Akbar.”

2012: Friends and Family will celebrate the birthday of Barb Feller today in Cedar Rapids, where her many accomplishments include being a Hebrew teach par excellence.

2013: In the UK, the Wiener Library is scheduled to host Bernd Koschland who will share his experiences of the Kindertransport, the humanitarian effort that brought 10,000 persecuted children to the UK from Europe in 1938-39.

2013: The Greater Washington Area Chapter of Hadassah is scheduled to host its Special Gifts Dinner this event at Woodmont Country Club.

2013: In a commemoration marking the 40th anniversary of the Yom Kippur a screening of “The Battle Over the Soul” followed “by a conversation with Dan Almagor, the producer and a soldier at the battle of ‘Tel Saki’ is scheduled to take place at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue.

2013: In Cedar Rapids, IA, Temple Judah is scheduled to host the Hadassah Book Club which will discuss The List by Martin Fletcher.

2013: In Budapest, the Conference on Jewish Life and Anti-Semitism in Contemporary Europe came to an end.

2013: “Poverty is the greatest menace to the Middle East, overtaking terrorism and conventional wars, Israeli President Shimon Peres told the Dutch parliament in a speech today.”

2013: “Finance Minister Yair Lapid y0day harshly condemned Israeli citizens who emigrate to improve their standard of living, saying he had “no patience” for people who leave the Jewish state behind for reasons of convenience.”

2013(28th of Tishrei, 5774): Ninety-four year old “Abraham Nemeth, the creator of a Braille Code for math” passed away today. (As reported by William Yardley)

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/07/us/abraham-nemeth-creator-of-a-braille-code-for-math-is-dead-at-94.html?hpw

2013: Based the media coverage, the most important Jew in the world today is fashion designer Marc Jacobs who announced that “he is leaving Louis Vuitton after 16 years to concentrate on his namesake line”

2014: The Kaufman Music Center is scheduled to host “An Evening with Paul Reiser.”

2014: In an interview published today IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said “Israel achieved a decisive victory in this summer’s hostilities with Hamas, but maintaining a long-term ceasefire depends on improving the day-to-day conditions and economic conditions of Gaza residents.” (As reported by Gavriel Fiske)

2014: In an attempt to avoid armed clashes, a closure of the West Bank begins as ll:59 p.m. today (JTA)

2014: France joined the United States in condemning a plan to buid over two thousand new homes in east Jerusalem, thus worsening a pseudo –crisis created by Prime Minister Netanyahu who successfully shifted attention away from what he claimed was a primary security concern  i.e. keeping Iran from developing nuclear capability.

2015: Lewis Black is scheduled to perform at the Belle Mehus Auditorium in Bismarck, ND.

2015: Today, Spain approved the granting of “citizenship to 4,302 people who identified themselves as descendants of Sephardic Jews.”

2015: “Congo Beat the Drum,” a documentary about “two musicians from Tel Aviv who travel to Jamaica to record an album with forgotten reggae artists from the past” is scheduled to be shown at the Bushwick Film Festival.

2015: Erev Shabbat, Border Policemen shot a young Palestinian Arab man in the leg in the Issawiya neighborhood of Jerusalem, after he approached them with a firebomb in his hand and tried to throw it at them.

2015: As part of the International Balloon Festival, balloons are scheduled to be launched “early this morning from Eshkol Park in the northern Negev region.

2015: “Over 200 Palestinian Arabs waited for police forces at Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem this afternoon, throwing rocks and firebombs and burning tires at the Jewish holy site.”

2015: All decent people throughout the world mourn the deaths of Eitam and Haama Henkin who were murdered when terrorists opened fire on their car in which they were traveling with four of their children in an attack which Hamas praised as “heroic” followed by a call for “more high-quality attacks.”

2015: “As Syria Reels, Israel Looks to Expand Settlements in Golan Heights” published today described the changing face of Israel’s northern border.”

2015: Thousands attended the funeral in Jerusalem this morning for Eitam and Naama Henkin, who were killed in a shooting attack in their car near the settlement of Itamar yesterday evening during which nine year old Matan said Kaddish for his parents 

2016(29thof Elul, 5776): Eighty three year old Brooklyn born director and producer Gordon Davidson who transformed the theatrical scene in Los Angeles passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/04/theater/gordon-davidson-dead.html?_r=1

http://www.timesofisrael.com/gordon-davidson-moses-of-las-theater-scene-dies-at-83/                                                                                                                                                                                                                              2016: The first show of the seventh season of “Shameless” starring Emmy Rossum is scheduled to be broadcast tonight.

2016: In Moscow, police said they had arrested “a 40-year old man” who had stabbed a security a guard during an attack at the central synagogue.

2016: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Iran Wars: Spy Games, Bank Battles, and the Secret Deals That Reshaped the Middle East by Jay Solomon, The Fix: How Nations Survive and Thrive in a World in Decline by Jonathan Tepperman and Little Nothing by Marisa Silver

2016(29thof Elul, 5776): Erev Rosh Hashanah

שנה טובה, כתיבה וחתימה טובה.

2017:

2107: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host the last screening “The Exception” a film that tells the tale of a Nazi officer sent guard Kaiser Wilhelm II after the start of WW II.

2017: The Brooklyn Institute for Social Research and the Center for Jewish History are scheduled to host the final session of “Proust in Time: Sawnn’s Way” that examines Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time.

2018:This evening the Illinois Museum and Education Center to host “cast members from the Victory Gardens Theatre production performing selections from Paula Vogel’s play ‘Indecent’” after which they will “discuss the responsibility of the artist in times of injustice, oppression and censorship.”

2018: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a Simchat Torah lunch today.

2018(23rd of Tishrei, 5779): Simchat Torah

2018: Today, Jason Kander, who had voluntarily served in Afghanistan dropped out of the race for Mayor of Kansas City, “citing symptoms of PTSD and depression.

2018: Having released the music video for “All of Tears” at the end of September, Z Berg released the single “on music platforms” today.

2019: The opening celebration for the exhibition “The Art of Exile: Paintings by German-Jewish Refugees presented by LBI is schedule to take place today.

2019: In New York, the School of Visual Arts is scheduled to host an “evening celebrating the 60th anniversary of ‘The Twilight Zone,’ the seminal show” of Jewish born convert to Unitarianism Rod Serling.

2019: In Mill Valley, CA, the Outdoor Art Club is scheduled to host Tffany Shalin, “the San Francisco based Jewish author who will discuss her new book, 24/6: The Power of Unplugging.”

2019(3rd of Tishrei, 5779): Fast of Gedaliah

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2316462/jewish/Tzom-Gedaliah-Fast-Day.htm

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/tzom-gedaliah/

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-fast-of-gedaliah






This Day, October 3, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin

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OCTOBER 3

1189: Coronation of Richard the Lionheart (King Richard I) of England. “All Jews and women are barred from the coronation ceremony, but Jewish representatives are sent anyway with gifts in an effort to curry favor with the new English king. When Jews arrive with gifts, they are attacked, stripped naked, whipped, and thrown out. A rumor spreads that Richard had them killed, which inspires a mob in London to launch a massacre. They move on the Jewish quarter where they burn down houses, beat the Jews, and burn them alive. Some are forced to accept baptism.”


1210: John of Brienne, a penniless count who managed to wed Mary, Queen of the Crusader State of Jerusalem, is crowned King of Jerusalem. When the newly crowned king visited Acre “he was greeted by members of the Frankish and Greek communities and by members of the Jewish community holding up a Torah scroll.”  What should we make of this strange sounding behavior? Judah al-Harizi described the Jews of Acre as being ignoramuses “despite the fact that three hundred rabbis from France and England had settled there. Al Harizi was one of the last great figures of the Golden Age of Spain and was considered a noted scholar, poet and translator who gained additional fame for his visits to various Jewish communities.


1335:Levi ben Gershon, who is better known by his Latinized name as Gersonides or the abbreviation of first letters as RaLBaG Levi observed an eclipse of the moon today.He described a geometrical model for the motion of the Moon and made other astronomical observations of the Moon, Sun and planets using a camera obscura. Some of his beliefs were well wide of the truth, such as his belief that the Milky Way was on the sphere of the fixed stars and shines by the reflected light of the Sun. Gersonides was also the earliest known mathematician to have used the technique of mathematical induction in a systematic and self-conscious fashion and anticipated Galileo’s error theory. The lunar crater Rabbi Levi is named after him.


1430: The Jews were expelled from Eger, Bohemia

1508: “Rabbi Don Yitzhak Abravanel passed away. Born in 1437, he was a leader during the Golden Age of Spanish Jewry. After having served as treasurer to the king of Portugal, Abravanel became a minister in the court of King. In the Inquisition, an estimated 32,000 Jews were burned at the stake and another 200,000 were expelled from Spain. Rabbi Abrabanel reportedly offered Queen Isabella the astronomical sum of 600,000 crowns to revoke the edict. Abrabanel was unable to prevent the expulsion and was exiled along with his people. Most of his rabbinic writings were composed in his later years when he was free of governmental.” (As reported by Aish)

http://www.aish.com/dijh/Tishrei_29.html

1674: Pope Clement X suspended the Inquisition in Portugal. This came after the New Christian community asked for a more humane treatment from the Portuguese Inquisitional authorities. Many within the New Christian community felt the Portuguese tribunals were based on greed more than sincerity.

1779(23rdof Tishrei, 5540): Simchat Torah

1779: Abraham Aberle ben Eliakum who had passed away on Shabbat was buried interred today at the “Hoxton Old Jewish burial ground.”

1780: Lt. Colonel Franks was acquitted of charges that he had conspired with Benedict Arnold in the traitor’s plan to surrender West Point to the British during the American Revolution. Franks was Jewish, Arnold was not.

1796(1stof Tishrei, 5557): Rosh Hashanah

1796(1stof Tishrei, 5557): Israel Baer Kursheedt spent Rosh Hashanah aboard the Simonhoff, a single- masted American sloop bound for Boston.

1798: Birthdate of Morris Jacob Raphall, a native of Sweden who was educated in Copenhagen and England and who spend the last decades of his life serving as the Rabbi of B'nei Jeshurun congregation in New York City

1794(9thof Tishrei, 5555): As the new United States federal government asserted its power by putting down the Whiskey Rebellion, Jews heard the strains of Kol Nidre on Erev Yom Kippur

1802:Rabbi Chaim of Voluzhin (a village in Lithuania) issued a proclamation to establish a new yeshiva. The Voluzhin Yeshiva eventually became the center of Torah scholarship in Europe, hosting tens of thousands of students who went on to become leaders of the Jewish world. The yeshiva was persecuted ruthlessly by the Czarist government, and in 1892 the government closed the yeshiva. Yet in a deeper sense, Voluzhin survived; most of the thousands of yeshivas today follow the Voluzhin model. The Jewish people are immeasurably enriched, for as Chaim Nachman Bialik once said, a yeshiva is "the creative factory of the Jewish people." 7th of Tishrei 5563 (As reported by Aish)

http://www.aish.com/dijh/Tishrei_7.html

1803: Birthdate of Middlefart, Denmark native Sophie Ballin the wife of David Philipsen.

1805(10thof Tishrei, 5566): Yom Kippur

1817(23rdof Tishrei, 5578): Simchat Torah

1825(21stof Tishrei, 5586): Hoshanah Rabah

1825: In Berlin, the cornerstone was laid for a communal school which would be overseen by Leopold Zunz once it was opened.

1832(9thof Tishrei, 5593): Erev Yom Kippur

1834: “King John of Saxony authorized the Jews to engage in all trades and industries.”

1835(10thof Tishrei, 5596): Yom Kippur

1835: Birthdate of Gerson Vasen, the father of Sarah Vasen, the first Jewish woman doctor in Los Angeles, and the first superintendent and resident physician of Cedars-Sinai Hospital, then known as Kaspare Cohn Hospital. In 1856 he left his native Germany settling first in Philadelphia before moving on to Quincy, Illinois, where he prospered as a dealer in buffalo hides before going into real estate and the investment business.

1836(22ndof Tishrei, 5597): Shmini Atzeret observed for the last time during the Presidency of Andrew Jackson.

1838: Birthdate of Hagenbach, Germany native Johanna Baruch (nee Lamle)

1839: In Swansea, Wales, Hebrew teach Barnett Abrahams who later became a cantor in Manchester and his second wife Hannah gave birth Louis Barnett, “the headmaster of the Jews’ Free School in London” and a contributor to such publications as   The Jewish Chronicle and The Jewish Encyclopedia who was the husband of Fannie Rosetta Mosley with whom he had two sons including “Bertram Louis Abrahams, a physician, member of the Royal College of Surgeons, and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.”

1839(25th of Tishrei, 5600): Moses Schreiber who is known as Moses Sofer passed away at Bratislava. A distinguished Orthodox rabbi he was the author of Chasam Soferand a leading defender of tradition against the onslaught of the Enlightenment and Reform Judaism.

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/moses-sofer/

https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Sofer_Mosheh

https://www.sefaria.org/person/Moses%20Sofer

1840: In London, Sarah Hurwitz and Reuben Salomons gave birth to Albert Lionel Salomons

1841: In St. Louis, Missouri, United Hebrew Congregation was formed making it the first Jewish assemblage in the city’s history. The congregation was also known as the Polish Congregation and it was a strictly an Orthodox congregation.  The congregation first met in a rented room at Broadway and Locust. Later, it moved to the Masonic Hall on First and Market Streets. One of the initial purposes for forming the congregation was the establishment of a cemetery.

1842: In Reckendorf, Bavaria, Wolf Hellman, a master weaver and his wife the former Sara Fleischmann gave birth to Isaias Wolf Hellman the successful banker who helped to found the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/towers-of-gold-how-one-jewish-immigrant-named-isaias-hellman-created-california

1843(9th of Tishrei, 5604): Erev Yom Kippur

1853(1stof Tishrei, 5614): As hostilities break out between the British, French and Turks on one side and the Russians on the other in what became the Crimean War, Jews observe Rosh Hashanah

1853: Birthdate of Bohemian native Maurice Weidenthal, the Cleveland journalist who was a reported for the Cleveland Herald, a dramatic critic and editorial writer for Cleveland Press, founder of the Jewish Independent and city editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the leader of a crusade against production of the Merchant of Venice in public schools because “he believed it created prejudice against Jews.”

1858: The funeral of Mrs. Raphall, the wife of Rabbi Morris Raphall is scheduled to be held this morning at 10 am in New York City.

1858: In Uhrichsville, Ohio, German born American attorney Simon Wolf and his wife gave birth Florence Wolf who married Frederick Gotthold which meant that she gained fame painter Florence Wolf Gotthold who most famous work was “A Venetian Lady.”

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_Venetian_Lady_by_Florence_W._Gotthold.jpg

1858: One day after he had passed away, 35 year old Solomon Nathan was buried at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”

1862(9th of Tishrei, 5623): Erev Yom Kippur

1862: One day after she had passed away, 48 year Rachel Leah Isaacs (nee Cohen), the wife Is Israel Loley Isaacs with whom she had eight children was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”

1862: During the U.S. Civil War, Union forces including Jewish soldiers from Indiana and Southern forces including Jewish soldiers from Mississippi clashed at the start of the Battle of Corinth.

1864(3rdof Tishrei, 5625): Tzom Gedaliah

1864: Frédéric Emile Baron d'Erlanger, married the American Marguérite Mathilde Slidell. She was the daughter of John Slidell, the Louisiana politician and businessman who served as the Confederacy’s diplomatic representative to France under Emperor Napoleon Ill. He was a German born banker. Erlanger along with his partner Cie, were the Jewish bankers who headed what some claim was the most distinguished banking house in France.  The marriage, which some said showed the financial desperation of Slidell and his fellow Confederates did not last.  But this would not bring an end of Erlanger’s connection to the United States business community. This was not the first time that a Jew had joined Slidell’s family.  August Belmont had married Slidell’s niece, Caroline Perry, in 1849.

1864: A party British Royal Engineers arrived in Jerusalem where they were to begin the first modern survey on this ancient city.

1865: In Buffalo, NY, the members of Temple Beth El held a business meeting today “where it was decided to purchase some cuspidor,”  to re-electe President Hyman and Vice President Silberberg and to have Max Grodzinsky and his son  serve the congregation as Cantor and Torah readers, respectively, for the holidays, but without pay.”

1866: "Mexican Affairs: The Ex-President of Mexico and a Bohemian Jew" published today claims that Santa Ana, the former President of Mexico has been forced to leave his house on 48th street due to financial problems and move in with a Hungarian Jew named Naphegyi who is living on Staten Island.  The article describes Naphegyi as a con-man who among other things misrepresented himself as the secretary to Louis Kossuth, the great Hungarian patriot.  Other sources describe him as Dr. Gabor Naphegyi who served as Santa Anna's attorney and who wrote The Album of Language, History of Hungary and Among the Arabs: A Narrative of Adventure In Algeria published in 1868.

1866: In New York, a jury awarded a Jewess named Nanna Solomon five hundred dollars in damages after hearing the case she brought against a Jew named Bernhard Brown for a breach of promise of marriage.  She had sought ten thousand dollars in damages.

1867: In Albany, GA, Charles and Johanna Wessolowsky gave birth to Emma Wessolowsky Menko

1869: H. A. Henry of London who had been serving as Rabbi of Sherith Israel since September 1, 1857 “was retired today on a full pension.

1869: Birthdate of Danzig native Alfred Flatow, the gymnast who helped Germany win Gold Medals at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens – an achievement that did not keep him from dying at Theresienstadt.

1871: Prussian leader Otto Von Bismarck accepts a “compromise” amending the Treaty of Berlin which diluted the commitment of the European powers to improving the plight of the Rumanian Jews.

1872(1stof Tishrei, 5633): Rosh Hashanah

1872: Rabbis Friedman and Rozensweig of New York City officiated at Rosh Hashanah services held in Coopers Hall in Jersey City, New Jersey.

1872: Rabbi Falk Vidaver is scheduled to deliver the sermon at the 34h Street Synagogue in New York City.

1872: Rabbi S. M. Isaacs is scheduled to deliver the sermon at the 44thStreet Synagogue in New York City.

1872: Rabbi Samuel Adler is scheduled to give a sermon in German Temple Emanu-El on 5thAvenue in New York City.

1872: Rabbi David Einhorn is scheduled to deliver a sermon at Adath Israel, a Reform congregation West 39th Street in New York City.

1872: Rabbi J.S. Noot is scheduled to deliver the sermon at the Stanton Street Synagogue on New York’s Lower East Side.

1872: Rabbi Milziner is scheduled to deliver the sermon at the Norfolk Street Synagogue.

1874(22ndof Tishrei, 5635): Shemini Atzeret

1875(4th of Tishrei, 5636):Tzom Gedaliah

1875: Under the leadership of Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, in Cincinnati, “the Hebrew Union College opened its doors for the reception of students, four of whom were ordained eight years later.

1875: It was reported today that one Jew has been burned alive in Baghdad.  The Jews have been accused of blasphemy which was the excuse for mobs to attack them.

1875: It was reported today that the Jewish Messenger, a Jewish publication, has called for free synagogues to be established in New York to meet the needs of the poor who cannot pay the admission fee of one dollar charged by some congregations.

1876(15thof Tishrei, 5637): As American Jews join their fellow citizens in celebrating the country’s Centennial, Jews also observe Sukkoth

1878: The Chamber of Commerce met in New York City today.  Mr. Hentz, Chairman of the Southern Relief Committee which was responsible for sending aid to those dealing with the Yellow Fever Epidemic reported that among the charities in New Orleans receiving funds were the Hebrew Benevolent Association ($2,000), Hebrew Widow and Orphan Society ($500) and Turo Infirmary ($1,000). The Hebrew Benevolent Association in Memphis received $1,000 while the Hebrew Benevolent Association in Vicksburg received $750.

1881(10thof Tishrei, 5642): The observance of Yom Kippur takes on an additional sense poignancy for American Jews as the nation continues to mourn the death of President James A. Garfield.

1882: “Insanity In Italy” published reported that “the growth of insanity in Italy continues to be a serious cause of alarm.” After describing the growing number of people who have been institutionalized and other signs of the problem, the study finds one bright spot.  “The Jews do not become insane.  They are active and intelligent, and are rapidly gaining that influential position the Jewish race rarely fails to achieve in any community where no distinction is made between Jews and Gentiles, but they rarely see the interior of an insane asylum.  One of the reasons for this is that “the Jew clings to his ancient faith. He is not disturbed by any new philosophy, and is troubled by no doubts as to the truth of his religion.”

1883(2ndof Tishrei, 5644): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah

1883: “The Jewish New Year’s Day” published today attributed “the depressing dullness of the stock market” yesterday to the fact that it was the Jewish New Year, “a holiday…observed by nearly all of the” Jewish “members of the Stock Exchange.”  The Jewish member of the exchange “constitute a large and important element in Wall Street” and “their absence naturally made some difference with the amount of business done.”

1883: Birthdate of Russian native Hirsch “Harry Sadowsky” the American physician and the husband of Gloria Sadowsky

1884: Birthdate of New York native and graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University Dr. David John Kaliski, the husband of Kate Mountjoy Kaliski.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/08/22/83228186.pdf

1886(4thof Tishrei, 5647): Tzom Gedaliah observed since 3rd of Tishrei fell on Shabbat

1886: In Louisville, KY, “Jennie and Alfred S. Brandeis” gave birth to Amy Brandeis, who became Amy McCreary when she married William Harold McCreary with whom she had two children – Alfred and William.

1886(4thof Tishrei, 5647): Max Aronson “who keeps a little grocery store…on Hester Street” passed away today at 3:30 pm as a result of wounds inflicted when police beat him and then refused to have treated while he was in their custody.

1887(15thof Tishrei, 5648): Sukkoth

1887: “Hebrew Liberality” published today described the successful Yom Kippur drive which collected $75,000 for Jewish charities in Philadelphia and was raised from individual contributions one of the largest of which came from Meyer Guggenheim of Keneseth Israel who donated $1,000.

1888: Over 6,000 costumes that had belonged to the “Hebrew theatrical company which occupied the old National Theatre on the Bowery” and were valued at $35,000 were sold at auction today.

1888(28thof Tishrei, 5649): Sixty-two year old Alfred T. Jones, who served as the editor the Jewish Record from 1875 to 1886 “and the staunchest ally of the Russian immigrants in Philadelphia” as well as the rest of the United States passed away today.

1889(8thof Tishrei, 5650): Early this morning in New Orleans, Joseph M. Marcus, a young Jewish merchant and a silent partner in one of the gambling house that the Mayor has ordered closed shot himself in front of the main entrance to the Orleans Parish Prison.  (In Louisiana, “Parish” corresponds to a country in the rest of the United States.

1889: Four days after he had passed away, 57 year old Simeon Sampson, the son of Levi and Sarah Sampson and husband of the former Rosa Jordan Marsden with whom he had eight children, was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1889: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi David Levy officiated at the wedding of Blanche and Herman Leidloff.

1889: In Hamburg, Germany, and Rosalie (née Pratzka) and Carl Ignatius von Ossietzky gave birth to Carl von Ossietzky who won the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize for exposing Germany’s re-armament – an accomplishment for which he was arrested by the Nazi and imprisoned before dying prematurely.

1891(1stof Tishrei, 5652): On the day before the American Association plays its last game of the baseball season, Jews observe Rosh Hashanah

1891: High Holiday services were held “at the new synagogue Temple Beth-El on 5thAvenue and Shearith Israel on West 19th Street which was reopened for worship.”

1891: Rabbi Mendelsohn conducted services for the first time at the new congregation formed at Long Island City which were attended by forty people.

1891: In Rochester, NY, Rabbi Max Landsberg delivered a sermon at Temple Beirth Kodesh based on the text “Hitherto the Eternal has helped us.”

1891. This evening, the Society of Hebrew Charities gave a “Kosher” dinner to 200 Russian Jews who have not been allowed to enter the United States.  Moritz Silverstein oversaw the meal which was served on board the transfer barge moored at the Barge Office, the immigrant’s gateway to New York City.

1891: Joseph Barondess, the former leader of the Cloakmakers Union was brought back to New York from Quebec by a member of the Canadian and the bail bondsman who had put up the money to guarantee his appearance.

1891: Mr. Jesse Seligman is scheduled to set sail for Europe aboard the SS Etruria.

1892: As the fires continue to burn for the third day in a row near May’s Landing, New Jersey it is believed it was started by Jews “who were clearing land at one of the new settlements in the area.”

1893(23rdof Tishrei, 5654): Simchat Torah

1893: English vaudevillian David James (born David Belasco in 1839) passed away today leaving a fortune of £41,000 to his synagogue and other Jewish charities

1893: “Ex-court Chaplain Adolf Stocker of Berlin” the “leader of the Jew baiters” arrived in New York where he was met by Pastors Moldenke, Richter, Haas and Berkemeir.”

1894(3rdof Tishrei, 5655): Tzom Gedaliah

1894: The dismissal of the appeal of Herman Warszawiak, the converted Jew was the first item at today’s monthly meeting of the Presbytery of New York.

1894: It was reported today that circulars accusing Judge David Callahan, the candidate for the State Senate in Connecticut had ruled in favor of an Irish defendant in a case where the complainant was Jewish because of his religious affiliation have been “distributed at the Republican Senatorial Convention.”

1895:  It was announced today the Executive Committee of the Central Conference of American Rabbis will meet at the Hebrew Union College on October 7th.

1896: Joseph L. Buttenweiser delivered a lecture on “The Influence of Machinery and Education on Labor” at the Hebrew Technical Institute in New York City.

1896: On Long Island, the sons of two prominent New Yorkers claim that they had not stolen the horse as charged by Jewish dry good peddler Samuel Burnstein but had “found it on the road” as Justice Griffiths continue to hear evidence in the matter.

1896: Birthdate of Lodz native and NYU trained dentist David Tanchester, the husband of the former Ida Lazarus and the father of Shirley Reiss and Bernard Tanchester.

https://www.nytimes.com/1975/09/08/archives/dr-david-tanchester-innovator-in-hospital-dentistry-dies-at-78.html

1897: Birthdate of New York native and hide and leather merchant Charles Alphonse Weil who in June of  1922 along with his brother both of whom were part of Alphonse Weil and Brothers. visited New England “in the company of Charles Dreyfus of the company’s Boston Office

1897: In San Francisco, Hilda and Marcus “Mark” Lewis Gerstle gave birth to Mark Lewis Gerstle, Jr. the twice married father of Marcia, Cynthia and Mark Lewis Gerstle.

1898: Private Albert E. Brown of New Orleans, Quartermaster Sergeant Isaac Kuhn of Monroe, Private H.O. Stein of Houston, TX, Musician Nathan Kroenberger of Shreveport and 1st Lieutenant H.M. Marks were among the members of the 1st Louisiana Volunteer Infantry mustered out of service today.

1898: Twenty-five year old Charles Koransky, the son of well-to-do merchant Joseph Koransky, who was suffering from consumption took a room at a hotel on Stanton Street owned by Abraham Solomon after having been forced to leave the hospital on Blackwell’s Island because he was Jewish.

1898: “New Rabbi for a Brooklyn Temple” published today described the installation ceremony of Leon M. Nelson the 23 year old Virginian and valedictorian of his class at the Hebrew Union College who is the new rabbi for Brooklyn’s Temple Israel.

1898: In Chicago, Rabbi Regoff and Master of Ceremonies David Kallis conducted a jubilee service of thanksgiving at Anshe Knesset Israel celebrating the victories of Admiral Dewey during the Spanish-American War.

1898: “Hebrew Infant Asylum” published today described the open house held at the new facility at 161st Street and Eagle House where visitors were greeted by Asylum President, Mrs. Ester Wallenstein and the Chair of the Board of Lady Managers, Mrs. E.L. Riecer.

1898:Herzl addresses a mass meeting in London, arranged by the B'nai Zion Association. Herzl speaks in German. A witness reports: "The souls of the people were in the hand of this man, and with the breath of his voice, which seldom rose above a low tone, he could do with them whatever he liked."

1899: In Egypt, an earthquake at Karnak, led to Gaston Maspero, the French Jew who was a leading Egyptologist and director general of the department of antiquities, to “set up a team of workmen” to work on reconstruction of the ruins in direct opposition to the Romantics “who wished to see the ruins left as they are.”

1899: In East Harlem, NYC Jacob and Diana Edelstein gave birth to Tillie Edelstein who gained fame as Gertrude Berg best known for her role as Molly Berg on “The Goldbergs” where she portrayed the matriarch of the Jewish apartment dwellers living in Brooklyn.  Long before Seinfeld, Berg proved that America could enjoy New York Jewish humor.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9C0DE6DC143BE63ABC4D52DFBF66838D679EDE

http://www.mollygoldbergfilm.org/gertrude.php



1900(10th of Tishrei, 5661): Yom Kippur

1900: It is reported that today "the Day of Atonement is one of prayer and fasting” which will be followed in “four days” by “the Feast of Succoth or Tabernacles.”

1902(2nd of Tishrei, 5663): Second Day of Rosh Hashana

1902: In Kovno, “Reb Refael Alter Shmulevitz and his wife, Ettel, the daughter of Reb Yoseif Yoizel Horowitz” gave birth to “Rabbi Chaim Leib Shumlevitz.”

http://www.eilatgordinlevitan.com/kovno/kovno_pages/kovno_stories_shmulevitz.html

1903: The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that in New Jersey the “Camden Hebrews are completing negotiations for the purchase of ground at Fifth and Spruce streets with object of erecting a synagogue.”

1903: Dorothy Levitt competed in the final heat of the Southport Speed Trials “shocking British society as she was the first English woman, a working secretary, to compete in a motor race.” (How much more would they have been shocked if they had known she was a Sephardic Jew whose family name had been Levi before her father Anglicized it to Levitt

1903: At Cooper Union. Professor Richard Gottheil and Mr. C. L. Sulzberger, who were delegates to the Sixth International Zionist Congress at Basle at scheduled to address a meeting organized by the Zionist Council of Great New York.

1903: Austrian philosopher Otto Weininger “took a room in the house in Schwarzspanierstraße 15 where Ludwig van Beethoven died. He told the landlady that he was not to be disturbed before morning since he planned to work and then to go to bed late. This night he wrote two letters, one addressed to his father, the other one to his brother Richard, telling them that he was going to shoot himself.

1908: The first edition of Pravda is published in Vienna.  Its editors include Adolph Joffe, born Adolph Abramovich Joffe and Leon Trotskyborn Lev Davidovich Bronstein.  When anti-Semitism became synonymous with anti-Communism a European rabbi is reported to have quipped when the Trostkys make a revolution, the Bronsteins are the ones who suffer.

1908 (8th of Tishrei, 5669): In Houston Texas Adath Yshurun Shabbat Shuvah services begin at 8 a.m. The sermon for the morning is entitled “Repentance” which is delivered in German.

1908(8thof Tishrei, 5669): Sixty-nine year old Solomon Hirsch Sonneschein, the native of Hungary who served as the rabbi of Congregation Shaare Emeth, St. Louis, Missouri for over 17 years from 1869 to1886” before leaving to form Temple Israel where he served as their senior rabbi for 4 years from 1886 to 1890

1910(29thof Elul, 5670): Erev Rosh Hashanah

1910:Reform congregation Emanu-El dedicated the first synagogue in the Arizona Territory today. This synagogue was designed by Ely Blount and it still stands at 564 South Stone Avenue, although Congregation Emanu-El stopped holding services here in 1949. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places and currently houses the Jewish Heritage Center of the Southwest.

1911: U.S. District Court Judge Hough issues a writ of habeas corpus after reviewing the order of immigration officials who excluded David Perriss and five other Turkish Jewish immigrants who arrived on Ellis Island on September 21.

1911: Discovery of an asteroid which was named 719 Albert in honor of “one of the Imperial Observatory in Vienna’s major benefactors Albert Salomon von Rothschild” who had died in February of 1911.

1912(22nd of Tishrei, 5673): Shmini Atzeret

1912(22nd of Tishrei, 5673): Schimen Dannemann passed away today after which he was buried in the Liepaja Jewish Cemetery.

1912: The Oregonian reported today that in Portland, a meeting of the Council of Jewish Women was “held in the Selling-Hirsch building” where “Dr. Jonah B. Wise, an influential member of the Jewish society in Portland” addressed the attendees who discussed hold an art exhibit was a fundraising even.

1913(2nd of Tishrei, 5674): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah

1913(2nd of Tishrei, 5674): Fourteen year old Sara Prissman passed away today.

1913: “The Blue Mouse,” a silent comedy directed by Max Mack and produced by Jules Greenbaum was released in Germany today.

1914: Today Some 25,000 to 33,000 Canadian troops which probably included an untold number of Jews since “during WW I, 38” of all Jewish males 21 years and over in Canada served in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces” of whom “4.5% won decorations for bravery and distinguished military service” departed for Europe” and the Western Front.

1915: Louis D. Brandeis, Dr. Cyrus Ad.er, Oscar S. Straus and Louis Marshall were among the 25 delegates representing “various Jewish organizations and institutions” who met today “in the Hotel Astor to discuss what steps can best be taken toward obtain for the Jew in belligerent countries their civic and religious rights.”

1915: “Relief for Jewish Sufferers” published today described a meeting of the Executive Committee of the American Jewish Relief Committee for the Sufferers From the War where “in response to urgent appeals from abroad “ it was decided to appropriate “$100,000 for the relief work in Europe.

1916: “Felix M. Warburg, Chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee of the Jewish War Relief Funds in” the United States “addressed an open letter to the Jews of American” today “urging them not to form new collecting agencies for individual funds, as has been proposed in some quarter since the entry of Rumania into the war” urging “that Jews continue in their united effort through the established agencies to remedy the conditions of war sufferers of all the countries at war.”

1916: “Betty” a three act “Edwardian musical comedy with lyrics and music co-authored by Paul Rubens opened at the Globe Theatre in New York.

1917: Today while “denying the appeal of Russell Dunn, a soap-box orator who was sentenced to serve thirty days in the workhouse for disorderly conduct arising out of certain anti-Semitic remarks at an outdorr meeting Judge McIntyre” used the occasion “to praise the patriotism of the Jews whose loyalty he declared was of the highest type.”

1918: In an action for which he would be awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, Sergeant Walter J. Fulda, while under heavy bombardment maintained his field kitchen so that he could feed hot meals to the men of his division.

1918: King Boris III accedes to the throne of Bulgaria which turned out to be a good thing for the Jewish people.  During World War II, Boris refused to cave in to Hitler’s demands to ship his nations 50,000 Jews to Poland.  Boris attempted to work out of deal with the British that would enable him to send the Bulgarian Jews to Palestine.  The plan was blocked by Anthony Eden, Britain’s Foreign Minister. Eventually he would bend and allow 11,000 of the Jews living in territory recently annexed by Bulgaria to be taken.  But the bulk of the Bulgarian Jewish community survived.  Boris died of a heart attack after he had visited Hitler and refused his demand that Bulgaria declare war on the Soviet Union.  There are those, who with good reason, doubt that the Bulgarian monarch’s heart stopped due to natural causes.

1919(9th of Tishrei, 5680): Erev Shabbat and Erev Yom Kippur; Kol Nidre

1919: During the Weimar Republic, Eugen Schiffer began serving as Minister of Justice.

1920: A meeting was held in Mr. Benjamin Natal's law office for the purpose of organizing a new congregation in Camden. NJ. The twenty-five men present included Harry Barroway, Dr. Otto Reiter, Reuben Pinsky and Manny Pearl. Each of the latter four contributed fifteen dollars and the dream became real. Others at that meeting were Louis Cades, Kolman Goldstein, Harry Teitelman, Herman Natal, Louis Berkowitz, Morris Handle and A. I. Rovner.

1920(21st of Tishrei, 5681): Hoshana Raba

1920: In Brooklyn, Temple Beth Elhoim hosted services marking the start of the end of the Feast of Tabernacles this evening.

1921(1st of Tishrei, 5682): Jews celebrate Rosh Hashanah during the Presidency of Warren Harding.

1924: In Brooklyn, David and Edith Kurtzman gave birth to American cartoonist and editor of comic books and magazines Harvey Kurtzman the younger brother of Zachary Kurtman.

1925(15th of Tishrei, 5686): Sukkoth

1926: Birthdate of Sir John Boris Roderick Hazan, the “son of an engineer from Russia” and mother from Poland whose legal career began in 1948 when he was called to the Bar by Lincoln’s Inn and reached its pinnacle when he was appointed to the High Court of Justice, Queen’s Bench Division.

1925: Twenty four year old Hungarian born Samuel Rosenblatt who was ordained after graduating from JTS married Clara Woloch today.

https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/rosenblatt-samuel

1926: In Camden, NJ, Dr. Cyrus Adler was the guest speaker at the farewell dinner hosted by Beth-El Congregation for Rabbi Solomon Grayzel.

1926: The cornerstone for Congregation Beth Israel’s community center will be laid today in Richmond Hill, Long Island, (JTA)

1927: Mordechai Golinkin, conductor of the Palestine Opera and former director of the Petrograd Opera was detained by authorities at Ellis Island when he disembarked from the liner Patria on which he had traveled to the United States from Jaffa.  Mr. Golinkin has come to the United States to raise at least $200,000 for the construction of an opera house in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.

1927: In the waning years of his career middleweight Seymour “Cy” Schindel lost his fourth straight bout today.

1929: Paul J. Sachs, one of the founding members of The Museum of Modern Art, began serving as a Trustee.

1929: Birthdate of Bert Stern, the Brooklynite and the son of “a children’s portrait photographer” whose decade’s long career as a photographer is best remembered for his pictures of Marilyn Monroe. (As reported by Paul Vitello)

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/27/arts/bert-stern-elite-photographer-known-for-images-of-marilyn-monroe-dies-at-83.html

1930: The Brazilian Revolution of 1930 in which 29 year old Waldemar Levy Cardoso, the future Field Marshall of the Brazilian Army took part, began today.

1931(22nd of Tishrei, 5692): Shmini Atzeret and Shabbat

1931: Israel Mattuck delivered a sermon “The Present Crisis and the Future World.”

1931: In Nkana, Simon and Phyllis (Hepker) Lakofski gave birth to Denise Lakofski who gained famed as American architect Denise Scott Brown

1931: Ohio State University, with Sid Gillman playing End defeated Cincinnati in the first game of the season

1931: “Friends and Lovers” co-starring Eric von Stroheim with music by Max Steiner was released in the United States today by RKO Radio Pictures.

1932(3rd of Tishrei, 5693): Tzom Gedaliah observed for the last time during the Presidency of Herbert Hoover.

1933(13th of Tishrei, 5694): Rabbi Eleazer Preil, a native of Kovno who came to the United States in 1910 and served on the faculty of REITS passed away today.

http://www.blankgenealogy.com/histories/Biographies/Jaffe/R'%20Elazar%20Mayer%20Preil%20z_l.pdf

http://yu.edu/riets/about/mission-history/historic-roshei/elazar-meir-preil/

1934: Novelist Peretz Hirschbein’s and his wife gave birth to their son Omus (Amus) in New York where they “lived until 1940, at which point they traveled across the United States and Canada before settling in Los Angeles.”

1934: Birthdate of Marcell David Reich, the native of Antwerp, Belgium who escaped the Holocaust to become on the world’s richest futures traders and an infamous fugitive from the American Justice System who was “sold his freedom” by President Clinton on his last day in office.

1935: Mussolini’s Italian Army invades Abyssinia (Ethiopia).  This first fascist attack on another nation goes virtually unanswered by the international community.  The lack of response strengthens Hitler’s notion that the decadent Western Allies will not stand in his way and thus this seemingly innocuous attack on a defenseless African nation is a major step on the road to World War II and the Final Solution.

1936(17th of Tishrei, 5697): Third day of Sukkot falls on Shabbat

1936: It was reported today that the Maccabees championship soccer team from Tel Aviv “will return to New York for a match with another selected team a week from tomorrow at Ebbets Field.

1936: “The complete eradication of Jewish influence from the legal and economic sciences was held ‘essential to the German people’s vital interests’ by Dr. Hans Frank, Nazi Minister of Jurisprudence in a declaration reading at a gathering of university professors” in Berlin “today.”

1936:  In New York City, June Stillman and Leonard Reich gave birth to composer Steve Reich one of whose best known works is entitled “T’hilim” which is based on Psalms 19, 34, 18 & 150.

1936: It was reported today that Leo Perper who has been with R.H. Macy & Co for the last twenty-five years will succeed Carl Adler as president of the Roger Kent Stores.

1936: “The East End of London was tense with anxiety tonight because Sir Oswald Mosley intends to lead one of his biggest Fascist procession into the heart of the Jewish district in Whitechapel…”

1936: Harry Shorten and his NYU football team lost to Ohio State today.

1937:  Birthdate of Eli Jacobs, former owner of the Baltimore Orioles.

1937: The Palestine Post reported that the Mandatory Government, in consideration of the murder of Mr. L.Y. Andrews and his bodyguard on the steps of the Anglican Church in Nazareth, resolved to take strong steps against Arab terror. It stripped the Jerusalem Mufti, Haj Amin el-Husseini, of all his powers, declared the Arab Higher Committee illegal, and deported five top Arab leaders. Palestine Arabs went on strike, and youngsters poured boiling oil on shopkeepers who refused to close their shops in protest.

1938: In response to yesterday’s slaughter at Tiberius “the National Council of Palestine Jewry and all rabbinates in Palestine declared the cessation of all Jewish labor and closing of all Jewish-owned shops from 2 to 4 this afternoon as a sign of grief and mourning during the funerals of the victims.

1938: “Early this morning a Jewish engine driver was shot dead by an Arab while driving a freight train across the Acre gate level crossing at Haifa.”

1938: The Italian newspaper Tevere praised the Mussolini government for issuing a decree “rescinding the citizenship of all Jews who entered Italy after 1919.

1939: In response to the Nazi invasion of Poland, France, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia declared war on Germany.

1939: “Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg, German ambassador in Moscow, informed Joachim Ribbentrop that the Soviet government was willing to cede the city of Vilnius and its environs” which meant that a vibrant Jewish community of 100,000 people that was “The Jerusalem of Lithuania” would now come under Nazi control.

1939: Mrs. David L. Isaacs is scheduled to address today meeting of the Women’s League for Palestine at the Park Royal Hotel in New York City.

1939: “Hanfstaengl  Is Interred by British as Alien Foe” published today included the ironic report that Ernst “Putzi” Hanfstagengl an early supporter of Hitler and Dr. Bernhard Weiss, the Jewish leader of the Berlin police who lost everything when Hitler came to power were both being interred as “enemy aliens” by Scotland Yard.

1939: In the next step in the Final Solution, the SS executes 26 Jews in the Polish border town of Wieruszow

1940(1stof Tishrei, 5701): Rosh Hashanah

1940: In his sermon today, Rabbi Samuel H. Goldenson of Temple Emanu-El emphasized that “spiritual contributions are more lasting than those which are material of intellectual.” “There is only one time and one circumstance when and under which a spiritual contribution may be said to be completed and that is when the world fully accepts it and lives by it.”

1940: A year after the start of WW II at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, Rabbi David de Sola Pool told congregants that “The call of this crisis to the men of faith is to stand fast, heroically defending their own liberties and their own vision of God, thereby defending for all me liberty and the vision of God”

1940: Rabbi Stephen S. Wise is scheduled to deliver a sermon entitled “Chosen to Serve vs. Choosing to Enslave” this morning at the Free Synagogue in Carnegie Hall.

1940: Rabbi Louis I. Newman is scheduled to deliver a sermon entitled “Things Which Catch Up With Us in Life at Temple Rodeph Sholom.

1940: Rabbi Israel Goldstein is scheduled to deliver a sermon entitled “Spiritual Anchors” at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun.

1940: At Temple Israel in NYC, Rabbi William F. Rosenblum warned “that the next hundred years would be a century of startling conflicts.”

1940: In a sermon “at Central Synagogue Rabbi Jonah B. Wise declared ‘the coming year must teach more and more to curb own power’” working to create a society where “moral power and self-restraint catch up with skill and greed” to create a balanced society.

1940: As the World War spread across Europe, at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, Rabbi David de Sola Pool to worshippers “The call of this crisis to the men of faith is to stand fast, heroically defending their own liberties and their own vision of God, thereby defend for all men liberty and the vision of God.”

1940: At the Jewish Center, Rabbi Leo Jung told worshippers, that “False optimism is an opiate” so “we must resolve to do everything without our power to defend the good there is about us today and to build for the morrow.

1940: Hans and Margret Rey board a ship in Rio and set sail for New York City.

1940: The Warsaw Ghetto was “opened” on this date, which was Rosh Hashanah on the secular calendar.  The Nazis ordered 150,000 Jews to move into the ghetto.

1940: The French government at Vichy adopted the definition of a Jew established in the Nuremberg Laws.  The Vichy government was eager to be part of Hitler’s New Europe and willingly sacrificed Jews living in France to show their loyalty.

1940: Vichy (Occupied) France passes anti-Semitic legislation. Vichy's anti-Jewish laws, the first Statut des Juifs, are modeled on the German Nuremberg Laws, and, like them, are widely accepted. Passed in anticipation of Nazi pressure, the laws' primary aims are to force Jews out of public service, teaching, financial occupations, public relations, and the media.

1940: During the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe began large-scale night bombings of London that were intended to break of the morale of the English people and force them to sue for peace which would have brought the Shoah to the United Kingdom.

1940: In Vichy, regulations were adopted excluding Jews from the army, the press, commercial jobs, industrial jobs, government jobs and any activity related to buying or selling a company.

1941: Nazi's blow up 6 synagogues in Paris

1941: Today Paleontologist Dr. Jay Gould married his first wife Deborah Lee, with whom he “had two sons, Jesse and Ethan.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/21/us/stephen-jay-gould-60-is-dead-enlivened-evolutionary-theory.html?mcubz=0

1941:  All elderly Jewish men of Kerenchug Ukraine, are killed by SS 

1942(22nd of Tishrei, 5703): Shmini Atzeret

1942(22nd of Tishrei, 5703): At the Treblinka death camp, Jews from Zelechów, Poland, are murdered.

1942: A doctor working at Auschwitz entered in his diary the following for this date, “Today I preserved fresh material from the human liver, spleen and pancreas, also lice from persons infected with typhus. The medical experiments continue.”

1943(4th of Tishrei, 5704): Tzom Gedaliah

1943(4th of Tishrei, 5704): On a routine barracks inspection at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, an SS doctor decides that 139 inmates are unfit to work. These inmates are promptly gassed.

1943: In Swinemunde, approximately 200 Danish Jews who were not able to escape to Sweden “were driven into two cattle cars by their Nazi captors.

1944: The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who was living in Berlin, wrote to Heinrich Himmler proposing the establishment of an Arab-Islamic Army in Germany.

1944: Roland Lorent, a member of the anti-Nazi Ehrenfeld Group was arrested by the police today

1945: According to reports coming from Cairo, “British warships cruised off the coast of Palestine and air force units patrolled the skies today to prevent the illegal entry of Jews into Palestine.”

1945: During a press conference in Cairo, Claude Pepper, the U.S. Senator from Florida said “that the Palestine problem should be settled by an international organization.” This stance put him at odds with the government of Iraq which issued a statement tonight that said only the Arabs had the right to determine who should be allowed to settle and live in Palestine.

1947(19thof Tishrei, 5708): Fifth day of Sukkoth

1947(19thof Tishrei, 5708): Seventy-three year old Slabetz, Bohemia, native Karl Schenk, who in 1893 came to the United States where “he organized the American Union Bank in 1917,” organized the Trade Bank and Trust Company five years later” while serving as a director for several organization including the Jewish Memorial Hospital while “two sons, Henry and Monroe” with his wife Sophie passed away today.


1947: New York City begins its observance of Fire Prevention Week.  One of the highlights of the week’s celebration “will be the presentation of a reconditioned pumping engine to the Tel Aviv volunteer fire brigade at city hall.”

1948(29thof Elul, 5708): Erev Rosh Hashanah

1948: A company of the 1st Battalion commanded by Assaf Simchoni took action against an Arab gang in Kaft Kanna on the Tiberias-Nazareth Road.  The village had become a center for Arab gangs who were waging attacks on Jews in the Lower Galilee and the Zevulum Valley.

1948: In Philadelphia, PA, the former Renate Hirsch and David Bernard Medved gave birth to talk show and critic Michael Medved.

http://www.michaelmedved.com/

1948: The comedy team of Martin and Lewis (Jerry Lewis) made on of their first appearances on live television when they performed on NBC’s “Welcome Aboard.

1949: Yitzhak Gruenbaum completes his term as Israelis first Minister of Interior.

1949(10th of Tishrei, 5710): Yom Kippur

1949:Haim-Moshe Shapira begins serving as Israel’s second Minister of Interior

1949: On Long Island, NY, Dorothy "Dottie", a housewife, and Samuel Ira "Sam" Simmons, a dentist gave birth to photographer Laurie Simmons.

http://www.lauriesimmons.net/

1949: Today in New York, Sadie Altman, the daughter of Sophie and Hyman Davis and her husband Morris “Murray” Altman gave birth to Robert Kip Altman

1950(22ndof Tishrei, 5711): Shimini Atzeret

1950: “Can You Top This” which had been a successful radio show was broadcast for the first time on ABC featuring cartoonist Harry Hershfield as one of the three panelists.

1951: NBC radio broadcast the first episode of “Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator” directed by Himan Brown.

1951: Sixty-nine year old John D. Whiting passed away in Jerusalem.

http://www.israeldailypicture.com/2013/06/a-photo-diary-from-palestine-1936-by.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IsraelsHistory-APictureADaybeta+%28Israel%27s+History+-+a+Picture+a+Day+%28Beta%29%29

1952(14th of Tishrei, 5713): Erev Sukkot

1952(14thof Tishrei, 5713): Seventy-eight year old Zevulun "Zavel" Kwartin a Ukrainian born American chazzan who was the grandfather of American opera singer Evelyn Lear passed away today.

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported at length on the visit of an official Burmese delegation, a welcome sign of improved relations with other East Asian countries.  In attempt to break out of the diplomatic isolation that the Arabs and their supports sought to impose on the Jewish state, Israel worked to develop positive relations with small nations of Asia and Africa as they gained their independence from the European powers.  These nations saw Israel as a source of western technology and other such technical aid without the threat of being drawn into the Cold War.  This policy was successful until the Arab Oil Embargo.

1953(24th of Tishrei, 5714):Florence Rena Sabin an American medical scientist passed away. She was a pioneer for women in science; she was the first woman to hold a full professorship at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the first woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences, and the first woman to head a department at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. In her retirement years, she pursued a second career as a public health activist in Colorado, and in 1951 received a Lasker Award for this work.

1953: Sixty-nine year old Sir Arnold Bax, the composer who carried pm a forty-year long “love affair” pianist Harriet Cohen who worked to rescue Jews from Europe passed away today bequeathing to her “half of his interest from his literary and musical compositions to Cohen for life.”

1955(17thof Tishrei, 5716): Sukkoth (3) Chol Hamoed

1955(17thof Tishrei, 5716): Sixty-two year old Major General Julius Ochs Adler passed away. (There are some who say that he died on October 2 but his tombstone clearly shows October 3)

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/jadler.htm

http://www.jta.org/1955/10/04/archive/maj-gen-julius-ochs-adler-dies-in-new-york-served-in-both-world-wars

1956: In Perth, Australia, composer George Dreyfus, a refugee from Nazi Germany and his wife gave birth to Australian political leader Mark Alfred Dreyfus.

1957: In London, world premiere of “Robbery Under Arms” produced by Joseph Janni.

1957: “Les Girls” a musical directed by George Cukor and produced by Sol C. Siegel was released in the United States today by MGM.

1957(8thof Tishrei, 5718): Fifty-four year old Arthur “Artie” Auerbach, the photographer turned comedian who gained fame as “Mr. Kitzel” passed away today.

http://jack-benny.livejournal.com/13817.html

1958(19thof Tishrei, 5719): Chol Hamoed Sukkoth

1958(19thof Tishrei, 5719): Eighty-four year old “David Nunes Nabarro, who was the first Director of the Pathological Department of the Hospital for Sick Children in London” passed away today.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC479864/pdf/jclinpath00048-0102.pdf



1959(1stof Tishrei, 5720): The shofar is not sounded on Rosh Hashanah because it is Shabbat.

1959(1stof Tishrei, 5720): A shepherd from Kibbutz Heftziba was killed near Kibbutz Yad Hana.

1959(1stof Tishrei, 5720): Eighty-one year old New York born surgeon, Henry Kalvin, the husband of Pauline Kalvin and the father of Joseph Kalvin “who served as a physician in the Army induction center at Grand Central Station” and “whose hobby was capture wild animals with a lariat” passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/10/05/80554814.pdf

1960: New York City's independent, WNTA Channel 13 broadcast a segment of “The Dybbuk” directed by Sidney Lumet today.

1961(15thof Tishrei, 5724): Sukkoth

1962: After premiering at Cannes in 1961, “The Connection,” the film version of the play written by Jack Gelber opened in New York City.

1962: The Broadway production of Anthony Newley’s “Stop the World – I Want to Get Off produced by David Merrick” opened at the Schubert Theatre.

1964: “Cheyenne Autumn” a movie based on The Last Frontier by Howard Fast co-starring Carroll Baker and Edward G. Robinson was released today in the United States.

1965: “Bunny Lake is Missing” a thriller directed and produced by Otto Preminger and featuring Lucie Mannheim was released in the United States today.

1965: “Repulsion,” a horror film produced by Gene Gutowski and directed by Roman Polanski who also co-authored the script was released in the United States today.

1965: Sophie Tucker performed "Give My Regards to Broadway", "Louise", and her signature song, "Some Of These Days” on the Ed Sullivan Show this evening in what would be “her last television appearance.”

1965: As Jews observed the Ten Days of Penitence between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, “Israelis were reminded by slogan-carrying buses and sound trucks that a general election was only one month away.

1967(28thof Elul, 5727): Seventy-four year old Hemda Diskin, the Petah Tikva born “daughter of Moshe Dov Bear Margalit and Taube (Yona) Margalit” and the wife off Israel Diskin with whom she had four children passed away today after which she was buried in her “home town.”

1967: Famed folk singer and composer Woody Guthrie passed away. The Oklahoma native moved to New York in 1940 where he met and married a Jewish dancer named Marjorie Mazia. Only recently have many people become aware of the impact that Mazia and her mother, the author and Yiddish poet Aliza Greenblatt, had on his works.  The Klezmatics and Woody’s son, Arlo Guthrie have recorded several of the songs from this period in Woody’s life.


1968: After premiering “at the Arena Stage in December of 1967,” “The Great White” written by Howard Sackler opened on Broadway where it would run for “546 performances.”


1973: Birthdate of Canadian actress Neve Adrianne Campbell, the descendant of Sephardic Jews who converted to Catholicism who says, "I am a practicing Catholic, but my lineage is Jewish, so if someone asks me if I'm Jewish, I say yes". (I’ll let you sort this one out


1973: After having submitted an initial report on December 1, Lieutenant Binyamin Siman-Tov, a research for Aman (The Directorate of Military Intelligence) prepared an “even more comprehensive assessment” along the Suez Canal in which he warned that the Egyptians were preparing for a cross-canal attack – a warning that was dismissed out of hand by his superiors.


1973: At a meeting with Golda Meir and several of her senior advisers, Moshe Dayan said that recent Egyptian and Syrian military concentrations on the Suez Canal and Golan Heights were ‘unusual’ but left no impressions that war was imminent. (This has to be one of the greatest errors in judgment in history (not just Jewish history) since the Yom Kippur War would begin three days later with Egyptian forces crossing the Suez Canal.)

1974: Refusniks “Shimon Grillius and Oleg Frolov were released from Perm camp 36 after serving five year sentences.”

1976(9th of Tishrei, 5737): Erev Yom Kippur; Kol Nidre

1977(21stof Tishrei, 5738) Hoshanah Rabbah

1977: “A bomb, placed by unknown assailants’ exploded at the doorstep of the home of Stanford Shaw the academic whose field of expertise included the history of the Jews of Turkey.

1977:The Jerusalem Post reported that 30 Gush Emunim members moved into Camp Shomron, the first of six such settlements approved by the cabinet, all of them to be established within the next 10 weeks.

1978(2ndof Tishrei, 5739): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah

1979: Two days after she had passed away, in New York, funeral services are scheduled to be held today for Diana G. Jaffe, the wife of Samuel Jaffe and mother of Rona Jaffe,

1980 (23rd of Tishrei, 5741): Simchat Torah


1980(23rd of Tishrei, 5741): A bomb hidden in a motorcycle's saddlebags detonated outside the Synagogue on the Rue Copernic in France exploded killing four people and wounding twenty others. Among the dead was Aliza Shagrir, 42, the wife of Micha Shagrir, a well-known television, film and documentary producer who lives in Jerusalem. The bombing was part of a string of attacks by Arab terrorists aimed at the Jews of Europe that included bombings in Vienna (August, 1981) and Brussels (October, 1981)


1981(5th of Tishrei, 5742): First observance of Shabbat Shuva during the Presidency of Ronald Reagan.


1981(5th of Tishrei, 5742): Eighty-five year old Berlin born American writer whose anti-Nazi ballads aughts him his German citizenship passed away today.


https://www.nytimes.com/1981/10/06/obituaries/walter-mehring-85-writer-his-sarcasm-enraged-nazis.html


 


1980: “Somewhere In Time,” “a romantic comedy” produced by Ray Stark (the son-in-law of Fannie Brice) co-starring Jane Seymour and filmed by cinematographer Isidore Mankofsky was released in the United States today by Universal Pictures.


1985: Broadcast of the first episode of “The Dunera Boys” directed and written by Ben Lewin which was based on the experiences of “German Jews who had fled to Britain and were then interned as ‘enemy aliens’ in Australia.”


http://aso.gov.au/titles/tv/dunera-boys-ep2/


http://aso.gov.au/titles/tv/dunera-boys-ep3/


1986(29th of Elul, 5746): Erev of Shabbat and Erev Rosh Hashanah


1986: “Playing for Keeps” directed and produced by Bob and Harvey Weinstein who also wrote the script was released in the United States today.


1987(10th of Tishrei, 5748): Yom Kippur


1987: CBS broadcast the first episode of “Everything’s Relative,” a sitcom starring Jason Alexander.


1988(22nd of Tishrei, 5749): Shmini Atzeret


1988(22nd of Tishrei 5749): Sixty-six year old Mae Magnin Brussell, the daughter of Rabbi Edgar Magin and the great-granddaughter of Isaac Magnin, the founder I. Magnin depart store who was known for her radio broadcast and involvement in conspiracy theories passed away today.


http://www.maebrussell.com/


http://www.maebrussell.com/Mae%20Brussell%20Articles/Monterey%20Herald%20Obituary.html


https://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/01/22/mae-brussell-a-forgotten-superhero/


1989(4th of Tishrei, 5750): Joseph Wybran was assassinated by terrorists in the parking lot of Erasme Hospital in Brussels where he was working as head of the immunology department. The 49-year-old Wybran was then president of CCOJB, the umbrella group of Jewish organizations in Belgium.


1987: CBS broadcast the first episode of “Everything’s Relative” a sitcom starring Jason Alexander


1990(14th of Sukkoth, 5751): Erev Sukkoth


1990: Ninety-five year old Beatrice Alexander, known as “Madame Alexander” passed away today.


http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/BAlexander.html


http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/131508/the-woman-behind-the-dolls?utm_source=tabletmagazinelist&utm_campaign=1e5aa771e2-5_7_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c308bf8edb-1e5aa771e2-206644398


 


1991: In a press release, The Swedish Academy awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for 1991 to Nadine Gordimer.


1993: “Short Cuts” a comedy film co-starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Bucky Henry was released today in the United States.


1995(9th of Tishrei, 5756): Erev Yom Kippur


1995(9th of Tishrei, 5756): Seventy-nine year old “dance archivist” Susan Braun passed away today.


http://jwa.org/thisweek/oct/03/1995/death-of-susan-braun-dance-archivist


http://jwa.org/people/braun-susan


1996: Jewish American attorney Edward Fagan filed a suit against the Swiss bank UBS in a New York federal district court. The appellant was Gizella Weisshaus, an elderly holocaust survivor from Romania who attempted, for a half a century to obtain the funds her father deposited in the Swiss bank.  Wisshaus initially paid her legal fees to Fagan in the form of cakes and kugel.  Her lawsuit was part of the battle waged by Holocaust survivors against Swiss banks by groups.


1996: A West End production of Neil Simon’s “Laughter on the 23rd Floor” “headed by Gene Wilder opened today at the Queen’s Theatre.


1997(2nd of Tishrei, 5758): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah


1997(2nd of Tishrei, 5758): Seventy-eight year old “Blacklisted” screenwriter and author Millard Lampell passed away today.


https://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/11/arts/millard-lampell-78-writer-and-supporter-of-causes-dies.html


1997(2nd of Tishrei, 5758): Eighty-four year old Barcuh Ostrosky of Jerusalem died today from the wounds he suffered during the bombing of the Mahane Yehuda Market in Jerusalem.


1998: Pope John Paul II beatified Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, the World War II archbishop of Zagreb and a controversial figure because many Serbs and Jews accused him of sympathizing with the Nazis.

1998: Michael David Danby who belongs to the Australian Labor Party began serving as a member of the Australian House of Representatives representing the Division of Melbourne Ports, Victoria

1999(23rdof Tishrei, 5760): As the world worries about Y2K, Jews celebrate Simchat Torah safe in the knowledge that their study of the parchment scrolls will not be affected by any crashing computers.

1999: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including World View in Painting—Art and Society: Selected Papers by Meyer Schapiro and To Believe in Women: What Lesbians Have Done for America -- A History by Lillian Faderman.

2000: “A Class Act, a quasi-autobiographical musical loosely based on the life of composer-lyricist Edward Kleban” which “was initially produced Off-Broadway by the Manhattan Theatre Club at Stage II” opened today.

2002(27th of Tishrei, 5763):  Fifty-seven year old Bruce Paltrow, a graduate of Tulane University and renowned television producer passed away.

https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/04/arts/bruce-paltrow-58-a-producer-and-director-on-st-elsewhere.html

2002: “An Unlikely Dove” published today presented the views of “Amram Mitzna, the commander of Israeli forces on the West Ban during the first Intifada” on the possibility of resolving the conflict between Arabs and Israelis.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/oct/04/israel2

2003: “School of Rock” a musical produced by Scott Rudin and co-starring Jack Black and Sarah Silverman was released in the United States today.

2003: During The Dershowitz–Finkelstein affair, Norman Finkelstein argued in a letter published in today’s Harvard Crimson that Alan Dershowitz had reproduced two of Joan Peters’ mistakes and made one of his in own concerning the use of quotations from the works of Mark Twain.

2003:Elliott Adnopoz, the Brooklyn born son of a Jewish doctor better known as Ramblin Jack Elliot, appears at the Bottom Line in New York’s Greenwich Village.

2003: “Jewish Rights on the Temple” published today provided Ariel Sharon explanation for his visit to the Temple Mount  saying that “I visited the Temple Mount with members of the Likud faction in the Knesset, as I have done many times before, to inspect and ascertain that freedom of worship and free access to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, which is sovereign Israeli territory, is ensured to everyone: Christians, Moslems, and Jews in particular, since it is and has been for over 3,000 years the site of our holiest shrine” and stating bluntly that there is ample evidence that the violence was premediated.

2003(29th of Tevet, 5763): Ninety-five year old William Steig, the noted cartoonist and author of children’s books passed away.  Born in 1907, Steig had his first cartoon published in the New Yorker Magazine in 1930.  Over the years, the magazine would publish 1600 of his cartoons and his works would be featured on 117 covers of the ultimate in sophisticated, literary magazines.  In 1970, he won the Caldecott Medal for his children’s work entitled Sylvester and the Magic Pebble.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/05/nyregion/william-steig-95-dies-tough-youths-and-jealous-satyrs-scowled-in-his-cartoons.html?_r=0

2004: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including The Plot Against America by Philip Roth, Will in the World:  How Shakespeare Became Shakespeareby Stephen Greenblatt, America (The Book)  A Citizen's Guide to Democracy In Action by Jon Stewart, Ben Karlin and David Javerbaum and The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the Worldby A. J. Jacobs.

2005: In major economic news, Haaretzreported that Ohio farmers and researchers have begun working with their counterparts in Israel on projects ranging from beef-cattle genetics to disease-suppressing compost in hopes the relationship will open new markets for both places.

2005: “The Mechanik” featuring Levana Finkelstein was released in the United States today “as ‘The Russian Specialist.’”

2005(29th of Elul, 5765: Erev Rosh Hashanah, 5766 begins at sunset.

2005(29th of Elul, 5765:Sarah Levy-Tanai, founder of the Inbal dance troupe and one of the country's most important choreographers, passed away at the age of 95.

2006: The recording of Danny Elfman’s “Serenada Schizophrana” which had first been performed at Carnegies Hall in 2005 was released onto SACD today.

2006: Today Eve Emsler released Insecure at Last: Losing It In Our Security-Obsessed World, “her first major work written exclusively for the printed page.”

2007: Dr. Charles Friedgood who was convicted of killing his wife in 1977 and sentenced to a term of twenty-five years to life turns 89, making him the oldest inmate in a New York State Prison.

2007(22nd of Tishrei, 5768: Hoshana Rabah

2007: ABC broadcast the first episode of “Pushing Daisies” co-starring Ellen Greene with Barry Sonnenfeld and Bruce Cohen serving as Executive Proudcers.

2008: “President George W. Bush personally awarded Eric Robert Greitens the President's Volunteer Service Award outside Air Force One at Lambert International Airport in St. Louis, Missouri, for his work at The Mission Continues

2008: As part of the yearlong celebration of Leon Fleisher’s 80thbirthday, a concert is held in Boston, MA entitled “Leon Fleisher and Friends” that includes keyboard colleagues and former students Yefim Bronfman, Jonathan Biss and Katherine Jacobson-Fleisher, Fleisher’s wife.

2008: The Times of London features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The American History: A Future by Simon Schama

2009:Rachel Simmons, whose mother Claire is a Jewish Historian, discusses and signs The Curse of the Good Girl: Raising Authentic Girls with Courage and Confidenceat Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C.

2009 (15 Tishrei, 5770): First Day of Sukkoth

2009: Captain Ben Sklaver's body arrived at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

2010:Israeli pianist Shaban is scheduled to perform at the JCC in Manhattan.

2010(25thof Tishrei, 5711): Seventy-eight year old Tzivia Donen, the New York born daughter of Yemima and Julius Hanover and the wife of Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin, the author of To Be a Jew: A Guide to Jewish Observance in Contemporary Life passed away today after which she was buried at Beth Shemesh.

2010: Rebekah Isabelle "Carla" Laemmle, the niece of early film mogul Carl Laemmle “appeared in BBC Four documentary “A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss” sharing memories of her early film work with Lon Chaney and Bela Lugosi.

2010: In an episode of “The Simpsons” televised today entitled “Loan-a-Lisa,” Mark Zuckerberg provided the voice for the cartoon character portraying the founder of Facebook

2010: Catcher Bradley David "Brad" Ausmus ended his major league career today as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

2010: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish writers and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including A Privilege to Die: Inside Hezbollah’s Legions and Their Endless War Against Israel by Thanassis Cambanis and the recently released paperback edition of Homer & Langleyby E. L. Doctorow

2010: The Los Angeles Times featured reviews of books by Jewish writers and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including To the End of the Landby David Grossman.

2011: At New York City’s Park East Synagogue, Senator Joseph Lieberman is scheduled to deliver the 6th Annual Gershon Jacobson Memorial Lecture which will also serve as a celebration of “The Gift of Rest.”

2011: Today marks the kickoff of the week when the Nobel Prizes are announced. It was today announced that three scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine for discoveries about the immune system that opened new avenues for the treatment and prevention of infectious illnesses and cancer. Two of the three - American Bruce Beutler and Canadian-born Ralph Steinman of blessed memory – are Jewish.  Steinman passed away on January 30, 2011.



2011: A Libyan Jew who returned from exile as Muammar Gaddafi's regime fell said today he is facing death threats over his attempts to restore Tripoli's abandoned and crumbling main synagogue. David Gerbi, a 56-year-old psychoanalyst who fled with his family to Italy at the age of 12, said he was facing discrimination and being ignored by Libya's new authorities in his efforts to reopen the Dar Bishi synagogue and gain recognition for Jews who fled Libya during Gaddafi's rule."This already happened 44 years ago and now it's happening again," Gerbi, wearing a skullcap on his head and Star of David pendant, said.

"They think they can make threats, that they are going to kill me, but I'm not going to give up. Like they did not give up to Gaddafi, I'm not going to give up to them." Gerbi said he was told today when he showed up to work at the synagogue that he would have to leave for his own safety. A man claiming to represent the authorities told him his efforts were provoking anger in the country and that death threats had been made. "He said 'there are many coming now, they are coming with guns, if they come you will be killed'," Gerbi said, adding that he had been told that a major demonstration against his efforts was being organized in Tripoli for Friday. He left after four men armed with assault rifles showed up at the synagogue and its door was locked. I just wanted to clean the synagogue because I don't like to see it full of garbage, desecrated in the eyes of God," he said. Gerbi said he had begun his efforts at the weekend, paying residents to help clean the temple, which is strewn with rubbish and covered in graffiti after decades of neglect. He said the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) needed to back his efforts to establish its democratic credentials. "They need to say to these people: we are pluralistic," Gerbi said. "You want democracy, you want justice, you want pluralism, you want social rights, you need to take the whole package." The Jewish community in Libya dates back to the third century BC and at its peak numbered about 38,000 people, although it was always the smallest of the Jewish populations in North Africa. Most of the Jewish population left in the 20 years following World War II, mainly to Israel, where an estimated 180,000 Libyan Jews now live. Several hundred were still living in the country during Gaddafi's coup of 1969, after which they were expelled and their property was confiscated.Gerbi said he had returned to Libya this summer to help with the revolution and was hoping to become a member of the NTC representing the Jewish community. He said he had met senior NTC officials but was frustrated that he had not yet been recognized as a member of the council. "They are forming the government. Why am I not part of the picture, why do I have to excluded?" he asked, speaking in English.  "I am waiting for the answer to be a member of the NTC. Why others yes and I have to be the last on the list?"Gerbi said he understood that Gaddafi's regime had left a legacy of anti-Semitism and that, like in much of the Arab world, animosity towards Israel runs deep in Libya.But he said Libyans would need to accept his efforts to prove the country really had changed after Gaddafi."They said they wanted justice, they wanted freedom, they wanted democracy. This is the time to prove it." He said he did not know when it would be safe for him to return to the synagogue and resume his work. "I'm not here to play hero, I don't want to play martyr," Gerbi said. "I just want to be here to support the new Libya and democracy."

2011: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's zigzagging on the government vote over the Trajtenberg Committee recommendations for social change in Israel may already be taking a political toll. Today saw the cabinet deal the prime minister a political blow, after a seemingly overwhelming opposition to the report's draft within the government forced him to yet again delay the vote on its proposed changes.


2011: Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with visiting US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, today, thanking him and US President Barack Obama for "strengthening the alliance and cooperation" between Israel and the US.

2012:Graveside services for Ronald Farber (Z"L) are scheduled to be held today at the Agudas Achim Cemetery in Iowa City.

2012: In a drastic move this evening, Haaretz employees voted 125-68 to go on a one-day strike, meaning that tomorrow’s paper will not be printed. The strike also applies to the paper’s Hebrew and English website, and the website of TheMarker.com, which will not be updated until at least Friday morning

2012:Defense Minister Ehud Barak defended his contacts with the United States this morning after the Likud accused him of working to deepen tensions between Israel and its ally.

2012:The IDF evacuated tourists from the top of Mount Hermon this afternoon, after sighting dozens of Syrians – many of them armed with guns – in civilian clothing approaching the Israel – Syria border.

 2012: In Fairfax, VA, Chabad is scheduled to sponsors “Subs in the Sukkoth

2013:Never Again: Witnessing and Preserving the Memories of Holocaust Survivors

 Is scheduled to be presented at the Lawrence Family JCC in San Diego, CA

2013: After premiering Off-Broadway in October of 2012, “Bad Jews” by Joshua Harmon “opened at the Laura Pel’s Theatre” today

2013: The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia is scheduled to sponsor a program on American Jewish humor that covers the “Golden Age of TV,” books and cartoons, film and audio albums, one-liners and classic jokes — from Henny Youngman and Harry Golden to Sid Caesar and “The 2000 Year Old Man.”

2013: On the day before Rosh Chodesh, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz requested that haredi Orthodox girls not fill the plaza for the next Women of the Wall service which will be held tomorrow.

2013: Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams meet today for the 8th time since direct peace talks were resumed last July (As reported by Barak Ravid)

2013: In London, Dr. Wendy Lower is scheduled to deliver the inaugural Pears Annual Lecture, in which she discusses her latest book, Hitler's Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields

2013: Sara J. Bloomfield sends e-mail announcing that the U.S. Holocuast Memorial Museum is closed until further notice due to the “federal government shutdown.”

2014:Ben Gurion Airport will be closed to all flights from 2 p.m. toay, Yom Kippur eve, through tomorrow night following the end of Yom Kippur.

2014(9th of Tishrei, 5775): Erev Yom Kippur

2014(9th of Tishrei, 5775): In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Ilan Kaplan is scheduled to chant Kol Nidre which is part of an unbroken chain of over 120 years of traditional services dating back to the founding of Beth Jacob.

2014: “Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel David Lau and founder of the Islamic Movement Sheikh Abdullah Nimar Darwish called on leaders of both Abrahamic faiths to hold meetings aimed at reducing inter-religious tensions in Israel.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/chief-rabbi-muslim-leader-call-to-end-violence/

2015: In NYC, the 14thSt Y is scheduled to host “Intro to Jewish Music.”

2015: “Hard rock band Bon Jovi is scheduled to perform in Israel tonight ending a 13-country tour in Tel Aviv.” (As reported by Jessica Steinberg and Luke Tress)

2015(20thof Tishrei, 5776): Sukkoth Shabbat Chol Hamoed

2015(20thof Tishrei, 5776): Ninety-five year old patron of the arts Olga Hirshhorn passed away today.(As reported by William Grimes)


2015: “A terrorist killed one man and wound four other people in the Old City of Jerusalem” while another terrorist “opened fire on a sukkah Nof Tzion.”

2016(1stof Tishrei, 5777): Rosh Hashanah

שנה טובה, כתיבה וחתימה טובה.

2016: The Supreme Court opened its term today without three of its Justices – Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagen – because it was Rosh Hashanah.

2016: In South Florida, “the sign of the Chabad of Parkland” was found to be “spray-painted with ‘Free Palestine’ and other words described as ‘offensive expletives.’”

2017: Deadline for submitting nominations for the 2017 National Jewish Book Awards.

https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/awards/national-jewish-book-award.html

2017: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and Jewish Music Forum are scheduled to present “Henech Kon: Beyond the Dybbuk” – a “lecture by Diana Matut, with a live performance of Kon's works by Re'ut Ben-Ze'ev (soprano) and Zalmen Mlotek (piano).”

2018: “Debra Caplan” is scheduled to host an event presented by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research  marking “the release of In the land of Happy Tears: Yiddish Tales for Modern Times edited by David Stromberg.

2018(24thof Tishrei, 5779): Eighty-three year old Cuban born Natan Wekselbaum, the husband of Nancy Wekselbaum and founder of Gracious Home, the housewares store passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/11/obituaries/natan-wekselbaum-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

2018: The American Jewish Historical Society and the Center for Jewish History are scheduled to present “The Legacy of Joan Rivers” featuring her “niece Caroline Waxler and comedian Judy Gold.”

2019: “The Spy Behind Home Plate” is scheduled to be the film shown on the opening night of the Chesapeake Film Festival followed by a Q and A with director Aviva Kempner.

2019: USF is scheduled to host “Professor Shaina Hammerman as she discusses her latest book, Silver Screen, Hasidic Jews: The Story of an Image.”

2019: In Memphis, TN, Temple Israel is schedule to host Coffee and Conversation with Rabbi Feivel Strauss and guest speaker Makeba Garrison, Chaplain of the West Cancer Clinic, as they discuss "Dealing with Change and Choosing to Change."

2019: The Philos Project and the American Sephardi Federation are scheduled to host the third edition of the Latin American classic art exhibit: Nosotros 2019 which is designed to strengthen relations between the Jewish and Latino communities.

2019: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host MSNBC news personal Rachel Maddow who hopefully will explain how her parent company NBC chose to make Donald Trump a star when “everybody” knew about his views and tendencies when it came to matters of gender and race.




This Day, October 4, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin

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OCTOBER 4


610:  Heraclius attacks Constantinople, overthrows the Byzantine Emperor Phocas Augustus and proclaims himself Emperor. The Christian Emperor attacked his Persian neighbors to the east with disastrous results. In 614, the advancing Persian Army under General Roizanes seized Jerusalem and gave it to the Jews to govern.  Three years later Roizanes would change his mind but the 150,000 Jews of Palestine had enjoyed a brief taste of self-government. In an irony of history, Heraclius entered into an alliance with the Khazars, the people who would convert to Judaism two centuries later, and finally defeated the Persians’  This defeat brought Byzantine rule back to Jerusalem with the attendant negative consequences for the Jewish population.

1209: Otto IV is crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by Pope Innocent III who in 1205 announced: "God is not displeased, but, rather, finds it acceptable that the Jewish dispersion shall live under Catholic kings and Christian priests. He maintained that Jews were directly subject to Christians and declared that Jews were guilty of “intolerable sin” i.e. the killing of Christ "The Jews' guilt of the crucifixion of Jesus consigned them to perpetual servitude, and, like Cain, they are to be wanderers and fugitives. The Jews will not dare to raise their necks, bowed under the yoke of perpetual slavery, against the reverence of the Christian faith."  As to Otto IV the only connection with the Jews appears to be artistic. In 1839, the German born Jewish painter Moritz Daniel Oppenheim would be commissioned to paint a portrait of Otto IV.Innocent III was no friend of the Jews.

1289:  Birthdate Louis X, King of France from 1314 to 1316.  Louis’s father, Phillip the Fair, had confiscated the property of his Jewish subjects and banished them from the kingdom in 1306.  His son discovered that this was a bad business decision for the government.  The confiscated property had less value than the taxes the Jews had been paying.   Also, the Christians who had replaced the Jews were charging higher rates of interest when lending money.  So, reluctantly, the man known as Louis the Stubborn permitted the Jews to return to the realm.

1379: Birthdate of Henry III of Castile who reduced the persecution of the Jews during his reign.

1535: The first complete English-language Bible (the Coverdale Bible) is printed, with translations by William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale.  Since the printing included “the Old Testament” this maybe the earliest translation of some version of the TaNaCh into English

1582:   Pope Gregory XIII proclaims what is now called the Gregorian calendar which goes into effect with a ten day adjustment.  The, the day after October 4 was October 15.  The new calendar would slowly gained in popularity, but it was not until the twentieth century that such places as Russia finally adopted the “new calendar.”  The eleven day wrinkle would present challenges for Jews who would convert their calendar and holiday observances to those of the calendars used in the societies in which they lived.

1669: The great Dutch painter Rembrandt passed away today. For more about Rembrandt and the Jewish people see:





1683(24thof Tishrei, 5444): Benjamin Beuno De Mesquita passed away today after which he was buried at the “Fist Cemetery of Congregation Shearith Israel” in “Chinatown, Manhattan.”

1712: Utrecht banishes poor Jews 

1768(23rdof Tishrei, 5529): Simchat Torah

1768: In Spanishtown, Jamaica, Abraham Rodrigues De Leon and his wife gave birth to Sarah De Leon, the wife of Aaron Correa and the mother of Rachel Correa.

1769: Birthdate of Aaron Moses Schlesinger, the native of Silesia who gained fame as Adolf Martin Schlesinger a leading music publisher whose sons Heinrich and Maurice followed in his musical footsteps.

1775(10thof Tishrei, 5536): First Yom Kippur during the American Revolution.

1785: In Baltimore, MD, Esther Mordecai and Philip Moses Russel gave birth to Judith Russell.

1791: As a sign of the support for the Dutch monarchy the Jews in the Netherlands joined in celebrating the marriage of the Prince of Orange (the future King William I) to his first cousin Frederica Louisa Wilhelmina..

1794(10thof Tishrei, 5555): Yom Kippur

1796(2NDof Tishrei, 5557): Israel Baer Kursheedt observed the second day of the Jewish New Year in religious solitude since he was the only Jew aboard the Simonhoff, an American brig sailing across the Atlantic to Boston, MA.

1797: Eighty year old Johann Christian Georg Boedenschatz the “German Protestant theologian” who “devoted his life to Jewish antiquities” and wrote what are considered accurate accounts of “Jewish ceremonials and customs.”

1799: In South Carolina, Rebecca Moses and Solomon Harby gave birth Henry Jefferson Harby, the husband of Leah Tobias with whom he had seven children.

1800(15thof Tishrei, 5561): As Adams and Jefferson face off in the U.S. Presidential election to be held next month, Jews observe the first Sukkoth of the 19thcentury

1804: In Liverpool, UK, Hannah Woolf and Myer Tobias gave birth to Charles J. Tobias

1807: Birthdate of Denmark native Sara Meyer, the wife of Hartvig Meyer.

1809: (25 Tishrei 5570): On the secular calendar Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev - a great Chasidic Rebbe, leader and scholar – passed away.  Born in 1740, he studied under Dov Baer the Maggid of Mezhirech, and became one of his close friends.  Levi Yitzchak stressed the joy in serving God emphasizing the idea of connecting to God through fervent prayer. He always accentuated the good and the positive that was in people. Levi Yitzchak composed Chasidic music and is immortalized by his vivaciously optimistic parables. One of his sayings was, “Whether a man really loves God can be determined by his love for his fellow men.”  Levi Yitzchak had his spiritual side, but he also was very much of this world.  When he discovered the terrible working conditions of the young girls who were working in the factories baking matzoth, he declared, “The enemies of the Jews accuse us of baking matzoth with the blood of Christians.  They are wrong.  We are baking them with the blood of Jews.”

1813(10thof Tishrei, 5574): As Americans continue their fight with the British in the War of 1812, Yom Kippur is observed.

1822: Birthdate of Rutherford B Hayes, 19th President of the United States.  To most Americans, Hayes is the winner the 1876 Hayes-Tilden election; an election in which the Democrat Tilden won the popular vote, but thanks to a twisted compromise was won by Hayes in the electoral college.  For Jews the Hayes Presidency marked an even greater acceptance of the role of Jews in politics and American society.  As evidence of this we find William Evarts, Secretary of State under Hayes, saying in an 1879 speech, “this government has ever felt a deep interest in the welfare of the Hebrew race in foreign counties” which was a green light for American Jews to urge the American government to use its auspices with governments of Eastern Europe on behalf of their oppressed Jewish citizens.

1823: In Essex, England, Catherine Phillips and Laurence Lazarus gave birth to Esther S. Lazarus.

1825(22nd of Tishrei, 5586): On the same day Jews observed Shemini Atzeret, William Carroll wrote to Secretary of State Henry Clay saying that he did not think that Andrew Jackson would run against President John Quincy Adams in the next Presidential elections (boy was he wrong)

1846: Birthdate of Camillo Roth, “a member of the Stoke Exchange” who was buried four decades later in the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.

1830: Creation of the state of Belgium.  Jews are first reported to have lived in what is now Belgium in the first century when they settled their as part of the Roman Empire.  The first phase of the Jewish community ended in the 14th century when the Jews were killed or forced to leave because of their alleged role in the bringing of the Black Plague.  Jews returned in the 16th century. When the modern state of Belgium was created “Judaism was recognized immediately. Brussels, with a more French influenced Jewish community, had a higher rate of assimilation, while Antwerp, influenced by Yiddish and Flemish, retained traditional forms of Jewish life.”  The independence of Belgium had been guaranteed by the Great Powers.  In 1914, when German invaded Belgium as part of its plan to conquer France, the British felt compelled to declare war on the Germans.  This was the final act that guaranteed the war would be a World War.  Not only did the war bring suffering to the Jews of Europe (especially in the East) but as we know it paved the way for the WWII and the Shoah.  So much history flows from one minor event on the calendar.

1832(10th of Tishrei, 5593): Yom Kippur

1836(22nd of Tishrei, 5597): Simchat Torah celebrated for the last time during the Presidency of Andrew Jackson.

1838(15th of Tishrei, 5599): Sukkoth

1839: (25 Tishrei 5600): Moshe (Moses) Sofer of Pressburg passed away.  Born in 1762 in Germany, this famous Rabbi was also known as the Chatam Sofer from a name given to a collection of his writings.  His last name, Sofer, means scribe in English, indicating that his family engaged in this time-honored important profession. He was invited to lead the Pressburg (Hungary) community which he did with such success that it its yeshiva became one of the leading places of Jewish learning in Europe.  One of the unique characteristics of his yeshiva was its emphasis on physical fitness.  His students were required to swim in the Danube on a regular basis.  He wrote a voluminous collection of Responsa called Chidushai Teshuvot Moshe Sofer(Novella and Responsa of Moses Sofer). It was divided into four parts containing 1377 Responsa. He was a strong supporter of rigid orthodoxy, especially pertaining to change in synagogue ritual. He stood in opposition to the Reform, Chasidic and embryonic Zionist movements.  He did believe in supporting the existing community in Palestine and eventually, the Pressburg Yeshiva would relocate to Jerusalem under the leadership of his great-grandson.

1843(10th of Tishrei, 5604): Nine days before the founding of B’nai Brith in New York City, Jews observe Yom Kippur

1847: The Paris Opera began performing a revised version Fromental Halevy’s “Charles VI,” a grand opera in five acts.

1849(15thof Tishrei, 5610): As people from all over the world flock to California in search of newly discovered gold, Jews observe Sukkoth

1849: In Richmond, Samuel H. Myers “one of the brightest and most upright of Masons” was buried today.

1852: In “Germany” published today reported that the outbreak of cholera in Pomerania has struck the Jewish community with an even greater fury than the general population.  The Jews of Pomerania have written to their co-religionists in Posen asking for assistance in dealing with this crisis.

1852: In “Sweden: Minutes and Disturbances” published today reported on violent attacks on Jews living in Stockholm.  The violence lasted for three nights.  They were caused by an article in the Voice of the People that “excited the populace against the Jews.” The editor of the paper was among those arrested by the police.

1853(2ndof Tishrei, 5614): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah

1854: In "Foreign Items of Literary and Personal News" published today reported that a religious book entitled Life from the Dead by Israel Pick, a Jew  from Bucharest who had converted to Christianity has been translated from German into English. After leaving Judaism and before becoming a Christian, Pick had spent time as Pantheist and an Atheist.

1854: Birthdate of Joseph Lazarus Kranson the husband of Caroline Kranson with whom he had ten children before passing away in St. Louis, MO.

1854: In Baltimore, MD, John H. Lopez of Charleston, SC married Maria Cohen, “the daughter of the later Benjamin J. Cohen” of Baltimore.

1856(5thof Tishrei, 5617): Shabbat Shuva

1856: Birthdate of Russian born American journalist and anarchist Abraham Isaak.

1857: In Nashville, TN, Joseph Stein and Dorothea Wolf gave birth to their daughter Fannie Stein, who grew up in Cincinnati and became Fannie S. Miller when she married William M. Miller after which she engaged in several philanthropic and socially useful activities including serving as President of the Philadelphia Section of the Council of Jewish Women and of the Industrial Home for Jewish Girls.

1858: In “The President and the Jews” published today reported that President Buchanan had made use of the phrase " all the nations of Christendom," in his answer to Queen Victoria’s message transmitted by the Atlantic Telegraph. This expression gave offence to Dr. Isidor Kalisch, rabbi of the Ben Jeshurun Congregation in the city of Milwaukee, who wrote to the President demanding an explanation. Isidor Kalisch was a German born Reform Rabbi who held a number of pulpits in a wide variety of American Cities, wrote a prayer book tailored to the needs of the American Jewish community and worked on behalf of women’s rights before his death in 1886.

1859: Forty-one year old Swedish businessman and patron of the arts August Abrahamson married 23 year old opera singer Eufrosyne Abrahamson

1861: Philadelphian, Solomon C. Miller began a three year enlistment with Company A of the 57th Regiment.

1862: The Jews of Baden were unconditionally emancipated. In spite of the fact that much of Prussia had removed the anti-Jewish disabilities years earlier, Baden had refused conditioning it on Jewish cession of outward characteristics. The Jews did not yield on this point and the emancipation took place.

1862(10th of Tishrei, 5623): Yom Kippur

1862: In Cleveland, Ohio, Benjamin Franklin Peixotto, the Consul General at Lyons, France and Hannah Straus gave birth to Mark Percy Da Maduro Peixotto, a graduate of the the Lycée et l'École de Commerce,” the “United States Deputy Consul General at Lyon,” the “director general of the Equitable Life Assurance Company” and the husband of Katherine de Sadowski.

1862: During the Civil War Union forces including Jewish soldiers from Indiana fight the second and last day of the Battle of Corinth where they face Southern forces that include Jewish soldiers from Mississippi.

1862: The Charleston (South Carolina) Mercury reported that, “yesterday was the commencement of Yom Kippur, or the Jewish Day of Atonement, one of the three great holy days observed by the sons of the sons of Israel throughout the world. These are the Passover, when the passage of the Israelites over the Red Sea is celebrated in the feast of unleavened bread, typical of the Eucharistic sacrifice of the Christian dispensation; the Feast of Tabernacles, to denote that the sons of Jacob once dwelt in tents in the wilderness; and the Day of the Atonement, when each Jew was enjoined to redeem his soul figuratively by the presentation of a half shekel, and nothing less or more, whether the presentee be rich or poor. The day is celebrated by the modern Jews by a strict fast. Their places of business are all closed, and their synagogues are all opened. On the eve of the great day the Holy Book of the Law is brought from the Ark with great ceremony and read by the hazan, or minister. Prayers are held in all the synagogues from that time till the next night — literally even to even — by the faithful Israelites, who are expected to [cleanse] their souls by abstaining from meat and drink. At the close of the day — that is the evening — a good lookout is kept for the first star, when the previous fast of twenty four hours gives way to a very sensible feast, and happy is he or she who first discovers that same first star.”

1863: Birthdate of David Hayyim Bacharach the Russian born American Rabbi who served Congregations in Trenton, NJ and Providence, RI.

1864: In Brooklyn,Mr. Michael Jacobs brought charges against Patrolman George W. Osward claiming that “the officer had arrested him without cause, manacled him and been privy to the breaking of his furniture. It appeared that the complainant had beaten one of his fellow Jews and that the officer had pursued Mr. Jacobs into his house and had only handcuffed him after Jacobs had resisted the officer. A witness was introduced to show that the officer had arrested Jacobs for fighting, and it appeared that the combat rose from a dispute concerning religious matters, one of the disputants having characterized the other as an apostate Jew, and asserted that he had perjured himself three times in court.” Charges against the officer were dismissed since it was “clear that the officer had been guilty of no offence whatever.” In dismissing the complainant, the presiding officer of the court advised Mr. Jacobs to appeal to Rabbi Morris Raphall.  Apparently the judge felt that Mr. Jacobs’s case was really a religious dispute and apparently Rabbi Raphall was well known in secular as well as Jewish circles.

1865(14th of Tishrei, 5626): Erev Sukkoth

1867(5thof Tishrei, 5628): Seventy-eight year old Eduard Israel Kley  an early leader of the Reform movement who replaced Bar Mitzvah with Confirmation and led services on Sunday passed away today in Hamburg, Germany.

1871: In Prenzlau, Germany, David Mayer and Clara Devora Mayer (Gottschalk) gave birth to Gustav Jaokoby Mayer.

1871: Sixty-five year old Mary Lyon the wife of Lewis Lyon of Grays Inn Road Holborn was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”

1872(2ndof Tishrei 5633): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah

1872: It was reported today that the business places owned by Jews in Jersey City, New Jersey, were closed yesterday because of Rosh Hashanah.

1874(23rdof Tishrei, 5635): Simchat Torah

1875: In Baltimore, MD, Dr. Phillip Moses Russell and Esther (Mordecai) Russell to Judith Russell Nathans.

1875: It was reported today that the Board of Education of Chicago has been dealing with the issue of the Bible in public schools.  Catholics, Jews and non-sectarians are opposed to the reading. Baptist and Methodist leaders have been quite outspoken in their opposition to the removal of Bible readings from the opening class ceremonies.  The issue has drawn national attention including comments from Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler who thinks that Christianity could benefit from the removal of Scripture from the public schools.

1875: It was reported today that the Governor of Baghdad has sent a telegram to the Porte (Ottoman Empire) denying a report that a Turks living in that city had murder a Jew.

1876: Texas A&M University opens as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, becoming the first public institution of higher education in Texas. By 1916, there were enough Jews on campus to justify the formation of an organization dedicated to their needs.  It was called the TAMC Menorah Club and it was organized by Dr. Jacob Joseph Taubenhaus, a native of Safed who was chief of the plant pathology and physiology division of the school from 1916 to 1937.  In 1920, the club became the TAMC Hillel Club technically making it the oldest Hillel House in the United States; older even than the Hillel at the University of Illinois which was not founded until 1923 and is usually credited with being the first Hillel House.

1877: The Budapest University of Jewish Studies (Landesrabbinerschule) opened today.Rabbi Wilhelm Bacher, a noted Orientalist who had been named to a professorship at the school, delivered the inaugural address. The seminary was funded by the government to promote “Neolog Judaism” a mildly reformist movement.  The school taught a mixture of Judaism and Hungarian culture that would help the Jews be ardent Hungarian nationalists.

1877: It was reported today that in the last fortnight, 500 Jews who are fleeing from “the cruelties and persecutions” of the Bulgarians have sought refuge in Wallachia. The Bulgarians had stolen everything from the Jews who owed their lives to detachments of The Russian Army who took them across the border where they could be cared for by their Romanian co-religionists.  The Romanian Jews have already shown their generosity by providing funds for the purchase of field ambulances to be used by the army.  Their behavior put “to shame the noisy but empty protestations” of “the Christian wearers of the Geneva Cross.” [This is a reference to the Red Cross.  The events described took place during the Russo-Turkish War.]

1877: It was reported today that the term Israelite “is being substituted for the insulting expression” of Pharisee “long…in use to designate the chosen people.  According to one author “an Israelite was only a Jew who had made a fortune.”

1878: Harry Marks was named editor of “The Jewish Journal,” a weekly publication that had first appeared in 1869.

1878: Birthdate of Selmar Aschheim, the Berlin born gynecologist who developed a pregnancy test that bears his name.  He fled Nazi Germany in 1933 but survived the war.  He passed away in 1965.

1882(21stof Tishrei, 5643): Hoshanah Rabah

1882: Simeon Phillips, the “son of Solomon Phillips and Caroline Solomon” who was an Australian legislator from New South Wales and his wife Rosetta Phillips gave birth to Solomon David Phillips

1884(15thof Tishrei): Sukkoth

1884: As of today, the Church Missionary Society has spent $600,000 since 1851 and the London Jews’ Society has spent $150,000 since 1877 on “missions to the Jews of Palestine and neither has a single convert to show for the money spent.

1884: Birthdate of American writer Damon Runyon. Runyon was not Jewish. But he was the writer who brought a certain slice of New York life to America; a slice of life often connected with the Jewish subculture.  Runyon was a native of Manhattan, Kansas that is, but he was able to bring to life the ethnic existence of Manhattan, New York, including Mindy’s cheese cake and Nathan Detroit who was modeled after Arnold Rothstein.  But Runyon could also be a serious defender of Jews when attacked by anti-Semites.  When Jews were vilified as cowards Runyon used the heroics of Sergeant Sam Dreben to express his feelings in a now-famous poem, "The Fighting Jew." In this poem, Runyon wrote that whenever he read about prejudices against the Jews and of racial hatred, he was reminded of the heroic fighting Jew, Sam Dreben. He was also reminded of the Distinguished Service Cross, the Croix de Guerre, the Militare and other medals that were awarded to Sergeant Dreben. Runyon ended his poem with: “THANK GOD ALMIGHTY, WE WILL ALWAYS HAVE A FEW, LIKE DREBEN A JEW. The Broadway musical and movie, “Guys and Dolls” was based on characters created by Runyon

1884: Alexander Edelstein, an English born Jew who had come to the United States about 15 months ago, was arrested on charges of having collected commission from his employer on “bogus orders.”

1885: The sanctuary at Temple Emanu-El in New York City was completely filled with mourners who had come to attend this afternoon’s memorial service in honor of the late Sir Moses Montefiore.

1885: Birthdate of Jacob Rainovitz, a native of Mistislav, Russia.

1886(5thof Tishrei, 5647): Sixty-seven year old Mary Anker Bendel, the Bavarian born daughter of “Moses and Sprinz Schmitt Anker” and the wife of Henry Bendel with whom she had nine children and lived for a while in Bethlehem, NY passed away today after which she was “buried in the Jewish section of Lexington Cemetery in Lexington, KY

1886: Police Inspector Wood is to be arrested and arraigned on charges related to the death of Max Aronson who was allegedly beaten by the police who then denied him medical attention.

1887: Publication of “Jews in Shushan” by Rudyard Kipling





1889(9thof Tishrei, 5650): Erev Yom Kippur

1889: Insomnia and fear of suffering major loss due to the crackdown on gambling house was the reason given today for the death of Jewish businessman Joseph M. Marchus who shot himself yesterday in front of the Orleans Parish Prison.

1889: “The Fast of Yom Kippur” published today described the rituals of “the Day of Atonement” during which the Orthodox practices a 24 hour fast that “allows neither food nor drink to pays his lips;” an observance of which “has fallen into disuse among the Reform Jews.”

1889: “About five hundred members and guests of the Pioneers of Liberty, an organization recently formed by the United Hebrew Trades” were turned away from Clarendon Hall tonight where they had expected to hear a concert and dance at a ball. The disappointed revelers claimed that the manager of the hall been intimated into closing the venue by a group of Orthodox Jews.

1889: “Gamblers Commit Suicide” published today described the impact of New Orleans May Shakespeare’s closing of the gambling establishments in the Crescent City.  Among those who apparently died by their own hand was a young Jew named Joseph Marcus who was “a silent partner” in one such establishment and was driven to this by fear of great economic loss.

1890: Birthdate of Austrian native Morris Jacobovits, who served as a rabbi in Cologne and Strasbourg as well as a chaplain in the French Army and worked with “the French Underground and various American relief organizations” to help adults and children regardless of religion during the occupation before escaping to Switzerland with his family and finally arriving in New York where he served “Congregation K’hall Adath Jeshurun.”

1891(2nd of Tishrei, 5652): On the day the American Association plays its last game of the baseball season, Jews observe Rosh Hashanah

1891: In Alpena, Michigan, Temple Beth El hosted Rosh Hashanah services as part of the compromise between Orthodox and Reform members of the congregation.

1891: “Russia’s Persecuted Jews” published today includes a summary of the sermon given by Dr/ Max Landsberg, the Rochester rabbi who praised the articles written by Harold Frederic and published by the New York Times that provided a first hand of the wretched conditions under which Russian Jews are living.”

1891: Joseph Barondess, the former head of the Cloakmakers’ Union remained in jail today after having been returned from Canada.  Barondess had been out on bail while he appealed his conviction on charges of extorting money from the city’s cloak manufacturers for which he was sentenced to 21 months in prison.  Barondess claimed that he had only gone to Quebec to seek work since nobody would hire him in New York and that he had every intention of returning once he had earned some money.

1891: A list of courses to be offered by Cornell University published today included an “Introduction to a History of the Jews” taught by Dr. W.F. Wilcox, “Hebrew Poetry” taught by Dr. O.F. Emerson who will apply “sympathetic literary criticism” to a study of Job and Psalms and “The Book of Samuel,” a course open only to women. (Editor’s note – no reason is given for this)

1891: Abraham Langer, a Jew who owns a poultry shop on Ridge Street was robbed while driving his wagon tonight by two knife-wielding men while he was on his way to buy animals to sell to his customers.

1892: Captain Crémieu-Foa, the anti-Semitic French officer who had been transferred to Tunis to avoid any further duels with Jewish officers was part of the French force that attacked the rebels at Poguessa in Dahomey.

1893: Birthdate of St. Charles, MO native Fannie Frank Cook, the husband of Jerome Cook and the winner of the George Washington Carver Memorial Award for her novel, Mrs. Palmer’s Honey.


1893: “Dr. A. Stocker, Anti-Semite” published today described the arrival in New York of Adolf Stocker, the former chaplain at the court of the Kaiser who “is known throughout the civilized world as an ardent leader of the anti-Semitic agitation in Germany.”

1894: Max Moskowitz, the first witness to testify before the Lexow Committee, told about a friend of his who was arrested for selling sandwiches on a Sunday but was able to avoid jail time by paying “$2 to the doorman at the police station.”

1895: “Meeting of Rabbis in Cincinnati” published today described plans for the upcoming meeting of the Executive Committee of the Central Conference of Rabbis.

1895: John Allen’s Modern Judaism, W.H. Rule’s History of the Karaite, Rabbi Grossman’s Judaism and the Science of Religion and T.A. Davis’s Am I a Jew or a Gentile were among the “many books of solid worth offered at the sale of the William Berrian library today by Bangs & Co.

1896: In Philadelphia, Joseph and Clara Zeidman gave birth to Benjamin “Bennie” Zeidman, the Hollywood producer best known as B.F. Zeidman.

1896: It was reported today that Joseph L. Buttenweiser delivered a talk on “The Influence of Machinery and Education on Labor” at the Assembly Hall of the Hebrew Technical Institute in what was supposed to be “the first of a series of lectures” sponsored by institute’s alumni association.

1898(18h of Tishrei, 5659): Fourth Day of Sukkot (Chol Hamoed)

1898: Jacob and Bella Pesin gave birth to Samuel Pesin, “an assistant corporation counsel” in Jersey City for the past 11 years, “a member of the John Marshall Law College,” a former President of Congregation Mount Sinai in Jersey City Heights and husband of Libby Pesin with whom he had two children – Edward and Ada.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1949/05/06/84562507.pdf

1898: “Realizing that he was dying Charles Koransky had hotel keeper Abraham Solomon summon his friend Jacob Janowitz to his bedside, who realizing how desperate the situation was called for an ambulance to take him to Gouverneur Hospital.

1901(21st of Tishrei, 5662): Hoshanah Rabah

1902(3rdof Tishrei, 5663): Shabbat Shuva

1903: Dr. Harry Friedenwald, “representative of the local Zionist at the last Zionist Congress” is scheduled to speak at local theatre in Baltimore, MD.

1903: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Simenhoff officiated at the wedding of Levy Cohen and Lena Berger.

1903 (13th of Tishrei, 5664): Erratic Austrian author Otto Weininger passes away, apparently at his own hand.



1904: In Newark, NJ, haberdasher Max Joachim and his wife Pauline gave birth to Samuel Joachim, who gained fame as Jimmy Ritz, “the second Ritz Brother.

1905: Birthdate of Chelsea, MA native and Boston University Law School graduate Ada Feinberg York, “a lawyer for the NLRB,” “Republican candidate of Secretary of State of Massachusetts” and “former vice president of the Women’s Division of the American Jewish Congress” who was the wife realtor and insurance broker Benjamin H. York with who she raised a son and two daughters.


1906 (15th of Tishrei, 5667): Sukkoth



1906 (15th of Tishrei, 5667):  Alex Simon passed away. Simon was born in Konin, Poland, arrived in Brenham when Texas was still the Republic of Texas. His arrival marked the beginning of the influential Simon family's involvement in the Brenham Jewish community. Alex Simon was one of the founders and builders of the B'nai Abraham Synagogue. He was also one of the principal investors in the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad, "which brought Jewish immigrants up from Galveston through the Brazos River valley to Bryan and out to San Angelo."

1908 (9th of Tishrei, 5669): In Houston Texas Adath Yshurun Kol Nidre Services begin at 6:30 p.m. and include a sermon entitled “What’s the Use?” which is delivered in English.

1909: Birthdate of James B. Prichard the University of Pennsylvania archaeologist who led six expeditions from 1956 to 1962 that excavated the remains of Gibeon which played a prominent role in many of the Biblical stories found in the first part of the second section of the TaNaCh – “Prophets.”

1909:First Enrollment of students for Dropsie College takes place in Philadelphia, Pa.

1909: Israel Effendi was appointed Chief of Police in Turkey.

1909: Birthdate of Pittsburgh native and California trained lawyer Murray Chotiner, the original political mentor of Richard Nixon.

https://www.nytimes.com/1974/01/31/archives/murray-chotiner-nixon-mentor-dies-campaign-aide-since-46-and.html

https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKchotiner.htm

1909(19thof Tishrei, 5670): Thirty-four year old Rena L. Phillips passed away today after which she was buried in the Jewish Cemetery at Natchitoches, LA.

1910(1stof Tishrei, 5671): As the world was racked with political upheaval in such disparate places as China, Mexico and Portugal, Jews observed Rosh Hashanah

1911: Much to the relief of some Jewish merchants, Home Secretary Winston Churchill expressed a willingness “to omit Sunday-closings from the Shop Hours Bill.”

1911: As opposition to the admittance of Eastern European Jews into the United Kingdom, the “Stepney Borough Council in London adopted a “resolution urging the Government to pass further measures regulating alien immigration.

1912(23rdof Tishrei, 5673): Simchat Torah

1913(3rdof Tishrei, 5674): Shabbat Shuva observed for the first time during the Presidency of Woodrow Wilson.

1913(3rdof Tishrei, 5674): Nine year old Schlome Ruwen Munitz passed away today.

1914: The funeral for Rabbi Daniel Lowenthal is scheduled to take place today with interment in Mount Hope Cemetery, Cypress. Among the mourners are his widow, the former Miss Theresa Lichtenstein and his four children – Justice of the Peace Samson Lowenthal, Monroe Lowenthal, Leo B. Lowenthal and Mrs. Carl Levi.

1914: “Three months after the outbreak of WW I,” in “response to urgent pleas for help from Jews in in Eastern Europe and Palestine,” “the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering through the War or Central Relief Committee (CRC) was formed today

1915: “The Day, the Jewish daily, today received a wireless message from its editor Herman Bernstein who is traveling in the belligerent countries sayings that “Russian outrages against the Jewish population are continuing despite rumors circulated that their condition has improved.”

1915: Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of the Free Synagogue was quoted today as favoring the creation of a Jewish Congress to work for the rights of Jews living in the belligerent countries contending that the opponents, however “admirable” they may be, are acting as if their “personal domains were being invaded” by usurpers seeking to intrude on their power in the American Jewish community.

1915: In London, “W.A. Appleton, Secretary of the General Federation of Trade issued a statement giving the results of representations made by him on behalf of the Workers; League for Jewish Emancipation to the Russian Finance Minister in the course of the latter’s recent visit to London” in which thousands of Jews expressed their concerns for their co-religionists in Russia and looked for a sign that “they would receive the rights of citizens.”

1915: It was reported today that “Rabbi Nathan Krass of Temple Israel of Brooklyn has written to the Board of Education to protest against the Writ system which is being introduced in some of the Bronx schools as an experiment in which the pupils are to go to different religious beliefs” saying he is “opposed to any system which connect religious education with public schools” because “it will break up the Democratic Sprit.

1916: “Harmony among Jews in the United States was restored” tonight “by the adoption of a new plan” approved “by representatives of the Conference of National Jewish Organizations and the Jewish Congress Organization” that will lead to the creation of the American Jewish Congress which will “demand equal rights Jews in European countries.”

1916: “Chief Rabbi Jaffee of 205 East Broadway has enlisted the services of former Secretary of State Samuel S. Koenig to head a deputation of rabbis and prominent east side Jews to call on Mayor Mitchell today and ask” that Health Commissioner Haven Emerson’s ban “on the ancient custom followed by Orthodox Jews of sacrificing a fowl in connection with the Day of Atonement “be removed until the Jewish celebrations are over.”

1916: Assemblyman A.J. Shiplacoff presided over a mass meeting tonight at Cooper Union held under the auspices of the National Workmen’s Committee on Jewish Rights where speakers including Representative Meyer London, Dr. Henry Moskowitz and Morris Hillquit gave voice to the protest “against the proposed plan of Great Britain to deport all Russian and Rumanian refuges unless they immediately joined the British Army.”

1916: Birthdate of Long Island City native director and producer George Sidney


1916: In Zurich, Paul Gluck-Friedman and Henia Shipper gave birth to Rose Gluck who as Rose Warfman survived Auschwitz and became “a heroine of the French Resistance.

1916: Birthdate of Vitaly Ginzburg, the Jewish born Soviet Physicist and Nobel Prize winner who was an avowed atheist.

1916:  Birthdate of Murray Janofsky, the Bronx native who gained fame as comedian Jan Murray.


1917: At a meeting of the British Cabinet, Edwin Montagu, the one Jew in the Lloyd George government, continued to express his opposition to what would become the Balfour Declaration.  Under pressure from Montagu and his supporters Prime Minister Lloyd George and Lord Balfour watered down the original draft, modifying, among other things the strong statement “that Palestine should be reconstituted as the National Home of the Jewish People.”

1917: Samuel Untermyer, the prominent Jewish lawyer and civic leader issued a statement today “replying to an attack made on him by Mayor Mitchell” denying the claim that he had met with Konstantin Dumba, the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador to the United States who had been expelled on charges of espionage and stating that he would have no further comment on other false charges for the time being because he is leaving New York “on a two week’s speaking” at the request of Secretary McAdoo “in aid of the Liberty Loan.”

1917: It was reported today that Judge McIntyre in General Sessions said that “thousands of Jews have enlisted all over the country” and that “to call a man a dirty Jews might well lead to a breach of the peace.”

1918: During World War I, U.S. Army Sergeant Benjamin Kaufman charged a German machine gun in the Argonne Forest that had pinned down his unit. He singlehandedly captured the gun and the crew despite the fact that his right arm had been shattered and by the time he reached his objective he was armed with a pistol that had no more bullets.  For this he earned the Congressional Medal of Honor.

1918: Max Seltzer of New York was cited for bravery today which would lead to him receiving the Distinguished Service Cross in October of 1920

1918: In New York City, Rose Kantrowitz wife of general practitioner Bernard Abraham gave birth to U.S. heart surgeon and medical investigator Adrian Kantrowitz. Adrian Kantrowitz was responsible for pioneering developments in circulatory assist devices, artificial organs, medical electronics, heart transplantation, and research motion pictures.

1918(28thof Tishrei, 5679): Twenty-eighty year old Abraham Kranson passed away after which he was buried in the Jewish Cemetery at Natchitoches, LA.

1918: On the edge of the Argonne Forest, after having been separated from his patrol and having his right arm shattered by a machine gun bullet, Sergeant Benjamin Kaufman of Company K, 308th Infantry, Seventy-seventh Regiment, began tossing grenades with left arm, “charged the enemy position with an empty pistol, scattered the crew and brought the gun and one prisoner back to the a dressing-station.

1918: The 165th Regiment, including Sergeant Abraham Blaustein hiked from Mondrecourt to Jubecourt where it was reunited with “the old 12thNew York regiment.”

1918: “The Vokstimme of Chemnitz of Germany, published a protest against the ill-treatment of Jews in the occupied Russian territory, declaring that ‘unheard of cruelties’ have been visited upon them”

1918: In the wake of the successful Allied Offense on the Western Front, German Chancellor Max von Baden whom he Kaiser had appointed three days before sent a telegram to President Wilson asking for an Armistice.

1919(10thof Tishrei, 5680): Yom Kippur

1919: Eighty-seven year old Bavarian born David Weil, the husband of Rosina Simon Weil, passed away today in Montgomery, Alabama.

1919: Birthdate of Baruch Spiegel, the son of a Warsaw leather maker who, would become one of the approximately 750 Jewish fighters who actually took part in the armed resistance known as the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and who escaped through the sewers to fight as partisan for the rest of WW II. (As reported by Joseph Berger)

1920(22ndof Tishrei, 5681): Shmini Atzeret

1920: In Brooklyn Temple Beth Elohim held holiday services today.

1920: In New York City, Jacob H. Schiff bequeathed $1,350,000 “to various charities and philanthropic institutions.”

1921(2ndof Tishrei, 5682): As President Harding enjoys his seventh month in the White House, Jews observe a second day of Rosh Hashanah

1922: In St. Paul, MN, an address was delivered today “at the 46th annual convention of the American Humane Association on “The Jewish Method of Slaying Animals.” (see page 52 for the text)


1923: In Washington, “Frank and Phoebe Lazarus” who one time “ran a bicycle shop” gave birth to Charles Phillip Lazarus, the founder of Toys R Us. (As reported by Michael Corkery)


1924: Birthdate of Donald J. Sobol, the Bronx native who created “Encyclopedia Brown, the clever boy detective.”  (As reported by Denise Grady)


1925(16thof Tishrei, 5686): Second Day of Sukkoth

1925(16thof Tishrei, 5686): Rose Flora Eisendrath, the German born daughter of Bertha and Moses Eisendrath, and the “wife of Emanuel Raphael Weil with whom she had three children – Leon, Florence and Mildred – passed away today in Chicago.

1925: Sir Harry Gloster Armstrong, the British Consul General at New York, addressed a meeting of the Paelstine Chamber of Commerce at the Hotel Pennsylvania.  He “extolled the aspirations behind the movement to develop the ancient hol land as national centre of the Jewish race.”  Sir Harry reviewed the improving economic conditions in the country siting the “growth of industry and increase in imports.”

1925: Opening day of the Palestine-Near East Exhibition and Fair at Tel Aviv.

1926: “The Queen of Moulin Rouge” directed by Robert Wiene was released today in Berlin.

1927: Birthdate of Minneapolis native Daniel Dworsky, the four year starter at the University Michigan under the legendary Fritz Crisler, including 1947 and 1948 when team went undefeated and won the National Championship twice and then after playing pro-ball for a year returned to school, graduated with a degree in architecture and then went on to a decades long career that included designing everything from the Crisler Arena, to the Jerry Lewis Neuromuscular Researach Center to the Federal Reserve Bank building in Los Angeles.

1928: In New York, Sam and Rose Toffler gave birth to Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock.


1928: Birthdate of Michael Steinberg. According to his obituary, Steinberg was an influential classical music critic, teacher, lecturer and author, and the pre-eminent program annotator of his day. Born in Breslau, Germany, Steinberg’s mother had him sent to safety in England through Kindertransport, the rescue mission that saved nearly 10,000 refugee Jewish children in the months before World War II. After the war, he, his mother and his elder brother lived in St. Louis. After Princeton, while studying in Italy on a Fulbright scholarship, Mr. Steinberg met his first wife, Jane Bonacker. They divorced in 1977, having had two sons, Sebastian and Adam. Later he married, Jorja Fleezanis, the concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra since 1989. Trained as a musicologist, with a degree from Princeton University, Mr. Steinberg spent his early career teaching music history at the Manhattan School of Music. He came to wide attention as the music critic for The Boston Globe for nearly 12 years, until 1976. While a critic he continued to teach at the New England Conservatory, Brandeis University and other colleges.  His reviews were erudite and readable, his interests wide-ranging. He stood up for intellectually formidable composers at a time when a postmodernist backlash was taking root and also encouraged the early-music movement, which thrived in Boston during this period. He was a regular critic of the conductor Seiji Ozawa’s work at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Orchestra officials openly expressed their dismay with Mr. Steinberg’s critiques. So the Boston musical community was stunned when, in 1976, Mr. Steinberg accepted a position as program annotator for the Boston Symphony. It seemed as if he had switched camps. But according to Kathryn King, a public relations agent and friend, Mr. Steinberg had grown tired of reviewing. “For years,” she added, “he harbored a secret desire to write program notes for a major symphony and to serve as an artistic adviser or administrator.” His work as an annotator was immediately popular. Suddenly, reading Mr. Steinberg’s long, analytic program notes, rich with anecdotal information and historical context, became an essential part of attending a Boston Symphony concert. Yet it was not until 1979, when he became the publications director and artistic adviser of the San Francisco Symphony, a position he held for 10 years, that Mr. Steinberg had the opportunity to affect repertory and artistic policy. Mr. Steinberg’s program notes, full of vivid descriptions of pieces, were collected in a series of listeners’ guides: “The Symphony,” “The Concerto” and “Choral Masterworks,” published by Oxford University Press. His account of the “alien and terrifying” opening pages of the finale of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony is typical. “From the thud of a low C,” Mr. Steinberg wrote, “there arises an encompassing swirl of strangely luminous dust: harp glissandos, a woodwind chord, and chains of trills on muted strings.” He died of colon cancer at the age of 80 at his home in Edina, Minnesota, outside of Minneapolis.

1929 (29thof Elul, 5689): Unbeknownst to the Jews as they gather on Erev Rosh Hashanah the nation’s economy is on the verge of collapse.

1930: Northwestern University led by Guard Hyman “Hy” Crizevsky defeated Tulane University in its first game of the season.

1931(23rdof Tishrei, 5692): Simchat Torah

1932:  Anti-Semite Julius Gombos forms new a government in Hungary 

1933: In a bid to control the media and drive the Jews from German cultural life, the newly empowered Nazi government promulgated the Newspaper Editors' Law. It made Aryan origin a prerequisite for anyone editing a German newspaper.

1934: Twenty-four year old Harry Blitman fought his seventy-fifth bout which turned out to be his last pugilistic victory.

1934(25thof Tishrei, 5695): Seventy-year old Arnhem native Benjamin Prins, whose second wife was Rosa Benari, the niece of painter Moritz Oppenheimer and whose “brother-in-law Jacob Eisenman founded the Eisenmann Synagogue in Antwerp” passed away today in Amsterdam.”



1936(18th of Tishrei, 5697): Fourth Day of Sukkoth – Chol Hamoed

1936(18th of Tishrei, 5697): Sixty-four year old Jesse Isidor Straus, a member of the Straus family best known for its ownership of R.H. Macy & Co passed away.  Born in 1872, he was the son of Isidor Strauss who died on the Titanic and the nephew of Nathan Straus for whom Netanya is named.  He was an early supporter of Franklin Roosevelt who appointed named him U.S. Ambassador to France in 1933, a post he held until just before his death.

1936: In London, formation of Jewish People’s Council 

1936:“The Battle of Cable Street took place in Cable Street in the East End of London. It was a clash between the Metropolitan Police Service, overseeing a legal march by the British Union of Fascists, led by Oswald Mosley, and anti-fascists, including local Jewish, groups. The majority of both marchers and counter-protesters travelled into the area for this purpose. Mosley planned to send thousands of marchers dressed in uniforms styled on those of Blackshirts through the East End of London, which had a large Jewish population. “It was a defining moment in British and Anglo-Judaic history, not least for making the government bring in legislation that crippled right wing activity, including a ban on political uniforms, pre-World War II.”  This watershed moment in Anglo-Jewish history would be the subject of a film made seventy years after the event and has been memorialized by the Jews of London’s East End.

1936: “More than 3,000 members of Greater New York units of Junior Hadassah” gathered “in the grand ballroom of the Hotel Astor...to open its fall program and membership drive.  “Shulamith Schwartz who had served as head of the organization and has been teaching in Tel Aviv for the last two years was the principal speaker for the evening.

1936: “An attack on the persecution of Jews in the world today an appeal for love and sympathy between Gentile and Jew, were voiced by Reverend Francis K. Shepherd in his sermon this morning at the North Baptist Church” in which he “declared that this was a ‘Jew-baiting age,’ and that the persecution of Jews existed not only in Germany but in in Palestine and even” in the United States of America.

1937: The Henry Street Visiting Nurse Service is scheduled o begin a drive today designed to raise $250,000.  John M. Schiff of Kuhn, Loeb & Co and the grandson of Jacob Schiff, is chairman of the fund raising effort.

1937: The Palestine Post reported that the Mandatory Government applied emergency regulations to appoint press censors. Editors were specifically ordered to refrain from any comment on the recent banning of the Arab Higher Committee and on the deportation of the top Arab leaders. The cruiser Sussex carried the Arab deportees out to the sea, where they were transshipped to a British destroyer and moved to an unknown destination.

1937: “Varsity Show,” the musical with a screenplay by Jerry Wald and Sig Herzig was released today in the United States.

1938(9thof Tishrei, 5699): Just two days after Arabs massacre Jews in Tiberias, the mournful sounds of Kol Nidre are heard Erev Yom Kippur

1940(2ndof Tishrei, 5701): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah

1940: It was reported today that “concrete action in defense of our liberties and warnings against greed, dependence on material comforts and fall optimism were emphasized in Rosh Hashanah sermons yesterday morning.”

1940: The Hebrew Sheltering Immigrant Aid Society has arranged for Rosh Hashanah Services at Ellis Island and its synagogue at 425 Lafayette Street.

1940: The Jewish Community Centers, Y.M.H.A.’s and Y.W.H.A.’s affiliated with the National Jewish Welfare Board are scheduled to host Rosh Hashanah services.

1940: Hitler and Mussolini met at the Brenner Press, an opening in the Alps between Austria and Italy to celebrate the success of the Axis powers.

1940: German law gives Vichy France the power to imprison Jews even inside the Unoccupied Zone.

1940: “Vichy answered the prayers of the most zealous anti-Dreyfusards” today by adopting a measure that “made the government of Francejudenrein.”

1941: The Bulgarians enforced an extraordinary measure that prohibited the Jews of Macedonia from engaging in any type of industry or commerce. All existing Jewish businesses had three months to transfer ownership to non-Jews or sell their assets and close down.

1941(13th of Tishrei, 5702): Fifteen hundred Jews from Kovno, Lithuania, are transported to the Ninth Fort and murdered. In Kovno proper, Nazis lock the Jewish hospital and set it ablaze, incinerating all inside.

1941: Birthdate of author Jackie Collins, sister of Joan Collins.

1942: Berlin orders that all Jews in concentration camps within Germany be deported to Auschwitz.

1943: At Poznan; Himmler addressed his senior SS staff re-stating the goals of the Final Solution. "I mean the evacuation of the Jews, the extermination of the Jewish race.”  Within the year, as Soviet troops advanced across Eastern Europe, the SS would work to destroy the evidence of their evil deeds.

1943: During World War II, a tanker christened the SS Oscar S. Straus, one of a fleet of “liberty ships” that helped the US win the war of logistics was launched today.

1943: Approximately 200 Danish Jews were not able to escape to Sweden were heading toward Danzig after having been loaded into two cattle cars without food or water by the Nazis.

1944(17thof Tishrei, 5705): Third Day of Sukkoth – Choel Hamoed

1944(17thof Tishrei, 5705): Sixty-one year old Berlin born screenwriter and actor Walter Wassermann passed away today in Salzburg.

1944: All the women and children sent from Theresienstadt to Birkenau on this day would eventually be killed.

1944: Rabbi Yehuda Amital was liberated from a Nazi labor camp by the Soviet Army.

1944:  Al Smith passed away. Smith began life as a genuine reformer.  In the aftermath of the Triangle Shirt factory, he supported an array of measures designed to improve the lot of the workers, many of whom were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe.  At least one of his campaign managers during his successful bid for the governorship of New York was Jewish. Smith was the first Catholic candidate Presidential candidate in 1928.  His 1928 bid for the Presidency presaged the collation that would lead to the election of Roosevelt in 1932. Smith’s defeat and FDR’s victory seem to sour Smith politically and he swung to the right, joining the Liberty League and becoming a staunch critic of the New Deal and the Jews who helped to create it.

1944: Johnny Mercier recorded Harold Arlen’s “Ac-Cent-Tchuate the Positive” with the Pied Pipers and Paul Weston’s orchestra today.

1945: “Week-End At The Waldorf” based on Vicki Baum’s novel Grand Hotel with a script co-written by Bella Spewack was released in the United States by MGM.

1945:Two months after being released in the United Kingdom “True Glory” -- “a documentary account of the allied invasion of Europe during World War II compiled from the footage shot by nearly 1400 cameramen” – directed by Garson Kanin with a script created by Paddy Chayefsky and Eric Maschwitz among others which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature was released today in the United States.

1945: The Ampal American Palestine Trading Corporation of New York, an organization designed “to develop trade relations between the United States and Palestine and to assist in the development of the economic resources of Palestine” registered a stock offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  The sale of the stock is intended to provide working capital to Ampal American to meet its goals.

1946: Final plans were announced today for the construction of Givat (Mount) Washington, settlement designed to provide a home and training for more than 100 Jewish orphans who survived the Holocaust.  Givat Washington will be located outside of Tel Aviv near the ancient town of Yavneh.  The program has been spearheaded by Rabbi Zemach Green of Washington, D.C.  Givat Washington is named in honor of the first President of the United States and fragments of stone from Mt. Vernon, the U.S. Capitol building and the White House are to be set in the foundation stone of the first edifice built on this site.

1946 (9th of Tishrei, 5707): Erev of Shabbat and Erev Yom Kippur

1946: On the eve of Yom Kippur, “President Truman issued the customary presidential statement of greeting to American Jewry, but then went on to urge that ‘substantial’ refugee immigration into Palestine commence immediately, for the plight of the Displace Persons ‘cannot await a solution to the Palestine problem.’”

1947: The University of Michigan Wolverines led by Fullback and Linebacker Dan Dworsky defeated Stanford today in what was their second victory in what would become a perfect season.

1947: In Collegeville, PA, “attorney Raymond Pearlstine” and the former Gladys Cohen, “the chairman of the Montgomery County Community College” gave birth University of Pennsylvania trained lawyer Norman Pearlstine who turned to a career in journalism that included serving in “senior positions at Time, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal” before become “executive editor of the Los Angeles Times.”

1947: After having opened at the National Theatre in 1946 and then transferred to the Majestic Theatre , the curtain came down on “Call Me Mister,” a revue with words and music by Harold Rome and a cast that included Jules Munshin but which would continue its Broadway run at the Plymouth theatre,

1947: German physicist Max Plank passed away.  Planck was not Jewish.  He did try and use his influence to save Jewish scientists from Hitler’s fury.  His son was executed for taking part in the 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler.

1948 (1st of Tishrei, 5709): Rosh Hashanah

1948 (1st of Tishrei, 5709): If Jewish history were a soap opera this episode would be called “Golda goes to the Synagogue”. Golda Meir was the newly appointed Israeli ambassador to the Soviet Union.  Israel had just won its independence in May of 1948 (and the fighting was still going on).  The Soviet Union was in the throes of anti-Semitism. Mrs. Meir went to the Grand Synagogue in Moscow.  At best, they expected the usual 2,000 Jews to attend Rosh Hashanah services.  Instead, she was greeted by a crowd of 50,000 who pressed in upon in Joyous disbelief.  And this was at a time when such behavior could get you to a trip to the Gulag.  The fact that the so many people were still Jewish and willing to risk so much to identify was living proof that despite the adversity of the Holocaust and the Stalinists Am Yisroel Chai - the Jewish people live.

1948(1stof Tishrei, 5709): Seventy-four year old Austrian born David Alter, a partner in “the Alter Notion House” and the husband of Ethel Alter with whom he had five sons and four daughters passed away today in Lakewood, NJ.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1948/10/06/118009242.html?action=click&contentCollection=Archives&module=ArticleEndCTA&region=ArchiveBody&pgtype=article&pageNumber=29



1949(11thof Tishrei, 5710): Seventy-five year old Edmund Samuel Eysler the Austrian composer who avoided the suffering of the Holocaust despite his “Jewish origins” died today when he feel from a stage.

1950(23rdof Tishrei, 5711): Simchat Torah

1950: Birthdate of actor Alan Rosenberg, the native of Passaic, NJ, who was President of the Screen Actors Guild from 2005 to 2009.

1950: After being broadcast by ABC and CBS, “You Bet Your Life” a comedy quiz show starring Groucho Marx was broadcast on NBC for the first time today.

1950: In Passaic, NJ, Martha Rosenberg Wald and her husband gave birth to American actor Alan Rosenberg, the brother of Mark Rosenberg.

1951: “The Dybbuk,” an opera in three acts composed by David Tamkin in 1933 that uses an English libretto by Alex Tamkin, the composer's brother, which is based on S. Ansky’s Yiddish play of the same name premiered today with a performance by the New York City Opera.  1952(15thof Tishrei, 5713): Sukkoth.

1952: After 350 performances, the curtain came down the original Broadway production of “Top Banana” a musical with a book by Hy Kraft and starring Tony Award winner Phil Silvers.

1955: Mitchell Levin is overjoyed as the Brooklyn Dodgers won game seven of the World Series giving the Brooklyn team their first, and only World Series championship.

1956: NBC broadcast the episode of The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show written by Norman Lear and directed by Bud Yorkin.

1956(29th of Tishrei, 5717): Gabriel Benjamin Dahan (born 1931), Ephraim Waldman (born 1907), Arie Lahav (born 1921) and Jacob Lustig (born 1916), all of whom worked for Solel Boneh, were murdered today when 10 Palestinian terrorists who infiltrated from Jordan machine gunned their jeeps “on the Sodom-Beer Sheva Road also known as Highway 25’.”

1956(29thof Tishrei, 5717): Two Israelis laborers were killed by Palestinian terrorists “in an orchard near Even Yehuda” following which Moshe Dayan expressed a desire to mount a reprisal raids.

1957(9thof Tishrei, 5718): Erev Shabbat and Erev Yom Kippur

1957: The modern space age began today when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, a satellite whose launching changed the face of the educational and political landscape of the United States.

1958: After only five performances on Broadway the curtain came down on “Handful of Fire” a two-act play by N. Richard Nash.

1959(2ndof Tishrei, 5720): Second day of Rosh Hashanah but the first time that the shofar is blown because the first of Tishrei fell on Shabbat

1959: Birthdate of Shelley Levitan Adler, the native of Chicago and Harvard Law School graduate who was the wife of former Congressman John Adler who converted to Judaism when her married and who unsuccessfully ran to fill her husband’s old seat in the House of Representatives from New Jersey’s Third Congressional Distrcit.

1959: On NBC Sunday Showcase, Larry Blyden starred as Sammy Glick in the second part of the two-part television broadcast of “What Makes Sammy Run” based on the novel by Budd Schulberg.

1962: “The Longest Day” an epic about D-Day with a script co-authored by Romain Gary and featuring George Segal was released in Canada today.

1963: Tonight, the audience attending the opening night of the Lyric Opera of Chicago season found a rose pinned to every theatre seat” because the performance “was dedicated Rosa Risa” the city’s “great Jewish Soprano” who had died on September 28.

1963: On opening night, the Lyric Opera of Chicago performed Verdi’s “Nabucco” or Nebuchadnezzar which is based on the story of the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of its Jewish inhabitants.

1965: Pope Paul VI arrived in New York City, making him the first pope in history to visit the United States. While speaking at the UN, Paul published a document exonerating the Jews of all blame in the death of Jesus Christ.

1965: William McKenzie Wood completed his term as Canadian ambassador to Israel.

1965(8th of Tishrei, 5726): Fifty four year old former Congressman Ludwig Teller Passed away.


https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/ludwig_teller/410700

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Teller

1966: “Crash,” the award winning film directed and produced by David Croenberg who also wrote the script, filmed by cinematographer Peter Suschitzky and with music by Howard Shore was released today in Canada.

1967(29thof Elul, 5727: Erev Rosh Hashanah

1967(29thof Elul, 5727): Six years after his wife Margalit died in automobile accident Ariel Sharon suffers another loss when his eleven year old son Gur is mortally wounded while he and a friend are playing with an old shotgun

1967: Birthdate of American actor Leiv Schreiber.

1969(22ndof Tishrei, 5730) Shmini Atzeret falls on Shabbat

1969(22ndof Tishrei, 5730): Seventy-eight year old Edwin Posner “a senior partner of Andrews, Posner & Rothschild” and former chairman of the American Stock Exchange (Amex) passed away today.


1969: “Hail, Hero!” a movie version of the novel by the same name co-starring Peter Strauss with music by Jerome Moss was released in the United States today.

1970: Birthdate of Abraham Benrubi, the American actor playing on ER and in the movie Open Range.

1971(15th of Tishrei, 5732): Sukkoth

1971(15th of Tishrei, 5732): Seventy-three year old Kathryn Clifford Kallet, the wife Aaron Harry Kallet , the All American End at Syracuse University, passed away today after which she was buried in the Oakwood Cemetery in Syracuse, NY.


1973: Ashraf Marwan telephoned Dubi, his Mossad contact, from Paris and told him about a Libyan plan to shoot down an El Al plane in the French capital using a shoulder-held missile.

1973: Israeli newspapers reported that Colonel Kaddafi of Libya was sending terrorist squads to stage acts of terrorism in both Israel and Jordan. 

1973: The Israeli cabinet met to discuss the Austrian government’s decision to close down the refugee camp at Schoenau where many Soviet Jews were waiting to continue their escape to Israel.  The Austrian decision was the result of an Arab terrorist attack on a train carrying Jewish refugees from the Soviet Union to Austria.

1973: At lunch with General Ze’evi Moshe Dayan said, “There’s not going to be a war.  Not this summer and not this fall.” [Yom Kippur was two days away.]

1974: “Jewish activist Vitali Rubin, specialist in ancient Chinese philosophy, suffered a heart attack when arrested by police for “parasitism”.

1976: Barbara Walters became the first woman co-anchor of a major network evening news program.. (As reported by Jewish Women’s Archives)

1976(10th of Tishrei, 5737): Yom Kippur

1976(10thof Tishrei, 5737): Ninety-five year old U.C. Berkley undergraduate Leo Eloesser, the thoracic surgeon with a conscious who provided medical services to the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War and the Chinese Army during WW II passed away today.

http://www.alba-valb.org/volunteers/leo-eloesser

http://www.albavolunteer.org/2016/12/leo-eloesser-the-remarkable-story-of-a-medical-volunteer-in-spain/

1976: In San Francisco, Deirdre "Didi" (née Radford), a Scottish former Pan Am flight attendant who converted to Judaism before her wedding and Monty Silverstone, an English real estate agent, gave birth to award winning actress Alicia Silverstone.

1977(22nd of Tishrei, 5738): Shemini Atzeret

1980(24thof Tishrei, 5741): Parashat Bereshit

1980(24thof Tishrei, 5741): Eight-nine year old Adolph Bolster Veit, the Adrian, MN born son of Frank and Caroline Veit and the husband Clementine Veit passed away today in St. Paul after which he was buried at Fort Snelling.

1982: Birthdate of Omer Goland, who “who plays as a striker for Maccabi Petah Tikva”

1982(17th of Tishrei, 5743):  Lefty Rosenthal, the talented professional gambler and gangster-when-necessary who had brought sports betting to casinos in Las Vegas and illicitly run an empire of four hotel casinos, walked out of Tony Roma’s on East Sahara Avenue with an order of takeout ribs. He had just finished dinner with some fellow handicappers, and he was bringing the food home for his two children. When he got into his car, it blew up. Mr. Rosenthal survived the explosion — later he could not remember whether he had turned the ignition key — but the attempt on his life, for which no one was ever prosecuted, ended his career as one of the most powerful men in Las Vegas. He left the city early the next year and on Monday, at home in Miami Beach, he died. He was 79 and had lived in Florida since the late 1980s. Rosenthal was a born to a Jewish family in Chicago.

1983: As the Israel Bank Stock Crisis enters its third day went on television saying that the behavior of the pubic “would not bring about a devaluation” of the currency “or any change in policy.”

1983: Martin Fledman was confirmed as a U.S. District Judge by the United States today.

1985: U.S. premiere of “Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters” with music by Philip Glass.

1986(1st of Tishrei, 5747): Rosh Hashanah and Shabbat

1990(15th of Tishrei, 5751): Sukkoth

1991: “Ricochet” a crime movie produced by Joel Silver and co-starring Kevin Pollack was released in the United States today.

1992(7th of Tishrei, 5753): An El Al Boeing 747-200F crashed into 2 apartment buildings in Amsterdam, killing 43 including 38 on the ground.

1992: Yad Vashem recognized Destan Balla and his wife, Lime Balla, as Righteous Among the Nations.


1993: Hamas was responsible for a car bombing near Beit El that injured 29 people.

1995(10thof Tishrei, 5756): Yom Kippur

1995: “Kicking and Screaming” directed by Noah Baumbach and co-starring Eliot Gould premiered at the New York Film Festival.

1996: Five weeks after premiering at the Venice Film Festival, “Bound” a crime thriller co-starring Gina Gershon was released in the United States today.

1997: The New York Times featured reviews of Kaddish by Leon Wieseltier and With Roots In Heaven: One Woman's Passionate Journey Into the Heart of Her Faithby Tirzah Firestone. Six years ago, Tirzah Firestone was ordained as a rabbi. With Roots in Heaven, her relentlessly earnest autobiography, details her forays into Eastern, mystical and New Age religions as she forges an identity as a Jew prepared to teach and judge in matters of Jewish life and law. Beginning with the years of permissiveness following her ''middle-class Jewish ghetto'' of an Orthodox upbringing, Firestone recounts her spiritual and physical flirtations; they are frequently intertwined. With Ron in Istanbul, she eschews bourgeois materialism and explores ''The Autobiography of a Yogi.'' In Denver, Firestone falls for the ''dark charisma and exotic religion'' of a Hindu known as Everlasting. Firestone is soon primed for Fredrick, a gentle Christian minister with a mystical bent, who slowly redirects her to Jewish mysticism. In 1985, the minister marries the future rabbi. The two ''love warriors, holding high the standard of our universal beliefs,'' mean to serve as an ecumenical example. A Jungian, Firestone judges her every experience to hold not only symbolism for her, but also a key to the spiritual destiny of mankind. Typical of her preachy efforts to uncover this universality is her interpretation of dreams. While the lessons Firestone draws from her life are heartfelt, she may misjudge the scope of her experience.  Meanwhile, Kaddish is one of the best books written on this topic and the Theodore Bikel recording is a classic that nobody should miss hearing.

1999: “What’s Wrong With the SAT and Its Elite Progeny” published today provided a review of The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracyby Nicholas Lemann


2000: Following his rejection the Bill Clinton brokered peace plan, Yasser Arafat arrived in Paris and went to meet with the President of France who is viewed as pro-Palestinian.

2000: Broadcast of the first show of season three of the drama series “Felicity” created by J.J. Abrams and co-starring Greg Grunberg.

2001: As of tonight, signatures were still being collected for a letter to be delivered to President Bush tomorrow expressing support for the administration's war on terrorism and policy efforts in the Middle East. Among those who had already signed the letter are Marvin Lender, the former chairman of the United Jewish Appeal; Jacob Stein, another former chairman of the Conference of Presidents; Judith Stern Peck, former chairwoman of UJA-Federation of New York; and Joel Tauber, the departing chairman of United Jewish Communities. A number of corporate executives also signed the letter, including Stanley Gold, the president of Shamrock Investments; and 2003 (8th of Tishrei, 5764): During the continuing wave of Arab terrorism there was a suicide bombing at Maxim restaurant, a popular eatery for Israeli Jews and Arabs.  It was a symbol of the multiculturalism of this seaside city.  A  Palestinian suicide bomber, exploded inside the Maxim restaurant in Haifa. Among the dead were 21 Israeli, Jews and Arabs. Another 51 were wounded

2001: Following the issuance of a report by the Comptroller, Ariel Sharon returned 1.5 million NIS to his donors.

2001(17thof Tishrei, 5762): Third Day of Sukkoth

2001(17thof Tishrei, 5762): Nineteen year old Tali Ben-Armon, 20 year old Sergei Freidin and 76 year old Haim Ben-Ezra were murdered when Fatah terrorist “opened fire on civilians at the central bus station”
in Afula.

2002(28thof Tishrei, 5763): Seventy-eight year old Romanian born Holocaust survivor, violinist and composer “Sandor (Shony) Alex Braun, the author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated “Symphony on the Holocaust” passed away today.


2002: In “From Vengeance to Mercy: Tale of Jewish Brigade” published today, Ron Grossman tells the tale of a Jews fighting in an all-Jewish unit in the British Army during WW II.


2003 (8th of Tishrei, 5764): Shabbat Shuvah

2003: Islamic Jihad claimed credit for todays’ suicide bombing at the Maxim Restaurant in Haifa that killed 21 and injured 51 including a two-month old baby.

2005(1st of Tishrei, 5766): First Day Rosh Hashanah

2005(1stof Tishrei, 5766):  Eighty-six year old folk music producer Harold Leventhal passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)


2005: Haaretz reported that thousands of Israelis had canceled trips to the Sinai in light of previous terrorist attacks and threats of renewed violence.

2006(12thof Tishrei, 5767): Selma Judith Levy Toback, the widow of Irwin Lionel Toback and the daughter of Joseph Crawford Levy and Helen Yeamans Levy passed away today.




2006: Former Jewish Agency chairman Sallai Meridor was appointed as the next ambassador to Washington, replacing Danny Ayalon who has completed four years of service in the US capital.

2006:Yiftah Ron-Tal, the general in charge of the IDF Ground Forces Command “said publicly that IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz should accept responsibility for malfunctions in the Israel-Hezbollah War and accept the consequences” while also hinting “that Israeli PM Ehud Olmert should do the same.”

2006:Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz discharged Major General Iftach Ron-Tal the head of the IDF's ground forces over remarks he made calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

2007(22nd of Tishrei, 5768): Shemini Atzeret,

2007: In Budapest, the Jewish Theological Seminary – University of Jewish Studies celebrated its 130th anniversary today.

2007: Today, PVH, or Phillips-Van Huesen “a men’s clothing come that traces its origins to 1881…Moses Phillips sold work shirts sewn by his wife Endel, to coal miners in Pottsville, PA” “took over the naming rights to the Meadowlands Sports Complex Arena in East Rutherford, NJ.” (As reported by William Grimes)

2008(5th of Tishrei, 5769): Shabbat Shuvah,

2008: Ninety-year old Saul Laskin, the former mayor of Thunder Bay passed away today.




2008: The musically gifted Eric Carson, son of Bill and Laura Carson, is called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids,

2009:St. John's Church at Lafayette Square winds up its three-part forum, "The Middle East: Moving Towards Peace?," with a lecture by David Ignatius, an associate editor at The Washington Post.

2009(16th of Tishrei, 5770): 2nd Day of Sukkoth

2009: The Washington Post features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Hardball by Sara Paretsky

2009: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including We’ll Be Here For The Rest of Our Lives:A Swingin’ Show-Biz Saga by Paul Shaffer with David Ritz

2009: The Los Angeles Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Notes on Sontag by Phillip Lopate, and Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son by Michael Chabon

2009: The Times of London features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Russia and the Arabs: Behind the Scenes in the Middle East from the Cold War to the Present by Yevgeny Primakov

2009:Vandals destroyed or damaged hundreds of archaeological artifacts at Uvdat National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Negev tonight. Nili Dvash, the manager of the Uvdat site, told Army Radio about the situation at the scene several hours after the place was vandalized.

2010:YIVO Institute for Jewish research is scheduled to present a program entitled Chaim Grade Memorial on the 100th Anniversary of his Birth” that will include a screening of the film The Quarrel. The Quarrel is an English Language film based on Grade's story "My Quarrel with Hersh Rasseyner."

2010:Today, the state archives released hitherto unseen copies of minutes of Prime Minister Golda Meir's meeting with her war cabinet on the second day of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

2010(26thof Tishrei, 5771):Eighty-seven year old Sidney J. Weinberg Jr.,” a senior director of Goldman Sachs and a member of the family dynasty that had played a central role at the investment banking firm since 1907” passed away today. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)


2010: Dr. Janet Yellen completed her terms as President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

2010: Dr. Janet Yellen began serving as the Vice Chairperson of the Federal Reserve System

2010: Israel and the United States are holding behind-the-scenes talks geared at resolving a recent deadlock in Mideast peace talks with the Palestinians, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today, adding that peace was Israel's vital interest. Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said that Israel was "in the midst of sensitive diplomatic contacts with the U.S. administration in order to find a solution that will allow the continuation of the talks."

2011: Based on vacate notices signed by Rabbi Avraham Shemtov, chairman of Agudas Chasidei Chabad of the United States, and Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch today is the deadline for a group of gabbaim who have been promoting the idea that Menachem Mendel Schneerson (of blessed memory) is the messiah to vacate the synagogue at 770 Eastern Parkway. “A New York court ruled in 2006 that the groups led by Krinsky and Shemtov are the synagogue’s rightful owners.”

2011: John Rybicki is scheduled to give the final lecture in a series styled “In Search of Jewish Spirituality” co-sponsored by the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia.

2011: Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess were two of the three U.S.-born scientists who won the Nobel Prize in physics today.

2011:The Oakland Hebrew Day School in California has raised $1 million in 10 months to match a grant from an anonymous donor. The $2 million will be used to provide need-based scholarships for students to attend the Modern Orthodox day school, the Bay Area school announced today.

2011:Israel continued to maintain a silence today over a US Congressional decision – despite US Administration opposition - to withhold some $200 million in financial assistance to the PA.

2011: In an apparent effort to keep the most recent Quartet initiative alive, the US embassy circulated a statement today giving the impression both Israel and the Palestinians have equally accepted a Quartet framework for returning to direct talks, though the Palestinians have not yet formally endorsed the idea. Under the proposal, Israel and the Palestinians are supposed to sit down for a preparatory meeting by October 23, or two weeks from Sunday.

2011(6thof Tishrei, 5772): Eighty-five year old actress Doris Belack passed away months after the death of her husband, Philip Rose best known for producing “A Raisin in the Sun.” (As reported by Paul Vitello)


2011(6thof Tishrei, 5772): Ninety-five year old St. Louis businessman, artist and philanthropist Ernest W. Stix, whose grandfather William Stix “founded the old Rice-Stix Company…which by the time of the 1904 World’s Fair…was described as the largest business in St. Louis, passed away today.

2011(6thof Tishrei, 5772):Sixty-seven year old Hanan Porat, leader of the “settler movement” in Judea and Samaria, passed away today. (As reported by Ethan Bronner)


2012: In New York City, final scheduled screening at the Lincoln Plaza of “Six Million and One” a documentary by David Fisher, the son of a Holocaust survivor.



2012: The Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation is scheduled to open its Fall Speakers Series which is now in its tenth year with a lecture by Michael O’Hanlon on “Scoring President Obama’s Foreign Policy: Successes and Failures.”



2012: In the UK, The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide is scheduled to present “The Future of the Past - The Importance of School History Teaching,” featuring Dr Nicholas Tate, Chairman of International Education Systems



2012: Klezmer Clarinetist, Mandolinist, Composer and Baal Teshuva Andy Statman performed with the other National Heritage Fellowship Recipients today.



2012:Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has already made a final decision to seek a February 12 election rather than try to pass the 2013 state budget, politicians who spoke to Netanyahu said today.

2012: An Israeli-Arab man, 26, was charged today with spying for the Lebanon-based terror organization Hezbollah. The defendant was accused of scouting IDF locations and tracking the movements of President Shimon Peres for the Islamic militant group.

2013: Marvin Bash who serves as the Rabbi at the Pentagon and his son Jeremy are scheduled to talk about their perspectives on Jewish life in the military at the Benefactor Luncheon hosted by the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington

2013: The Maccabeats are scheduled to perform at Congregation Beth Tefillah in Paramus, NJ.

2013: At noon “Kol Israel” is scheduled to broadcast “Excellence – The Future Generation” featuring a piano recital by Adi Neuhaus.

2013(30thof Tishrei, 5774): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan I

2013: Over 100 women in prayer shawls and tefillin prayed in “relative peace” at the Western Wall today on Rosh Chodesh “despited some jeering and spitting from Orthodox female protesters” who apparently have their own way of obeying the commandment about loving your neighbor.

2013: A haredi man was arrested at the Western Wall in Jerusalem this morning for spitting and throwing items at members of the Women of the Wall prayer activist group as ultra-Orthodox protesters shouted insults at the WoW members, Israel Radio reported. Dozens of members of WoW gathered at the wall this morning for their monthly prayer service marking the new month on the Jewish calendar.

2014(10thof Tishrei, 5775): Yom Kippur

G'mar Chasima Tova Have an easy fast.



2014 All radio and television stations in Israel go off the air for the Day of Atonement.

2014: In “The Exotic History of British Fish and Chips” published today Paul Levy traces the history of this English food that traces its origins to Joseph Malin, “a 13 year old Jewish boy living in the East End” who “had the idea of combining fried fish with chips” which he “probably first sold from a tray hung around his neck” before opening “a shop in Cleveland Street.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/11140147/The-exotic-history-of-British-fish-and-chips.html

2014: “As the fast of Yom Kippur ended this evening, Israelis were slowly returning to their regular lives, with cars once again occupying the roads and public transportation resuming service around 8:30 p.m.”

2014: Tonight Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that Swedish Priminster Stefan Lofvens announcement that his government intends to recognize Palestine “was unfortunate.”

2014: Tonight, Lewis Black is scheduled to perform at the Mirage in Las Vegas, NV.

2014(10thof Tishrei, 5775): Ninety-one architect Judith Edelman passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/business/judith-edelman-architect-91-is-dead-firebrand-in-a-male-dominated-field.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpHedThumbWell&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=1

2015: The final performance of “Just Between Us – A Piano, a Mic and a Memory, that portrays the “life long journey of a Jewish girl from Brooklyn is scheduled to take place at the Source Theatre.

2015: The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia is scheduled to co-sponsor the “6th Annual Northern Virginia Cycle Fest” today.

2015: The New York Times reviewed books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readings including Kissinger Volume I 1923-1968: The Idealist by Niall Ferguson and Kissinger’s Shadow: The Long Reach of America’s Most Controversial Statesman by Greg Grandin and the recently released paperback edition of Honeydew: Storiesby Edith Pearlman

2015(21stof Tishrei, 5776): Hoahanah Rabah

2015: In the evening the chaplains of the Oxford University Jewish Society to a host dinner after Mincha/Ma’ariv Shemini Atzeret Services.

2015: Twenty-one year old Aharon Bennett who was stabbed death last night in Jerusalem in an attack where the terrorists wounded his wife and daughter is scheduled to be buried early this morning on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.

2015: On the Tuscan coast in Livorno.“fierce weather damaged the synagogue” which had opened in 1962 “on the site of the city’s 17th century old synagogue which was destroyed in a bombing raid” during WW II.

2015: Forty-one year old Rabbi Nehemia Lavi, a father of seven, who was stabbed to death when he went to the aid of a family being attacked in Jerusalem is scheduled to be buried at noon today ”at the Har Hamenuchot Cemetery in Jerusalem.”

2016: “David Blatt, the Israeli American who was fired as head coach of the NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers during the season” said today that he “will accept a championship ring from the team.”

2016: Conditions in the Middle East continue to deteriorate as Americans suspend talks with the Russians on Syria and the Russians effectively abrogate the treaty on the disposal of weapons grade plutonium.

2016: “A hit man who confessed to killing Jewish law professor Dan Markel implicated Markel’s ex-wife” Wendi Adelson “in the crime” today during a please interview in which he added “that she supervised his work a day before the killing.”

2016: In a sign of true communal spirit Rabbi Jeff Portman of Congregation Agudas Achim is scheduled to lead an afternoon Rosh Hashanah service at the Oaknoll Retirement Community.

2016: Eighty-eight year old Roslyn Litman, the civil liberties advocate who had to overcome gross sexism to pursue her legal career passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/09/us/roslyn-litman-antitrust-lawyer-and-civil-liberties-advocate-dies-at-88.html?hpw=undefined&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

2016(2nd of Tishrei, 5777): Rosh Hashanah Second Day



שנה טובה, כתיבה וחתימה טובה.



2016: In “How Do You Say ‘Email’ in Yiddish?” published today Joseph Berger provides a review of the new “826-page Comprehensive English-Yiddish Dictionary, with almost 50,000 entries and 33,000 subentries, which is the work of Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath, a Yiddish editor and poet, and Paul Glasser, a former dean at YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, the major repository of Yiddish language, literature and folklore.:

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/05/arts/how-do-you-say-email-in-yiddish.html?emc=eta1&_r=0

2016(2ndof Tishrei, 5777): Eighty-six year old medical trainee advocate Dr. Bertrand M. Bell passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/07/nyregion/bertrand-m-bell-dies.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

2016(2nd of Tishrei, 5777): Eight-nine year old graphic designer Elaine Lustig Cohen passed away today. (As reported by Anita Gates)

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/09/arts/design/elaine-lustig-cohen-designer-who-left-her-mark-everywhere-dies-at-89.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

2017(14thof Tishrei, 5778): Erev Sukkoth

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_Pilichowski#/media/File:Leopold_Pilichowski_Sukkot.jpg

2017: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “In Between” a film about “three young Arab-Israeli women” sharing a flat in Tel Aviv.2017: In Budapest, the Jewish Theological Seminary – University of Jewish Studies is scheduled to celebrate its 140thanniversary today.

2017: “The body of Rueven Schmerling a Jewish man from Elkana was discovered with stab wounds” today “in a storage space near…Kafr Quassem.”

2018: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to co-host “In Dialogue: Polish Jewish Relations in the Pre-Modern Period” – a discussion led by Magda Teter (Fordham University) and Brian Porter-Szűcs (University of Michigan).

2018: Renan Koen is scheduled to perform at the American Sephardi Music Festival

http://www.renankoen.com/home

2018: “Rifts Break Open at Facebook Over Kavanaugh Hearing” published today described the role Vice President Joel Kaplan’s role in the hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/04/technology/facebook-kavanaugh-nomination-kaplan.html?action=click&module=In%20Other%20News&pgtype=Homepage&action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage

2018: The University of Haifa is scheduled to confer an honorary degree on German Chancellor Angela Merkel “in recognition of her leadership grounded in the principles of equality, freedom, and human rights; for serving as a model to women around the world; in appreciation of her warm friendship and robust ties between the Federal Republic of German and the State of Israel’ at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

2018: The Breman Museum, Beit Hatfutsot, JumpSpark, and the Jewish Grandparents Network are scheduled to co-host a screening of “The Samuel Project,” co-starring Hal Linden in the title role of a “Jewish grandfather and San Diego dry cleaner” who had been save from capture by the Nazis.

2018: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host a screening of “Prosecuting Evil: The Extraordinary World of Ben Ferencz” followed by a discussion with lawyer who as a 25 year old prosecuted 22 member of the Einsatzgruppen and Barry Avrich who directed and produced the film.

2019: In Jerusalem, the Tower of Davis is scheduled to host an English language tour of “both the Citadel moat and the Kishle, building which was built in 1834 by Ibrahim Pasha, the Egyptian ruler, and continued to serve as a military compound even after it was returned to Ottoman control in 1841.”

2019: In Memphis, TN, Temple Israel is scheduled to host a “Shabbat Shuvah Preneg,” the first of these popular events to be held in 5780.

2019: Netflix is scheduled to broadcast “Fish Gotta Swim,” the fifth episode in the limited television series “The Spy,” a biopic based on the life of Eli Cohen

2019: As the week comes to an end, Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to continue trying to form a government under the cloud of a possible indictment “on multiple corruption charges.”






This Day, October 5, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin

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OCTOBER 5


610: Phocas, the Byzantine Emperor during whose reign the Jews of Antioch revolted was murdered by his successor Heraclitus.

871: A scribe stopped writing a ketubah that he had dated the 16thday of Tishrei because he had made a mistake on the date.  [This ketubah would turn out to be the oldest dated document found when the Genizah of Cairo was opened in the 19thcentury]

1143: The king Alfonso VII of Leon recognizes Portugal as a Kingdom. When Alfonso came to the throne he sought to curtail the rights granted them by his father but he saw “the error of his ways” and moved to restore these rights in attempt to gain the benefits of having loyal Jewish subjects on his side.  “In the beginning of his reign, Alfonso VII (1111) curtailed the rights and liberties that his father granted the Jews. He ordered that neither a Jew nor a convert may exercise legal authority over Christians, and he held the Jews responsible for the collection of the royal taxes. Soon, however, he became friendlier, confirming the Jews in all their former privileges and even granting them additional ones, by which they were placed in parity with Christians. Judah ben Joseph ibn Ezra had considerable influence with the king, and after the conquest of Calatrava (1147) the king placed Judah in command of one of his fortresses, later making him his court chamberlain.”

1214: King Alfonso VIII of Castile passed away. Alfonso enjoyed the company and pleasure of Jewish paramour, Rahel la Fermose (Rachel the Beautiful).  She reportedly used her position to gain the appointment of her co-religionists to position of power.  This made her numerous enemies among the Christian nobles and clergy who plotted the murder of Rachel and several of her Jewish compatriots.  According to some, Alfonso was present at the time of her murder. This tale of monarchal love and betrayal has provided the theme for several literary works including “Die Jüdin von Toledo” a novel by Lion Feuchtwanger

1167: Raymond Trencaval, a French viscount who was looked upon favorably by the Jews of Beziers (France) was murdered.  His son, Roger raised troops to punish those responsible for the murder.  He spared the Jews because they had been faithful to his father. This all had more to do with what became known as the Albigensian Heresy than it did with the Jews.  In fact, Roger employed Jews as Sheriffs one of whom was Moses de Cavarite.

1285: King Philip III of France passed away.  During his reign, the Inquisition, which had been instituted in order to suppress the heresy of the Albigensians, finally occupied itself with the Jews of southern France who converted to Christianity. The popes complained that not only were baptized Jews returning to their former faith, but that Christians also were being converted to Judaism. In March 1273, Gregory X formulated the following rules: relapsed Jews, as well as Christians who abjured their faith in favor of "the Jewish superstition", were to be treated by the Inquisitors as heretics. The instigators of such apostasies, as those who received or defended the guilty ones, were to be punished in the same way as the delinquents.”  In an era when monarchs were dueling with the Church over who had the ultimate power, King Philip did nothing to resist the papal pronouncements.

1450: Ludwig IX expelled the Jews from Lower Bavaria.

1600: Birthdate of Thomas Goodwin the English Puritan theologian and preacher the author of Moses and Aaron: Civil and Ecclesiastical Rites, Used by the Ancient Hebrews

1682(3rdof Tishrei, 5443): Abraham Abele Gombiner the Polish rabbi born in 1635 known as the Magen Avraham passed away today.

1737:António José da a Brazilian dramatist, known as "the Jew" (O Judeu) and his wife D. Leonor Maria de Carvalho, whose parents had been burnt by the Inquisition were imprisoned by the Inquisition  on charges of “judaizing” based on a slaves denunciation of the two made to “the Holy Office.”

1769: Uriah Hendricks, the son of Aaron Hendricks and his first wife Eva Esther Hendricks gave birth to Mordecai Gomez Hendricks

1789(15thof Tishrei, 5550): Sukkoth

1796: In Pohrebyshche. Sholom Shachne, Rebbe of Prohobisht, the son of Rabbi Avrohom HaMalach and the grandson of the Maggid of Mezritch and his wife gave birth to Chasidic rebbe Israel Ruzhin, known as “The holy one from Ruzhyn.”

1799(6thof Tishrei, 5560): Last Shabbat Shuva of the 18th century.

1806(23rdof Tishrei, 5567): Simchat Torah

1808(14thof Tishrei, 5669): Erev Sukkoth

1808: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Jacob Suares officiated at the wedding of Israel Solomons to Esther Ottolengui.

1809: Isaac Selig married Rachel Raphael today at the Western Synagogue.

1818: Lew Way, “an English clergyman” “the real founder of the reorganized London society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews delivered a petition to Emperor Alexander I of Russia and the allied rulers” with which he sought “to advance the emancipation of the Jews of Europe”

1809(25thof Tishrei, 5570): Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev, “also known as the Berdichever” a disciple of the Maggid of Mezritch passed away today after his son Israel “succeeded him as leader in the Chasidic Movement.




1818: Lew Way, “an English clergyman” “the real founder of the reorganized London society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews delivered a petition to Emperor Alexander I of Russia and the allied rulers” with which he sought “to advance the emancipation of the Jews of Europe”

1820: In Arhus Denmark, Thamar (Terese) Rée and Hartvig Philip Rée gave birth to Anton Hartvig Rée

1822: In Liverpool, Miriam Aaron and Abraham Franklin gave birth to Ellis A. Franklin, “the Vice-President of the Anglo-Jewish Association, Life Member of the Council of United Synagogue” and a “Member of the Board of Deputies” who was the husband of Adelaide Samuel with whom he had seven children.

1823: Twenty year old German-born composer Julius Benedict was introduced to Beethoven today in Vienna following which “he was appointed Kapellmeister of the Kärnthnerthor theatre at Vienna.”

1823: Lawrence Phillips married Zipporah Rees today at the Western Synagogue.

1825(23rd of Tishrei, 5586): Simchat Torah

1827: Birthdate of Wilna native Moses Ha-Kohen Reicherson the grammarian and Hebrew teach who came to New York in 1890 where he continued teaching and writing until his death in 1903.

1829: Birthdate of German painter Ludwig Knaus whose works include “The Ghetto.”


1842: In London, “solicitor Joshua Alexander and his wife Jemima, the daughter of Sara de Abraham Mocatta and David Abarbanel Lindo” gave birth to David Lindo Alexander the English barrister and Jewish community leader who joined with Claude Montefiore in opposing the Balfour Declaration and the Zionist movement and who was the husband of Hester Joseph, the daughter of stock broker Simeon Joseph.

1846(15thof Tishrei, 5607): Sukkoth

1848:Isaac Noah Mannheimer, a Jewish scholar, who had been returned by Brody to the Austrian Reichstag, delivered a “memorable” speech on the subject of the Jewish tax.  Mannheimer was held in such high regard that “On his seventieth birthday the city of Vienna conferred honorary citizenship upon him.”

1848: Birthdate of Alexander Kisch, the native of Prague who tutored the family of Baron Horace de Gunzburg before starting his rabbinic career which took him to Bohemia, Zurich and finally back to Prague.

1849: In Wien, “Mose and Regina Finzi” gave birth to Alfred Abraham Frinzi, the “husband of Rachele Finzi” with whom he had five children.

1851(9th of Tishrei, 5612): Erev Yom Kippur

1853(3rdof Tishrei, 5614): Tzom Gedaliah

1854:Hermann Mayer Salomon Goldschmidt discovered a new asteroid, 32 Pomona.

1856: Reverend Charles Harris, "a Christian Jew" is scheduled to preach today at the first Methodist-Episcopal Church in NYC.  Apparently the Jews for Jesus type movements are lot older than we think.

1857: The City of Anaheim, CA was founded. According to recent figures2.11% in Anaheim (zip 92804), CA are Jewish. Scott Schoeneweis may be Anaheim’s most famous Jew. The son of a Jewish mother, he was only southpaw in the Anaheim Angels' bullpen for the 2002 World Series, Scott helped his team win the first championship in franchise history.

1857: Birthdate of Julius Plotke the German lawyer and communal leader who was “a trustee of the Jewish Colonization Association, of the Alliance Israélite Universal and of the Aid Society of German Jews.”

1862:The New YorkTimes takes advantage of a letter that it has received from a Jewish writer asking why he cannot receive an exemption from military service on religious grounds since he cannot pork, the food provided by the Army to review the entire matter of the diet being served to the soldiers serving in the Union Army.

We have before us a letter from a Hebrew correspondent, who adverting to the exemption from military duty of Quakers, Shakers, and such religious orders as deem it incompatible with their religion to fight, asks the pertinent question: "Why should I not be exempted because of my religious abhorrence to the army ration? Must I be forced to partake of a flesh that is forbidden by my law, and of which a large portion of my allotted food is composed?" We can hardly take up the query and answer it as especially adapted to the Hebrew, although we believe there are many patriotic men of the persuasion marching on with the Union army, but as a proposition applying at large, the pork question is worthy of consideration. We hold it as a fact, not patent, that the smallest item connected with the physical well-being of the army, assumes an importance at this moment as great as that which affects its moral. Good food is as much a necessity of war as good powder, and should be equally well tested and chosen. We candidly believe that our ill-arranged army ration is doing as much to destroy our men as the bullets of the enemy. Pork! pork! perpetually pork' and beef, perpetually beef! It does not require medical authority to know that there is an instinctive craving in every organism for a variety of food; and no matter how excellent any one article may be, too frequent use only inspires disgust and loathing, and consequently a failure to nourish. A ration composed wholly of cereals and animal food, is ill adapted for health in Winter, but in Summer is simply a slow poison. If, as is now the case, a large portion of those meats are salted, the evil is heightened and the system works to the promotion of bilious and scorbutic diseases. For the ill feeding of our soldiers in the field there is no excuse whatever. Nothing is gained on the score of economy, for the soldier that is ill-fed, whether it be by shortness of provender, by badness of quality or by sameness and ignorance of dietary, is a burden upon the State, and unable to encounter the mental or physical responsibilities of his position. A battle upon a well-satisfied stomach is half won. There is no reason that a positive schedule for the soldiers' food should be laid down-and-strictly adhered to through every exigency and every season. The whole country teems with an abundance of food that would form admirable substitutes for the perpetual pork and beans, an abundance that would now in on our ill-fed armies if the signal be but given and the market thrown open for competition. There is a vast glut of Fall vegetables and fruits; enough wasted in some small districts to put new life and health into a hundred thousand men. There is no reason why these necessities should not be forwarded from the localities of the formation of regiments, and the people called on to contribute each his mile. They have responded grandly to the call for luxuries for the sick and wounded, is there any less reason that they should respond to the wants of those that are in health when the object is to retain that health which is to make the soldier effective on the battle-field? Again, the army ration gives no spices or strong aromatic substance, while every physician knows that health cannot be kept without them, especially in a hot climate. Pepper, onions, thyme, sage, garlic, parsley, ginger, cloves, and cinnamon are as absolute as bread, and must find their way wherever alcohol is debarred. These are suggestions for every domestic circle having one of its members in the camp. In these days of easy transportation there will be no difficulty in each and every family sending forward that which will add to the comfort and health of the soldier. Whatever tends to alter the diet and make a change from the daily routine, will be as much an era as Delmonico's to the dinnerless, or a hotel feed to a Pike's Peak digger.

1863: Birthdate of Berlin native and Egyptologist Ludwig Borchardt who founded the German Archaeological Institute at Cairo 1907 which he served as director for 19 years.


1864: Birthdate of Arthur Zimmerman, German Foreign Secretary who authored the Zimmerman Telegram which helped to push the United States into World War I on the side of the Allies which led to the Allied Victory, which led, eventually, to the creation of the State of Israel.

1865(15th of Tishrei, 5626) First day of Sukkot

1865: The New York Times reported that THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. -- The Jewish "Feast of Tabernacles" commenced at sunset last evening, and will continue for seven days. It is an occasion of great joy. Boughs are suspended in the synagogues and private houses, to signify that the children of Israel are dwellng in booths. The observance commenced on the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity; and the book of Nehemiah expressly declares that "since the days of Joshua, the son of Nun, had not the children of Israel done so." The first and eighth day being the Sabbath, on the occasion of a "solemn assembly," the residue of the time is devoted to mirth and hilarity

1865: Birthdate of Sarah Catherine Elias, the wife of Ezekiel Ezra Isaac Elias, both of whom died in China and the mother of Reuben Ezekiel Ezra Elias.

1866: Pauline and Leopold Cohen gave birth to Jacob H. Cohen, the mayor of Seneca, Kansas.

1867(6thof Tishrei, 5628): Shabbat Shuvah

1867(6thof Tishrei, 5628): Sixty-six year old French financier and political leader Achille Fould, the son of Beer Leon Fould passed away today at Tabres.

1870: At today’s meeting of the Central Temperance Union, Reverend G. W. Samson attempted to harmonize the group’s opposition to alcohol with the frequent to wine in the Bible. In a speech entitled “Hebrew Wines and Bible” he “argued that the wine of the Bible…was pure unfermented juice of the grape.” [This would come as shock to everybody from the sons of Aaron to Samson, etc.]

1873: In Alsace, France, Jacob Weill and his wife gave birth to Albert Weill who died in Hong Kong and who was the husband of Rosie Weill.

1877: Birthdate of Belle Moskowitz who served as a political advisor to Al Smith when he ran successfully ran for governor of New York and unsuccessfully ran for President in 1928.

1878(8thof Tishrei, 5639): Shabbat Shuva

1878(8thof Tishrei, 5639): Seventy-eight year old Maria Michael (Miriam bat Mordecai) passed away today in the United Kingdom.

1878: Birthdate of Esther Raphiel who would be buried in the Jewish Cemetery at Natchitoches, LA.

1878: The Medal of Honor was issued to Sergeant George Geiger who received the highest decoration the U.S. issues to its service personnel while serving with Company H of the 7th Cavalry.  At the Battle of the Little Big Horn, “with 3 comrades during the entire engagement (he) courageously held a position that secured water for the command.”  The Battle of the Little Big Horn is also known as Custer’s Last Stand.

1880(30thof Tishrei, 5641): Sixty-one year old composer and impresario Jacques Offenbach passed away today.


1882(22ndof Tishrei, 5643): Shemini Atzeret

1882: It was reported today in Vienna, the Emperor has thanked the Hungarian Prime Minister “for the energy he has shown in suppressing the riots against the Jews in Pressburg.

1882: The Gemiles Chesed Kranken Unterstuetzungs Verein, a Hebrew Society, was incorporated today in New York State.

1883: In Kharkiv, Ukraine Lvov Lev Leon Rubinstein and Ernestine Rubinstein gave birth to Ida Rubinstein.



1884(16thof Tishrei, 5645): Second Day of Sukkoth

1884: Forty-nine year old Gabriel Richter, a Polish Jew, was arrested tonight and taken to the Seventeenth Precinct State House on charges of arson. He denied the charge claiming he had been at the synagogue.

1884: It was reported today that Sir Moses Montefiore had planned on fasting this past Yom Kippur.  However, after 18 hours, the centenarian succumbed to his doctors please – “The Almighty does not want us to kill ourselves” – and broke his fast.  The physician has sent telegrams assuring everyone that the aging Jewish leader “is an excellent health.”

1884: It was reported today that services will be held in synagogues all over Europe on the 26th and 27th of October to celebrate the 100thbirthday of Sir Moses Montefiore.

1884: Suicide In A Police Court” published today reported that Alexander Endelstine an English Jew who tried to commit suicide at New York’s Jefferson Market Police Court yesterday is being treated at St. Vincent’s Hospital and that he will be prosecuted  for embezzlement and attempted suicide if he survives.(Editor’s note – Was attempted suicide a capital crime?  Makes you wonder about the justice system)


1884: The Association of Jewish Immigrants whose members included Louis E. Levy, Abraham Kaufman and Samuel S. Fels, was formed at meeting at Wheatly Hall in Philadelphia, PA

1885: “As It Was Written, A Romance” published today provides a review of As It Was Written: A Jewish Musician’s Story by Sidney Luska. (Sidney Luska is not Jewish.  It is the pseudonym of Henry Harland)

1885: “In Memory of Montefiore” published described the Mincha Service at Temple Emanu-El where Adolph Sanger, the President of the Board of Aldermen delivered “an eloquent eulogy on the life and character of Sir Moses Montefiore.”

1886: City of Johannesburg, South Africa founded.  Many of the Jews living in Cape Town moved north to Johannesburg to take advantage of the discovery of diamonds and gold. Barney Barnato and Sammy Marks were two of the more famous Jewish entrepreneurs who during this period.  Marks amassed a fortune from his activities in gold and diamond mining.  After expanding his business interests, this practicing Jew assumed civic responsibilities as a negotiator during the Boer War and serving as a Member of Parliament. Barnato founded the De Beers Consolidated Mines for mining diamond fields.

1887: In Bayonne, France, Azarie "Henri" Cassin and Gabrielle Deborah Cassin gave birth to René Samuel Cassin - jurist, combat veteran of  World War I, member of the Resistance in WW II and leader of the French Jewish community, and winner of the Nobel Prize Winner for Peace,









1887: In Chicago, “President Grover Cleveland laid the cornerstone for the Auditorium Building designed by Dankmar Adler.

1889(10thof Tishrei, 5650): Yom Kippur

1889: In New York City where all the Jewish places of worship are open all day today, the services” for Yom Kippur “which are of very solemn and impressive character” end “with the blowing of the shofar indicating the annual fast is over.”

1889: It was reported today that “according to the latest available statistics” over seventy-six million Russians belong to various Christian denominations while Jews, Moslems and pagans constitute 5,626,000 of the Czar’s subjects.

1889: It was determined today that the reason the Pioneers of Liberty not being allowed to hold their dance and concert last night, erev Yom Kippur, at the Clarendon Hall was because they had not obtained a license for a concert and if this Jewish group had been content with holding a dance the authorities would not have interfered.

1889: Birthdate of Brooklyn native “industrial engineer and pioneer in the field of time management, Samuel R. Gerber, “a graduate of Cooper Union and the Polytechnich Institute of Brooklyn” who was President of both the Kent Metal Manufacturing Company and the Ortho Chemical Corporation and who was married to Tyl Gerber with whom he had one son and one daughter.

1889: It was reported today that thousands of Jews “who have been expelled from Russia…have taken temporary refuge in England.”  Eventually they intend to settle in Argentina

1890: During his talk tonight at the New York Academy of Music, Dr. Tallmadge described his recent visit to Palestine including passing through “the tract of 800 acres belonging to the Universal Israelite Association” which points “to the reoccupation of the Holy Land by the Israelites.”

1890: Birthdate of Alexander N. Sack the  Moscow born, Russian lawyer and faculty member of the Saint Petersburg University who in 1930 came to the United States where taught at NYU and Northwestern while developing a reputation on international finance especially as it dealt with the problems of governmental debt,


1891: “An Indictment of Russia” published today which traces the history of mistreatment of Jews in the land of the Czars opens by saying that “The Jew represents at once humanity’s oldest and least familiar fact.  The records which he embodies visibility before us in his curled hair, in his eager eyes and bended nose, in his gestures, his utterance, the peculiarities of his family and religious life belong to the very childhood of the race.” (Notice that even in praise 19th century authors unwittingly turned to offensive stereotypes.)

1891: “The Jews In Olden Times” published today provides a detailed review of A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ by Emil Schurer, the German theologian whose area of expertise was this period of history.

1892: Abraham Langer, a Jewish poultry dealer related the story of the attempt to rob him to the incredulous Central Office detectives in New York

1892(14thof Tishrei, 5653): Erev Sukkoth

1892 (14thof Tishrei, 5653): Sxity-three year old Rabbi Mayer Samuel Weiss, the “father of magician Harry Houdini and the first rabbi of Zion Reform Congregation in Appleton, Wisconsin, passed away today.

1893: The cornerstone was laid today for the West End Synagogue on West 82ndStreet in New York City.

1893: Reverend Christian Adolf Stoecker, the German “Jew baiter” and anti-Semite completes his tour of the United States and sets sail from New York for his homeland today.

1894: In Pars, the name of M. Pingault, the sugar broker who was arrested on charges of embezzling 144,000 English pounds from Baron Hirsch, has been stricken from the list of brokers.

1895: Today, “Mrs. Hannah G. Solomon… organized the Louisiana Section of the Council of Jewish Women



1895: “The William Berrian Book Sale” published today provided a list of books belonging to the William Berrian Library by Bangs & Company including John Allen’s Modern Judaism, Beeton’s The Jews in the East, W.H. Rule’s History of the Karaite Jews, Rabbi Grossman’s Judaism and the Science of Religion, Iliowizi’s Jewish Dream’s and Realities, Betteny’s Judaism and Christianity, T.A. Davis’s  Am I a Jew or a Gentile? and Betteny’s Jew and Gentile.



1896;Among the gifts acknowledged t during this afternoon’s meeting of the Board of Trustees of Columbia University was one $5,000 from Jacob Schiff “to aid needy students” go “through college” and a collection of Hebrew and Arabic manuscripts from William Walter.



1897(9thof Tishrei, 5658): Erev Yom Kippur; in the evening Kol Nidre is chanted for the first time during the Presidency of William McKinley.

1897: In Bremen, Norbert Salter and his wife who converted to Christianity in 1897 gave birth to designer Georg Salter.

http://academics.wellesley.edu/German/GeorgeSalter/Documents/bio.html



1897: “Truly A Cosmopolitan Town” published today described Red Jacket, Michigan, “perhaps the most cosmopolitan town in the United States” with a population of 8,000 whose no less than thirty different nationalities included an untold number of Jews.”



1898(19thof Tishrei, 5659): Sukkoth Chol HaMoed



1898: Arthur Loew, the founder of MGM, and his wife the former Mildred Zukor, daughter of Adolph Zukor gave birth to twin sons – Arthur Loew and David L. Loew who served as a member of the board of directors of MGM and later established his own independent production company.



1898(19thof Tishrei, 5659): Twenty-five year old Charles Koransky, who suffered from consumption who had been denied treatment at the hospital on Blackwell’s Island because he was Jewish and planned on seeking treatment at Mount Sinai Hospital, died early this morning.



1898: “Rabbi Honored In Detroit” published today described plans by Mayor Maybury and “pastors of several city churches” to honor Rabbi Louis Grossman who will be leaving Detroit after 14 years to serve as Professor of Philosophy at the Hebrew Union College and Congregation B’nai Yeshurun in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1898: In Moldova, “Shin Ben-Zion and Rivka Chaya Gutman” gave birth to Nachum Gutman

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/nachum-gutman



1898:Herzl and David Wolffsohn want to establish the Jewish Colonial Bank immediately. The Bank was intended to handle the financial affairs of the Zionist movement.

1898: In an attempt to draw the Ottoman Empire into the German sphere of influence which would eventually have a major impact on the Jews of Palestine and the Zionist movement Kaiser Wilhelm II visited Constantinople.

1899: Three days after he had passed away, “Alfred Lambert Falck, the youngest son of Ernest Flack” was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.

1899: Dr. Solomon Mandelkern of Leipzig the poet who has translated several American authors including Longfellow into Hebrew, arrived in New York aboard the SS Werra so he could visit his son Israel who lived at 196 East Broadway.

1899: One day after her death, Rebecca Hyams, “the widow of Moses Hyams” was buried today at the Plashet Jewish Cemetery in London.

1900: According to The English Zionist Federation's poll: 60 candidates for Parliament declare themselves in favor of Zionism.

1900: Birthdate of Baron Friedrich Carl von Oppenheim the German banker and industrialist who worked to save Jews from the Nazis and was imprisoned for his alleged role in the attempt to assassinate  Hitler – activities for which he was honored by Yad Vashem.

1901(22nd of Tishrei, 5662): Shemini Atzeret

1901: Birthdate of German Banker and Zionist leader, Hans Beyth Shmuel

1902: Herzl sends a copy of Altneuland to the Grossherzog Friedrich of Baden and to Rothschild. Altneuland appeared almost simultaneously in a Hebrew translation, Tel Aviv, by Nahum Sokolow.

1902(4thof Tishrei, 5563): Tzom Gedaliah observed

1902: In Philadelphia, Joseph Feinberg and Fanny Lieberman, the owners of “a watch-repair and jewelry store” gave birth to Louis Feinberg who gained fame as Larry Fine, one of the Three Stooges.


1902: Birthdate of Hamburg born American art collector Curt Valentin who left Nazi Germany in 1934 and established what became the Curt Valentin Gallery

https://www.moma.org/research-and-learning/archives/finding-aids/Valentinf



1902(4thof Tishrei, 5563): Seventy year old Joseph Morris Asch, the Phladelphia born son of Joseph and Clara Asch, the and Jefferson Medical College trained physician Joseph Morris Asch who served with the Union Army during the Civil War after which he pursued a career as a laryngologist in New York City passed away today.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/American_Medical_Biographies/Asch,_Morris_Joseph





1905: Birthdate of Bellva Plain.

1908(10thof Tishrei, 5669): Yom Kippur

1908: When “The Melting Pot” by Israel Zangwill opened this evening “at the Columbia Theatre in Washing, the audience included President and Mrs. Roosevelt, William Loeb, the president’s advisor; Secretary of State Elihu Root; Secretary of Commerce and Labor Oscar Strauss, Simon Wolf and Isaac Solomon, a wealthy Baltimorean.”

1908 (10th of Tishrei, 5669): In Houston Texas Adath Yshurun holds Yom Kippur Services. The morning services began at 7a.m. with a sermon in German entitled “The Majesty of the Law.”  Minchah services began at 3:30 with a sermon in English entitled “The Waning Day.”



1909(20th of Tishrei, 5670): Chol Hamoed Sukkoth



1909(20th of Tishrei, 5670): Rabbi Falk Vidaver passed away today in New York City at the age of 65.  The cause of death was Bright’s Disease.  Before coming to New York, Rabbi Vidaver lived in San Francisco where he was the leader of the largest congregation west of the Rocky Mountains.  Vidaver served as the rabbi at the congregation at 72nd Street and Lexington Avenue for 12 years before retiring three years ago.  He was a leading commentator on the Bible and was also well-known for his Hebrew poetry which was published in Russia, Hungary and the United States.

1909: When The Melting Pot opened in Washington D.C. this evening, President Theodore Roosevelt leaned over the edge of his box and shouted, "That's a great play, Mr. Zangwill, that's a great play."  Zangwill is Israel Zangwill.  He was Jewish; T.R. was not.

1910(2ndof Tishrei, 5671): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah

1910: Birthdate of Louis “Lou” Boasberg who played tackle for the 1931 Tulane University football team they went 11-0, finished second in the nation and went on to play in the 1932 Rose Bowl.

1912: In Fort William, Ontario, Max Laskin and Bluma Zingel, Laskin gave birth to Bora Laskin, the 14th Chief Justice of Canada.


1912(24th of Tishrei, 5673): New York City gangster Jack Zelig was murdered in an apparent attempt to keep him from testifying in the Rosenthal murder case. (The only problem with the various descriptions of his death are that they say he was murdered on the day before a murder trial was supposed to start.  But October 5 was a Saturday and it would have been highly unusual for a trial to have started on a Sunday)

1913(4thof Tishrei, 5674): Tzom Gedaliah observed for the first time during the Presidency of Woodrow Wilson.

1914(15thof Tishrei, 5675): Sukkoth

1914: In Washington, DC, “a private dispatch” was received by the State Departure which “said conditions in Jerusalem were such that food could not be obtained by a large portion of the population and that “many people were facing starvation.”

1915: It was reported today from Berlin that “the truth is the distress of Russian Polish Jewry is appalling” with “hundreds of thousands literally starving” making it appear that “Russia is trying to solve the Jewish question by annihilating the Jews.”

1915: “The New Synagogue, the latest of the liberal Jewish congregations to be founded in New York City” which has been holding services at the Aeolian Hall “announced that it has” purchased “the building at 43 West 86th Street as its permanent house of worship” and that the “structure will be transformed for synagogue and school purposes.”

1916: Birthdate of Abbeville native and fighter for the Free French Francis Huré who serve as France’s Ambassador to Israel from 1968 to 1973.

1916(8thof Tishrei, 5677): Forty year old Francis Deak Pollak, a graduate of Columbia Law School and member of the firm of Sullivan & Cromwell since 1906 who was a trustee of the Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Aid Society passed away today at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

1916: “Jewish Harmony Restored” published today described the revised plan adopted for creating an American Jewish Congress which “limits the number of delegates to be elected by the Conference of National Jewish Organizations to 25 percent of the entire representation, thereby removing the charge of the ‘democratic’ associations that the conference was trying to obtain control of the Congress.”

1916: Morris Israel who used to check the hats and coats of diners at the Ritz Restaurant in Brooklyn sued his former employer for violating the terms of his employment contract regarding the payment of tips.

1917(19thof Tishrei, 5678): Fifth day of Sukkoth

1917(19thof Tishrei, 5678):After four days of torture by Turkish authorities during which she revealed nothing about her action or her fellow Jewish spies, Sarah Aaronsohn “shot herself in the mouth” cause a wound that was mortal but would not prove fatal until several more days of suffering. The aid provided by Sarah and her brother Aaron to the British, helped convince some of the English leaders that it would be beneficial to replace “Turkish rule in Palestine with a Zionist entity under British rule.’

1917: In Karkov, speakers attending the Railway Congress “state that the same anti-Jewish prejudice is spreading in the Department of Ways and communications” that “led to the resignation of the Jewish employees at the postal and telegraph offices in Odessa.

1917: At Stockholm, a “delegation of the Polei-Zion presented a memorandum to the Dutch-Scandinavian suggesting” the following reforms for Palestine: 1) abolition of restriction of immigration and colonization by Jews, increased facilities for naturalization and unrestricted freedom for institutions promoting Jewish colonization; 2) creation of modern, democratic legal conditions and political measures for the development of the productive forces of the country; conferring upon Palestine self-government; 3) grant of national autonomy of Jews there.”

1917: In Bessarabia, a plot masterminded by “German colonists and officials of the old Czarist regime” aimed at the new government and the Jews was discovered.

1917: In Pavlovsk, military authorities “finally restored order” after days several days of “anti-Jewish disorders.”

1918: The Battle of the Hindenburg Line came to an end with the Allied forces successfully breaching the final German line of defenses.  Sir John Monash, the Australian-Jewish General, played a key role in planning the offensive. 

1918: The 165th Regiment, including Sergeant Abraham Blaustein hiked for ten hours from Jubecourt to Bois de Montfaucon in the Argonne Sector where they were held in reserve.



1918: Newly appointed German Chancellor Prinz Max von Baden asked the Allies for an immediate Armistice.  Thus began the sequence of events that would lead to the Armistice that ended WW I in November and the myth that Germany was “stabbed in the back” instead of defeated on the battlefield.

1920(23rdof Tishrei, 5681): Simchat Torah

1920: The final section of the railway which ran between Jaffa and Lydda and which had been completed in September was “inaugurated at a ceremony” today attended by the British High Commissioner, Herbert Samuel

1920: Evening classes, including courses in Public Speaking, Bookkeeping, Accounting, Stenography Typing. Americanization and English for foreigners, Business Preparation, Radio and Spanish are scheduled to begin at the 92ndStreet YMHA under of the direction of Principal Henry Levy

1920: “Feeling increasingly oppressed by life under Bolshevik rule where the family was identified as bourgeoisie, the family of Mendel Berlin, a timber trader and philanthropist (and a direct descendant of Shneur Zalman, founder of Chabad Hasidism), his wife Marie, née Volshonok and their son Isaiah Berlin “left Petrograd today for Riga, but encounters with anti-Semitism and difficulties with the Latvian authorities convinced them to leave, and they moved to Britain in early 1921 after which Isaiah graduated from Oxford and became a leading historian and philosopher.

The family of Mendel Berlin, a timber trader and philanthropist (and a direct descendant of Shneur Zalman, founder of Chabad Hasidism), and his wife Marie, née Volshonok and their son Isaiah Berlin

1921: Sixty-eight year old New York architect Cyrus Lazelle Warner Eidlitz who designed the New York Times Building on Times Square and whose father was Jewish passed away today.

1923: “Young Medardus” a silent film directed by Michael Curtiz was released in Austria today.

1924: Birthdate of William Szathmary the son  of Hungarian Jewish parents better known as Bill  Dana who gained fame with his character “Jose Jimenez.”

1924: Birthdate of Fritz Mandelaaum, who gained fame as Frederic Morton, the biographer of the Rothschilds.


1926: Birthdate of Avraham Eidelson who gained fame as Avraham “Bren” Adan “an Israeli Major General former Head of Southern Command who served in the military between 1947 and 1973.”

1927(9thTishrei, 5688): Erev Yom Kippur

1927: In Jerusalem, Bela and Eliezer Feinstein gave birth to Meir Feinstein, the WW II British Army Soldier and member of the Irgun who chose to commit suicide with fellow fighter Moshe Barazani rather die at the end of a British rope.

1928: Today, Major John A. Warner of the New York State Police “indefinitely suspended and reprimanded Corporal H.M. McCann of Troop B for the part he played in the questioning of Rabbi Berel Brennglass in Massena, NY, on September 22. Corporal McCann was suspended ‘for gross lack of discretion in the exercise of these duties and for conduct unbecoming an officer.’”

1929(1stof Tishrei, 5960): Rosh Hashanah

1929: “The Trespasser” a film that had both a silent and talkie versions edited by Cyril Gardner was released in the United States today.

1930: In Lower Silesia, Adolf Selten, a Jewish bookseller and his Protestant wife gave birth Nobel Prize winner Reinhard Selten who was raised in the faith of his mother.


1932: Birthdate of songwriter Ronald Norman Miller, the Chicago native whose career took off when “he was discovered by the founder of MoTown.


1932: Birthdate of Dame Barbara Goodman, DBE, QSO, JP “an Auckland, New Zealand politician. She was Mayoress of Auckland City as well as a former Auckland City Councillor for 12 years. She was married to former Auckland City Councillor Harold Goodman, who became deputy Mayor of Auckland City in the late 1970s. Her husband died on 16 August 1988 and she succeeded him onto the council in a by-election. Dame Barbara was a councillor for the Citizens and Ratepayers group. While on council, Dame Barbara championed liberal causes like tolerance towards the gay community and pro-women's rights over abortion. For ten years she was Chairperson of Odyssey House Auckland, which operates a range of specialist programs for adolescents, parents, and other adults experiencing serious difficulties with substance abuse, gambling, and other associated problems. She opposed the New Zealand government's plan to build a $500 million rugby stadium on Quay Street in Auckland's waterfront area.[citation needed] She is the niece of former Auckland City mayor, Sir Dove-Myer Robinson in whose honour Dame Barbara spearheaded a memorial sculpture in Aotea Square, which was built in 2002. The sculpture celebrates the contribution "Robbie Robinson" made to the city.

1933(15thof Tishrei, 5694): Sukkoth

1933: William Dodd, the new United States Ambassador to Germany, gave a speech explaining and defending the New Deal.  When Dodd met with FDR before going to Germany, the President told his new ambassador that he wanted him to be a spokesman for democracy.  Dodd would become increasingly outspoken in his warnings about the dangers of the Hitler regime. Unfortunately, Americans were more concerned about making sure that Germany would make her reparations payments than they were about the rise of totalitarian anti-Semitic dictators.

1934: “The Crisis is Over” directed by Robert Siodmark, with a script co-authored by Curt Siodmark and with music by Franz Waxman was released today.

1935: In Kovel, Poland, timber merchant Aaron Bernholz and his wife Paula gave birth to Berl Bernholz who gained famed as movie entrepreneur Ben Barenholtz. (As reported by Richard Sandomir)




1936(19thof Tishrei, 5697): Fifth day of Sukkoth

1936: In Danzig, the Nazi plans for the future of the city were outlined by the head of the Danzig district of the National Socialist (Nazi) Party and the President of the Danzig City who said “Jews must boycotted both socially and economically.”

1936: The American Joint Distribution Committee reported today that “twenty-six centers in nine European countries were training 1,248 young persons this Summer for emigration chiefly from German and Poland to countries of eventual settlement.”

1936: At Geneva, the Polish delegate told the League of Nations that the powers must agree to a relaxing of immigration quotas so Poland could reduce her Jewish population on which he cast aspersions.  (Editor’s note: This was three years before the German invasion of Poland.  The three million Jews of Poland suffered a wave of anti-Semitism in the 1930’s that has been lost in the “fog of Holocaust rememberance.)

1936: While “fifty marauders invaded” the Jewish neighborhoods in the East End of London smashing windows and plate glass store fronts with brick and stones “Britain’s Fascists announced plans today for an augmented series of meetings in London’s East End.”

1937: Birthdate of Abraham Riechstadt, the native of Safed who gained fame as Israeli musician Abi Ofraim.

1938(10th of Tishrei, 5699): Yom Kippur

1938: In Nazi Germany, Jews' passports were invalidated, and those who needed a passport for emigration purposes were given one marked with the letter J ("Jude"– "Jew").

1938: Following a request by Heinrich Rothmund, head of the Swiss federal police, the German government recalls all Jewish passports and marks them with a large, colored "J." This is to prevent German Jews from passing as Christians and smuggling themselves into Switzerland.

1939: Two months after premiering in the United Kingdom, New York City premiere of “U-Boat 29”, the American version “The Spy In Black”   produced by Alexander Korda with a screenplay by Emeric Pressburger.

1940(3rdof Tishrei): Shabbat Shuvah

1940: All soldiers who have been granted furloughs “in compliance with War Department Circular No. 5” so that “they may observe Rosh Hashanah” are required to report for duty at noon today.

1941: City College announced that two professors in the Chemistry Department “have received a grant of $200 from the medical fund of the Ella Sachs Plotz Foundation to continue their studies on human detoxication.”

1941 (14h of Tishrei, 5702): Former Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, the first Jewish member of the nation's highest court passed away at the age of 84.  See the article from the Biography Website for more information about Justice Brandeis who was living proof that one could achieve success in America while maintaining his Jewish identity. Louis Brandeis was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1856 to a family tolerant of Jewish and Christian rituals. In later life Brandeis might be best described as a secular ­humanist. Although he completed his secondary education in Germany, he returned to the United States where he studied law at Harvard. After settling in Boston, Brandeis became a successful lawyer spending a good deal of his time pursuing cases with a political bent. In particular, he enjoyed representing small companies against giant corporations, and aiding the cause of the minimum wage against companies opposed to this principle. In 1912, he supported Woodrow Wilson's nomination for Presidency and in 1916, was appointed a Supreme Court judge, the first Jew ever to be appointed to this position. Brandeis showed little interest in Jewish affairs until the turn of the century when a combination of his professional work and a changing political climate brought about an alteration. He was introduced to Zionism by Jacob de Haas, an English Zionist, and later still by Aaron Aaronsohn, the Palestinian botanist and founder of Nili. Brandeis became active in Zionist affairs during the First World War, when he accepted the role of Chairperson of the Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs. Brandeis had a major impact on the American branch of the Zionist movement, drawing to it a number of sympathizers, improving its organization and its finance. While he resigned his official position on joining the Supreme Court, he nonetheless worked behind the scenes to influence President Woodrow Wilson to support the Zionist cause. After the war, Brandeis headed a delegation of American Zionists to London where at a conference differences emerged between Chaim Weizmann and himself. These arguments over the role of the organization and its pursuit of political activities caused a rift between the two leaders with Weizmann gaining the upper hand. Brandeis withdrew from Zionist activity although he continued to take part in Eretz ­Israel economic affairs. Brandeis did intervene from time to time in political matters for example he appealed to Roosevelt to oppose the British partition scheme of 1937 calling instead for the whole area of Eretz ­Israel to become a Jewish National Home. Brandeis represented a rather different genre of Zionism, one born out of the American context that affirmed Zionism as part of American ethnic identity. It was Brandeis who coined the term that "to be a good American meant that local Jews should be Zionists."  “The banks and waters of the Jordan, once supposed to have miraculous healing powers have been drained and freed of their malaria breeding places through a gift of $25,000 given by Louis D. Brandies.”

1942: The Nazis deported 1,000 Jews from Theresienstadt to Treblinka. Another 6,000 would be sent to the death camp at Treblinka by the end of the month.

1942(24th of Tishrei, 5703): The Nazis murdered 3,000 Jews in Dubno who had been rounded up and marched to outlying pits. Silently, without screaming or weeping, they all undressed, bid each other farewell, and then were summarily shot.

1942(24thof Tishrei, 5703): “Xamp guards bludgeoned to death 90 French-Jewish female prisoners” “in the attic of a building of the Budy-Bor Auschwitz subcamp, near the main death camp set up by Nazi Germany during World War II in occupied Poland.” (As reported by Cnaan Lipshiz)


1943: The Nazis deported 1,260 children from Bialystok and 53 doctors and nurses were transported from Theresienstadt to Birkenau. They were told their destination would be Palestine. They would all perish.

1943: Birthdate of Congressman Richard Cardin, representing Maryland’s Third District in the House of Representatives.

1943: “Shortly before being unloaded from their cattle cars in Danzig, the two hundred Danish Jews who had been arrested by the Nazis were given some “filthy water” which was the first liquid they had been given since leaving Copenhagen.

1945: “Bloomer Girl,” a musical with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg opened at the Shubert Theater on Broadway.

1945:In an event referred to as Black Friday a six-month strike by the set decorators represented by the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU) boiled over into a bloody riot at the gates of Warner Brothers' studios in Burbank, California.  Warner Brothers also had labor problems with the Screen Actors Guild.  For those who think that Jews were always pro-labor left-wingers, think again.

1945: In a final bid to use persuasion and diplomacy to change British policy, Chaim Weizmann meets with Ernest Bevin, the Foreign Minister in the new Labor Government.  Having turned its back on the party’s pro-Zionist stance, the belligerent Bevin tells Weizmann, “If you want a fight, you can have it.”  Even as Bevin is threatening the aging Zionist leader, Ben Gurion has decided to adopt a more militant stance creating the Jewish Resistance Movement which include members of Haganah, Palmach and in a new wrinkle, members of the Irgun and the Stern Gang.

1945:  Meet The Press makes its radio debut.  The “granddaddy” of all news interview shows would later move to NBC where it continues to appear sixty years after is radio start.  Meet the Press was the brainchild of its first produced Lawrence E. Spivack.  On television Spivack would play the role of moderator.  Sometimes he would join the members of the press and be part of the four person interview group.

1946(10thof Tishrei, 5707): Yom Kippur

1946(10thof Tishrei, 5707): Sixty-four year old Rabbi Avraham (Arthur) Marmorstein, the son “of Yehuda Leib (Leopold) Marmorstein and Rivka (Regina) Marmorstein and the husband of Tobe (Antonia) Marmorstein passed away today in London.

1946: After a month, the curtain comes down on Ben Hecht’s “A Flag is Born” at the Alvin Theatre.

1947: Founding of The Actors Studios which starting in 1931 was led by Lee Strasberg who held that position until his death three decades later.

1948(2ndof Tishrei, 5709): Second day of Rosh Hashanah

1949: After two years of being broadcast by ABC, “You Bet Your Life” starring Groucho Marx was broadcast for the first time by CBS radio.

1949(12thof Tishrei, 5710): Sixty-two year old Boston born, Harvard Law School graduate and WW I Army veteran Abraham E. Pinanski, “a member of the Massachusetts Superior Court since 1930,” the “President of the Hebrew Free Loan Society of Boston” since 1936 and “President of the Jewish Child Welfare Association” who was the husband of “Viola R. Pinanski” with whom he had four daughters passed away today.


1950: Television game show “You Bet Your Life” starring Groucho Marx makes its debut.

1951: In “City Opera Offers ‘Dybbuk’ Premiere” published today Olin Downes reviews the opening performance of David Tamkin’s opera which he wrote “was a remarkable accomplishment.”

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9F03E0D81530E03ABC4D53DFB667838A649EDE

1951: In Ireland, Robert and Evelyn Geldof gave birth to singer-song writer and social activist Bob Geldof.

https://www.biography.com/people/bob-geldof-9308389





1954(7th of Elul, 5714): Seventy-four year old Albert Montefiore Hyamson the British historian, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and President of the Jewish Historical Society and Zionist who served as Chief Immigration Officer for the Mandatory Government in Palestine passed away today.

https://books.google.com/books/about/A_history_of_the_Jews_in_England.html?id=pW0LAAAAIAAJ

1955: Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett”s dramatization of "The Diary of Anne Frank,” opened at the Cort in New York. Directed by Garson Kanin, with sets designed by Boris Aronson with Susan Stasberg in the role of Anne, the play is deemed a success by the critics and audience alike.

1956: The Dinah Shore Chevy Show hosted by Dinah Shore (Frances Rose Shore) was broadcast for the first time on NBC television.

1957(10THof Tishrei, 5718): Yom Kippur and Shabbat coincide.

1959: Mollie Abrams was buried today at Beth Shalom in Shaler Township, PA.

1961: “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” sophisticated New York film produced by Richard “Dick” Shepherd, with a screenplay by George Axelrod and featuring Martin Balsam was released today in the United States by Paramount Pictures.

1961: The first clipping for the show that would become Anyone Can Whistle appeared in The New York Times today "For the winter of 1962, Arthur Laurents is nurturing another musical project, The Natives Are Restless. The narrative and staging will be Mr. Laurents's handiwork; music and lyrics that of Stephen Sondheim. A meager description was furnished by Mr. Laurents, who refused to elaborate. Although the title might indicate otherwise, it is indigenous in content and contemporary in scope. No producer yet." (As reported by Mark Eden Horowitz)

1961: Broadway premiere of “Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole” written by William and James Goldman which featured a performance by James Caan.

1962: “Dr. No” based on the novel of the same name produced by Harry Saltzman, featuring Joseph Wiseman and with music by Monty Norman was released today in the United States.

1964: “Quick, Before It Melts” a comedy featuring Norman Fell was released in the United States today

1965(9thof Tishrei, 5726): Erev Yom Kippur; Kol Nidre

1965: In “Jerusalem, Israeli Sector, Yom Kippur, the day of atonement and the holiest day in the Jewish calendar began at sundown today.

1967(1stof Tishrei, 5728): For the first time Jews observe Rosh Hashanah in a united Jerusalem, the capital of the modern state of Israel.

1969(23rd of Tishrei, 5730): Simchat Torah is celebrated for the first time during the Presidency of Richard Nixon.

1969: Sixty-nine year old Russian born, Harvard educated Dr. William Dameshek, “a pioneer in the study of blood” and leader in the movement to “establish hematology as a specialty” who was married to Rose Dameshek with whom he had one child, passed away today.

https://dev.hematology.org/About/History/Legends/2077.aspx

http://www.bloodjournal.org/content/bloodjournal/15/5/580.full.pdf?sso-checked=true

1971(16thof Tishrei, 5732): Second day of Sukkoth

1972:  Birthdate of Nebraska defensive tackle and New England Patriots draft pick Christian Peter whose “lengthy history of violence against woman” led Myra Kraft to convince her husband to relinquish the team’s right to him “only a week after the draft” had been completed.

1973: In London, Ashraf Marwan, the son-in-law of Gamal Abdel Naser and the Mossad agent code-named “Angel” warned his Mossad handlers of the war that would begin the next day at sundown. Zivi Zamir, the chief of Mossad who was present at the meeting and fully aware of the ramifications of a massive mobilization of reserve soldiers on Yom Kippur, called home and sounded the alarm

(As reported by Tal Krz-Oz)

1973: “General Ariel Sharon was shown aerial photographs and other intelligence by Yehoshua Saguy, his divisional intelligence officer. General Sharon noticed that the concentration of Egyptian forces along the canal was far beyond anything observed during the training exercises, and that the Egyptians had amassed all of their crossing equipment along the canal. He then called General Shmuel Gonen, who had replaced him as head of Southern Command, and expressed his certainty that war was imminent.”

1973: “Soviet advisers and their families left Egypt and Syria, transport aircraft thought to be laden with military equipment landed in Cairo and Damascus, and aerial photographs revealed that Egyptian and Syrian concentrations of tanks, infantry and SAM missiles were at an unprecedented high.”

1973: Chief of Military Intelligence Major General Eli Zeira reassured “special means” listening devices were not producing any warning signs that war was imminent. Only later would the Israeli government find that Zeira had not activated these devices.

1973: The Israeli missile boat flotilla concluded its first full-scale maneuvers the day before the start of the Yom Kippur War.  These boats with their unique missile armament would play a key role in protecting the Israel coast during the fighting.

1973: On the eve of what would become the Yom Kippur War, the division manning the Israeli defenses along the Suez Canal requested reinforcements. The requests was denied because the Israeli General Headquarters had decided that the Egyptian troops massed on the west bank of the Suez Canal were engaged in military exercise; military exercises that senior command was sure were about to come to an end.  

1973: Disturbed by continued massing of Egyptian and Syrian forces on their respective borders with Israel and the withdrawal of Soviet ships from Egyptian ports, the Chief of Staff puts the active Israeli Army on its highest level of preparedness.  He also ordered a limited mobilization of certain reserve units.  The numerical strength of the Israeli Army lay with the reserves.  Only a full mobilization of these forces could meet the onslaught of combined Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian armies.

1976: Yorkshire Television broadcast the second episode of “Dickens of London” with music by Monty Norman.

1977(23rdof Tishrei, 5738): Simchat Torah

1979(14thof Tishrei, 5740): Erev of Sukkoth

1979: “Starting Over” a comedy directed by Alan J. Pakula, produced by James L. Brooks who also wrote the script and with music by Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager was released today in the United States.

1979: “Nosferatu the Vampyre” a horror film produced by Michael Gruskoff who began his career in the mailroom of the William Morris Agency, was released in the United States today.

1980: Pitcher Steve Ratzer made his major league debut with the Montreal Expos.

1981: Raoul Wallenberg became an honorary citizen of the United States.  Using his status a Swedish diplomat, Wallenberg worked to save the lives of the Jews of Hungary.  Thanks to his efforts he saved the lives of somewhere between 20,000 to 100,000 Hungarian Jews  The bill to make Wallenberg an honorary citizen was sponsored by Representative Tom Lantos, who as a teenaged Hungarian Jews sought refuge in one of Wallenberg's safe houses.  Wallenberg is listed as one of the “Righteous Among the Nations” at Yad Vashem.

1983: During the Israel bank stock crisis “the stock exchange again opened with large numbers of sell offers.”

1983:Martin Leach-Cross Feldman assumed office as a Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana

1983: In Queens, NY, Barry Eisenberg and the former Amy Fishman gave birth to actor Jesse Eisenberg.

1984(9th of Tishrei, 5745): Erev Shabbat and Erev Yom Kippur

1985(23rd of Tishrei 5746): Simchat Torah

1985:  After 813 performances, the curtain came down on West End production of “Little Shop of Horrors” by composer Alan Menken and writer Howard Ashman

1985: Sixty-two year old Holocaust survivor and successful real estate entrepreneur Joseph Kushed “the father of Murray and Charles Kushner and the grandfather of Marc Kushner and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner passed away today.

1985(23rd of Tishrei, 5746): At Ras Burqa, an Egyptian soldier machine gunned a group of Israeli tourists murdering Hamman Shelach – an Israeli judge in the Jerusalem Magistrates’ Court and the son of Israeli poet Yonatan Ratosh, his wife Ilana, his 12 year old daughter Tzlil, 38 year old Anita Griffel, 10 year old Amir Baum, 10 year old Dina Baria and 13 year old Ofri urel in episode made even worse by reports some Egyptian politicians hailed the killer as hero.

1986: The Sunday Times of London ran a story on its front page under the headline: "Revealed — the secrets of Israel's nuclear arsenal" based on information supplied by Mordechai Vanunu.”

1986(2nd of Tishrei, 5747): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah

1986(2nd of Tishrei, 5747): Seventy-five year old Rudolf Flesh, the holder of a PhD from Columbia and husband of Elizabeth Terpenning best known for his popular work Why Johnny Can’t Read passed away today

https://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/07/obituaries/dr-rudolf-flesch-75-authority-on-literacy.html

1986(2nd of Tishrei, 5747): Eight-seven year old Ohio born Reform Rabbi and anti-war activist Abraham L. Feinberg who marred Patricia Blanchard after the death of his first wife Ruth Katsh passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/08/obituaries/rabbi-abraham-l-feinberg.html

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/abraham-l-feinberg

1986(2nd of Tishrei, 5747): Movie producer Hal Wallis passed away.

http://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/08/obituaries/hal-b-wallis-film-producer-is-dead.html

1988: Israel banned Meir Kahane's Kach Party on grounds of racism.

1989: “The Punisher” an action film with a script by Boaz Yakin was released in Germany today.

1990(16th of Tishrei, 5751): Second Day of Sukkoth

1990(16th of Tishrei, 5751): Meir Kahane founder of Jewish defense league was assassinated at the age of 58.

1990: “Henry & June” directed by Phillip Kaufman who co-authored the script along with his wife Rose was released in the United States today by Universal Pictures.

1990: “Avalon” a must-see movie directed, produced and written by Barry Levinson with music by Randy Newman was released in the United States today by Tristar Pictures.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avalon_(1990_film)#/media/File:Avalon_poster.jpg

1993: Seventy-five year old Robert Constant Moses, a native of Phillip, SD, a graduate of Beloit High School who was a WW II veteran, a draftsman at Barber Coleman and the father of Nancy Margulis, a pillar of the Cedar Rapids Jewish community, passed away today.

1995(11th of Tishrei, 5756): Ninety-one year old viola virtuoso Lillian Fuchs passed away today

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/07/obituaries/lillian-fuchs-91-violist-and-teacher-from-family-of-musicians.html

http://jwa.org/thisweek/oct/05/1995/death-of-lillian-fuchs-one-of-best-string-players-in-america

1996(22ndof Tishrei, 5757): Shemini Atzeret

1996(22ndof Tishrei, 5757): Eighty-eight year old Elmer Berger, the Rabbi who was such a proud foe of a Jewish state that he authored Memoirs of an Anti-Zionist Jewin 1976, (As reported by Eric Pace)


1997: The Sunday New York Times book section featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics relating to Judaism or the Jewish people including Son of Rosemary by Ira Levin, The Body Perfect: An Intimate History of American Girls by Joan Jacobs Brumberg, TheJournals of Ayn Rand, edited by David Harriman and A Jewish Mother From Berlin and Susanna by Gertrude Kolmar. This slim volume contains Brigitte M. Goldstein's translations of two short novels by Gertrude Kolmar, a poet who perished in the Holocaust in 1943. In these works, as in her verse, Kolmar explores alienation and misfortune with a vivid, emotionally piercing force; here maternal love, devotion and innocence become not refuges from tragedy but lightning rods that seem to attract it. In 'A Jewish Mother From Berlin,' written in 1931, in which the title character loses her only genuine connection to the world, her 5-year-old daughter, Kolmar's eloquence carries the reader past certain weaknesses in pacing and execution, taking us deep into the heart of the isolated mother's anguish. With ''Susanna,'' a later work, written in 1940, Kolmar's command is stronger, yielding a tighter, more persuasive fairy tale that also works as an erotic puzzle and a memoir. The title character is an elusive, mentally unstable girl, described from a distance of years by her former governess with an incomprehension suffused with heartbreak. As we read both these works, our estimation of Kolmar's worth as a writer must compete with our dismay over her destiny: a lifetime of effort strangled by the calamities of history. The least her faithful, worthy achievement deserves is the gratitude of successive generations of readers.

2000: In “The Pogrom In Limerick” published today John Derbyshire contended that the “anti-Semitic pogrom of 1904” and not an episode in 1690 was “the darkest episode in the city’s history.”




2000: At the outset of the second Intifada, Rabbi Chaim Brovender, the founder of Yeshivat Hamivtar in Efrat, was traveling along the Tunnel Road connecting Gush Etzion with Jerusalem when a crowd of Arabs from Beit Jala stopped him. After being pulled from his car and severely beaten, he was taken to a Palestinian police station in Bethlehem, where he was further harassed before being thankfully transferred to the IDF alive.

2001: Thirty-four year old ended his major league career today when he pitched his final game for the Cleveland Indians.

2001:Today, a letter signed by at least 50 American Jewish figures -- including current and former officials from some of the nation's most influential Jewish organizations -- will be presented to the White House, expressing support for the administration's war on terrorism and policy efforts in the Middle East. The letter comes after days of criticism of the administration's plans by the American Jewish groups, including the main pro-Israel lobbying organization in Washington, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or Aipac. What is happening, officials said, amounts to a fundamental division within a traditionally unified constituency on an important issue of American foreign policy.

2003(9thof Tishrei, 5764): Erev Yom Kippur

2003: “‘The Eternal Road,’ In Endless Quest of a Stage” published today described the authors fascination with “Max Reinhardt’s lavish pageant of Jewish biblical history and seemingly timeless persecution…first staged in 1937.”


2003: Israel bombed an Islamic Jihad base in Syria, the first Israeli attack deep inside Syrian territory in three decades.

2003:The New York Times book section featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics relating to Judaism or the Jewish people including The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century by Paul Krugman,They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967 by David Maraniss, The Speakeasies of 1932, Illustrations by Al Hirschfeld, Living A Year of Kaddish by Ari L. Goldman and The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Saved 1,200 Jews, and Built a Village in theForest.by Peter Duffy. “After discovering that their parents and other family members had been murdered by the Nazis, three brothers -- Tuvia, Zus and Asael Bielski -- took to the Soviet forests, and encouraged friends and relatives to join them. Tuvia, the eldest, did not want to turn away any Jews, and helped others escape the ghettos of Novogrudek (now Navahrudak in Belarus) and Lida; they once led a group of 800 through swamps to hide on an island deep in the forest. As Peter Duffy writes in his first book, ''The Bielski Brothers,'' to survive, the brothers assigned groups to gather food, build shelter and fix weapons; informers were killed and whole villages were threatened with burning in the event of betrayal. For two and a half years the Bielskis offered the best chance for Belarusian Jews to live. ''We don't have to be heroes,'' Tuvia said. ''We just have to live through this war. Whoever will make it, he is the biggest hero.'' When the brigade was disbanded in July 1944, the group had 1,140 members. Asael was killed seven months later in East Prussia; Tuvia and Zus emigrated to Israel, where Tuvia died in 1987 and Zus in 1995.

2004(20th of Tishrei, 5765): Eighty-two year old comedian Rodney Dangerfield, the man who got no respect, passed away. (As reported by Mel Watkins)


2005(2ndof Tishrei, 5766): Second Day Rosh Hashanah

2005: The WB broadcast the first episode of “Related” created by Marta Kauffman and starring Lizzy Caplan.

2005: “The Squid and the Whale” an “American arthouse comedy-drama film written and directed by Noah Baumbach” and co-starring Jesse Eisenberg was released in the United States today by Samuel Goldwyn Films.

2005: Haaretz reported on High Holiday Services being held in Houston, Texas.  The services were on the campus of Rice University and were intended to provide a gathering place for Jews from New Orleans who were in Houston because of Hurricane Katrina.  For the New Orleans Jews the services took on the flavor of a re-union. 

2006:Amy Goodman appeared on the Colbert Report in an effort to promote her new book was Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders, and the People who Fight Back

2006: A Muslim journalist facing charges of sedition for advocating ties with Israel was recently attacked and beaten by a crowd in Bangladesh that allegedly included leading officials of the country's ruling party. Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, editor of the Weekly Blitznewspaper, an English-language publication based in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, was working in his office when nearly 40 people stormed the premises, beat Choudhury, leaving him with a fractured ankle, and looted cash that was kept in the company safe.

2006: Eliot Spitzer told the Empire State Pride Agenda that as governor he would work to legalize same sex marriage in New York.

2006: In “Lemony Snicket reaches ‘The End’, Todd Leopold describes the completion of “A Series of Unfortunate Events.”

http://www.superstock.com/preview.asp?image=1566-1228818&imagex=5&id=19927421&productType=3&pageStart=0&pageEnd=100&pixperpage=100&hitCount=5&filterForCat=&filterForFotog

2007(23rd of Tishrei, 5768): Simchat Torah

2007: “Garage” an Irish film directed by Lenny Abrahamson was released today after having premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

2007: “Appomattox” an opera composed by Phillip Glass which takes its name from the place where Lee surrendered to Grant premiered at the San Francisco Opera today.

2008: As part of the yearlong celebration of pianist Leon Fleisher’s 80thbirthday, a concert titled Leon Fleisher & Friends is performed by an ensemble that includes keyboard colleagues and former students Yefim Bronfman, Jonathan Biss and Katherine Jacobson-Fleisher, Fleisher’s wife is performed in Baltimore, MD.

2008:Eighty-year old, Dr. Ernest Beutler, “a leading hematologist whose studies opened an important new window onto the treatment of leukemia” passed away today. (As reported by Jeremy Pearce)


2008: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics of special interest to the Jewish people including Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution — and How It Can Renew Americaby Thomas L. Friedman and paperback versions of The Indian Clerk by David Leavitt, The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father’s Nazi Boyhood,by Mark Kurzem, The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman.The Diary of Petr Ginz: 1941-1942, edited by Chava Pressburger, translated by Elena Lappin as well as an essay about Pulitzer Prize winning author Steven Millhauser

2008: At the Kennedy Center, final performance of nn “abridged version of Girl Crazy,” a 1930’s George and Ira Gershwin musical.

2009:Attorney Stuart E. Weisberg discusses and signs his new biography, "Barney Frank: The Story of America's Only Left-Handed, Gay, Jewish Congressman," at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, in Washington, D.C.

2009(17thof Tishrei, 5770): Chol Hamoed Sukkoth

2009(17thof Tishrei, 5770): Ninety-six year old Soviet mathematician Israeli Gelfand passed away.


2009: Captain Ben Sklaver was buried in family plot in Jewish cemetery in Connecticut.

2009:Shortly after a border policeman was moderately wounded this afternoon when he was stabbed in northern Jerusalem near the Shuafat refugee camp, Palestinians hurled rocks at security forces in the area, leaving a policeman lightly hurt.

2009:This evening arrested police in Dimona two men, a 41-year-old and a 57-year-old, who are suspected of vandalizing the Uvdat National Park in the Negev on Sunday night. The men denied involvement in the incident which left hundreds of archaeological artifacts at the UNESCO World Heritage Site severely damaged. The suspects will be brought before the Beersheba Magistrate's Court on Tuesday for a remand extension hearing.

2010: Center for Jewish History, Yeshiva University Museum and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research are scheduled to present “16 mm Postcards: Home Movies of American Jewish Visitors to 1930s Poland.” According to the organizer at Yeshiva University, this exhibition brings to life the landscape of people in Poland through the amateur movies of immigrant American Jews who traveled "back home" in the 1920s and 1930s. These films offer a rare, intimate and--quite literally--moving picture of Jewish families, towns and society in pre-World War II Poland

2010:Avraham Tal is scheduled to rule on Yigal Amir’s petition to end his separation from fellow prisoners.  Amir is serving a life sentence for murdering Yitzhak Rabin. Amir says he does not pose a threat to his fellow prisoners because the murder of Rabin was a one-time that cannot be replicated. [Chutzpah- when a child who killed his parents pleads for clemency because he is an orphan.]

2010: Philip Roth" 31st book, a novel entitled Nemesis -- which involves a polio epidemic in 1940s Newark, N.J. -- is scheduled to come out to day

2010: A documentary entitled “Nuremberg” scheduled to end its weeklong premier American showing today at the Film Forum.  This hitherto unseen documentary was made by Stuart Schulberg, brother of the famed writer Budd Schulberg.  The American public is getting see this informative piece of cinema 62 years after its creation thanks to the effort his daughter, Sandra Schulberg.http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/09/29/movies/29nuremberg.html

2010:Following the release on yesterday of minutes of Prime Minister Golda Meir's meeting with her war cabinet on the second day of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, today the state archives released the minutes of eight additional meetings that the prime minister held during the war's first four days. The documents provide a rare look at the military and diplomatic efforts made just hours before the Arab attack on Israel. They also attest to the existence of an intelligence source who provided credible information of an imminent attack, enabling Israel's political leadership to consider a preemptive strike on Egypt and Syria. IDF chief of staff David Elazar suggested during the meetings "When there are skirmishes we tell the truth, but during wartime we must not tell the truth." The documents show the close ties between King Hussein of Jordan and Israel's leadership on the eve of the war. They also again reveal Israel's complacency regarding the Arab armies' military might. On the day the war broke out, Yom Kippur, the chief of military intelligence, Eli Zeira, was still expressing the belief that Egyptian president Anwar Sadat would not start another war with Israel. Despite that view, and against the recommendations of then-defense minister Moshe Dayan, Meir decided to mobilize 200,000 reserve soldiers so as to provide a substantial boost to the military in the event that war broke out. Meir and senior defense officials also worked to procure additional military hardware, in the form of 40 fighter jet and 400 tanks, from the United States. The prime minister even considered a secret meeting with U.S. president Richard Nixon without the knowledge of the cabinet, in a effort to convince the American leader to come to Israel's assistance.

2010:Today settlers gave new copies of the Koran to Palestinians in a West Bank village whose mosque was burned in an attack blamed by Palestinians on settlers.

2011: Rabbi Mindy Avra Portnoy is scheduled to deliver the last lecture in the series “Not Matriarchs: Lesser Known Women of the Hebrew Bible” at the JCC of Greater Washington.

2010: The state of Iowa proclaimed today Raoul Wallenberg Day.

2011:An Israeli scientist won this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering a material in which atoms were packed together in a well-defined pattern that never repeats. Recent Nobel prizes have generally split credit for scientific advances among two or three people, but this year’s chemistry prize and accompanying 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.4 million) went to a single scientist: Daniel Shechtman, 70, a professor of materials science at Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. The citation from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences states simply, “for the discovery of quasicrystals.” Such regular but non-repeating patterns, defined by precise rules, have been known in mathematics since antiquity and are found in mosaics of medieval Islamic tiles, but it was thought impossible in the packing of atoms. Dr. Shechtman discovered the same type of structure while studying a metal mix of aluminum and manganese. His notebook recorded the exact date: April 8, 1982. Scientists believed that crystals in materials all contained repeating patterns, and Dr. Shechtman took years to convince others. During the announcement, the Nobel committee noted that one colleague said, “Go away, Danny” and that he was even asked to leave his research group. Quasicrystals have since been found in many other materials, including a naturally occurring mineral from a Russian river.” (As reported by Kenneth Chang)

2011: The National Labor Court suspended doctors' resignation letters this afternoon in response to the state's request for an emergency hearing.

2012: “The Flat” directed by two time winner of the Israeli Academy Awards; Aaron Goldfinger is scheduled to be shown at The Hamptsons International Film Festival this evening.

2012: In Grand Forks, ND, B’nai Israel is scheduled to host a Shabbat Harvest Potluck Dinner with services lead by Cantor Alane Katzew.

2012:Riots broke out on the Temple Mount this afternoon as hundreds of Muslim worshipers threw stones at police officers, following a week of confrontations between right-wing Jews and Muslims on the site

2012: A 23-year-old American citizen snatched a security guard’s gun and opened fire in an Eilat hotel this morning, leaving one person dead and three others suffering from shock.Two people were evacuated to the Joseftal Medical Center.

2012: While Congress is in recess until after the November elections, 2 Democratic legislators -Senator Robert Menendez and Representative Howard Berman – are working on measure to strengthen the sanctions against Iran.

2013: “Displaced Visions: Émigré Photographers of the 20th Century,” is scheduled to come to an end.


2013: Shoshannah Nambi, a member of the Abadyudaya Jewish community is scheduled to speak on the roles of the women in her community and the challenges they face this evening at Congregation Adat Teyim in Springfield, VA.



2013(1st of Cheshvan, 5774): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan



2013: In addition to celebrating Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan and reading Noah, the traditional minyan at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids will mark the 40thanniversary of the Yom Kippur War which began on October 6, 1973.



2013: A nine year old girl who was shot in the neck by one or more terrorists at Psagot has been evacuated to Shaarei Tzedek Hopitals “with what was initially described as a serious injury to her upper body.” (As reported by Gil Roen)



2013: A Palestinian vehicle rammed a checkpoint this morning near the settlement of Elon Moreh in the West Bank, injuring two Border Police officers at the site and speeding away

2013: Slamming the US as arrogant, dishonest, untrustworthy, and controlled by Zionists, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said today that “some” aspects of President Hassan Rouhani’s trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York last month were “not proper.” (As reported by The Times of Israel)

2014: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a series of symposiums on archival research.

2014: Maccabi Tel Aviv led by former NBA guard Jeremy Pargo, a one-time Cavalier is scheduled to play the Cleveland Cavaliers coached by Israeli David Blatt, the former coach of Maccabi Tel Aviv.

2014: “After the Defense Ministry rejected a US request to establish field hospitals in the Ebola-stricken western African countries, the Foreign Ministry announced today that it will dispatch three teams — in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Agency for International Development Cooperation (MASHAV) — to bordering African nations at risk of infection.” (As reported by Marissa Newman)

2014: The Israel Defense Forces said that its troops opened fire on “suspects” attempting to cross the border from Lebanon, apparently hitting one and forcing them to retreat. According to UN monitors, the suspects were a Leabanese Army patrol, one of whose members was wounded.

2014: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson, The Zone of Interest by Martin Amis and I’ll Drink to That:A Life in Style, With a Twist by Betty Halbreich with Rebecca Paley.

2015(22ndof Tishrei, 5776): Shemini Atzeret – In the evening Simchat Torah

2015: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to hold “a Simchat Torah evening service with lots of dancing” this evening.

2015(22ndof Tishrei, 5776): Seventy-three year old producer Larry Brezner who played a major role in the successful careers of Robin Williams and Billy Crystal passed away today.  (As reported by Margalit Fox)



2015(22ndof Tishrei, 5776) Sixty-five year old Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, passed away today.



2016: In honor of the heroism and courage of Raoul Wallenberg, Governor Laurence J. Hogan has officially declared October 5th, 2016, as Raoul Wallenberg Day in the State of Maryland.

2016: “One Week and a Day” and “Atomic Falafel” are scheduled to be shown on the opening night of a film festival in Washington, DC celebrating contemporary Israeli Cinema.

2016: The University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, announced today that Anthony Hall, “a professor accused of promoting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and denying the Holocaust” “has been suspended without pay pending the outcome of an internal invstigation into possibled violations of Canada’s Human Rights Act.”

2016: A rocket fired from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip exploded in the western Negev town of Sderot this morning.

2016(3rdof Tishrei, 5777): Fast of Gedaliah

2016(3rdof Tishrei, 5777): Thirty-four year old Major Ohan Cohen, a pilot with the IAF who was returing from a raid on terrorist targets in Gaza, died today “after ejecting from his F-16 while attempting to land at the Ramon Air Base.”

2016(3rdof Tishrei, 5777): Ninety-five year old cutting edge script writer Austin Kalish passed away today. (As reported by Anita Gates)


2016: “As of today,” Dr. Victor Parsonnet “officially retired as chief of surgery as ‘the Beth,” “69 years after he began his internship as what was then called Newark Beth Israel.”




2017(15thof Tishrei, 5778): Sukkoth

2017: In “Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Accusers for Decades” published today Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey documented the decades long abuse that has ended the powerful Hollywood mogul’s career.




2017: Raoul Wallenberg Day

2017(15th of Tishrei): Yarhrzeit of William “Bill” Schueller, beloved husband of Eleanor Schueller, father of Deb Levin and father-in-law of Mitchell Levin

2017: University of Iowa Hillel is scheduled to celebrate Sukkoth this evening with the Lutheran Campus Ministry.

2017: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host Sukkoth morning service followed by lunch at the Chaplains’ house.

2018: As the day begins Israelis will see if today will mark another of the six month of the Friday’s of violence in which Hamas mobs attack IDF forces and breach the border or a day in which the peaceful words of Hamas leader Yehya Sinwar become a reality.


2018(26th of Tishrei, 5779): Eight four year old Herbert David Kleber, the Pittsburgh born son of Dorothea and Max Kleber and Jefferson Medical College trained physician who was a pioneer in the field of addiction treatment passed away today. (As reported by Katharine Q. Seelye)


2018: Observance of Raoul Wallenberg Day





2019(6th of Tishrei, 5780): Parashat Vayeilech; Shabbat Shuva; for more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/

2019: This evening, in Palo Atlo, CA, the Oshman Family is scheduled to host “Return: A Yom Kippur Experience,” featuring “breakout sessions that offer opportunities to turn inward and toward one in aother in the spirit of the High Holidays.”

2019: This evening Israeli entertainer Isaac Sutton is scheduled to perform “Broadway Israel,” a celebration of Broadway musicals at Feinstein’s/54.2019: In Memphis, TN at Temple Israel, Rabbi Feivel Strauss is scheduled to lead the Torah Study session preceding Shabbat Morning Services.










This Day, October 6, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. and Deb Levin

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OCTOBER 6


877: Charles the Bald, King of France, passed away.Regardless of whatever others may think of him, Charles the Bald, who was King of France, comes up on the plus side in Jewish history when compared to other monarchs since he resisted enforcing the anti-Semitic edicts of the Archbishop of Lyon. Charles motives were political and economic, not religious.



1014: Samuil of Bulgaria passed away. He was the Emperor of the First Bulgarian Empire from 986 until his death in battle while fighting the Byzantines. Jews fleeing from the persecution of the Byzantine Empire had found refuge among the Bulgarians. Samuil was a member of the Comitopuli dynasty whose leaders had names like Samuel (Samuil), Moses and David,which “could indicate partial Jewish origin, most likely maternal, though this is disputed.”



1254: Innocent IV who expelled the Jews from Venice in 1253 issued “Querentes In Agro” a papal bull recognizing the University Oxford which today is the home to the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies which “was founded in 1972 by Dr. David Patterson.”

1536: William Tyndale, whose “English translation for Pentateuch in 1530 which was the first-ever English translation from the Hebrew would provide the fabric for the King James Bible and inject a Hebraic quality into the syntax and phraseology of English literary and religious usage without parallel in any European culture” was strangled and then burned at the stake today in Belgium.



1552: Birthdate of Matteo Ricci, the Jesuit missionary to China whose manuscripts indicate there were only approximately ten or twelve Jewish families in Kaifeng in the late 16th and early 17th century, that they had reportedly resided there for five or six hundred years, that there was a greater number of Jews in Hangzhou which could be taken to suggest that loyal Jews fled south along with the soon-to-be crowned Emperor Gaozong to Hangzhou.”

1755(1st of Cheshvan, 5516): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

1755(1st of Cheshvan, 5516): A.M. Rothschild’s father died of small pox.

1759(15thof Tishrei, 5520): Sukkoth

1776(23rdof 5537): Simchat Torah is celebrated for the first since the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

1780: Thomas Dobson the printer who was “the first in the United States to publish a complete Hebrew Bible and his way gave birth to their second child Alison.

1783(10thof Tishrei, 5544): As the American Revolution reaches its final conclusion with a treaty between Great Britain and her former colonies Jews on both sides of the Atlantic observe Yom Kippur in peace.

1791: Zipporah Isaacs and Hymen Cohen gave birth to Alexander Cohen who passed away 61 years later in London.

1795(23rdof Tishrei, 5556): Simchat Torah

1795: Rachel Sapnier, “the daughter of Nathan Spanier, the head of the Ravensberg Jewish community” and her husband author and bookseller Saul Ascher gave birth to their “only child, a daughter named Wihelmine.”

1805(13thof Tishrei, 5566): Twenty-four year old Rachel Aasron passed away today in London.

1806: The Assembly of Jewish notables is required to answer 12 questions intended to inform the authorities about the nature of Judaism and to test the knowledge of French among the Jews.

1808(15thof Tishrei, 5569): Sukkoth

1817: Birthdate of “Dutch physician and medical author Levi Ali Cohen” “who was one of the organizers of the new medical laws for the Netherlands” and who was “a member of the committee on Jewish affairs in Holland for twenty years.”

1819: Birthdate of John M. Brunswick, a native of Switzerland who came to the New York in 1834 where he worked as a butcher before eventually settling in Cincinnati, OH where he went from “making carriages” to building a billiard ball empire.


1820: “At Charles-Valentin's piano audition which was held oday when he was nearly seven (and where he is named as "Alkan (Morhange) Valentin"), the examiners comment "This child has amazing abilities."

1821(10thof Tishrei, 5582): Yom Kippur

1823: Deborah and Solomon Bennett gave birth to Aaron Bennett.

1824(14thof Tishrei, 5585) Erev Sukkoth

1824: In Alsace, Alexandre Aron and Charlotte Aron, the daughter of Asser Lion and Gitlé Loëw gave birth to Rose Rosalie Bloch the wife of Marx Marc Bloch

1825: Rachel Gomes and John Meseena gave birth to Hannah Meseena.

1825: Birthdate of wine merchant Herman Seligman, the native of Germany who was the husband of Olivia Seligman and the father of Charles J. Seligman all of whom lived in London.

1829(9thof Tishrei, 5590): Erev Yom Kipppur; Kol Nidre

1837(7thof Tishrei, 5598): Twenty-nine year old Moses Loeb Mack the “son of Löb Moses Mack and Henriette Samuel Mack” passed away today in his native Bavaria.

1843: In Courland, Russia, Mortiz Rosenthal and Pauline Birkhann gave birth to Herman Rosenthal the husband of Anna Rosenthal who, after arriving in the United States in 1881, “organized agricultural for Russian Jews in Louisiana, South Dakota and New Jersey, “started the Russian daily Zarya in 1890, published and edited the Hebrew Monthly Intelligencer in New York” and served as the secretary of the German American Reform Union.

1844(23rdof Tishrei, 5605): Simchat Torah

1846: In India, Jessie Sarah and Henry Edward Goldsmid gave birth to Albert Edward Goldsmid.  A graduate of Sandhurst, the famed military school, he held a series of progressively more important positions in the British army until he was “selected by Baron de Hirsch to supervise” the colonies being established in Argentina for Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe.  He went to serve with distinction during the Boer War.

1847: Michael Isaacs married Elizabeth Cohen at the Great Synagogue today.

1849: The victorious Austrian general orders the execution of 13 rebel Hungarian generals in Arad.  These men are known as the 13 Martyrs of Arad.  Their execution marked an end to the revolt by Kossuth against the repressive Austrian regime.  Kossuth had supported emancipation for the Jews of Hungary and the Jews had supported the revolt.  The Jews of Hungary suffered cruelly at the hands of the victorious Austrians as well as the local Slavic population that had viewed the uprising as a Magyar dominated event.  The defeat of the liberal forces in Hungary led to immigration of Hungarians – Jews as well as non-Jews – to the United States just as a similar defeat for German liberals led to their migration to the United States

1850: In Baltimore, MD, Moses Keyser and Betty Preiss gave birth to sculptor Ephraim Keyser whose works included “busts of Sidney Lanier, Cardinal Gibbons, Dr. Daniel Gilman, and Henry Harland” and a “statute of Major-General Baron De Kalb” for the United States Government which was “erected at Annapolis, MD.

1851: “The Hungarians,” published today reported that the U.S.S. Mississippi, “commanded by Captain Levy” had arrived in Constantinople for the purpose of providing Louis Kossuth, the exiled Hungarian political leader, with safe passage to France.  The Mississippi was one of the first ocean-going steam vessels belonging to the U.S. Navy and would be part of the fleet that entered Tokyo Bay with Commodore Perry.  Captain Levy would not be part of that voyage.

1851(10th of Tishrei, 5612): Yom Kippur

1851: The first recorded Jewish religious observance in Southern California was held at the home of Lewis Abraham Franklin in San Diego on Yom Kippur. Franklin had held what may have been the first High Holiday Services in the history of the state.  In 1849, he held Rosh Hashanah services in his "store" (a tent) in San Francisco. He later moved to San Diego. The first synagogue, Adath Jeshurun, was founded 10 years later by Louis Rose.  Rose was a less than successful land speculator in San Diego.

1852(23rdof Tishrei, 5613): Simchat Torah

1853:The Foreign Items column published today reported that Alexander Weill, a Jew who converted to Catholicism attributes the diseases attacking crops in parts of Europe "to the non-observance to the precepts of Moses who ordained that the soil should be left fallow during every seventh year, as God rested on the seventh day.

1853: In Germany, “Morris and Blume (Brodek) Treiber gave birth Arkansas lawyer Jacob Treiber, the husband of Ida Schradzki who began serving as Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas in 1900.

1854:In recognition of Abraham Alexander Wolff’s “services in the organization of the Royal Library of Copenhagen he was created a knight of the Order of Dannebrog today and was also awarded the title of professor.”

1856:“Pleasant Prospect for Foreign Voters” published today reported that, “Some ‘Jew’ having interrupted Governor Floyd, when he was avowing his readiness to vote for Fillmore, with the pertinent inquiry, ‘how about the foreign vote?’ the Governor replied, that they should be treated as the Greeks proposed to do with Hector, feed him on one day and disembowel him the next. Fillmore is Millard Fillmore former President of the United States who had been a member of the Whig Party. When the Whigs collapsed, Fillmore joined the American Party, the political party of the anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic Know-Nothing Movement. John Floyd was a prominent member of the Democrat Party who had served as Governor of Virginia. Considering the surge in Jewish immigration to the United States during the 1850’s Fillmore and the Know-Nothings were a great concern to all Jews. 

1857: Birthdate of physiologist Joseph Paneth, the native of Vienna who was the father of chemist Friedrich Paneth and “a good friend of Sigmund Freud.”

1858: Emanuel Vandervelde married Caroline Van Goor at the Great Synagogue today.

1863(10thof Tishrei, 5764): Yom Kippur

1863: During the U.S. Civil War, Union authorities began the process of mustering the 15th Kentucky Cavalry (a unit formed by Lt. Col. Gabriel Netter) out of active service.  There is a note of irony that this process affecting a unit formed by a Jewish soldier, should begin on the Day of Atonement.

1864: In Náchod, Czech Republic, Isaac and Julie Judith Josephine Mautner gave birth to Adelheid Mauter who became Adelhied Goldschmid when she married Otto Goldschmid.

1865: In Frankfurt Selig Meier Goldschmidt, and his wife Clementine Fuld gave birth to Meier Selig Goldschmidt the husband of Selma Cramer and the son-in-law of Salomon Cramer and Therese (Röschen) Oppenheimer.

1867: Elizabeth Samuels and George Joel Marks gave birth to Samuel Marks.

1870: “Loss of Life in War” published today described what is considered to be “the shocking slaughter” taking place on 19th century battlefields.  In making comparison, the article reports that when Titus took Jerusalem, “more than a million Jews are believed to have perished.”

1871(21stof Tishrei, 5632): Hoshanah Rabah

1872(4thof Tishrei, 5633): Fast of Gedaliah is observed since the 3rd of Tishrei fell on Shabbat

1873(15thof Tishrei, 5634): Sukkoth

1873: According to published reports today’s “Jewish festival of ‘Succoth’ or the Feast of Tabernacles…is the harvest feast of the Jews and is a season for rejoicing and thanksgiving…The observance of this festival is not general, being confined almost entirely to the orthodox portion of the Jewish community.

1873: At meeting of leading Christians held at Steinway Hall in New York City a person from Cincinnati claimed “the Jews in that section of the country asserted that America was their promised land, and they no longer believed the ideas taught by their forefathers.” [Cincinnati was the stronghold of the Reform Movement.]

1874: Jacques Lang married Therese Cowan today.

1877: In New York City, the Young Men’s Hebrew Association sponsored a program at the Lyric Hall that was attended by “the elite of Jewish society.  Mr. I.S. Isaacs presided over the event. He was joined on the platform by Dr. De Sola Mendez and Rabbi Henry S. Jacobs. General Stewart L. Woodford, who had served with distinction in the Civil War and was active in the New York State Republican Party delivered an address entitled “Toleration.”  Professor J.L. Rice played a piano solo and Miss Gertrude Emanuel sang a ballad.  The evening ended with a recitation of “Phil Blood’s Leap by Joseph Michaels.

1878(9thof Tishrei, 5639): Erev Yom Kippur

1878: Seventy-eight year old Maria Michael who passed away yesterday was interred at the Bath Jewish Burial Ground today.

1878: “The Hebraic Day of Atonement” published today reported that “the Jewish fast of Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement, commences at sundown this evening.  This fast is more generally observed than any other o the numerous fasts and feasts in the Hebraic calendar…This is particularly the case among the orthodox Jews who keep a strict fast for 24 hours…The Reformed Jews, while they have discarded the fast, still regard the day as one of solemn import…”

1879: On the Gregorian calendar, birthdate of Russian born Yiddish author Nohum Shtif who wrote under the pseudonym of Baal Dimon (Master of Imagination)

1880: In Los Angeles, founding of the University of Southern California whose original benefactors were a “Protestant nurseryman, Ozro Childs, an Irish Catholic former-Governor, John Gately Downey, and a German Jewish banker, Isaias W. Hellman”

1880: Just 3 weeks before his 49th birthday, Philadelphia born Colonel Myer Asch was “transferred to the Commandery of New York of the Loyal Legion of the United States.

1880: Godfrey Isaacs married Amelia Aarons at the Hambro Synagogue.

1882(23rdof Tishrei, 5643): Simchat Torah

1883: In New York City, the Young Men’s Hebrew Association hosted a meeting of Jewish immigrants from Germany and Russia at the Five Points House of Industry.  The YMHA shared its plans to start classes in English and American social customs.

1884: Gabriel Richter, a Hebrew teacher, who had been arrested on charges of setting fire to his apartment at 219 Division Street was released today following a hearing at the Tombs Police court during which he said he was innocent because he was not at home and the police officer “could not swear” that the defendant “was the man whom had seen descending the stoop after the alarm was given.

1884: It was reported today that three alleged accomplices of Gabriel Richter who have conspired to set the three fires in the last 15 months set one at 203 East Broadway, “a three story tenement, occupied by” three Jewish families from Poland.

1884: Birthdate of Felix Weltsch, a German-speaking Jewish librarian, philosopher, author, editor, publisher and journalist who was a close friend of Max Brod and Franz Kafka, he was one of the most important Zionists in Bohemia.

1887: In Chicago, Samuel and Sarah (Fernberg) Ehrlich gave birth to Elma Ehrlich who became Elma Ehrlich Levinger, when she married Rabbi Lee J. Leving, the name she used as the author of over thirty children’s books. (As reported by Joan Moelis Rappaport)


1887: “Dr.M’Glynn and the Jews” published today briefly described the views of Edward McGlynn about religious doctrine stating that the difference between Judaism and Christianity was that the former placed a premium on universal justice while the latter placed a premium on “blind faith.”  (McGlynn was a Roman Catholic priest who had been excommunicated earlier in the year because of his political positions including the support of Henry George.)

1889: Attorney Alexander Rosenthal, representing Joseph Linkowitz, the President of the synagogue at 91 Delaney has charged Officer Gebhard of entering the institution as the second day of Rosh Hashanah was ending and Shabbat was beginning and turning out the lights thus forcing the worshippers out into the street.

1889: Birthdate of Miguel Mariano Gómez, the President of Cuba who Representative William I. Sirovich met with in July of 1936 in an attempt to get “Cuba to open her doors for at least 100,000 persecuted German Jews.”

1889: “Talk of the Day Abroad” published today described the latest act of anti-Semitism in Leipzig as transcending “the ordinary in sheer stupidity.”  In response to the thousands who visit the home of Mendelssohn, the citizenry raised money for a stained-glass window at the church of St. Thomas, to honor the composer of “Elijah.”  However, the project came to a grinding halt when “somebody started an outcry that the Mendelssohns were Jews.

1890(22ndof Tishrei, 5651): Shmini Atzeret

1890: During today’s meeting of the Trustees of Columbia University, it was a reported that Jesse Seligman had donated another $1,000 for the Seligman Fellowships.

1891: Edward, the Prince of Wales, gave a luncheon today at the Grand Hotel for the King of Greece and Baron Hirsch before beginning a12 day stay at the Baron’s retreat at St. Johann.

1892(15thof Tishrei, 5653): Sukkoth

1892: Birthdate of U.S. diplomat Laurence Steinhardt




1893: Birthdate of Milton Ager the Chicago native and song writer who served in the US Army’s Morale Division in Fort Greenleaf, Georgia and cranked out a slew of hits, including the “anthem of the Democratic Party, “Happy Days are Here Again.


1894: Mrs. Elke Rubenstein, the widow of convicted murderer Pesach N. Rubenstein and her sister Basche Ragleski were sent back to Jerusalem today after having been denied entrance to the United States because they “had only $50 and government authorities are not permitted to land anyone who may become a public charge.

1894: Those in charge of the Bureau of Elections are concerned that they will have completed their list of polling places in time for the first day of voter registration which begins on October 9 and continues on October 10.  Several the locations used in the past are owned by Jews and they do not want to sign a lease that will have their property being used Erev Yom Kippur and Yom Kippur.

1894(6thof Tishrei, 5655): Shabbat Shuvah

1894(6thof Tishrei, 5655): Seventy year old German botanist Nathanael Pringsheim who ranks as the founder of our scientific knowledge of the algae” passed away today.

1895: “Prof. Haupt’s Literary Treasures” published today described the return of “Professor Paul Haput of the Oriental department of Johns Hopkins University” to Baltimore from Europe, where among other things he met with Professor Howard Furness who is working on a the new translation of “The Hebrew Bible” of which Professor Haupt is the editor in Chief.

1895: Professor Cyrus Adler explained how the United States National Museum acquired two Persepolitan cast one of which he says resembles “a frieze of enameled bricks found at Susa which is now in the Louvre.

1896: The list of gifts received by Columbia University published today provided by the Secretary of the Board included $5,000 from Jacob F. Schiff to aid needy students get through college.”

1896(28thof Tishrei, 5657): Dr. Moriz Schiff, the native of Frankfort-on-the-Main whose services as a surgeon in the rebel army during the Baden Revolution of 1849 led to him being labeled a “dangerous student” which forced him to pursue his medical career in Switzerland where he passed away today at Geneva.

1897(10thof Tishrei, 5658): Yom Kippur

1897: In Camden, NJ, Yom Kippur services “were held in Newton and Furey Halls.

1897: “Jew’s Greatest Fast Day” published today included a description of the preparation for Yom Kippur by “the orthodox Jew” who has for the past nine days been preparing himself for this day by doing “penance” which has entailed rising early “every morning since the New Year’s festival and repairing to the Beth Hamiderash (house of learning)” where he recited psalms and prayers for forgiveness and seeking “out his enemies” and making “peace with them” while discharging “all his worldly obligations.

1897: Dr. Gustav Gottheil led the services at Temple Emanu-El

1897: “There was a general suspension of business among the” Jewish merchants in Camden, NJ, because they were attending Yom Kippur Services.

1897: At Temple Elohim in Brooklyn Rabbi Taubernhaus delivered a sermon based on the Sayings of the Father that begin “Bear in mind three things and thou shalt escape sinning.

1897: At Temple B’nai Jeshurun, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise delivered a sermon entitled “Moses and Aaron.

1897: At Temple Rodoph Sholom, Dr. Rudolph Grossman delivered a sermon entitled “Home, Religion and Reconciliation.”

1897: At Temple Beth-El, Dr. Kauffman Kohler delivered a sermon on the “Dove of Peace.”

1897(10thof Tishrei, 5658): Fifty-three year old Lewis Stark, successful clothing merchant, passed away today at the home of his sister today from the effects of Bright’s disease.

1898: In London, Sime Zamremba and Avroam Kohen, a tailor from Lodz gave birth to Jacob Edward Kohen who gained fame as Jack Cohen, the founder of Tesco Supermarket Chain – an accomplishment that led to him being Sir John Edward Cohen.


1898:Herzl arrives in Berlin for another conversation with Graf Eulenberg.

1901(23rdof Tishrei, 5662): Simchat Torah

1902(5thof Tishrei, 5663): Eighty-three year old Austrian Rabbi Jacob Jacques Heinrich Hirschfeld, the son “Marie and Emanuel Isak Hirschfeld” and the husband of Pauline Hirschfeld passed away today in Vienna.

1903(15thof Tishrei, 5664): Sukkoth

1903: In Wiesbaden, Dr. Georg Honigmann and his wife gave birth to journalist Georg Honigmann.

1903: The High Court of Australia sits for the first time.  In the early 1930’s Sir Isaac Alfred Isaacs would be the first Jew to serve as Chief Justice of Australia. 

1904: In New York, Felix Mortiz Warburg and Frieda Fanny Warburg, the daughter of Jacob and Theres Schiff, gave birth to Paul Felix Solomon Warburg.

1907: In Nice, France, Henri Daniel Mayrargue and Eveline Bethsabee Lattes, the daughter of Marie and Israel-Vita Lattes gave birth Fernand Leon Mayrargue

1907: Birthdate of Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch, a German-born geneticist and co-founder of developmental genetics who fled Hitler’s German to pursue her career in the United States. Winner of the Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal in 1993 and the National Medal of Science in 1996, she passed away in November of 2007, a month after celebrating her 100thbirthday.

1909(21st of Tishrei, 5670): Hoshanah Rabah

1909: In Philadelphia, Irving Kohn and Rebekah Kohn, the daughter of Simon and Florence Liveright gave birth to Florence Kohn who became Florence Abrahams after she married Robert David Abrahams.

1909: The funeral for Rabbi Falk Vidaver who passed away yesterday at the age of 65, is scheduled to be held today at his home in New York City. Burial will take place in the cemetery belonging to the Temple at 72nd and Lexington Avenue where Falk served as rabbi for twelve years.

1909:Miss Clara L. Clemens, daughter of Samuel L. Clemens, (Mark Twain,) was married at noon to-day to Ossip Gabrilowitsch, the Russian pianist. The wedding took place in the drawing room at Stormfield, Mr. Clemens's country home, with the Rev. Dr. Joseph H. Twitchell of Hartford, a close friend of Mr. Clemens, as officiating clergyman. The groom was Jewish.  The bride was not.

1910(3rdof Tishrei, 5671): Tzom Gedaliah

1912(25thof Tishrei, 5673): Sixty-six year old philanthropist Simon Newman passed away today in San Francisco.

1913: Abraham and Sarah Kaminsky gave birth to Leo Kaminsky, the father of Stuart Kaminsky.

1914(16thof Tishrei, 5675): Second Day of Sukkoth

1914: The battleship U.S.S. North Carolina brought $50,000 from the Jews of the United States to the Jewish community in Palestine. 

1914: It was reported today that U.S. government officials in the United States have not decided how to deal with reports of that a large part of the population of Jerusalem is facing starvation.

1914: Gilbert Frankau, the London born Jew who was baptized at the age of 13 and whose father Arthur converted to Roman Catholicism “a few months before his death” “was first commissioned in the 9th Battalion of the East Surrey Regiment” today.

1914: It was reported today that Henry Morgenthau, the U.S. Ambassador at Constantinople “has appealed to the State Department for additional funds for the relief of American in the Ottoman Empire.”

1915: In Woodmere, NY, attorney Edward Drucker and his wife gave birth to Carolyn Elizabeth Drucker who became Carolyn Goodman after marrying civil engineer Robert W. Goodman which was the name she was known as when she gained gamed fame as the Manhattan clinical psychologist and mother of murdered civil rights worker Andrew Goodman. (As reported by Margalit Fox)



1916(9thof Tishrei, 5677): Erev Yom Kippur and Erev Shabbat

1916: Appeals for funds are being made this evening in all Jewish houses of worship on “behalf of the Russian and Polish Jews in the war zones of Europe.”

1916: At Congregation Pincus Eliza on 95th Street General Sessions Judge Rosalsky “made an appeal for contributions to the fund for the aid of Jewish men, women and children affected by the war” which produced pledges of approximately $10,000.

1916: “Simon Samuel Frug, Yiddish Poet” published today reported the recent death of the Jewish poet from the Ukraine who following pogroms “circulated a poetic appeal asking for bread for the living and shrouds for the dead.”

1917(20thof Tishrei, 5678) Sixth day of Sukkoth and Shabbat

1917: As politicians sought to appeal to the Jewish vote on the Lower East Side William Hard, a supporter of New York Mayor John Mitchell wrote in today’s New Republic that Socialist Morris Hillquist who was Jewish had “a very considerable skill in the management of practical negotiations and an excellent command of quotations from standard authorities of his intellectual club and a manifest dislike for new and painful ideas.

1917: Today, during World War I, the 65th U.S. Congress passed an act that allowed for the creation of an additional twenty chaplains to serve in the United States Army.  These positions were for representatives of "religious sects" not usually represented in these positions.  The language of the act was convoluted but what Congress was really doing was creating positions to be filled by Jewish and Unitarian chaplains - religious sects that had hitherto been under-represented or unrepresented in chaplaincy.

1918: In Philadelphia, Manuel and Blanche (née Bergman) Korn gave birth to the Reform Rabbi Bertram Wallace Korn whose service as a chaplain began with the U.S. Navy in WW II and led to him reaching the rank of Rear Admiral in 1975.




1918: Birthdate of Abraham Robinson the German born, Israeli trained mathematician who earned his first degree from Hebrew University after he made Aliyah in 1933.


1918: While serving “on liaison duty with a battalion of the 308th Infantry which was surrounded by the enemy north of the Forest de la Buironne in the Argonne forest” and “after patrols had been repeatedly shot down while attempting to carry back word of the battalion’s position and condition” Abraham Krotoshinsky “volunteered for the mission and successfully accomplished it” in such a manner that he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

1918: On the Lower East Side of Manhattan the former Jennifer Garlick and her first husband gave birth to Joseph Nathaniel Glassman who gained fame as Joseph Frank author of the five volume life of Fydor Dostoevsky which is viewed as one of the greatest literary biographies of the 20th century. (As reported by Bruce Weber)

1920: Theresa Bruckner, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Max Bruckner is scheduled to marry Stanley Lee Weil this evening at the St. Regis in New York City.

1920: The High Commissioner for South Africa and Mrs. Blankenberg  are scheduled to attend a dinner for Dr. Hertz, the Chief Rabbi of England and Albert M. Woolf today.

1921: In Tel Aviv, Samuel Lewin-Epstein, the “son of Judith and Eliyahu Ze’ev Lewin Epstein” and his wife “Madeline Lewin-Epstein” gave birth to “Noah Lewin-Epstein”

1921: Great Britain, the mandatory power governing Palestine, announced that Haifa will become a free port and that a new harbor will be constructed by a British company with a loan from the Palestine Mandatory Government of 10,000,000 English pounds. As part of a tariff agreement reached with the French, the mandatory power governing Syria, goods entering Haifa bound for Syria will be treated as duty free.  This should be a boon to trade with those living in Mesopotamia as well.

1921: Birthdate of Soviet mathematician Yvgeny Landis who is known for his work on partial differential equations.  (I do not have clue as to what that means)

1923: Birthdate of Newark, NJ native Gideon Lichtman who became the first fighter pilot in the young Israeli affair to shoot down an enemy fighter in aerial combat, a feat that would make him a target for terrorists and force him use a an assumed name while teaching high school in Florida for thirty years.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/obituaries/article204127679.html

1923: In Oshkosh, Wisconsin,  scrap metal dealer Isadore Block and his wife gave birth to Allan Forrest Block  “a leather craftsman and fiddler who made sandals and music in his Greenwich Village shop — which became a bubbling hub of folk music during the 1950s and ’60s.”  (As reported by Bruce Weber)

1925(17th of Tishrei, 5686): Chol Hamoed Sukkoth

1925(17th of Tishrei, 5686): “The noted Jewish scholar, Dr. Israel Abrahams, reader in Talmudic and Rabbinic literature at Cambridge University passed away today in Cambridge” (UK) at the age of 66. Dr. Abrahams came from a family of scholars.  “His father, Barnett Abrahams, was the Dayan of the Spanish & Portuguese Congregation in London.”  Two of his brothers are rabbis including Dr. Joseph Abrahams, the Chief Rabbi of Melbourne, Australia. Dr. Abrahams has been at Cambridge for the last twenty three years.  He was the first President of the Union of Jewish Literary Societies and held several leadership positions with the Jewish Historical Society of England. Dr. Abrahams was a prolific author whose best known work maybe “Jewish Life in the Middle Ages” which was published in 1896.  In his later years he identified with the more liberal wing of Judaism.  Abrahams’ first speaking tour in the United States was in 1912. He returned again in 1924. [Abrahams comment that anti-Semitism is on the wane in Germany made in 1912 stands in stark contrast to the reality of the post war years.]

1925: In Manhattan, on his 32nd birthday, “Milton Ager, a successful composer whose tunes included ‘Happy Days Are Here Again’” and his wife “Cecilia, a film critic gave birth to Shana Ager who gained famed as journalist Shana Alexander between known as the liberal part of the Point/Counterpoint segment on “Sixty Minutes” with conservative columnist James Kirkpatrick. (As reported by Margalit Fox)


1926(28th of Tishrei, 5687): Fifty-four year old Horki native Israel Joseph Zevin who gained fame as “a humorist and pioneer of the Yiddish press in America” using the pseudonym “Tashrak” passed away today.



1926(28th of Tishrei, 5687): Eighty year old Simon Bamberger the fourth governor of Utah who was the first non-Mormon to hold the post and the third Jew to be elected to a state chief executive position passed away today


 1927(10th of Tishrei, 5688): Yom Kippur

1927: The era of talking pictures arrived with the opening of ''The Jazz Singer,'' starring Al Jolson.

1927: Jewish editor Herman Bernstein post a $15,000 bond so that Mordechai Golinkin, conductor of the Palestine Opera and former director of the Petrograd Opera, his wife Lea and a fellow traveler can be released from their three day detention on Ellis Island.  Authorities detained the party because Golinkin had no contracts to perform in the United States which meant he did not meet the legal requirement of being able to demonstrate that he had a means of support.

1928: In the aftermath of the Massena (NY) Blood Libel that Assemblyman Julius Berg said that the apology by Mayor Gilbert Hawes “showed conclusively that he had been guility of a serious injustice against the Jews of Messina. Berg said no apology could make up for the wrong done and that unless the mayor resigned he would go to court to have him removed from office. When a four year child had been reported missing on the eve of Yom Kippur, the mayor had suggested that the disappearance might be due to a ritual murder.  This resulted in Rabbi Brennglass being summoned to the police station for questioning.

1928:The Wedding March” an “American silent romantic drama film written and directed by and starring Erich von Stroheim which was produced by Adolph Zukor and Jesse Laskey and edited by Josef von Sternberg was released in the United States today by Paramount Pictures.

1930: Allan Bloom, “the general secretary of the Jewish Community Association of Indianopolis” is one of five of the delegates chosen to attend the National Recreation Congress in Atlantic City which is scheduled to begin today.

1933: Birthdate of Ludwik Begleiter, the native of Stryj, Poland who survived the Holocaust ,graduated from Harvard Law School and who as Louis Begley became a successfully and author whose first book Wartime Lies was published in 1991.

1934: Birthdate of Philadelphia born, Ivy League educated philosopher and author Jacob Needelman.


1934(27thof Tishrei, 5695): Parashat Bereshit – The Cycle beings again

1934(27thof Tishrei, 5695): Max Yuditzky, who joined the Jewish Legion in 1918 and served in Palestine with the 38th Royal Fusiliers passed away today in Winnipeg, Canada, where his passing is mourned by “his wife Katee and four son” Dave, Harold, Joseph and Bernard.”

1935(9thof Tishrei, 5696): Erev Yom Kippur

1935(9thof Tishrei, 5696): Eighty-three year old composer and conductor Sir Frederic Hymen Cowen passed away.


1935:Daniel Persky, editor of the Hebrew-language newspaper Hadoar and its sister publication for youth, Doar L’Noar wrote to Aliza Dworkin that ““In my opinion, Sara Kucikowicz’s future will be that of a great Hebrew poet,” who wrote “The Cruel Winter” and “The Vicious Spring.”


1936(20th of Tishrei, 5697): Sixth Day of Sukkoth

1936: Birthdate of Budapest native John Bienenstock, “one of the fathers of mucosal immunology” whose parents escaped to England where he received his medical education before eventually settling in Canada



1936:Sir Oswald Mosley planned a provocative meeting of his British Union of Fascists in the East End for today. The inhabitants of the area determined that ''They shall not pass!'' and congregated at Gardner's Corner. When in response Mosley and his Black Shirts, with a fair degree of police support, changed direction, the protesters dashed along the Commercial Road, surged down Christian Street and turned right into Cable Street. At the junction with Royal Mint Street, now marked by a plaque, the Fascists indeed ''did not pass.'' They were later ordered to disperse, and Mosley thundered: ''The government surrenders to Red violence and Jewish corruption. We never surrender.'' In fact, Fascism in Britain, at least as an organized political movement, was soon a dead letter.

1936: Rabbi Samuel H. Goldenson led the funeral services for Jesse Isidor Straus this morning at Temple Emanuel which were attended by an array of dignitaries from several walks of life including Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt who represented the President, Governor and Mrs. Lehman, Mayor La Guardia and Andre de Laboulaye, the French Ambassador which served as a reminder of the close links that Straus had forged with that country while serving as the U.S. Ambassador in Paris.

1936: The New York City Public School system announced today that it is beginning a series of radio broadcasts as part of its educational efforts. Among the broadcasts will be a series aimed at language students including those studying Hebrew who will hear programs about Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and the Waves of Galilee.

1936: In Geneva, at a meeting of the League of Nations, the Polish representative said that it was becoming increasingly necessary to find outlets other than Palestine for the “immense reservoir of the Jewish population in Central and Eastern Europe” and that includes Poland where “overpopulation creates a need for new immigration outlets for the Jewish masses whose economic structure makes it difficult to integrate them in Poland’s contemporary social evolution.”

1936: It was reported that Judge Bleakly, the Republican running against Herbert Lehmann for Governor of New York and who had “described David Dubinsky” the Jewish labor leader “as a renegade Socialist who sent money to the Reds in Spain” was making an erroneous charges since “the funds raised by the president of the of International Ladies Garment Workers went not to the Reds but to the Red Cross

1937:  The Palestine Post reported from Berlin that German Jews might soon be ordered to wear yellow badges. Jews were ordered to report to local police stations where they were forced to stand for hours, facing the wall, until they collapsed and were ready to give up their property for nothing.

1937: The Palestine Post reported that he Arab Defense Party, which had broken away from the Husseini-run Arab Higher Committee, was allowed to meet in Jerusalem, under the chairmanship of Ragheb Bey Nashashibi.

1938: “Fast and Furious, a mystery comedy” written by Harry Kurnitz was released in the United States today by MGMm

1938: The last casualty of the International Brigades, Haskel Honigstern, was given a state funeral in Barcelona. The Spanish poet Jose Herrera wrote of him: "Haskel Honigstern, Polish worker of the Jewish race, son of an obscure land, killed in the light of my homeland." Coincidentally, the first casualty of the International Brigades was Leon Baum, a Jew from Paris

1939: In an address to the Reichstag, Hitler offers peace to England and France, but only if Germany's former colonies are returned, Germany is allowed to join world trade, and Britain and France allow Germany to solve the "Jewish problem."

1939: In Bucharest, “the Zionist organization announced today that Jewish refugees from Poland between the ages of 14 and 17 are being allowed to enter Palestine and that negotiations to obtain entrance permits for the remained of the Polish Jewish refugees hare are proceeding.”

1939: “Ninotchoka” a romantic comedy that was thinly veiled satire of the Soviet Union “based on a screen story by Melichor Lengyel, produced and directed by Ernst Lubitsch with a script by Billy Wilder, co-starring Melvyn Douglas and featuring Alexander Granach was released in the United States by MGM.

1940(4th of Tishrei, 5701): Tzom Gedaliah

1940: Birthdate of music manager Gerald Eugene “Jerry” Heller, the Cleveland, Ohio native who was a driving force behind rap and “gangsta rap.”




1940: “The United Jewish Appeal for Refugees and Overseas Needs” is scheduled to “present a high holiday broadcast” today “at 2:35 p.m. over the WABC-Columbia network.

1940(4th of Tishrei, 5701): Illinois Governor Henry Horner passed away today at the age of 62.  Horner was a distinguished jurist before entering state politics as a reformer. Henry Levy was the son of Solomon Levy and Dilah Horner.  When his parents divorced, his mother resumed using her maiden name and young Levy became Horner.

1941(15th of Tishrei, 5702): First Day of Sukkoth


1941(15th of Tishrei, 5702): Over the next 48 hours, the majority of Jews in Dvinsk, Latvia, are murdered.

1941(15th of Tishrei, 5702): Phillip Manson, a one-time Rochester newspaper boy and advisor to Presidents Wilson and Harding, who “started the first regular steamship service between New York and Bermuda and who was the husband of Isabelle Manson passed away today.


1941(15th of Tishrei, 5702): In Kovno, 1,500 Jews without work passes were taken away to be shot. The Kovno hospital was sealed shut and burned to the ground with everyone still in it.

1941: It was reported today that Dr. Benjamin Harrow, author of “Jews who Have Received the Nobel Prize” and Chemistry Professor Dr. Harry Wagreich have received a grant from the medical fund of the Ella Sachs Plotz Foundation.

1943: Helen Manaster a Jew posing as a Catholic, was called out of the delivery room in the Kraków, Poland, hospital while in the throes  labor pains to face two Gestapo agents. She keeps her calm and the Gestapo agents tell her to go back to bed.

1943: “In the Posen town hall” Heinrich Himmler delivers a speech in which he openly admits to the extermination of the Jews assuring this listeners that “The Jewish question in the countries that we occupy will be solved by the end of this year. Only remainders of odd Jews that managed to find hiding places will be left over."

1943: This is “The Day the Rabbis Marched on Washington.” Dr. Rafael Medoff‘s article describes one attempt to save the Jews of Europe.  That they did not succeed is beside the point in terms of the historic record; they made the attempt.  Each time we read of these “small” efforts, we cannot help but wonder what a concerted effort might have brought.  The Jews of Europe Save or the Jews of America condemned as putting their own parochial interests ahead of the war effort?


1944(19th of Tishrei, 5705): During Sukkoth Chol Hamoed, a two day uprising begins at Auschwitz. SonderkommandoJews from Poland, Hungary, and Greece, who are forced to transport gassed corpses to crematoria at Auschwitz, attack SS guards with hammers, stones, picks, crowbars, and axes. They also blow up one of the four crematoria with explosives smuggled into the camp from a nearby munitions factory. Russian POWs throw an SS man alive into a crematorium furnace. The SS fights back with machine guns, hand grenades, and dogs. 250 Jews are shot outside the camp wire. An additional 12 who escape will later be found and executed.

1945(29thof Tishrei, 5706): Parashat Bereshit

1945: Leonardo Conti, the Reich Health Leader, the doctor who betrayed his oath by taking a leading role in the Nazi euthanasia program committed suicide today before he could be tried for his crimes.

1946: Eleven kibbutz settlements were established in a single night.

1946: Urim, a kibbutz located in the Negev, was established today.

1946: Kibbutz Beeri which “which was named after Berl Katznelson” was established today “near Wadi Nahabir, a few kilometers south of Be’erot Yitzhak” by “members of the HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed movement.”

1946: Kibbutz Kedma, in south-central Israel, was founded today.

1946: Dan Zur was amont those who founded Kibbutz Nirim, “which named after the Nir brigade of the Hashomer Hatzair” today in the Negev.

1946: Kibbutz Neavtim, which would hold out against the Egyptian Army despite being completely surrounded during the War of Independence, was founded today “by immigrants from Hungary in the northern Negev.

1946: Kibbutz “Hatzerim” which is “located 8 kilometers west of Beersheba in the Negev desert in Israel” was founded today.

1946:Mishmar HaNegev was established today by members of Borochovi Youth, a youth group affiliated with Poalei Zion,

1946: Establishment of Kfar Darom, not far from Gaza. Two years later, attacking Egyptian forces would capture the Kibbutz after a prolonged siege.

1946: Tkuma, a moshav located in the Negev whose original settlers were Holocaust surviors, was established today.

1946: Kibbutz Gal-On (Monument of Strength)  “which stands on a hill approximately twenty kilometers from the Mediterranean Sea” was founded today by members from Poland some of whom had survived the wartime ghettos or had fought as partisans against the Germans.  The name was a memorial to those who had died in the Ghetto revolts.

1946: Shoval, named for a nearby ancient biblical town, was established by South African Jews sixteen miles north of Beersheba.  To deal with the harsh climate the kibbutzim used contour plowing and built a modern reservoir.  While cultivating the land, they also cultivated good relations with the Bedouin who passed through the area.

1946: “Bill Steiner, representing the Maccabiah club of New York, captured the U.S. national title in the 30 kilometer run today” with a time of 1 hour, 38 minutes and 2 seconds. Steiner’s win was no fluke.  He had won the AAU 20 mile run in Philadelphia in 1932 and won the Maccabiah marathon championship in Tel Aviv in 1935.

1947(22ndof Tishrei, 5708): Shmini Atzeret

1947(22ndof Tishrei, 5708): Just two days before his 57th birthday composer and screenwriter Samuel “Sam” Hoffenstein whose most famous work was “The Wizard of Oz” passed away today.


1947: After having opened at the National Theatre in 1946 and moved to the Majestic Theatre in July of 1947, Call Me Mister,” a revue with words and music by Harold Rome and a cast that included Jules Munshin continued its Broadway run at the Plymouth Theatre.

1948: Frederick Sylvester, a former employee of the Jerusalem Electric Corporation was found guilty of espionage in connection the Ben Yehuda Street Bombing and was sentenced to seven years in prison.

1949(13th of Tishrei, 5710): Sixty-two year old major league outfielder Guy Zinn who played from 1911 through 1915 and who scored the first run at Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox, passed away today.

1949: “The Heiress,” the film version of the 1947 play, directed and produced by William Wyler was released today in the United States.

1949: In New York City, “Josephine (Schleifer) Moonves, a nurse, and Herman Moonves gave birth to Leslie Roy “Les Moonves who in 2018 “stepped down as President and CEO of CBS after being named in multiple, credible claims of sexual harassment.

1949(13thof Tishrei, 5710: Fifty-five year old Rumanian native and NYU trained dentist Dr. Moses Diamond, a professor of dental anatomy at Columbia University’s College of Dental and Oral Surgery who raised a son, Eli, with his wife Frances Goodman Diamond passed away today.


1950: Birthdate of science fiction author David Brin.

1951(6th of Tishrei, 5712): Shabbat Shuva

1951(6th of Tishrei, 5712): Otto Fritz Meyerhof, German born American physician and biochemist passed away.  Mayerhof shared the 1922 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Archibald Vivian Hill.  Meyerhof left Germany in 1938, settling in Philadelphia in 1941 where he joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania.


1952:  The Jerusalem Post reported that Prof. Nelson Glueck was invited by the Israel Exploration Society to head a projected 10-year archeological survey of Israel. Nelson Glueck was one of the great names among the archeologists working in Israel.  Born in 1900, Glueck graduated from the University of Cincinnati and earned his PhD from the University of Jena (Germany) in 1926.  During his career he uncovered over 1,000 sites in the Middle East including the copper mines of King Solomon and the Red Sea port of Ezion Geber.  Glueck's discoveries provided archeological verification for information found in the Bible.  In 1947, Glueck was named President of Hebrew Union College.  One of his most famous and popular books was Rivers in the Desert: A History of the Negev,published in 1959. Glueck's fame was such that he appeared on the cover of Time magazine in December, 1963, under the title "The Search for Man's Past."  Glueck passed away in 1971.

1953(27thof Tishrei, 5714): Seventy-nine year old Moshe Smilansky, the Ukrainian native who became part of the first Aliyah when he moved to Palestine in 1890, who served with the Jewish Legion during WW I and “who considered himself a disciple of Ahad Ha’aim passed ways today.




1953(27th of Tishrei, 5714):Doctor Rahel Hirsch the German born doctor who became the first woman in the Kingdom of Prussia to be appointed as a professor in medicine passed away. Born in 1870 in Frankfurt am Main, she was one of eleven children of Mendel Hirsch, the director of the girls’ school of the Jewish religious community in Frankfurt am Main. From 1885 to 1889, she took a degree in education in Wiesbaden. She then worked until 1898 as a teacher. After her doctorate she was assistant to Friedrich Kraus at Charité. Since she was Jewish, the takeover by the Nazis meant she could not practice medicine. In October of 1938 she moved to London, where one of her sisters lived. Since her degree was not recognized by the British, she worked as a laboratory assistant and later as a translator. The last years she spent plagued by depression, delusions and persecutory fears. She was in a mental hospital on the outskirts of London, where she died on October 6, 1953 at 83 years old.

1955(20thof Tishrei, 5714): Chol HaMoed Sukkoth

1955(20thof Tishrei, 5714): Sixty year old English poet John Rodker, one of the “Whitechapel Boys” passed away today.

1956: Prime Minister David Ben Gurion rejects Moshe Dayan’s demand for a reprisal raid, assuring his chief of staff that plans were in the works for a major operation against the Egyptians.

1957: Funeral services are scheduled to be held today at Malinow & Silverman Mortuary on Venice Blvd. for Arthur (Artie) Auerbach best known for his comedic role of “Mr. Kitzel who was survived by his widow Mrs. Doris Auerbach.

1959: NBC broadcast “The Wonderful World of Entertainment” the first episode of “Startime” with a script by Larry Gelbart and starring Polly Bergin.

1959(4thof Tishrei, 5720): Ninety-four year old Lithuanian born American art critic Bernard Berenson who was baptized as an Episcopalian and who was the prototype for a character in Wouk’s Winds of War passed away today.


1960(15thof Tishrei, 5721): Sukkoth

1961: Vic Morrow “appeared in an episode of the ABC drama series “Target: The Corruputers.

1962: After 677 performances at the Brooks Atkinson the curtain came down on the original Broadway production of Neil Simon’s first play “Come Blow Your Horn.”

1963:Barbra Streisand appears on "The Judy Garland Show"

1963:  Sandy Koufax leads the LA Dodgers to a four game sweep of the Yanks in the 60th World Series.  Koufax pitched victories against Yankee ace Whitey Ford in games one and four.

1964(30thof Tishrei, 5725): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

1964(30thof Tishrei, 5725): Fifty-six year old who reached the rank of staff sergeant in WW II where his work of preparing paratroopers’ equipment included using his tailor skills to work on parachutes died of a heart attack today which led to his family memorializing his life fifty years later by donating a Torah written in his honor the USS Gerald R. Ford, “the U.S. Navy’s newest aircraft carrier.” (As reported by Rich Tenorio)

1965(10thof Tishrei, 5726): Yom Kippur

1965: It was reported today from “Jerusalem, Israeli Sector” that “that the 25 hours of fasting and worship will last until this evening.” (Editor’s Note – The use of the term “Israeli Sector” when used in terms of Jerusalem may sound strange to some. But this report was filed during those 19 years when Jordan illegally occupied the Old City in violation of UN resolutions passed in 1947 – violations which brought no condemnation from the World Community nor any accompanying demand to turn the city over to the local Arab population.)

1965: Sandy Koufax refuses to pitch in the first game of the World Series because it is Yom Kippur. “In October 1965, the Los Angeles Dodgers were playing the Minnesota Twins in the World Series. The opening game was on Yom Kippur and Sandy Koufax, who had won 26 games that season and struck out 382 batters to set a major league record, did not pitch for his team. Koufax was not treated with respect by the local press in St. Paul. He did pitch the second game and lost, but won the fifth and seventh games (both complete game shutouts), and the Dodgers won the World Series. Koufax won the Cy Young Award three times, as well as being voted the National League's Most Valuable Player in 1963. In 1965 he pitched a perfect game against the Chicago Cubs, the fourth no-hitter of his career. Koufax is considered by many to be one of the greatest pitchers of all time.”

1966(22ndof Tishrei, 5727): Shmini Atzeret

1966(22ndof Tishrei, 5727): Sixty-two year old Carl Mandell, the Hungarian born son of Jacob and Sarah Mandell passed away today.

1968: Eighty-nine year old Maurice Arnold de Forest passed. He was the adopted son of the millionaire Baroness Clara de Hirsch, née Bischoffsheim, wife of Jewish banker and philanthropist Baron Maurice de Hirsch de Gereuth and/or the illegitimate son of Juliette Arnold de Forest fathered by the Baron.  Regardless, the motor car race, aviator and British politician converted to Catholicism

1969: NBC broadcast episode for of “My World…and Welcome to it” created by Melville Shavelson, co-starring Harold J. Stone.

1969: “The Royal Hunt of the Sun,” the film version of Peter Shaffer’s play with a screenplay by Phili Yordan was released in the United States today.

1969: Israeli officials reported today that three Egyptian MIGs (Soviet built warplane) had been shot down in a battle over the Suez Canal.

1970(28thof Tevet, 5730): Seventy year old Edith Halpert, the Odessa born wife of Samuel Halpert and not art dealer and collector who is best known as the owner of the Downtown Gallery passed away today.



1973(10th of Tishrei, 5734):  Normal life grinds to a halt in Israel on Yom Kippur which also happens to fall on Shabbat.

1973: At four o’clock in the morning, Israeli intelligence had hard proof that war would break out before sundown on October 6.  The information had come from the head of Mossad.  Moshe Dyan, the Defense Minister, refused the request of the IFD Chief of Staff General Elazar to mobilize and launch a pre-emptive strike against Syria.  The Nixon Administration had warned the Israelis not to strike first or to take any action which the Arabs could claim was provocative. Elazar appealed to Prime Minister Golda Meir.  Meir strikes a compromise.  She will allow a mobilization, but it is only to be partial one. 

1973: Prime Minister Golda Meir convened an emergency meeting in Tel Aviv with senior defense officials at 8:05 this morning.  Six hours before the outbreak of the war, Israeli preparations for a general offensive by Arab armies finally began. The warnings of the intelligence source were being taken seriously, as was the fact that the Russians were pulling families out of Egypt and Syria, a sign of approaching war. But U.S. intelligence was not predicting war. Minister Yisrael Galili said a source had suggested the war could be prevented by leaking information that would reach the Egyptians and Syrians, so they would knew their plans for attack had been discovered. The Israeli officials at the meeting were concerned about Jordan because it wasn't clear if the kingdom would join in the assault on Israel. Initially, Mrs. Meir deliberated between Chief of Staff Elazar's call for a full mobilization of the reserves and Moshe Dayan's request for a limited call-up. "If you approve a major mobilization of the reserves, I won't resign," Dayan said. But with an eye to international reaction, he added, "A full mobilization before even one shot is fired - they will say right away that we are the aggressors." At 9:20 A.M., a full mobilization was approved.

1973: War erupted in the Middle East as Egypt and Syria attacked Israel during the Yom Kippur holiday. The two Arab states attacked with hundreds of planes and more than a thousand tanks. By the end of the day, the Egyptians have established three bridgeheads across the Suez, Syrian artillery is shelling Israeli settlements and Israelis were being told to black out their windows in case of an air raid.  By the end of the day 200,000 Israeli soldiers, most of whom were mobilizing reservists faced 300,000 Syrians and 850,000 Egyptians.

1973: According to ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak he personally started the Yom Kippur War today “by attacking an Israeli communications base in his fighter jet six minutes before the rest of the Arab Armies’ surprise attack on the Jewish state began.” (As reported by Naama Barak

1973:On the first night of the Yom Kippur War  five boats led by flotilla commander Michael Barkai sailed north to engage in the first-ever missile battle at sea off the main Syrian port of Latakia. The feisty Barkai told his captains that their objective was to draw the Syrian missile boats out of harbor. "If they don't come out, I mean to sail in and get them with guns." Two Syrian picket boats were encountered well off the Syrian coast. The first, a torpedo boat, was sunk with gunfire. The second, a minesweeper, was hit with missiles, the Gabriel's first blood. Three Syrian missile boats already at sea turned to meet the intruders. With their 25-kilometer advantage, the Syrians got in the first salvo. The Israeli boats raised their electronic umbrella and charged. In naval headquarters, officers monitoring Barkai's radio net heard him report the Syrian launch. His voice was level but taut. Herut Tzemah braced. The lives of 200 men as well as the fate of the missile boat program hung now on whether he had assessed the Styx's parameters correctly. The radio remained silent for the two minutes it took for the Syrian missiles to complete their flight. Then Barkai's voice. "They missed." The three Syrian boats ran for harbor, but one, the only one with missiles remaining, turned on the closest Israeli pursuer. As the two boats raced at each other, the Syrian fired first. The Israeli vessel again put up its electronic and chaff umbrella and at maximum Gabriel range launched two missiles. The Styx and Gabriel missiles passed each other, the former hitting the sea, the latter exploding on the deck of the Syrian vessel. A second Syrian boat was sunk a few moments later. The Soviet-built vessels had no countermeasures and were doomed once the Israelis reached Gabriel range. The captain of the third Syrian boat, realizing the situation, ran his vessel onto the shore to escape.

1973: Shmuel Gonen who had “inherited the IDF Southern Command from Arik Sharon” on July 15, faced an Egyptian force of five infantry divisions, three mechanized divisions and two armored divisions that included 1,400 tanks with one division at the front that included 294 tanks.(As reported by Mitch Ginsburg)

1973: The 162nd Division under the command of Major General Avraham Adan began the first three days of desperate attempts to drive the Egyptians back across the Suez Canal.

1973(10th of Tishrei, 5734):  Yadin Tannenbaum, a young flautist was killed in 1973 while fighting in the Yom Kippur war. The 1981 Halil, Leonard Bernstein’s nocturne for flute, percussion, and strings, it is dedicated “to the spirit of Yadin and to His Fallen Brothers.”



1973: For action today simply described as delaying enemy armor, Captain Zvika Greengold earned Israel’s Medal of Valor. The events that earned him Israel’s highest commendation are as follows.

Twenty-one-year-old Lieutenant Greengold was home on leave when Egypt and Syria launched a coordinated surprise attack on two fronts. He was not attached to any unit as he was about to take a course for company commanders. Once he realized war had broken out, he hitchhiked to Nafekh, a command center and important crossroads in the Golan Heights, where he initially helped with the wounded, as no tanks were available. When two damaged Centurion tanks were repaired, Greengold was put in charge of them and sent with hastily-assembled scratch crews down the Tapline Road.

Greengold's "Koah Zvika" (Zvika Force) spotted Syrian tanks belonging to the 51st Independent Tank Brigade of the Syrian Army which had broken through the line and were advancing unopposed northwest along the road to Nafekh. Greengold's two tanks engaged the opposing T-55s at 2100 hours, with Greengold destroying six. Later, he had lost contact with his other tank when he spotted the advancing 452nd Tank Battalion. He engaged the enemy, taking advantage of the darkness and moving constantly to fool the Syrians into thinking the opposition was stronger than it was. Greengold destroyed or damaged ten enemy armored vehicles before the confused Syrians withdrew, believing they were facing a sizable force. Even Greengold's superiors were deceived; as the fighting wore on, he did not dare report how weak he actually was over the radio for fear it would be intercepted; at best he could only hint "the situation isn't good". At a time when Force Zvika was only one tank, Colonel Yitzhak Ben-Shoham, the brigade commander, assumed it to be "of at least company strength". For the next 20 hours, he fought, sometimes alone, sometimes in conjunction with other tanks, displaying an uncanny knack for showing up again and again at the critical moment to tip the scales of a skirmish. He had to change vehicles "half a dozen times" as his tanks were knocked out. He soldiered on, even after he was wounded and burned. When Nafekh itself came under attack from a fresh force of T-62s, he rushed over to bolster the defense. In a lull in the fighting, an exhausted Greengold got out of his latest tank and dropped to the ground, murmuring, "I can't anymore." Afterward, he claimed 20 enemy tanks destroyed; other estimates place his tally at 40 or more.



1973:“The Syrian 7th Infantry Division attacked the Israeli 7th Armored Brigade in the area between Mount Hermon and a southern ridge known as "Booster" in Israel” in what was the first day of the Battle for the Valley of Tears.



1973: “Rabbis throughout” New York City interrupted…Yom Kippur service…to tell their congregations about the outbreak of war in the Middle East and to offer special prayers for Israel.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F70A16F73454137A93C5A9178BD95F478785F9

more 2014

1974: Rose Kushner’s “first major article on the topic of breast cancer was published in The Washington Post” today.

1974: Soviet authorities allowed 90 Jews “to hold picnic in the woods outside Moscow in celebration of the festival of Succoth”

1977: The West End  production of “I Love My Wife” with a book and lyrics by Michael Steward, music by Cy Coleman and directed by Gene Sakes opened today at the Prince of Wales Theatre.

1978: “Goin’ Coconuts” “a musical comedy directed by Howard “Howie” Morris was released in Hawaii today.

1979(15th of Tishrei, 5740): Sukkoth and Shabbat.

1980: “Refuseniks Yacov Ariev and Haim Solovey from Riga, and Isai Minkin from Moscow, began a hunger in protest against the authorities’ refusal to grant them exit visas.”

1981: Anwar Sadat was assassinated by Moslem fanatics angered by the peace treaty with Israel. Sadat was murdered on the 14th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War.

1981:Israel, using the United States as a go between to gain Saudi cooperation, rescued a grounded Israeli missile ship from a sandbar off the coast of Saudi Arabia, Israeli military sources said today..

1983: During the Israel bank stock crisis, “Black Thursday.”

1984(10thof Tishrei, 5745): Yom Kippur

1985(21stof Tishrei, 5746): Hoshanah Rabah

1985(21stof Tishrei, 5746): Seventy-nine year old Czech engineer Vilém Klíma passed away today.


1986: CBS broadcast the first episode of “My Sister Sam” co-starring Rebecca Schaeffer

1986: NBC broadcasts the first episode of the 6th Season of the “Cosby Show,” a sit-com created by Ed Weinberger.

1990: “American Dream” a documentary directed by Barbara Kopple who produced the film along with Arthur Cohn premiered today at the New York Film Festival.

1991: Elizabeth Taylor who had converted to Judaism in 1959 a year after her husband Michael Todd had died in a plane wreck, married her seventh husband today.

1991: During the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Nominee Clarence Thomas, Nina Totenberg filed a report on NPR outlining claims by Anita Hill that she had been the victim of sexual harassment by the nominee.  (Totenberg was Jewish; the other two were note)

1993: “Marilyn” an opera by Ezra Laderman premiered at City Opera.

1994: Tova Blitz wrote a letter today historian Martin Gilbert today in which she described “a whimsical moment in the maternity ward of a Toronto hospital” on VE Day when she “Tova Blitz gave birth to her son while a Mrs. Berlin gave birth to her son

1995: Two days after premiering at the New York Film Festival, “Kicking and Screaming” directed by Noah Baumbach and co-starring Eliot Gould was released in the United States today.

1995: “Assassins” produced and directed by Richard Donner was released in the United States today.

1995: Melissa Gilbert gave birth to a son whom she named Michael, in honor of Michael Landon, her “father” Little House on the Prairie a slice of Americana in which Jews played a key creative role.

1996(23rdof Tishrei, 5757): Simchat Torah

1996: The New York Times features Meyer Levin’s review of The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

1997(5thof Tishrei, 5758): Eighty year old Yevgeny Khaldei the Soviet combat photographer best known for the iconic picture of a Russian soldier raising a flag over the Reichstag at the end of the Battle of Berlin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Reichstag_flag_original.jpg

(This means that three of the iconic photos of WWII were taken by Jews, the others being Joe Rosenthal and Robert Capa)

1998(16thof Tishrei, 5759): Second Day of Sukkoth

1998(16thof Tishrei, 5759): Eighty-five year old Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and author Jerome Weidman passed away today. (As reported by Mel Gussow)



1999:A 75-year-old American woman sued the Hungarian Government today for the return of art masterpieces looted by Nazis from the Jews and now held by Budapest museums, lawyers said. Martha Nierenberg, granddaughter of Baron Maurice Herzog, who once owned a Budapest mansion filled with art valued today at $10 million to $20 million, filed the suit in Budapest City Court, the lawyers said. She lives in Armonk, N.Y. The suit seeks the return of parts of the 2,500-piece collection, which the suit says was looted by Adolf Eichmann as he oversaw the deportation of Hungarian Jews in 1944. The collection includes works by El Greco, Cranach and van Dyck, some of which have wound up in the Museum of Fine Arts and the National Gallery, both in Budapest. Eichmann, whose SS killed or deported some 600,000 of Hungary's prewar Jewish population of 800,000, shipped the best pieces of the Herzog collection to Germany. Many works recovered by the Americans after the war were shipped back to Hungary in the late 1940's but were placed in museums instead of being returned to their owners. Efforts to recover them revived only after Communism collapsed in 1989, the lawyers said. Peter Szakonyi, a public relations agent in Budapest working with the lawyers and the American public relations firm representing Mrs. Nierenberg, said negotiations between Mrs. Nierenberg and the Hungarian Government to reach an amicable settlement had been going on for four years, without result. A spokesman for the Hungarian Prime Minister said the Government had not yet gotten official notice of the suit and therefore could not comment.

2000: CBS broadcast the first episode of the original CSI  (later known as CSI Las Vegas) a long-running cerebral crime series created by Antony E. Zuker and brought to the small screen by executive producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Carol Mendelsohn

2000: U.S. premiere of “Meet the Parents” directed by Jay Roach with a score by Randy Newman and a script co-authored by Jim Hamburg.

2000(7thof Tishrei, 5761): Fifty-four year old Bachor Jann was killed by stone-throwing Palestinians on the Coastal Highway near Jisr az-Zarqa

2002: Today, Ruth Gruber, who had worked to bring European Jews to a safe haven in Oswego, NY, helped to “dedicate the Safe Haven Museum” which houses of library named in her honor.

2002: The New York Times featured a review of Mr. Strangelove, Ed Sikov’s biography of Peter Sellers the son of a Jewish motherand a descendant of famed Anglo-Jewish prize fighter Daniel Mendoza.

2003(10thof Tishrei, 5674): Yom Kippur

2003: Aviel Barclay has become the first certified Soferet, or female Torah scribe. She is currently writing a Sefer Torah, the first ever known to be written completely by a woman's hand. The Women's Torah project of Seattle's Kadima Congregation has hired Barclay to write the Sefer Torah and has sponsored her studies to become a certified Soferet. Writing a Sefer Torah is a full-time project that will take Barclay at least 12 months to complete. Once the Sefer is completed in the Spring of 2005 and is dedicated in Seattle, it will travel to Jewish communities around the world. (As reported by Jewish Women’s Archive)

2004(21st of Tishrei, 5765): Hoshana Raba

2005: The High Court of Justice established the absolute illegality of using Palestinian civilians in a military operation, whether in the "neighbor procedure" or the related "early warning procedure."

2005:  The Jerusalem Post reported that two Israelis have undergone successful transplants over Rosh Hashana, in Israel and in Europe. Efrat Rinot-Koren, the 30-year-old mother whose liver failed from acute hepatitis a month after having a baby, had undergone a liver transplant in Belgium. Meanwhile, a 20-year-old man was the first Israeli to undergo a heart and kidney transplant at the same time. The patient, operated on successfully at the Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus, was in critical condition and with only a few days to live when the organs became available. He was in stable condition on Wednesday night. So far, only a handful of such double transplants have been performed around the world.



2005: In the Jewish Journal, Jonathan Kellerman who along with his wife Faye, are writers of murder mysteries, publishes “Boy Do We Need Teshuvah Now!”

http://www.jewishjournal.com/opinion/article/boy_do_we_need_teshuvah_now_20051007





2006(14th of Tishrei, 5767): Erev Sukkoth and Erev Shabbat



2006: “Little Children” co-starring Gregg Edelman and featuring Rebeca Schull was released in the United States today by New Line Cinema.



2006: Robert Adler's latest patent application was filed on today for his work on touch-screen technology



2007(24th of Tishrei, 5768): Parshat Bereshit – the cycle begins again.



2007: In “D.M. synagogue’s all-female leaders a rare feat,” published today the AP reports that Tifereth Israel Synagogue in Des Moines is unique among Conservative Congregations because it boasts  both a female rabbi and a female cantor.  Rabbi Beryl Pador and Cantor Deborah Bletstein make up this dynamic duo.  Rabbi Pador had been leading the congregation for several years when the decision was made to hire Cantor Bletstein in time for the 2007 High Holiday season.  In the Mid-Continent Region of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism which is composed of 48 congregations only one other has a female lead rabbi and only two others have female cantors.



2007: “A Priest Methodically Reveals Ukrainian Jews’ Fate” published today, Elaine Sciolino describes the efforts of a French Roman Catholic Priest named Patrick Desbois to discover and document the fate of the Ukrainian Jews.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/06/world/europe/06priest.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0



2007: The New York Times featured a review of Francisco Goldman’s The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop?



2008(7th of Tishrei, 5769): Ninety-four year old anti-Zionist Alfred Lilienthal passed away today.

http://www.realnews247.com/alfred_lilienthal.htm



http://mondoweiss.net/2008/10/alfred-lilienthal-prophetic-anti-zionist-writer-is-dead/









2008:  At Rutgers University in New Jersey, Arie Nesher, architect, city planner and professor at Tel Aviv University delivers an address entitled “Politics of the Environment in Israel and the Regionas part of the Ruth Ellen Steinman Bloustein and Edward J. Bloustein Memorial Lecture series.



2008: Sports Illustrated Magazine includes a review of Boys Will Be Boys by Jeff Pearlman and an article about Joe Maddon, “Tampa Bay’s progressive contrarian skipper” who “was hired by” Matt Silverman, the Jewish President of the team whose primary owner is Jewish financier Stuart Sternberg.”



2009(18th of Tishrei, 5770): Raymond Federman, the French born American author who wrote Double or Nothing, passed away today.



2009: Mark A. Grey, Michele Devlin and Aaron Goldsmith are scheduled to discuss their new book “Postville, U.S.A.” at Prairie Lights Books in Iowa City, IA.



2009: MK Yossi Beilin, former head of the Meretz Party, announced tonight that he is quitting politics to enter business.

2009(18th of Tishrei, 5770: Ruth L. Kirschstein, a National Institutes of Health pathologist, passed away today.

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2009-10-17/news/36828565_1_polio-vaccine-nih-clinical-center-albert-sabin

http://blog.womenshealth.northwestern.edu/2009/10/ruth-kirschstein-dies-at-age-82/

http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Training/ruthkirschstein.htm

2010: A program styled Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín, “We Will Sing to the Nazis What We Cannot Say to Them” is scheduled to be performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. “Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín tells the story of courageous Jewish prisoners in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp during World War II who learned Verdi’s Requiem Mass by rote and then performed this compelling work 16 times as a statement of defiance and resistance, answering the worst of mankind with the best of mankind. The concert/drama will feature a full performance of The Requiem with actors, video testimony with surviving members of the choir, and original Nazi propaganda film footage

2010: The New York Public Library (NYPL) has named Anthony W. Marx as the new president. Marx calls New York City his native hometown, and currently serves as president of Amherst College

2011: Publication of “My Favorite Things: Calvin Trillin.”

http://gvshp.org/blog/2011/10/26/my-favorite-things-calvin-trillin/

 2011: Sage “Rosenfels signed a one-year deal for $970,000 with the Miami Dolphins

2011: The Jewish Museum is scheduled to offer the last of its High Holiday Themed docent tours of the permanent exhibition, “Culture and Continuity.”

2011: Timothy Shriver is scheduled to moderate a program based on “War of the Worldviews” by Deepak Chopra and Leonard Llodinow, whose father led the Jewish resistance against the Nazis in Częstochowa, Poland and survived imprisonment at Buchenwald.

2011:Police arrested a suspect from northern Israel several days ago in connection with the torching of a mosque in the village of Tuba Zanghariya overnight Sunday in an apparent "Price Tag" attack.

2011:Thirty-eight years after the Yom Kippur War broke out, the IDF held a surprise drill today for two reservist divisions in an effort to prepare the Reserve Corps for possible emergency call-up orders.

2012: Arnon Goldfinger’s “The Flat” is scheduled for a second and final screening at the Hampltons International Film Festival.

2012: Director Erez Laufer’s “One Day After Peace” is scheduled for a second and final screening at the Hampltons International Film Festival.

2012: In Washington, DC the annual Cleveland Park Sukkah walk is scheduled to take place after Kiddush.

2012: The Alexandria Kleztet is scheduled to perform at the “Art on the Avenue” festival in Alexandria, VA.

2012: In Grand Forks, ND, Cantor Alane Katzew is scheduled to lead services at B’nai Israel Synagogue that will encompass the themes of Sukkoth, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah.

2012: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the traditional Saturday morning includes a special memorial to mark 39th anniversary of the start of the Yom Kippur which began on October 6, 1973.

2012:Police carried out raids across France today after DNA on a grenade that exploded last month at a kosher grocery store led them to a suspected jihadist cell of young Frenchmen recently converted to Islam.

2012:The IDF shot down a foreign drone that had penetrated deep into Israeli airspace this afternoon, flying for half an hour before it was intercepted.

2012:Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak seemed to turn the page on their recent public bickering during a one-and-a-half-hour meeting tonight, saying that they had agreed to continue working together to overcome Israel's security threats.

2013: In New York the Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host “Hidden from History: The Pinkas of the Metz Rabbinic Court, 1771-1789,” “a conference that explores French and German rabbinic courts of the late 1700s.”

2013: “Threshold to the Sacred: The Ark Door of Cairo’s Ben Ezra Synagogue” is scheduled to open at Yeshiva University Museum.
2013: The Tulane University Jewish Studies Department is scheduled to sponsor a lecture by Jack Kulgelmas of the University of Florida, "Sifting the Ruins: Jewish Journalists Return to Poland, 1945-1947"


2013: E.L. Doctorow is scheduled to give an exclusive preview of his newest book, Andrew's Brain: A Novel at the opening of The Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival in Washington, DC.

2013: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Hotel Francforts by David Leavitt and “Unzipped,” an essay by Erica Jong “about storytelling – why certain stories stick with us and others don’t.”

2013: The formal ceremony installing Rabbi Asher Lopatin as the new president of Yeshivat Chovevi Torah is scheduled to take place today.

2013: The Jewish Endowment Foundation (JEF) of Louisiana is scheduled to honor several Jewish community leaders “who have exemplified giving and charity.”

http://www.crescentcityjewishnews.com/jefs-major-annual-event-gala-to-be-held-sunday-evening/

2013: “Israel Prize winner David Kazhdan, 67, was severely injured when he was hit by a truck while riding his bike in Jerusalem.” (As reported by Spencer Ho)

2013: Eli Zeira and Zvi Zamir, former heads of the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate and the Mossad respectively, bitter rivals who stood at the center of the drama leading up to the surprise Arab attack on Israel that launched the 1973 Yom Kippur War, shared their sharply divergent narratives about the outbreak of the fighting today. (As reported by Mitch Ginsburg)

2013: “Hundreds of Labor party activists, volunteers and supporters gathered in Tel Aviv tonight for the formal launch of MK Shelly Yachimovich’s campaign for reelection as party leader.” (As reported by Haviv Rettig Gur)

2013: Rabbi March Schneier, the graduate of Yeshiva University and founder of the Hampton Synagogue and The Foundation of Ethnic Understanding married his fifth wife who would later be replaced by his sixth wife “Simi Teitelbaum.”

2013: Two of the three winners of the Nobel Prize for Medicine winners were Jews – James Rothaman of Yale and Randy Schekman of the University of California. Two of the candidates who did not win were Israelis – Professors Howard Cedar and Aharon Razin from Hebrew University.

2013(3rdof Cheshvan, 5774): Ninety three year old Rabbi Ovad Yosef, the spiritual leader of the Sephardi community passed away today.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/ovadia-yosef-outspoken-spiritual-leader-of-israels-sephardi-jews-dies-at-93/

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/08/world/middleeast/rabbi-ovadia-yosef-influential-spiritual-leader-in-israel-dies-at-93.html?hp&_r=0&pagewanted=print

2014: Roman Rabinoivich who “made his Israel Philharmonic debut…before his 11thbirthday is scheduled to perform with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players.

2014: “A spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons was unable Monday to explain the change on the bureau’s “inmate locator,” which changed Jonathan Pollard’s release date on its website from “Nov. 15 2015” to “Life.” (As reported by JTA)



2014(12thof Tishrei, 5775): Eighty-six year old actress Marian Seldes the niece of journalist Gilbert Seldes passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/08/theater/marian-seldes-regal-presence-of-broadway-dies-at-86.html&assetType=nyt_now

2014: In Washington, DC, the Lillian & Albert Small Jewish Museum is scheduled to host a panel discussion “From Church to Condo: D.C.'s Urban Evolution.”

2014: Sweden’s Ambassador is scheduled to come to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem “for a reprimand meeting” following that country’s announcement that it intends to recognize Palestine. (As reported by Itamar Eichner)

2014: “The White House hit back today at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's accusation that US criticism of Israeli settlement construction was "against American values."

2014: “Welfare and Social Services Minister Meir Cohen announced today a budget increase of NIS 1.7 billion was approved for the implementation of the recommendations of the Elalouf Committee to Reduce Poverty in Israel.” (As reported by Omri Efraim)

2015(23rdof Tishrei, 5776): Simchat Torah

2015: “Vera Rubin, a US astronomer who has described herself as a religious Jew,” and who had “emerged as the pundits’ choice for the Nobel Prize Physics…failed to win the prestigious award” today. (As reported by Stuart Winer)

2015: After Simchat Torah Services the Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a Pita Luncheon!

2016: In London, the UKJF is scheduled to host a screening of “Little Men.”

2016: “AKA Nadia” is scheduled to be shown at SERET DC, “a celebration of contemporary Israeli cinema.

2016: Shimon Dotan’s “The Settlers” is scheduled to be shown at the 54thNew York Film Festival.

2016: “A mortar shell fired from the Gaza Strip landed in an open area in southern Israel today” making this “the second such attack in as many days.”

2016: The Israeli Supreme Court Project at Cardozo Law School in collaboration with Yeshiva University Museum are scheduled to a panel discussion on “Women at the Wall on the Bus, and in Front of the Court: Religious Women as Agents of Change through the Israeli Supreme Court.”
2017(16th of Tishrei, 5778): Second Day of Sukkoth; for more see


2017: On the secular calendar, 44th anniversary of the start of the Yom Kippur when a handful of brave men held the line on the Suez Canal and the Golan fighting desperately to avoid what could have been a Holocaust in the truest sense of the word – a Holocaust that was brought on in part by the hubris of leaders who refused to believe the intelligence reports they received warning of the attacks.  Of these men we can repeat the words of Churchill – never have so many owed so much to so few.

2017: The Bloomfield Science Museum in Jerusalem is scheduled to host special Chol Hamo’ed “special activities all about sugar…sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.”

2017: The evening, the University of Iowa Hillel is scheduled to host “Sushi Shabbat.”

2017: Two days “after his body was found covered in stab wounds” and one day after he was supposed to have celebrated his 70th birthday, Reuven Schmerling was laid to rest at a funeral attended by “over a thousand people” (As reported by Jacob Magid)

2018: On the secular calendar, 45th anniversary of the start of the Yom Kippur War.  (Editor’s Note: Adjusting Sights a novel by IDF veteran Sabato, does an amazing job of capturing the desperation and bravery of the fighting on the Golan)

https://www.amazon.com/Adjusting-Sights-Haim-Sabato/dp/159264127X

https://theislandnow.com/community-news/commemorating-the-yom-kippur-war/

https://www.history.com/topics/middle-east/yom-kippur-war

https://www.amazon.com/Yom-Kippur-War-Encounter-Transformed/dp/0805211241

2018: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to a host a luncheon after Shabbat services and Seudah Shlishit following Mincha

2018: In another example of the vitality of “small community Judaism,” Ari Collins is scheduled to be called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah at Agudas Achim in Coralville, IA.

2018(27th of Tishrei, 5779):  Parashat Bereshit; the cycle begins again. 

2019: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special significance to Jewish readers including A State At Any Cost: The Life of David Ben-Gurion by Tom Segev and The Accusation: Blood Libel in an American Town by Edward Berenson.

2019: The Katonah Museum of Art is scheduled to host the opening of “Arcadia,” a creation of Israeli artist Rotem Reshef.

2019: In San Francisco, the Jewish Community Library is scheduled to host “a discussion of Dani Shapiro’s most recent memoir, Inheritance.”

2019: The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host “Never Heard, Never Forget: Holocaust in the Former Soviet” which is “a commemorative service honoring the victims and survivors of the Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Soviet territory.”




This Day, October 7, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin

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OCTOBER 7

3761 BCE: According to some Jewish traditionalists, this corresponds to the date on which God created the World.  This marks the start of the epoch of the Modern Hebrew calendar.  The attached article should provide an explanation of this entry. I have included this rather lengthy article since so many people ask about the Jewish calendar and I know so little about. 

"The Hebrew calendar, also known as the Jewish calendar, is the annual calendar used in Judaism. It is based upon both lunar months and a solar cycle (which defines its years) and so is a lunisolar calendar. This is in contrast to the Gregorian calendar, which is based solely upon a solar cycle, or the Islamic calendar, which is purely lunar. Jews use this calendar to determine when the new Hebrew months start; this calendar determines the Jewish holidays, which Torah portions to read, and which set of Psalms should be read each day. Jews have been using a lunisolar calendar since Biblical times, but originally referred to the months by number rather than name. During the Babylonian exile, they adopted Babylonian names for the months. Some sects, such as the Essenes, used a solar calendar. The epoch of the modern Hebrew calendar is Monday, October 7, 3761 BCE, being the tabular date (same daylight period) in the proleptic Julian calendar corresponding to 1 Tishri AM 1 (AM = Anno Mundi = in the year of the world). This date is about one year before the traditional Jewish date of Creation on 25 Elul AM 1! A minority place Creation on 25 Adar AM 1, about six months after the modern epoch. Thus adding 3761 to a Gregorian year number will yield the Hebrew year number beginning in autumn (add 3760 for that ending in autumn). This holds until the Gregorian year 1 BCE. After that (due to the lack of year 0), adding 3760 to the Gregorian year yields the Hebrew year beginning in autumn (3759 for that ending in autumn). Because the Hebrew year drifts relative to the Gregorian year, this actually only works until the year 22,203, but it's a fairly good rule of thumb. The Hebrew month is tied to an estimate of the average time taken by the Moon to cycle from lunar conjunction to lunar conjunction. Twelve lunar months are about 354 days while the solar year is about 365 days so an extra lunar month is added every two or three years in accordance with a 19-year cycle of 235 lunar months (12 regular months every year plus 7 extra or embolismic months every 19 years). The average Hebrew year length is about 365.2468 days, about 7 minutes longer than the average tropical solar year which is about 365.2422 days. Approximately every 216 years, those minutes add up so that the Hebrew year is "slower" than the average solar year by a full day. Because the average Gregorian year is 365.2425 days, the average Hebrew year is slower by a day every 231 Gregorian years. There are exactly 14 different patterns that Hebrew calendar years may take. Each of these patterns is called a "keviyah" (Hebrew for "species"), and is distinguished by the day of the week for Rosh Hashanah of that particular year and by that particular year's length.

  • A chaserah year (Hebrew for "deficient" or "incomplete") is 353 or 383 days long because a day is taken away from the month of Kislev. The Hebrew letter ח"het", and the letter for the weekday denotes this pattern.
  • A kesidrah year ("regular" or "in-order") is 354 or 384 days long. The Hebrew letter כ"kaf", and the letter for the week-day denotes this pattern.
  • A shlemah year ("abundant" or "complete") is 355 or 385 days long because a day is added to the month of Heshvan. The Hebrew letter ש"shin", and the letter for the week-day denotes this pattern.

A variant of this pattern naming includes another letter which specifies the day of the week for the first day of Pesach (Passover) in the year. Every hour is divided into 1080 parts. A part (31/3seconds or 1/18 minute) equals a small Babylonian time period called a barleycorn, itself equal to 1/72of a Babylonian time degree (1° of celestial rotation). The weekdays start with Sunday (day 1) and proceed to Saturday (day 7). Since some calculations use division, a remainder of 0 signifies Saturday. The calendar is based on mean lunar conjunctions called "molads" spaced precisely 29 days, 12 hours, and 793 parts apart. Actual conjunctions vary from the molads by up to 13 hours in each direction due to the nonuniform velocity of the moon. This value for the interval between molads (the mean synodic month) was known to the Babylonians by about 250 BCE and was later used by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus and the Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy. Its remarkable accuracy was achieved using records of lunar eclipses over several centuries. Measured using an absolute scale, such as an atomic clock, the mean synodic month is becoming gradually longer, but since the rotation of the earth is slowing even more the mean synodic month is becoming gradually shorter in terms of the day-night cycle. The value 29-12-793 was almost exactly correct in 1 CE and is now about 0.6 s per month too great. The 19 year cycle has 12 non-leap and 7 leap years. There are 235 lunar months in each cycle. This gives a total of 6939 days, 16 hours and 595 parts for each cycle. Due to the vagaries of the Hebrew calendar, 19 Hebrew years can be either 6939, 6940, 6941, or 6942 days each. To start on the same day of the week, the days in the cycle must be divisible by 7, but none of these values can be so divided. This keeps the Hebrew calendar from repeating itself too often. The calendar almost repeats every 247 years, except for an excess of 50 minutes (905 parts). So the calendar actually repeats every 36,288 cycles (every 689,472 Hebrew years). The leap years of 13 months are the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and the 19th years. Dividing the Hebrew year number by 19, and looking at the remainder will tell you if the year is a leap year (for the 19th year, the remainder is zero). A Hebrew leap year is one that has 13 months in it, a non-leap year has 12 months. A mnemonic word in Hebrew is GUCHADZaT (the Hebrew letters gimel-vav-het aleph-dalet-zayin-tet, i.e. 3, 6, 8, 1, 4, 7, 9. See Hebrew numerals). Another mnemonic is that the intervals of the major scale follow the same pattern as do Hebrew leap years: a whole step in the scale corresponds to two non-leap years between consecutive leap years, and a half step to one non-leap between two leap years. A Hebrew non leap-year will only have 353, 354, or 355 days. A leap year will have 383, 384, or 385 days. Although simple math would calculate 21 patterns for the calendar years, there are other limitations which means that Rosh Hashanah may only occur on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, according to the following table:



Day of Week
Number of Days
Monday
353
355
383
385
Tuesday
354


384
Thursday
354
355
383
385
Saturday
353
355
383
385


Basically, the Hebrew months alternate between a short month and a long month, for example: Tishri (30 days), Cheshvan (also spelled Heshvan) (29 or 30 days), Kislev (30 or 29 days), Tevet (29 days), Shevat (30 days), Adar (29 days), Nisan (30 days), Iyar (29 days), Sivan (30 days), Tammuz (29 days), Av (30 days), Elul (29 days). For leap years, a 30 day month of Adar 1 is added immediately after the month of Shevat, and the 29 day Adar is called Adar 2. This is to ensure that the months remain at the same season rather than continuing to drift earlier by about 11 days per year. The 265 days from the first day of the 29 day month of Adar (the last one of the year) and ending with the 29th day of Heshvan forms a fixed length period that has all of the festivals specified in the Bible, such as Pesach (Nisan 15), Shavuot (Sivan 6), Rosh Hashannah (Tishri 1), Yom Kippur (Tishri 10), Sukkot (Tishri 15), and Shemini Atzeret (Tishri 22). The festival period from Pesach up to and including Shemini Atzeret is exactly 185 days long. The time from the traditional day of the vernal equinox up to and including the traditional day of the autumnal equinox is also exactly 185 days long. This has caused some unfounded speculation that Pesach should be March 21st, and Shemini Atzeret should be September 21, which are the traditional days for the equinoxes. Just as the Hebrew day starts at sunset, the Hebrew year starts in the Autumn (Rosh Hashanah), although the mismatch of solar and lunar years will eventually move it to another season (but not in your lifetime). Karaites use the lunar month and the solar year, but determine when to add a leap month by observing barley, rather than a fixed calendar. This occasionally puts them a month out of sync with the rest of the Jews"

1272: Pope Gregory X condemned the ritual murder libels aimed at the Jewish people. In addition, since Jews could not bear witness against Christians, he refused to accept testimony by a Christian against a Jew unless it was confirmed by another Jew.

1349: The Jewish population of Krems, Germany, was massacred in the Black Death riots. (As reported by Aish)


1555: Hundreds of Jews in Cracow were killed during the Hakafot, the ritual trouping of the Torah connected with Simchat Torah.

1571: The Holy League (Spain and Italy) destroyed the Turkish fleet at The Battle of Lepanto. This was part of a centuries-long battle before European Christians and the forces of Islam, in this case the Ottoman Empire.  Often the fighting was more about commercial gain than it was about religion.  The battle was significant because it was the first naval defeat the Ottomans had suffered in more than a century. While the Jews were not directly involved, the fighting had an impact on them.  At the time of the defeat, Selim II was the Sultan.  He opened his kingdom to the Jews settling a colony of them on the Island of Cyprus. The Ottomans accepted the defeat as the will of God, and unlike some Europeans, did not use the Jews as scapegoats for their loss.

1665(28thof Tishrei, 5426): Chaim Auberach who served as the “assessor of the rabbinate” in Vienna and who was the brother of Menachem Mendel Auerbach and Benjamin Wolf Auerbach passed away today

1716(21stof Tishrei, 5477): Moses Mayer Schiff, the son of Meir and Chava Schiff passed away today.

1753(9thof Tishrei, 5514): Erev Yom Kippur; Kol Nidre

1763: George III of Great Britain issues British Royal Proclamation of 1763, closing aboriginal lands in North America north and west of Alleghenies to white settlements. This attempt to control the growth of Colonial America was one of the causes of the American Revolution, with all that that would mean for the Jewish people. More immediately, the closure had a negative impact on the fortunes of Moses Franks, Jacob Franks, Barnard Gratz, Michael Gratz, David Franks, Moses Franks, Jr., Joseph Simon, and Levy Andrew Levy each of whom dabbled in “western” land speculation.

1772(10thof Tishrei, 5533): Yom Kippur

1777:Under the date of John Adams wrote his wife that he was in York, PA, where "I am lodged in the house of General Roberdeau, an Israelite, indeed, I believe, who with his sisters and children and servants does everything to make us happy. We are highly favored. No other delegates are so well off."  Fearing capture by the British, the Continental Congress had moved to York where it could meet in comparative safety. [Editor’s Note – Adams may have been in error since according there was a General Roberdeau whose father’s name is Isaac Roberdeau and they were Huegenots.]

1777: During the Revolutionary War, The Americans defeated the British in the Second Battle of Saratoga, also known as the Battle of Bemis Heights. This defeat led France to recognize the new United States of America and, more importantly, sign a treaty which brought the Americans much needed supplies, money and the support of the French fleet.  It was the turning point in the war that would create the home of the most significant Jewish community outside of Eretz Israel. Col. David Salisbury Franks, the highest ranking Jewish officer serving with the Continental Army served with valor during the Battle.  Franks would later be serving as an aide to Benedict Arnold when the general turned traitor.  He was cleared of all charges and continued to serve with during the war. He is not to be confused with his uncle David Franks who was a Loyalist.

1786(15thof Tishrei, 5547): Sukkoth

1790: Zipporah Isaacs and Hymen Cohen gave birth to Andrew Asher Cohen.

1791(9thof Tishrei, 5552): Erev Yom Kippur

1803(2st of Tishrei, 5564): Hoshana Raba

1803(21stof Tishrei, 5564): Dob Bär ben Judah Treves the Hungarian rabbi who served as rabbinical judge in Wilvan from 1760 to 1790 who wrote “a commentary on the Pentateuch, in which, through cabalistic explanations, he endeavored to establish a connection between the written and the oral law” passed away today.  (Some sources show the day of his death on the secular calendar as October 17 but then he could not have passed away on the 21st of Tishrei)

1804: In London, Elizabeth Kahn and Samuel Gershon gave birth to George Gershon.

1805(14thof Tishrei, 5566): Erev Shavuot

1805(14thof Tishrei, 5566): Twenty-four year old Rachel Aaron was buried today at the Lauriston Road Jewish Cemetery.

1811: In the West Indies, Jacob Mendes DaCosta and his wife gave birth to Sarah Miriam Mendes Da Cost, the wife of Hart Lyon “of Barbados.”

1812: In Charleston, SC, Jacob Lazarus married Mary Hart, the daughter of the late Daniel Hart.

1814(23rdof Tishrei, 5575): Simchat Torah

1814: Yaakov Yitzchak of Lublin fell from a window today and suffered injuries that would lead to his death on Tisha B'Av, 5575 (August 15, 1815)

1819: In London, Charlotte Florence Wattier and Isaac Gompertz gave birth to Charles Gompertz who passed away two days later.

1824(15thof Tishrei, 5585): Sukkoth

1829(10thof Tishrei, 5590): Yom Kippur

1834: Today, the Missouri Republican reported that “in 1834 Philip Philipson, the son of Simon Philipson, returned to St. Louis from a four-year trip to the Rock Mountains” which was made twenty years before Solomon N. Carvalho’s trip with Colonel John C. Fremont

1840: Willem II became the King of the Netherlands. He was the son of Willem I the first Dutch monarch who ruled after the defeat of the French. Unlike his Germanic counterparts, Willem did not rescind the rights the Jews had enjoyed and this policy of acceptance was followed by his son who did nothing to abrogate the rights of the Jews.

1842: Birthdate of Sir Phillip Magnus, the Reform Rabbi turned educational reformer and political leader who was the husband of Katie Magnus and the father of publisher Laurie Magnus.


1848(10thof Tishrei, 5609): As revolutions erupt throughout Europe, the Jews observe Yom Kippur

1845(6th of Tishrei, 5606): Author and linguist Samson Bloch who was an ardent supporter of the Haskalah movement passed away today.


1851:  In New York, a Hungarian Jew named Nathan Levins who has been in the United States for only two weeks filed a complaint at the Sixth Precinct claiming that Israel Steinhardt, another Hungarian Jew had robbed him of 940 pounds in Bank of England notes.  The police went to the house on Pell Street where Steinhardt was living, placed him under arrest and took him back to the precinct house where he was to be held until he could be brought before a magistrate. 

1852: In Nachod, Bohemia, Nathan and Julie Judith Josephine Mautner gave birth to Isidor Mautner.

1853: The ceremony of laying the corner-stone of a Jewish Educational Institute, in Greene-street, adjoining the Synagogue Bnai Jesharun, took place today. The Institute is intended as the beginning of a Hebrew College to be hereafter erected in this City. The religious services on the laying of the Corner-Stone were conducted by Rabbi Raphall.

1854(15th of Tishrei, 5615): Sukkoth

1854: William Wilkins gave a speech to a large gathering of Democrats in Pittsburgh, PA where he denounced the Know Nothing Party which is known for its opposition to foreigners and Catholics.  “He argued that if the Know Nothings succeeded, no religious sect would safe – that next after the Catholic the Hebrew would be proscribed.”  Jews feared the Know Nothings because of its views on non-Protestant religions and its animosity towards immigrants since many of the Jews were recent immigrants.

1855: Phoebe Simmons and Abraham Marks gave birth to Aaron Marks.

1858: In Bielitz, Austria, Anna and Isaac Leonard Zeisler gave birth to Dr. Joseph Zeisler and husband of “Theresa Feuchtman” who was recognized an expert in the fields “of skin and venereal diseases.”

1860: According to a letter written by the President, Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco has had a net gain of 49 members in the past year raising its numbers to a total of 227.  In the past year one adult and eighteen Jewish children passed away in the last year. Monthly expenses have risen from $750 to $800.  The sale of seats has grown by $2,000 and total over $5,000 this year. Dr. Elkan Cohn continues to serve as the Rabbi of the congregation that is growing so fast it will need a new sanctuary.  In addition to which, the congregation needs to appropriate money for a school for the youngsters, including salaries for the teachers. 

1863: A newspaper published in Petersberg, VA, reported that our readers have already been apprised of the recent extensive sales of gold, paid for in drafts as valueless as the paper on which they were written. The premium "paid" for this gold was $12. Since the withdrawal of this heavy customer the demand for the precious metals has measurably subsided, and, as the Jews are now keeping one of their protracted annual holidays, the transactions for several days past have been very light. The commission brokers are now asking $11 50 for gold. No silver in the market.” The “protracted annual holidays” referred to the Sukkoth cycle with Simchat Torah having ended the day before the article was written. 

1864: Birthdate of Louis Ferdinand Gottschalk, the son of a Missouri governor who gained fame as a conductor and composer for musicals and movies.


1864: Joshua Pickering a member of the Cameron Dragoons, “a largely Jewish regiment” commanded by Colonel Max Friednman was killed today at Darbytown Road, Virginia during the Civil War.

1867:”Blood Libel charges triggered anti-Jewish riots in Romania.” (As reported by Aish)http://www.aish.com/dijh/Tishrei_17.html

1867: In Prescott, AZ, the 4th Territorial Legislature, which was attended by Phillip Drachman who had traveled 200 miles “by buckboard, stage and horseback” from Tucson adjourned today after it had voted to move “the capital from Prescott to Tucson” in 1868.

1868: Founding of Cornell University at Ithaca, New York. Today at Cornell, there are approximately 3,500 Jewish undergrads among the 13,500 undergraduate population and another 500 Jewish students among its 5,000 Jewish graduate students. In other words, Jews account for about 25% of the school’s population. The school offers a major and minor in Jewish Studies as well as a full panoply of social and cultural on campus designed to meet the needs of Jewish students.

1870: During the Franco-Prussian War, Leon Gambetta escaped from Paris by balloon. This was the only way that Gambetta could reach Tours where he was active in organizing further military opposition to the Prussians.  Gambetta was instrumental in the formation of the French Third Republic.  His father was Jewish.  His mother was not.

1871(22ndof Tishrei, 5632): Shemini Atzeret

1871: Congregation Bethel was organized today shortly after the Great Chicago Fire.

1871: In Germany, Nathan Baruch Rothschild, the son of Baruch and Esther Rothschild and his wife Sophie Rothschild, both of whom settled in Columbus, GA gave birth to Gerson Rothschild

1871: It was reported today that “the Hebrew Feast of Tabernacles closes this morning…Offerings of branches of the palm tree, the myrtle, willow and the citron were made” yesterday during services held in the synagogues of New York.

1874: Moses Phillips married Julia Defries tdaoy.

1874: It was reported today the government of Romania is upset by an article published in a Jewish paper that portrays Benjamin Peixoto, the U.S. Consul in Bucharest as “the only protector of the persecuted Jews” of that country.  The Romanians claim they have done everything possible to protect the Jews.  The government claims that the increase in the number of Jews entering the country from Russia and Austria and the cessation of the exodus of Jews from Romania serves as proof of their contention.

1878(10th of Tishrei, 5639): Yom Kippur

1878: According to reports published today, a new group of people has been discovered in India who are supposed to be descendants of Jews sent there by King Solomon to capture elephants and work in the gold mines.  Instead of calling themselves Jews, they refer to themselves as Sons Of Israel. They have prayer-books and Bibles written in Hebrew.  They observe Shabbat but show no knowledge of Yom Kippur or Pesach. [Editor’s Note – While the connection with Solomon might be hard to prove, referring to themselves as Sons of Israel and not Jews would argue for their antiquity considering how much later the latter term came to be used to describe The Chosen People.]

1878: With the end of Yom Kippur this evening Morris Bloom a peddler living on Orchard Street and Sarah Greenberg of Hester Street can be married in a synagogue. The families of the couple had opposed the marriage and the youngsters had a Judge of the Court of General Sessions perform a civil ceremony.  Once the families saw that the two were committed to each other, they relented which is the reason for the religious ceremony.

1879: Germany and Austria-Hungary sign the "Twofold Covenant" and create the Dual Alliance. This alliance had amazing durability.  It was this alliance which helped trigger World War I and all the suffering for Jews and non-Jews that has flowed from this seminal event.

1879: Birthdate of Leon Trotsky.  Born Lev Davidovich Bronstein to wealthy Jewish farmers in the Ukraine, Bronstein became a revolutionary committed to the overthrown of the Czar.  After spending time in Siberia, he joined forces with Lenin.  After the Bolshevik Revolution created the Red Army which defeated both the foreign armies that invaded the Soviet Union and the White Forces during the bloody civil war that followed.  Trotsky would lose out to Stalin in the power struggle that followed Lenin’s death.  Trotsky would be hacked to death by one of Stalin’s agents in 1940 while living in Mexico.  Anti-Semites would use Trotsky’s Jewish origins as one source of proof that Communism was part of a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world. The joke among Jews was the Trostkys make the revolutions and the Bronsteins suffer the consequences.

1880: In Chicago, Julia and Bernhard Daniels gave birth to Julius Daniels, the brother of Max, Minnie, Samuel and Hattie Daniels

 1881(14thof Tishrei, 5642): Erev Sukkoth

1881(14thof Tishrei, 5642): Seventy-one year old Lewis Jacob Marcus lawyer and political activist who moved to England after his retirement passed away in Manchester, UK.

1881: “Current Foreign Topics” published today described the trial of the chief editors and a reporter for two of Germany’s leading newspapers who had been charged with “insulting a police commissioner” by reporting on his attendance at an “anti-Jewish meeting” last year. The journalists accused him of “neglecting his duty” for not intervening when “a section of the audience attacked the Jews.” The reporter was acquitted but the editors were fined 50 marks.

1883: It was reported today that the Young Men’s Hebrew Association plans to offer a series of lectures every Saturday between now and November that will help with the Americanization of immigrants who have come from Germany, Russia and other parts of Eastern Europe.  Starting in November, the YMHA will offer classes four nights a week in reading, writing and spelling. Among those leading the effort are M.A. Kuresheedt, M.W. Platzek and Rabbi Aaron Wise.

1884: In Bavaria,”the famous mathematician Max Noether and his wife Ida Amalia Kaufmann” gave birth mathematician Fritz Noether, the third of their four children who moved to the Soviet Union because the Nazis would not him pursue his career but ended up being executed in 1941 after the Russians decided the Jew was really a spy.

1884: “City and Suburban News” published today included a note that Hebrew teacher Gadalic Richter has been released from the Tombs after charges of arson against could not be proven.

1885: In Copenhagen,Christian Bohr,a professor of physiology at the University of Copenhagen, and Ellen Adler Bohr, who came from a wealthy Danish Jewish family prominent in banking and parliamentary circles” gave birth to Neils Bohr the physicist who is the Father of Quantum Theory and winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1922.

1886(8th of Tishrei, 5647):Solomon Goldberg, a 34 year Jew from Poland who had been confined to The Tombs on charges of not supporting his wife, took his own life this afternoon.

1886: Joseph Rosenberg, who had passed away at the age of 102, was buried today in New Orleans, LA.

1887: In London, Edward Montefiore Micholls and Ada Rachael Micholls, the Surry born daughter of Maurice Moses Beddington and Hannah Maria Beddington, gave birth to Colonel Wilfred Horatio Micholls.

            1888: “New Settlers Destitute” published today while many of the homesteaders living in the Dakota territories are suffering due to crop failure, the greatest suffering is found among the 300 Russian Jews who settled there two years ago.  Some of the families are without food and the rest will need outside financial assistance if they are to survive. (My grandfather and his brother homesteaded in the Dakotas in the 1890’s and experienced hardship.  After a winter of living on crackers, as soon as the roads were passable, my grandfather went back to Chicago to seek “fame and fortune.”)

1888: “Old World News By Cable” published today described the many contradictory stories going around Europe about the German scheme to rescue Emin Pasha.  Those opposed to the plans point out that he really is a Jew named Isaac Schnitzler. (Emin Pasha had in fact been born a Jew but he converted and became a romantic Muslim leader).

1888: Birthdate of movie director Robert Z. Leonard.


1889: Driven by the effective and fervent lobbying efforts of activist Annie Nathan Meyer, Barnard College opened its doors. (Jewish Women’s Archives)

1889: In Berlin, the former Martha Behrendt and her husband, bank director and newspaper published Richard Jacob gave birth to author and journalist Heinrich Eduard Jacob “who also wrote under the pen names Henry E. Jacob and Eric Jens Petersen.”

1890(23rdof Tishrei, 5651): Simchat Torah.

1890: “A Great City University” published today described the meeting of the Trustees of Columbia University where a list of gifts to the school was presented including $1,000 from Jesse Seligman which is to be allocated to the Seligman Fellowships.

1891: In Berlin, “historian and socialist Ignaz Jastrow” gave birth to archeologist Elisabeth Jastrow who settled in the United States in the 1930’s who along with her sister “Lotte Beate Jastrow Hahn” successful rescued her mother Anna Seligman Jastrow from Nazi Germany


1891: A brief summary of the annual report of the United Hebrew Charities showed that the organization had spent $167,811.85 in the last year, $62,121.60 of which came from the Baron de Hirsch Committee.

1891: “Jews  And The Russian Loan” published today described the concern among American Jews that two “Jewish” banking houses – Mendelssohn & Co. and Warschauer & Co. --- are willing to extend credit to a government that treats its Jewish subjects so poorly.

1891(5th of Tishrei, 5652): Seventy-two year old Jakob Eduard Poak, the Austrian trained physician who played a key role in bringing modern medical practices to Iran and served as the personal doctor to the Shah from 1855 to 1860 passed away today in Vienna.

1894: Rabbi Wintner officiated at the wedding ceremony of Ida E. Korne and John Bernstein, the son Nathan Bernstein, the wealthy Brooklyn merchant who is near death and insisted that he marriage take place so he could witness it before he passed away.

1896: Birthdate of Minsk native Shmuel-Ber Leykin.


1897: “Over In Camden” published today included a description of the observance of Yom Kippur in that New Jersey city just outside of Philadelphia, PA.

1897: The Bund (Jewish Workers Party) held its first conference in Russia. It was the first Jewish Socialist party in Eastern Europe. At first decidedly anti-Zionist and pro-Yiddishist, it was organized as a union of Russian Jewish socialist groups. The bund exerted a great influence on Jews in Europe and America. Interestingly enough, the Bund held its first meeting during the same year in which the Zionists held their first Congress.

1897: Professor Francis William Newman, the author of A History of the Hebrew Monarchy (1847) and Hebrew Theism (1874) who was the brother of the late Cardinal Newman passed away.

1897: It was reported today that the late Lewis Stark, a New York businessman who “was a member of a number Hebrew charitable organizations” will be buried in Baltimore, MD

1898(21stof Tishrei, 5659): Hoshanah Rabah

1898:  Birthdate of Alfred Wallenstein, principle cellist for the Chicago Symphony from 1922 to 1929.

1899: It was reported today the Jewish poet and author Salomon Mandelkern has come from his home in Leipzig to visit his son Israel who is living on East Broadway in Manhattan.

1899: Abraham Cahan was described today as “the ‘Yiddish’ author” who “lives near the up-town ‘Ghetto’ and edits a Hebrew scientific periodical, besides teaching and writing interesting newspaper articles about the east side and its peculiar peoples.”

1900: Birthdate of Russian-born American muralist and painter Louis Goodman who came to the United States in 1910, studied at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and who did everything from creating “a comic strip called ‘The Kids on Our Block’” to painted “murals at the RCA Building” at the time of the 1939 World’s Fair.



1901: Birthdate of Ralph Reichenthal who gained fame as composer and pianist Ralph Rainger.

1903(16th of Tishrei, 5664): Second Day of Sukkoth

1903(16th of Tishrei, 5664): German Born mathematician Rudolph Otto Sigismund Lispchitz passed away.  Born in 1832, Lispschitz was a professor at the University of Bonn for almost forty years and the man who developed the mathematical paradigm known as the Lipschitz Continuity.

1903: In San Francisco, a contract was entered into to begin building the new sanctuary for Congregation Sherith Israel

1906:The Sinai Temple congregation resolved to have Dr. Leon Messing, a native of Alabama, who was serving a congregation in Bloomington, commute to Champagne-Urbana every Sunday and on the high holidays.

1906: During his quest to get Cuban approval for the creation of a Jewish cemetery Manuel Hadida, Chairman of the United Hebrew Congregation (UHC) of Cuba, met with Rabbi Haim (Henry) Pereira Méndez, the spiritual leader of the Spanish-Portuguese synagogue, Shearith Israel, in New York.  Hadida was looking to the United States to use its influence with the newly independent Cuba to move this project forward.

1908: Today, at Le Mans, France, Mrs. Edith. Berg, the wife of Hart O. Berg the Jewish born American managing the promotion of the Wright Brother’s tour of Europe flew in a Wright brother’s aircraft piloted by Wilbur Wright in what was claimed by some to be the first time a member of her sex had flown in an aircraft.

1909(22ndof Tishrei, 5670): Shemini Atzeret

1909: Birthdate of Cambridge educated diplomat Sir Andrew Benjamin Cohen, the “descendant of Levi Barent Cohen whose posts including serving as Governor of Uganda in the 1950’s.

1910: Louis-Norbert Carrière “the government commissioner who successfully pled at Rennes for Dreyfus's second conviction” returned to civilian life ending a career that had begun when joined the 38th Infantry Regiment in 1855 after graduating from St. Cyr.

1911(15thof Tishrei, 5672): Sukkoth

1911(15thof Tishrei, 5672): Nineteen year old Jankel Nissen Schattenstein, the son of Dov Schattenstein passed away today.

1912(26thof Tishrei, 5673): Thirty four year old Dobe Chatzkelsohn, the daughter of Josef Chatzkelsohn passed away today.

1912: Lionel de Rothschild M.P. married Mlle. Marie Louise Beer in Paris this afternoon.  Mlle. Beer is the daughter of French banker Edmond Beer and her sister married Baron Robert de Rothschild.

1912: Opening day of the “Becker-Rosenthal Murder Trial.”  Herman Rosenthal was a Jewish gambler in New York who was allegedly gunned down by Harry Horowitz’s Lenox Avenue Gang. Becker was Charles Becker, a crooked cop, whom the District Attorney believed had ordered the murder.

1913: On New York’s Lower East side a Russian immigrant tailor and his wife gave birth to Arthur “Archie” Kameros “a four year starting center for LIU-Brooklyn in the mid-1930s, graduate of Columbia University of Dentistry and Bronze Star winning WW II veteran.

1913(6thof Tishrei, 5674): Seventy-three year old Benjamin Altman, the New York son of Bavarian Jewish immigrants who found B. Altman, a New York landmark department store passed away today.


1914(17thof Tishrei, 5675): Third day of Sukkoth

1914: Today “a morning journal reported the discovery of a shekel of gold, bronze and platinum, struck by the Jews of 3400 B.C., marked with Hebrew character signifying things that were never marked on shekels and with a representation of ‘the Start of Bethlehem’” and the article continues “there is a duplicate of the coin in the British Museum.”

1914: “Rabbi Levi Answers Ross” published today described the response of Rabbi Charles S Levi to an article written by Professor Edward A. Ross of the University in which attacks Jews, especially  those from eastern Europe. (This is not is not Ross’s first brush with ethnic slurs. He was fired from Stanford for his attacks on Chinese and Japanese immigrants).

1914: Birthdate of Bernard Phillips, one of the UK’s leading insolvency practitioners whose expertise led to him being elected chairman and then president of the Insolvency Practitioners Association.


1915: In New York City, Harry Scherman and Bernardine Kielty Scherman gave birth to Swarthmore graduate Katharine Scherman an editor at “Book-of-the-Month Club and author  who became Katherine Scherman Rosin when she married Axel Rosin  with who she had two daughters.

1915: A letter written to the New York Timestoday notes that “the accounts that come to us and to the million or more Russian Jews in this country from their fathers, mothers and sisters in Russian Poland and Galicia unfold a chapter of horrors in the lurid light of which the past tragedies of that martyred race pale in their intensity and in their extent, affect no less than three million souls.”

1916(10thof Tishrei, 5677): Yom Kippur

1916: In “Rosalsky Pleads for Jews” Otto A. Rosalsky, a judge of the court of General Sessions in New York said that while Jews in American “are enjoying civil, religious and political freedom in the largest measure ever accorded to those who live in a land of liberty” “calamity has befallen our Jewish brethren” in Europe, where “over a million Jewish soldiers are on the battlefields fighting for the cause of countries that not only denied them civil, religious and political freedom but have subjected them to every form of brutal oppression.”

1916: At the Kessler Theatre, where Rabbi Herman Kiminester was conducting services, 2,500 people found their prayers interrupted when fire engines arrived in response to what turned out to be a false alarm.

1916: At Temple Israel, in Harlem, Rabbi M.H. Harris spoke on the origins of the term scapegoat, telling of how the Jews had filled that role in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, in the actions of the “unspeakable Tom Watson of Georgia, and to Germany where “the anti-Semitic movement was ‘a cunning political move to diver the attention of the public from the autocratic powers and abuses of the Government by persuading the people that all of their social troubles were due to the Jews.’”

1916: At Temple Emanu-El Rabbi Joseph Silverman delivered a sermon on “The New Judasim” which included an appeal to his congregants “to do all in their power to aid Jewish sufferers in the war zone abroad.”

1916: Birthdate of economist Walt Whitman Rostow who along with his brother Gene was an architect of American foreign policy under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.

1917(21stof Tishrei, 5678): Hoshanah Rabah

1917: It was announced today that the Executive Committee for the American Jewish Congress whose members include Nathan Straus, Adolph Lewisohn, Colonel Harry Cutler, Louis Marshall, Louis Kirstein and Dr. Stephen S. Wise would meet in special session” next week to select a date when the full Congress will meet.

1917: “In making public plans for an anti-pacifist campaign in New York this week, the American Alliance for Labor announced” today “that the Jewish Socialist League would lead the fight on the East Side.”

1917: Birthdate of Jerome Pitkow, the native of Philadelphia and 1941 graduate of NYU Law School who became an executive with Supermarkets General Corporation and a leading New York Jewish philanthropist.


1917: In Vienna, Alfred Guttman and his wife gave birth to actor Helmut Dantine who was arrested after the Anschluss because of his anti-Nazi activities. 

1917: Rabbi Abraham Cronbach, the Indiana born son of Marcus and Hannah (Itzig) Cronbach married “Rose Hentel, a teacher at the Free Synagogue in New York” who would adopt a daughter Marion, the future wife of Rabbi Maurice Davis.

1918:“A call for a final military effort on the battle field was published in the Vossiche Zeitung.  Written by the Jewish industrialist Walther Rathenau, its aim was to give Germany the strongest possible position from which to negotiate a peace of equality rather than of defeat. ‘It is peace we want, not war --- but not a peace of surrender.’”

1918: In New York City. Arthur and Frances Landau Jaffa gave birth to Harry Victor Jaffa one of Leo Strauss’ first graduate students.


1918: Birthdate of Marcus Klingberg the native of Poland who took refuge from the Nazis in the Soviet Union where he graduated from Medical School.  After serving doctor with the Red Army during World War II, he moved to Israel in 1948.  Eventually he would rise to a ranking position at the Israel Institute for Biological Research.  In 1983 he was unmasked as leading agent for the Soviet Union.

1919: Birthdate of Sir Zelman Cowen 19th Governor-General of Australia and active leader of the Melbourne Jewish Community.

1919: It was announced today that Sir Philip Albert Gustave David Sassoon, 3rd Baronet, had been awarded the French Croix de Guerre for his service during World War I.

1920: Mrs. Eva Epstein and her son Edward who have spent the summer in Paris, London and Scotland are scheduled to return to New York today aboard the S.S. Olympic

1920: “Jewish representatives from all parts of Palestine” are scheduled to gather today for the first Jewish Assembly where they will elect “an independent executive composed of Palestine Jews to replace the present Zionist Commission.”

1922(15th of Tishrei, 5683): Sukkoth is observed for the last time during the Presidency of Warren G. Harding.

1922: Wake Forest coached by George Levene kicked a field goal which was enough to defeat Elon

1923: In a major league career that lasted one week, Outfielder Mose Solomon played his last game for the New York Giants.

1923: Arnold and Ralph Horween “both scored in the same game as” Arnold “kicked two extra points and” Ralaph “ran for a touchdown as the Chicago Cardinals beat the Rochester Jefferson.”

1924(9th of Tishrei, 5685): Erev Yom Kippur

1925: First game of the 1925 World Series which saw Buddy Myer playing 2nd base for the Washington Senators.

1926: “The Girl on a Swing” directed by Felix Basch was released today in Germany.

1926: In Germany, Aaron and Rose Lubrani gave birth to Israeli diplomat and government official Uri Lubrani who began his career serving as the political secretary to Prime Minister Ben-Gurion and who has held several other positions the most rewarding of which may have been as the coordinator for Operation Solomon in 1990.

1931: Birthdate of Sidney Shankman, the “child psychiatrist who founded and directed the Second Genesis outpatient and residential drug and alcohol and recovery programs for more than three decades.”

1932: Thirty-six year old Benny Leonard’s “career ended today when he was TKO’ed in 6 rounds.

1933(17thof Tishrei, 5694): Shabbat Shel Sukkoth

1933: Led by Captain Sid Gillman, Ohio State defeated Virginia 75-0.

1934(28th of Tishrei, 5695): Dutch painter Isaac Lazarus Israëls passed away.  Painting must have been in his blood since he was the son of Jozef Israëls.  For examples of his work see


1935:  A memorial service for Jacob H. Schiff, Jewish philanthropist, was held today in the original building of Congregation Ohab Zedek at 18 West 116th Street in Manhattan. In 1906, Mr. Schiff had laid the cornerstone for this structure. A tribute by Morris Engelman, chairman of the congregation, included a plea for the establishment of a Schiff Memorial Fund that would aid Jewish social, educational and religious institutions throughout the world.

1936(21st of Tishrei, 5697): Hoshanah Rabah

1936: At Geneva, “Christian Lange of Norway expressed ‘great astonishment’ that Britain had not yet ended the Palestine disorders” and “criticized Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden for refusing the mandates commission’s request that Britain report to it on Palestine in November.”

1936: In London, the Home Secretary “invited his critics to pass a new law against ‘provocative’ demonstrations if they wished to prevent a repetition of the recent riots caused by the Fascists under Oswald Mosely taking to the streets in the Jewish section of the East End.

1937:The Jerusalem Postreported that Bronislaw Huberman, the famous Jewish violinist and the founder of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra, was passenger on the Royal Dutch (KLM) plane which crashed in Sumatra. He escaped without serious injury.

1937: The Jerusalem Post reported that French troops stopped clashes between Arabs and Turks at Antioch.

1938: In London, UK, premiere of “The Lady Vanishes” co-starring Paul Lukas with music by Louis Levy.

1938: The Fascist Grand Council in Rome issues a set of new antisemitic laws designed for the "defense of the Italian race" and to suppress "world Hebrewism." Most of the laws target Jews,

1938: Germany decreed that passports of Jews were to be marked with a J.

1938: Judy Garland (who was not Jewish) made her first recording of "Over the Rainbow" is a ballad, with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Yip Harburg, a ballad written for “The Wizard of Oz.”

1939: Hitler appointed Himmler head of the R.K.F.D.V., an organization responsible for the deportation of Poles and Jews from Polish provinces.

1939: “Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One, a comedy radio series hosted by Milton Berle aired for the first time tonight.

1939: As of today, it was reported that Rumania has a population of 20,000,000, a fourth of which are “classified as minorities” which include 770,000 Jews.

1939: “Speaking at the first Fall luncheon meeting of the Foreign Policy Association at the Hotel Astor” “Anne O’Hare McCormick of the editorial staff of the New York Times declared that “Hitler’s peace proposals as advanced in his Reichstag speech, constitute an ‘imperious demand’ that Great Britain and France accept the ‘new order he and Stalin intend to set up in Eastern Europe’ and leave the Allies with no alternative but to reject them flatly.”

1939: In England Edith and Heinz Krotoschiner gave birth to Harold Krotoschiner who gained fame as chemist Sir Harold Kroto, who co-discovered fullerene and shared in the 1996 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.




1939: Today’s occupation of Zamosc, Poland by the Nazis is preceded by Polish mobs attacking the town’s Jews.

1939: George and Isabel Schwartz Shenker gave birth to Joseph Shenker, who at the age of 29,  became the youngest president of a college in the City University of New York system and one of the youngest in the nation, when he was appointed interim president of Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn in 1969.

1939: “U-Boat 29” produced by Alexander Korda , with a script by Emeric Pressburger, which had been related as “The Spy in Black” was released in the United States today, two days after its New York premiere.

1939: Penn St. led by its captain Sidney “Spike Alter defeated Bucknell in its season opening football game.

 1940: German troops move into Romania bringing with them the horrors of the Holocaust.  As can be seen from negotiations surrounding the 19th century Treaty of Berlin, anti-Semitism was an established part of the Romanian landscape. The Romanians, led by the infamous Iron Cross killed tens of thousands of their Jewish neighbors.  Estimates as to the actual number killed range from 280,000 to 380,000.

1940: The Vichy Government “swept away the Cremieux Decree of 1870; a law that granted French citizenship to the Jews of Algeria.  This act of anti-Semitism would echo in the world of 21st American politics when Virginia Republican Senator George Allen found out for the first time that his was an Algerian Jew; a refugee from the Holocaust who had never told her son of his Jewish ancestry for fear that someday the United States would turn on its Jewish citizens in the same that France had during World War II.

1941: At Rowne, Volhunia, the SS and local militia took over 17,000 Jews taken from their homes, marched them to open pits, and slaughtered them.

1943(7thof Tishrei, 5704): Sixty-four year old Lithuanian native Ephraim Caplan, the “religious editor of the Jewish Morning Journal,” long-time director of the Jewish National Fund of America and President of the Council for Orthodox Jewish Education who was the husband of Eva Caplan with whom he had one daughter, Martha and “three sons, Dr. Leon Caplan, Dr. Joseph Caplan” and Saul Caplan who served with the U.S. Army in WW II, passed away today in Brooklyn.”

1943: German convoys deported Jews from Morocco to the concentration camps of Europe.

1943: “Lassie Come Home,” produced by Samuel Marx and Dore Schary was released today in the United States.

1943: Jewish partisans fighting in Lithuania destroyed fifty telegraph poles.

1943: Paul Steinberg, Phillipe Hagenauer and “former world boxing champion Victor ‘Young’ Perez were deported from Drancy to Auschwitz together.

1943: One thousand Jews are deported from Paris to their deaths at Auschwitz.

1943: In an official report, the German chief of police in Poland recommends that Poles who aid Jews should be dealt with without benefit of trial.

1943: In a Yom Kippur radio message to Jewish service men, Vice President Henry A. Wallace said that "the names of those who have served in this war will be honored whether they belong to the so-called blue-bloods from Boston or Negroes from South Carolina…' We are not Jews or Gentiles, Whites or Blacks,' but people of the United States.”

1944(20th of Tishrei, 5705): Dutch banker Jacobus Henricus Kann who was a partner in Lissa & Kann and a co-founder of the Jewish Colonial Trust died today at Theresienstadt

1944: While the furnaces belched forth Jewish ashes, a group of Jewish members of the Auschwitz Sonderkommando revolted. They killed a number of their masters, destroyed one gas chamber/crematorium complex, damaged another, and - more than any other nation - stopped the slaughter of innocent Jews. One of the key participants in this little-known revolt was Rosa Robota, a young Jewish prisoner, who arranged to obtain the explosives, stored them, and turned them over to the Underground. Young Rosa and three other women prisoners were hanged for their complicity in this revolt a few days before the Germans abandoned the camp. She received the highest award from the Polish government, and is honored with a sculpture in Yad VaShem.

1944(20th of Tishrei, 5705): Today, the Sonderkommandos at Birkenau chose to revolt instead of being selected to be "sent away." Chaim Neuhof was the first to strike an SS guard. Then the rest of the Crematorium IV men surged forward with pick and axes against their guards despite the arrival of multiple machine gun units. After setting fire to the Crematorium, the SS machine-gunned all the men. Despite this Crematorium II Sonderkommandos and Russian prisoners followed their lead and joined in the fight.  Many men from Crematorium III and V broke out through the fences. Almost all were caught and executed. [Editor’s note- this took place on the 6th of Sukkoth.  You have to wonder why this event has not been memorialized in the festival liturgy.]

1945: During a press conference in Rome two Republican Senators, Karl E. Mundt of South Dakota and Frances P. Bolton of Ohio expressed their opposition to a reported request from President Truman to the British government 100,000 Jews into Palestine be allowed to move to Palestine immediately.

1946: Ben Hecht’s “A Flag Is Born” opened at the Adelphi Theatre.

1946: In the UK, “social worker and former communist Miriam Abramsky and Professor Chimen Abramsky the son of Rabbi Yehezkel Abramsky gave birth to Dame Jennifer Gita "Jenny" Abramsky, DBE the chairman of the UK's National Heritage Memorial Fund

1946: “The Jewish National Fund made a world-wide appeal today to Jews to contribute $20,000,000” during the upcoming Jewish year.  Dr. Abraham Granowsky, chairman of the Board of Directors of the JNF said that funds contributed during the past year had made it possible for new settlements to be built in areas that extended the reach of the Yishuv.

1947(23rd of Tishrei, 5708): Simchat Torah

1947: British trade unionist Manny Shinwell begins serving as Secretary of State for War under Prime Minister Clement Attlee making him part of the civilian leadership controlling the British Army that was battling with the Jews of pre-state Israel.

1948:Just months after the state of Israel triumphantly declared its independence the town of Waltham, Mass. welcomed the nation's first non-sectarian, Jewish-sponsored University which we know as Brandeis University named in honor of the distinguished jurist, fighter for the underdog and a person who combined being a proud American with being an ardent Zionist.

1948: The Neutral Zone around Government House in Jerusalem was transferred to United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) protection.

1948: “Love Life” “a musical written by Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner who provided the books and lyrics opened on Broadway at the 46th Street Theatre.

1949: In response to the formation of the Federal Republic of Germany which was made up of the French, British and U.S. occupation zones, the Soviet Union for the German Democratic Republic known as Eastern Germany – the one part of Nazi Germany that never underwent de-Nazification or paid reparations to the Jewish victims of the Holoaust.

1951: In Baltimore, MD, Morton and Bettie Brenner gave birth to Barbara Ann Breener, who “became Breast Cancer Action’s first executive director in 1995, two years after undergoing treatment for the disease and a year before it recurred.” (As reported by Denise Grady)

1951: Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion presented his new government to the Knesset.  The long drawn out process convinces Ben-Gurion that Israel needs to move from the multi-party system to a two-party system like the British use.  But even Ben-Gurion cannot bring about this change.  To this day, Israeli politics continue to chaotic due to its multiplicity of parties and shifting political alliances.

1952:The Jerusalem Postreported that Dov Shilansky tried to sabotage the reparations agreement with Germany by an attempt to bomb one of the Foreign Ministry buildings in Jerusalem's Hakirya. Emotions on this topic ran high on this topic.  Many Jews felt that accepting money would somehow be a sign of forgiving the Germans.  Others felt that it was “blood money” and it was tainted.  Ultimately, a realistic view would prevail and Israel would use the money in a variety of ways designed to help the infant state survive.

1953(28thof Tishrei, 5714): Forty-five year old Dr. Elias “Ely” Abrahams, the son “Max and Fannie Abrahams,” “the husband of the former Violet Dreishpoon” with whom he had one child Paul and dentist who practiced in New York but lived in Brooklyn passed away today after which he was buried at Baron Hirsch Cemetery.

1954(10thof Tishrei, 5715): Yom Kippur

1954: “Suddenly,” a film noir with music by David Raskin was released today in the United States.

1955: CBS broadcast the first episode of “The Crusader” a detective series whose leading character was the son of a mother who died in a Nazi Concentration Camp and included appearances by such stars as Jack Albertson, Leon Askin, Michael Landon and Werner Klemperer.

1955: Beat poet Allen Ginsberg read his poem "Howl" for the first time at a poetry reading in San Francisco

1956: The Israeli Cabinet expresses support for Ben Gurion’s decision to exercise restraint and not mount reprisal raids against Arab terrorists.

1956: “The Bespoke Overcoats” the Oscar winning British film “based on a 1953 play of the same name by Wolf Mankowitz” which co-stars Alfie Bass and David Kosoff was released in the United Kingdom today by Warner Brothers.

1957(12thof Tishrei, 5718): Sixty-eight year old Jekuthiel Ginsburg, the native of Poland and husband of the former Anna Bodsky, who came to the United States in 1912, earned his degrees in Mathematics at Columbia and founded the Institute of Mathematics at Yeshiva University passed away today.



1958:”The Old Man and the Sea,” a movie version of the novel with a screenplay by Peter Viertel and music by Dimitri Tiomkin premiered in the United States today.

1959: U.S. premiere of “Pillow Talk,” a comedy co-produced by Martin Melcher, with a script co-authored by Stanley Shapiro and co-starring Tony Randall.

1959: In New York City, heiress and author Jean Stein and diplomate and lawyer William vanden Huevel gave birth to “editor and publisher” Katrina vanden Huevel, the granddaughter of Jules C. Stein, the founder of MCA and the wife of Stephen F Cohen.

1959: In the United Kingdom, Eric Selig Phillip Cowell a music executive who came from a family of Polish Jews and his non-Jewish wife Julie gave birth to American Idol Judge Simon Cowell.

1960: ABC broadcast the first episode of “The Law and Mr. Jones” created and produced by Sy Gomberg which had included guest star appearances by Sam Jaffe and Martin Landau

1961: After 607 performances the curtain came down on the original Broadway production of “Bye Bye Birdie” with music by Charles Strouse

1964: “Fail Safe” a film version of the novel by the same name directed by Sidney Lumet, produced by Sidney Lumet and Max Youngstein, with a script co-authored by Walter Bernstein and co-starring Walter Matthau was released in the United States today.

1964(1st of Cheshvan, 5725): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

1964(1st of Cheshvan, 5725): Seventy-six year old Abraham Joseph Alper, the son of Isaac and Lotta Alper and the husband of Lena Zion Alper, passed away today after which he was buried at B’Nai Zion Cemetery in Chattanooga, TN.

1964: “See How They Run” “the first made for television movie” with music by Lalo Schifrin was aired today by NBC.

1966(23rd of Tishrei, 5727): Simchat Torah

1969: “Battle of Neretva” a film based on the Axis attempt to wipe out the Yugoslav partisans in 1943 produced by Harry Weinstein and Steven Previn with music by Bernard Hermann was released today.

1968(15th of Tishrei, 5729): Sukkoth

1971: “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” a Disney musical with songs by Richard and Robert Sherman and a score by Irwin Kostal was released in the United Kingdom today.

1972: Birthdate of American screenwriter and film director Ben Younger who is responsible for a marvelous little film called “Boiler Room.”

1973: Today “Israel’s defense minister Moshe Dayan told prime minister Golda Meir to consider making preparations for the use of nuclear weapons, according to an interview with a ministerial aide now being published for the first time.” (As reported by Mitch Ginsburg)

1973: Publication of the Israeli official English translation of Prime Minister Meir’s radio and television address given after the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War.


1973: On the second day of the Yom Kippur War, 100 tanks arrived on Israel’s border with Syria.  General Hofi, the Israeli commander on the Northern Front had requested the tanks before the fighting started. This meant that General Hofi had 170 tanks to use against 1,400 Syrian tanks.  To understand the immensity of the threat faced by the Israelis, consider the following, in World War II the Nazis used 1400 tanks to invade the Soviet Union along a 1,000 mile front.  The Syrians had 1,400 tanks to use along a forty mile front.

1973: On the second day of the war the IAF lost six F-4 Phantoms over Syria during Model 5 a mission designed to knock the Syrian SAM batteries on the Gloan front – a mission that failed miserably.

1973: Caught by surprise and badly outnumbered, Israeli troops cling to front in the Sinai.  In twenty four hours the Israeli force of 290 tanks had been reduced by two thirds.  Dayan visited the Sinai front and called for a withdrawal to the Sinai passes, which he thought would be a better line of defense.  General Sharon arrived with a reinforcing division and wanted to advance to the east bank of the Canal.  As the generals debated, the soldiers on the ground were fighting a series of bloody holding actions.  Egyptian hand held missiles were negating the edge that the Air Force and armored units had previously given the IDF.  

1973: A discussion took place at the Prime Minister's Office that centered on how to enlist American support at the United Nations and head off a cease-fire that would hurt Israel. Mrs. Meir suggested putting together a list of requests.  Mrs. Meir rejected a suggesting that the Israelis should present U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger with a partial, distorted picture exaggerating Israel's poor situation to win the Nixon administration's support. Meir rejected the suggestion out of hand. "We should telegraph him the details; he should get the real picture," she said. "We can't play hide and seek with him." Minister Yisrael Galili asked in response, "Do we sell him the fact that we've moved out of the populated areas?"  Mrs. Meir replied, "I don't object to us saying, there's also risk to populated areas ... I want to give him the real picture. I'm not under the impression the situation is doomed ... We should tell it to him convincingly. Tonight was a bad night."

1973:Word of the stunning success of the Israeli missile boats brought crowds down to the Haifa breakwater this morning to welcome the returning squadron. Barkai, the commanding officer, had decided that there would be no brooms tied to masts, the traditional symbol of a naval victory. Any flaunting of the victory over the Syrians, he said, "wouldn't be respectful to them or to ourselves."

1973: Gad Smooch landed safely after the Syrians had fired a SAM at his F-4E

1973: Despite suffering “severe losses” the 162nd Division under the command of Avraham Adan continued to attempt to throw the Egyptians back across the Suez Canal.

1973: “On the second day of the war, Maj. Gen. Shmuel “Gorodish” Gonen, a learned disciplinarian shouted at a recalcitrant General Sharon ‘I will dismiss you right now!’ when Sharon told him his attack orders were mistaken and would be ‘a disastrous mistake.’” (As reported by Mitch Ginsburg)

1973: Avikam Lif, Ami Elkelei, Shuki Wolfson, Avi Barber, and Zvi Afik were all taken prisoner when the F-4E Phantom Jets they were flying were shot down by Syrian Surface to Air Missiles (SAM)

1973: On the second day of the Battle for the Valley of Tears, “Syrians forces suffered heavy losses as the outnumbered Israeli tanks and infantry fought desperately to buy time for reserves forces to reach the front lines.”

1975: The “first Broadway production of ‘The Robber Bridegroom, a musical with a book and lyrics by Alfred Uhry’ opened today at the Harkness Theatre.”

1975: The “USSR Supreme Soviet Presidium” ratified an agreement providing for economic and technical cooperation with Syria that could only be seen as threatening to Israeli planners.

1977: “Black Martin Baby” a movie version of the novel produced by Milton Sperling and featuring Tom Bosley was released today.

1979(16thof Tishrei, 5740): Sukkoth II

1979(16thof Tishrei, 5740): Eight-four year old “Irving Maidman, a major owner of properties around Times Square, the dean of West Side Development,” “a founder of the Albert Einstein Medical School” and husband of “the former Edith Shvitiz with whom he had four children – Robert, Mathew, Rebecca and Ellen – passed away today in Upper Nyack where he was “a direct of Congregation Sons of Israel Temple.


1980(27thof Tishrei, 5741): Seventy-eight year hold hotel owner Hyman B. Cantor, the husband of the “former Gertrude Levinson” and philanthropist passed away today.




1981(9th of Tishrei, 5742): Erev Yom Kippur

1981: As the Jews of Cedar Rapids chant Kol Nidre, Abbie Silber, daughter of Laurie and Dr. Robert Silber arrives in the world.  It is an appropriate and auspicious choice of birthdates for a young woman who has gone to become a “Sweet Singer in Israel” and whose parents are pillars of the Jewish Community.

1981(9th of Tishrei, 5742): Novelist Albert Cohen passed away.  Cohen is a study in the multi-nationalism of Jewish identity.  Born in Greece in 1895, Cohen wrote his novels in French, and became a Swiss Citizen in 1919.

1981: Egypt's parliament named Vice President Hosni Mubarak to succeed the assassinated Anwar Sadat.  Much to the consternation of those who plotted Sadat’s murder, Mubarak continued to honor the peace agreement with Israel.

1983: “Never Say Never,” one of the films in the James Bond series, directed by Irvin Kershner and produced by Jack Schwartzman was released in the United States by Warner Brothers.

1985(22nd of Tishrei, 5746): Shemini Atzeret

1985: Palestinian gunmen hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean with more than 400 people aboard. “Four men representing the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) took control of the liner off Egypt while she was sailing from Alexandria to Port Said within Egypt. The hijackers had been surprised by a crew member and acted prematurely. Holding the passengers and crew hostage, they directed the vessel to sail to Tartus, Syria, and demanded the release of 50 Palestinians then in Israeli prisons. When refused permission to dock at Tartus, the hijackers shot one wheelchair-bound passenger – an American named Leon Klinghoffer – because he was Jewish, and threw his body overboard. The ship headed back towards Port Said, and after two days of negotiations the hijackers agreed to abandon the liner for safe conduct and were flown towards Tunisia aboard an Egyptian commercial airliner.

1987: “Baby Boom” a comedy produced by Nancy Meyers and co-starring Harold Ramis was released in the United States by United Artists.

1988:Health Ministry officials began vaccinating all people under the age of 40 in Israel and the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. The vaccination was in response to concerns about a possible outbreak of polio.

1989: “Forever Your Girl,” the debut album from singer Paula Abdul “hit number for the first time” today.

1990: Israel begins handing out gas masks to its citizens as Sadam Hussein threatens to fire Scuds armed with chemical weapons on the Jewish state.  In the Gulf War, Hussein will fire Scuds, but none of them will contain chemical weapons.  At the request of the Bush Administration, the Israelis refrained from retaliating against the Iraqis.  This is the first time that an Israeli government has entrusted security to another nation.

1990:By Way of Deception: The Making and Unmaking of a Mossad Officer, “a nonfiction book by a former katsa (case officer) in the Israeli Mossad, Victor Ostrovsky and Canadian journalist and author Claire Hoy” reached number 1 on the New York Times bestseller list.

1991(29thof Tishrei, 5752): Eighty-three year old Italian author Natalia Ginzburg, the daughter of histologist Giuseppe Levi, the wife of Leone Ginzburg and the mother of historian Carlo Ginzburg passed away today.


1992(10thof Tishrei, 5753): As Bill Clinton seeks to unseat George Bush, Jews observe Yom Kippur

1992(10thof Tishrei, 5753): Sixty-two year old Allan Bloom passed away today. (As reported by Keith Botsford)


1996: In a speech in the Knesset, Shimon Peres appealed to Benjamin Netanyahu to sign the Hebron agreement.

1999: In “Hanging In” published today Yehuda Lev described what it is like to be a 72 year old in a classroom full of Gen Xer’s at Brandies


2000(8thof Tishrei, 5761): Shabbat Shuva

2000: PBS broadcast a revival production of “The Man Who Came To Dinner,” a three-act comedy by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart.

2001: Hamas claimed credit for today’s attack at the Erez Crossing.

2001(20thof Tishrei, 5672): Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for today’s bombing at Shluhot, a kibbutz located “in the Beit She'an Valley in northern Israel.”


2001(20th of Tishrei, 5762): Famed cartoonist Herblock passed away. [Words do not justice to this brilliant political artist and satirist. The following is just one of the many websites where you can see his work http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/herblock/

2001: The New York Times reviewedMisconceptions: Truth, Lies, and the Unexpected on the Journey to Motherhood by Naomi Wolf.

2002: “The Kennedy Years,” an exhibition of the phots of Stanley Tretick is scheduled to come to a close today at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.


2003(11th of Tishrei, 5764):Seventy-one year old Israel Harold "Izzy" Asper, Canadian tax-lawyer, media magnate and leader of the Canadian Jewish community passed away.

2003: In “Keeping His Foot In a Creaking Door; Radio Pioneer Clings to Imagination,” Joseph Berger chronicles the professional life of Himan Brown, the creator and producer of “such popular radio programs as ‘The Adventures of the Thin Man,’ ‘Dick Tracy,’ ‘Grand Central Station’ and ‘Inner Sanctum’.”




2003(11th of Tishrei, 5764): Ninety- one year old composer Arthur Berger passed away. (As reported by Alan Kozinin)


2005: U.S. premiere of “good night, and good luck,” a must see movie produced by Grant Heslov with a script co-authored by Grant Heslov.

2005(4th of Tishrei, 5766): Ninety-two scriptwriter Devery Freeman passed away today.


2005: Sarah Levy-Tanai, founder of the Inbal dance troupe and one of the country's most important choreographers was laid to rest.  She had passed away at the age of 95.

2005: The legendary Israeli basketball guard Doron Sheffer announced his retirement.  The Israeli native had played on championship teams at the University of Connecticut. He was the first Israeli to be chosen in the N.B.A. draft.  Sheffer passed up a chance to play with the Los Angeles Clippers and returned to Israel where he played for Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Jerusalem.  He led Hapoel Jerusalem to its first European title when it defeated Real Madrid in the ULEB Cup final. 

2006: Opening of the International Haifa Film Festival

2007(25thof Tishrei, 5768): Ninety-eight year old General Paul Alfred Cullen the WW II Australian war hero who served in several theatres most notably in New Guinea where he played a key role in the nasty fighting aimed at re-capturing Kokoda. (For more on the military of Jews in the “land down under,” see the newly published Jewish Anzacs by Mark Dapin.)

2007: The Jewish Museum of Florida presents an exhibition styled “The Art Of Rabbi Shoni Labowitz.” The artworks are inspired by the beauty and details of life, nature, women, spirituality and ritual.  After a distinguished career as a rabbi, publisher and author, Shoni Labowitz is return to her lifelong dream of being an artist.  The exhibit is an extension of her spirituality, evident in her style and subject matter.  She says: “Whether it is feeling the bristles of the brush against the canvas, stroking color into shapes or feeling the clay beneath her hands, it is all a form of connecting with the spirituality in all things.

2007: Leonard “Slatkin announced he had reached agreement on a three-year contract, followed by a two-year option, to become the new music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, beginning with the 2008-2009 subscription season.”

2007:The Sunday Washington Post book section included reviews of The Israel Lobby And U.S.Foreign Policyby John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt  and The Deadliest Lies The Israel Lobby and the Myth of Jewish Control byAbraham H. Foxman.

2007: The Sunday New York Timesbook section featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics related to Judaism including  Exit Ghost by Phillip Roth, The Immortalists: Charles Lindbergh, Dr. Alexis Carrel, and Their Daring Quest to Live Forever  in which David M. Friedman examines the Lone Eagle’s love affair with eugenics that help explain some of his views about Hitler, the Jews and World II, You Can Lead a Politician to Water but You Can’t Make Him Think:Ten Commandments for Texas Politics by Kinky Friedman and The Journal Of Joyce Carol Oates: 1973-1982, Edited by Greg Johnson.Oates “discovered late in life her own family's Jewish history: Her grandmother, who immigrated to the United States in the 1890s, kept her religion hidden for fear of persecution. So the question arises: Is Oates Jewish and can Oates' writing be characterized as distinctively Jewish?”

2008: Israeli Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger has issued a prayer for the safe return of captive soldier Gilad Schalit which he plans to distribute today, to be read in synagogues throughout Israel on Yom Kippur and weekly on Shabbat after the Torah reading.

2008(8th of Tishrei, 5769): Ninety-five year old Rabbi Leslie Hardman, “the first Jewish British Army Chaplain to enter Bergen-Belsen” when it was liberated in April of 1945 passed away today.



2008:A woman who admitted fabricating a best-selling memoir about surviving the Holocaust as a child by living with wolves has won a court battle with her former publisher. Misha Defonseca's 1997 book, Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years was translated into 18 languages, made into a feature film in France, and drew interest from the Walt Disney Co. and Oprah Winfrey. After Defonseca admitted earlier this year that she had made up the story, her former publisher, Jane Daniel, sued to try to overturn a $32.4 million court judgment Defonseca and her ghost writer, Vera Lee, won against her in an earlier fight over profits. Daniel argued that because the story was false, Defonseca perpetrated a hoax on the trial judge and the jury. But this week, Middlesex Superior Court Judge Timothy Feeley threw out Daniel's lawsuit because she did not file it within a one-year statute of limitations. The judge said that the truth of the memoire was not an issue in the earlier court battle between Defonseca and Daniel. Instead, the case was about claims of violations of the contract between the authors and the publisher, Feeley said. Defonseca's fraud, misrepresentations, and misconduct did not go to the heart of the case, he said in his written ruling, filed today. Daniel said the jury at the 2001 trial would not have issued a verdict against her if they had known that Defonseca made up the story.

2009(19th of Tishrei, 5770): Chol Hamoed Sukkoth

2009(19th of Tishrei, 5770): Photographer Irving Penn passed away at the age of 92. (As reported by Andy Grundberg)



 2009: In the nation’s capital, The DCJCC presents “An Evening With Betty Buckley.”

2009:At Yale University in New Haven, a screening of "The Case for Israel: Democracy's Outpost," a feature-length documentary film followed by a discussion led by Professor Dershowitz.

2010: An exhibition of the paintings of Tel Aviv artist Tamar Rosen is scheduled to open at the Agora Gallery in New York.

2010:Former State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi, once considered a leading voice on corporate governance and ethics, stood before a judge today and calmly explained how he took part in a sprawling corruption scheme involving New York State’s $125 billion pension fund while serving as its sole trustee. 

 2011(9th of Tishrei, 5772): Erev Yom Kippur

2011: In University City, MO, the family of the late Edward Stix, Jr. whose family owned the Rice-Stix, Inc. received friends today at The Gatesworth.

2011(9th of Tishrei): Abbie Silber celebrates her first birthday as the wife of Rabbi Feival Strauss.  This birthday is unique because it falls on the same dates on both the religious and secular calendars as it did the year when Mrs. Strauss was born.  Abbie is the daughter of Laurie and Dr. Robert Silber, pillars of the Jewish community and two of the finest people you would ever want to meet. 

 2011(9th of Tishrei, 5772): Seventieth Anniversary of the end of the two day Nazi massacre of over 33,000 Jews at Babi Yar, at a ravine outside of Kiev, the Ukrainian city that was part of the Soviet Union.

2011: The European Union said today that the Middle East Quartet will meet on October 9 in Brussels as part of a wider effort to restart the moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process. EU spokesman Michael Mann said today the focus would be to maintain momentum in encouraging the parties to return to negotiations.

2011: The IDF announced that the security presence in Jerusalem were beefed up today in preparation for Yom Kippur

2011:Silence fell over Israel at around 5 P.M. today, as the Yom Kippur fast began. Air traffic to and from Israel halted from 1 P.M. and is not scheduled to begin again until 9:30 P.M. tomorrw, while the border crossings to Jordan and Gaza have been closed down. The weather forecast bodes well for fasters, with comfortable temperatures. Tomorrow will be slightly warmer than today but not more humid, so the heat stress will not rise - good news for fasters.

2011:Over 1000 people attended a Kol Nidre Yom Kippur service organized by Daniel Sieradski at the Occupy Wall Street demonstration that had begun in September.

2012(21st of Tishrei, 5773): Hoshana Rabbah

2012: “A vandal scrawled graffiti on a mural by modern Jewish American master Mark Rothko at London’s Tate Modern today.”

2012(21st of Tishrei, 5773): In keeping with the minchag of Reform Judaism, Temple Judah is scheduled to host a Pizza Simchat Torah celebration in Cedar Rapids.

2012: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Revenge of Geography:What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate by Robert D. Kaplan, Subversives:The FBI’s War on Student Radicals, and Reagan’s Rise to Power by Seth Rosenfeld and All We Know: Three Lives by Lisa Cohen 

2012: In Iowa City, Agudas Achim is scheduled to sponsor its second annual Sukkah Crawl

2012:Lorraine Lotzof Abramson, author, "My Race: A Jewish Girl Growing Up under Apartheid in South Africa is scheduled to appear on Channel 75

2012: In Venezuela, voters are scheduled to go to the polls and vote for either Hugo Chavez or Henrique Capriles, the grandson of Holocaust survivors as the next president of this major South American nation.

2012: French President Francois Hollande today promised the Jewish community a major increase in security after blank bullets were fired near a Parisian synagogue in the most recent incident in a wave of anti-Semitic attacks in France.

2012: After a month, curtain came down on The Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s revival production of Stephen Schwartz’s Tony Award-winning musical “Pippin.”

2013: Ben “Shapiro co-founded TruthRevolt, a U.S. media watchdog and activism website, in association with the David Horowitz Freedom Center”

2013: In Washington, DC, the Hyman S and Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival is schedule to present an evening with mystery writer Walter Mosely.

2013: “In association with the David Horowitz Freedom Center, Ben Shapiro launched the website for media watchdog group TruthRevolt in response to the left-leaning Media Matters for America

2013: Jason Isaacs was chosen to play one of the “tankers” in the WW II movie “Fury.”

2013: Rabbi Moshe Arye Bamberger, the Head of the Bet Din of the Jewish community of Metz, France is scheduled to present a seminar on a new publication, Torat Chachmei Metz, or The Torah of the Scholars of Metz, which is based on an original manuscript in the YIVO Archives.

2013: From Cedar Rapids to Columbus, Ohio and points beyond friends and family of Abbie Strauss, the daughter of Dr. Bob and Laurie Silber and the wife of Rabbi Feivel Strauss celebrate the birthday of this accomplished musician,  supportive helpmate and mother par excellence.

2013: Five more people are scheduled to on trial in federal court in New York in connection with Bernie Madoff’s massive stock fraud and con.

2014: The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia is scheduled to host two seminars on “Iranian-Jewish Culture and History” presented by Isaac Yomtovian author of My Iran: Memories, Mysteries and Myths.

2014: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a lecture by Gennady Estraikh entitled “Farewell to Communism: Howard Fast and Soviet Yiddish Writers.”

2014(24thof Tishrei, 5776): One hundred year old Ralph Goldman who played a key role in the creation of the state of Israel passed away today.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/long-time-jdc-leader-ralph-goldman-dies-at-100/

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/1.619737

2014: “Two Israeli soldiers were wounded in an explosion next to a tank near the border with Lebanon this afternoon, setting off the second border clash in the area in three days.”  Hezbollah took credit for the explosion.

2014: “The Israeli Arab Knesset member Hanin Zoabi petitioned the High Court of Justice on Tuesday against a Knesset Ethics Committee decision to ban her for six months from parliament debates because she declared that the Palestinian kidnappers of three Israeli teenagers were not terrorists.” (As reported by Stuart Winer)

2014: In Dallas, TX, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to host Do Words Kill? Hate Speech, Propaganda, and Incitement to Genocide.

2015: The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center and the ADL presented a program marking the 50th commemoration of The Second Vatican Council of 1965.

2015: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a “book talk” featuring Sasha Abramsky, the author of The House of Twenty Thousand Books.

2015: JCC Manhattan is scheduled to “Home Alone,” “Renewal,” “Glove Story” and “Reflections” – “short films relating to Israel’s celebrated modern dance scene.”

2015: A the latest wave of terrorist attacks continues that have left for Israelis dead from stabbings in Jerusalem, “an 18 year old Palestinian woman” “was shot and wounded by police” after she stabbed an Israeli man “in an alleyway near the Western Wall.”

2015: “A team of engineers from the Israeli nonprofit Group SpaceIL is the first to advance in an international competition sponsored by Google to send a privately-funded space craft to the moon, contests organizers announced” today.

2016(5thof Tishrei, 5777): One hundred four year old Austrian-born photographer and cinematographer Wolfgang Suschitzky passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/09/arts/international/wolfgang-suschitzky-dead.html?hpw&rref=arts&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

https://www.artsy.net/artist/wolfgang-suschitzky

2016: Amiram Levin, “a former senior IDF officer who played a role in Israel’s daring 1976 rescue of hostages at Entebbe airport slammed former president Shimon Peres, who passed away last week, as a “crook” and “liar” who inflated his role in the operation.”

http://www.timesofisrael.com/ex-idf-officer-says-peres-inflated-role-in-entebbe-rescue/

2016: At a train station in the “western Ukrainian City of Zyhtomir” Chabad Rabbi Mendel Deitsch was several beaten this morning and robbed of his cell phone and money.” (Six months later he would from the wounds received in the beating.)

2016: Shimon Dotan’s “The Settlers” is scheduled to be shown at the 54thNew York Film Festival.

2016: In the UK, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Things to Come.”

2016: “Latin American Jews living in Israel added their voices to the chorus of congratulations sent to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on winning the Nobel Peace Prize” today.

2016: In Weimar, the Onion Festival, which will featuring a new offering – “Kosher Thurngian bratwurst” – is scheduled to open today giving observant Jews their first chance to sample what has been a “traif delicacy.”

2017(17th of Tishrei, 5778): Shabbat and Sukkoth Chol Ha’moed; for more see

2017: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host Shabbat morning services followed by lunch

2017: The Bloomfield Science Museum in Jerusalem is scheduled to host special Sukkoth family activities during Sukkoth Chol Hamoed.

2017: This evening, the University of Iowa Hillel is scheduled to host Havdalah and cookies in the Sukkah.

2018: Friends and family prepare to celebrate the birthday of Abbie Strauss, the sweet singer of song at Temple Israel in Memphis, TN, who along with her husband Rabbi Feivel Strauss provides one-two punch of Yiddishkite

2018: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including a graphic novel for children, The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler and the recently released paperback editions of The Ruined House by Ruby Namader and Vivian Maier: A Photographer’s Life and Afterlife by Pamela Bannos.

2018: “Blue Badge Guide Rachel Kolsky is scheduled to lead a walking tour that “commerates the centenary of the end of WW I” “that highlights the Jewish East End associations with the Great War including a remembrance of “poet and artist Isaac Rosenberg,

2018: Due to flooding at “The Center for Jewish History, the 20thAnniversary Celebration of the Strauss Historical Society” scheduled for today has been cancelled.

2018: “The internationally-renowned National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene is scheduled perform Mama’s Loshn Kugel” at an “event that will honor Atlanta’s Holocaust survivors” with proceeds going “to support restoration and preservation of the Memorial to the Six Million at Greenwood Cemetery, scholarships for Holocaust education to teachers and students, and programs to pass on survivors' collective experiences to succeeding generations.

2019: In Sam Rafael, CA, the Osher Marin JCC is scheduled to host “Learning Unlimited,” “a talk about how Donald Trump was connected to and influence by Roy Cohn,” of Joe McCarthy fame.

 2018: Adam Maalouf and Lara Bello are scheduled to perform at the American Sephardi Music Festival.

2019: As part of “The American Sephardi Federation’s Sephardi Scholars Series, the Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host Dr. Nicole Cohen-Addad lecturing on “North African French Resistance: A Well Kept Secret --- The Vichy Regime, the Allies and the Camps.”

2019: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Curtiz.”

2019: Pianist Tomer Gewirtzman is scheduled to join the Jupiter Chamber Players in “Lovin’ Beethoven.”




This Day, October 8, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin

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 OCTOBER 8


314: In his quest to consolidate his power, Constantine I, the man who will become the first Christian Roman Emperor defeats his rival Licinius at the Battle of Cibalae. Constantine will officially transform the Roman Empire into an anti-Semitic entity. 

705: “The reign of the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik” during Abi Isa “a self-proclaimed Jewish prophet” preached his message in Persia, came to an end today.

1075:  Dmitar Zvonimir is crowned King of Croatia. At this point Roman Catholicism was the dominant religion of Croatia.  But the King did have Jewish subjects. Some of them might have been able to trace their ancestry to the 3rdcentury when Jews first arrived in the Balkan principality.  Others may have part of the legendary Khazars who lived in the region in the 10th century.

1408: The city of Jassy (Hungarian) or Yas (Yiddish) is mentioned in business correspondence between Prince Alexander the Good (Alexandru cel Bun) and merchants from Lviv then a part of Poland. The Romanian city of Yas would become a center of Jewish settlement as well as the site of the largest massacre of Jews in Romania in World War II.

1573: In what would prove to a turning point in the Eighty Years War, the Dutch score their first victory when the Spanish siege of the Dutch city of Alkmaar comes to an end.  The war would last until 1648.  When it was over, the independence of the Netherlands would be a reality.  The Dutch Republic would provide a haven for European Jews, especially those fleeing Spain and its inquisition. 

1576: The Sultan ordered 1,000 wealthy Jews to move from Safed to Cyprus. The Jews would be requested to take with them their possessions and riches. The firman ordering the moved utilized wording which warned the Turks that they would  be severely punished if they accepted bribes from the Jews to have their names removed from the list.  A year later another 500 Jewish families would be forced to move from Safed to Cyprus.  Population movements like this were not unusual in the Ottoman Empire.  It was the Sultan’s way of encouraging economic development throughout the empire.

1600: San Marino, a small patch of land on the Italian peninsula that “claims to be the oldest surviving sovereign state and constitutional republic in the world” adopted a written constitution. According to surviving documents, Jews have lived there since 14th century and Jews were living there when the constitution was adopted since “measures and resolutions regarding the Jews and their trades were repeatedly passed by the government in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.”

1713: Birthdate of Yechezkel ben Yehuda Landau who would gain fame as an expert on Halachah, Jewish ritual law and who was the father of Samuel Landau, the “chief dayyan of Prague.”

1753(10th of Tishrei, 5514): Yom Kippur

1762: Mordecai Sheftal married Frances Hart in Charleston, SC today.

1763: Birthdate of Michael Josephs (Myer Königsberg) the native of Konigsberg who met Moses Mendelssohn which studying Talmud in Berlin after which he moved to London where he pursued a business career while writing articles for "Hebrew Review," the "Voice of Jacob," and the "Jewish Chronicle."

1780(9th of Tishrei, 5541): A week after Major John Andre is hung as a spy marking the end to Benedict Arnold’s treason, an event that unfairly implicated his Jewish aide-de-camp, Colonel Franks, Jews heard Kol Nidre.

1781: Birthdate of Abraham David, the brother of Jonas Daniel Meijer, the first Jewish lawyer in the Netherlands.

1784(23rd of Tishrei, 5545): Simchat Torah

1791(10th of Tishrei, 5552): For the first time in history, Jews in France observe Yom Kippur as equal citizens having been “emancipated” on September 28 of this year.

1799(9th of Tishrei, 5560): Erev Yom Kippur; Kol Nidre is chanted for the last time in the 18th century.

1803(22nd of Tishrei, 5564): Shabbat and Shmini Atzeret

1805(15th of Tishrei, 5566): Sukkoth

1810(10th of Tishrei, 5571): Yom Kippur

1821: In Rawicz, Germany, Jewish cloth merchant Heimann Strassman and Judith Guhrauer gave birth to Dr. Wolfgang Strassman

1821: Abraham Isaacs married Elizabeth Benjamin at the Great Synagogue today.

1826: At “Klingen, near Landua, Rhenish Palatine, Samuel Weis and Agatha Levy gave birth to Julius Weis the husband of Carrie Mayer who moved to New Orleans where he was “director of the Jewish Widows’ and Orphans’ Home” and “president of the Hebrew Educational Society, Touro Infirmary and Benevolent Association and Temple Sinai.

1828: George Solomons married Rosetta Solomon at the Hambro Synagogue today.

1835(15th of Tishrei, 5596): As Mexican forces move to put down the rebellion in Texas, Jews celebrate Sukkoth

1836: Birthdate of John Phillips, the native of Birmingham, England, the husband of Leah Mosely and son-in-law of Lewin Mosley, who represented Ladywood Ward in the City Council and served as President of the Birmingham Hebrew Congregation.

1837(9th of Tishrei, 5598): For the first time during the Presidency of Martin Van Buren, Kol Nidre is chanted.

1838: Birthdate of Alsace, France native Charles Weill, the husband of Emilie Kahn Weill with whom he had ten children.

1838: In Great Britain, Frederick Goldsmid and his wife Caroline Samuel gave birth to barrister Sir Julian Goldsmid, MP, Vice-Chancellor of London University and husband of Virginia Philipson with whom he had five children – Violet, Edith, Margherita, Beatrice and Mau.

1841(23rd of Tishrei, 5602): Simchat Torah

1845: The Sephardic Synagogue of Kingston, Jamaica celebrated taking possession of a new Sefer Torah." The service was conducted by the Isaac Lopes, who served as rabbi for the congregation.

1848: On the day after Yom Kippur Joseph Wile, Samuel Marks, Joseph Katz, Gabriel Wile, Meyer Rothschild, Henry Levi, Jacob Altman, Joseph Altman, A. Adler, Elias Wolff, Abram Weinberg, and Jacob Gans met in Rochester, NY and formed Congregation Berith Kodesh. 

1851: “Europe” published today told the story of Jewish con artist working in the British Isles. “An old Jew” had advertised in an English country town,” that among other wondrous things he would get into a quart bottle. At the appointed time his room was filled with eager spectators. He came on the stage, and after a deal of preparation, did nothing he had promised. ‘A swindle! A swindle !’ cried one of the cheated company, who had paid his shilling to the door-keeper” who by then had disappeared.  “Amid the noise, the Jew came forward, and with imperturbable gravity said, ‘Ladies and Gentlemen; it is a svindle and vat then?’”

1856(9th of Tishrei, 5617): Erev Yom Kippur

1857: In the Recorders Office, Nathan Levins testifies against Israel Steinhardt in a case brought by Levins claiming that Steinhard robbed him of 940 pounds in English Sterling notes. Steinhard then has a chance to rebut Levins’ claims.  The story is a tale that takes the court across Europe and involves a variety of convoluted transactions.  The story is even harder to understand because neither party speaks English nor testimony has to be translated.  Apparently the 20 Jews attending the hearing were not affected by the language barrier since, like the plaintiff and defendant they came from Germany or Hungary.  The case was continued until tomorrow.

1861: Louis Bach completed his service with Company D of the 27th Regiment.

1862(14th of Tishrei, 5623): Erev Sukkoth

1862: During the Civil War, in Kentucky, Union forces defeat the Confederates at the Battle of Perryville which means the family of future Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis who supported Abraham Lincoln’s candidacy will continue to live under the Stars and Stripes.

1862: Brooklyn Backs the President" published today described the support being given Mr. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. The speech by James S. Wadsworth demonstrates how deeply the story of the Exodus from Egypt inspired the Abolitionist Movement showing once again the important role that Jewish ideals and idioms have played in man’s march towards freedom. General Wadsworth told the crowd that “In ancient times, when the Hebrews, escaping out of the house of bondage, stood upon the shores of the Red Sea, with the hosts of Pharaoh hovering on their rear, conservatism shrunk back and feared to wet its sandals in the angry waves. But the Book of Books tells us that the Lord said unto Moses, "Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward!" They obeyed, and Pharaoh and his hosts sank like lead in the waters. The age of miracles is past. In our country, vox populi, vox Dei. Our great cause confronts a sea of difficulties, before which timid souls stand appalled. But, the Proclamation reveals to us the land of promise, the Canaan beyond the floods. Let the people, the vox Dei, say unto the President, ‘Abraham, speak unto the armies of the Union that they go forward!’”

1865(18th of Tishrei, 5626): Chol Ha Moed Sukkoth

1865(18th of Tishrei, 5626): Fifty-three year old Moravian born violinist and composer Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst passed away in Nice.

1867(9th of Tishrei, 5628): Erev Yom Kippur

1868: Oswald Hönigsmann who “represented the city of Brody in the Galician Diet delivered a speech today in behalf of the emancipation of the Jews” which helped bring a victory for Franz Smolka’s effort to gain full civil rights for the Jews.

1869:  President Franklin Pierce passed away.  Pierce was one of those forgettable mediocrities who served in the White House in the decade before the Civil War. His record of dealing with Jews is limited and mixed.  Franklin Pierce was the first and maybe the only President whose name appears on the charter of a synagogue. Pierce signed the Act of Congress in 1857 that amended the laws of the District of Columbia to enable the incorporation of the city's first synagogue, the Washington Hebrew Congregation.  Washington Hebrew Congregation is one of the oldest and largest Reform Congregations in the Washington Metropolitan Area.  But two years before, in November of 1855, Pierce signed a treaty with Switzerland that had been ratified by the Senate.  The treaty allowed the Swiss government to discriminated again American citizens who were Jews so that the treatment of American Jews would be consistent with the treatment of Swiss Jews by their government.

1871(23rd of Tishrei, 5632): Simchat Torah

1871:  The Great Chicago Fire made its impact felt the area settled by Jews of German origins.  It was referred to by some as The Golden Ghetto.  This was in contrast to the area where eastern European and Russian Jews settled which was known as just The Ghetto.  This area suffered a fair amount of damage in the less famous Fire of 1874.

1873: It was reported today that the Jews of Cleveland, Ohio have raised $800 which they have sent to Shreveport, LA and Memphis, TN to help those suffering from the current Yellow Fever Epidemic.

1875(9th of Tishrei 5636): Erev Yom Kippur

1876: In Philadelphia, Ida Marie Fleisher and Benjamin W. Fleisher, Jr gave birth to Arthur Adler Fleisher.

1877: It was reported today that Dr. De Sola Mendez is scheduled to give a lecture on “Young America” at an upcoming meeting of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.

1878: In Philadelphia, Morris Moses Pflazer, the German born son of “Karoline and Marx Mordechai Pfaelzer and his wife “Sophie Pfalzer” gave birth to “Henrietta (Hettie) Pfaelzer” who became Henrietta Stern when she married Horace Stern, the University of Pennsylvania Law School graduate and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

1879(21st of Tishrei, 5640): Hoshana Raba

1879: Sir George Grey, who hired Samuel Joseph, an Anglo-Jew from London as his interpreter” completed a two year term as Prime Minister of New Zealand.

1881(15th of Tishrei, 5642): Sukkoth

1882: It was reported today that sometime in the first two weeks of November, Edward Harrigan’s new play, “Mordecai Lyons” will premiere at the Theatre Comique.  The play tells the story of a Jewish father who forces her to marry a man not of her choosing.  The play is “both humorous and dramatic” and portrays a father who loves a daughter who has been touched by misfortune.

1882: “Romance of the Jews” published today provides a detailed review of The Jews of Barnow, a collection of stories by Karl Emil Franzos.

1882: “Songs of a Semite” published today provides a detailed review of Songs of a Semite: The Dance to Death and Other Poems by Emma Lazarus.

1883: Birthdate of Nobel Prize winner, Otto Heinrich Warburg, the son of Emil Warburg who was related to the famous family of Jewish financier.  However, Warburg’s father had converted to Christianity as a result of an undisclosed family dispute.

1886: It was reported today that Kaiser Wilhelm has sent the Sultan of Morocco a gift – 12 volumes of the Talmud in Hebrew. (I have no idea why the German Emperor would send the Muslim monarch such a gift.)

1886(9th of Tishrei, 5647): Erev Yom Kippur

1886: “Yom Kippur” published today opens with the following “From sunset this evening until tomorrow at sunset there will be observed by some seven or eight million Israelites scatter all over the globe the…solemn festival of Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement.” In describing the history and customs of the day, J.S. Moore contends that “there is no other religion…that has a similar festival.  The great object is…that one a year one day out of the 365 shall be set apart for no other purposed than to commune with God, confess the errors of life and perchance resolve to amend them.”

1886: “Veteran Rosenberg’s Death” published today described the life and death of Joseph Rosenberg, the 102 year old Jewish citizen of New Orleans who was buried yesterday.  A native of Baden, Germany, he served with Napoleon’s French Army when he captured Moscow.  He came to the Crescent City in 1852 where he raised a family that included 3 daughters.

1886: “A Suicide in the Tombs” published today described how Solomon Goldberg, a Polish Jew, being held in the jail was able to hide a knife from authorities which he then used to kill himself.

1886: It was reported today that Emperor of Germany has sent the Sultan of Morocco 12 volumes of the Talmud, in Hebrew, as a gift. (I cannot find a reason for this)

1886: Theatre receipts were considerably less tonight than normal because the Jewish patrons were observing “the Jewish fast of Yom Kippur.”

1887: In New York City Josephine Morgenthau and Henry Morgenthau, Sr. gave birth to Alma Morgenthau.

1888: “Eating The Old Mare” published today described a dinner hosted by Dr. Rush S. Huidekeper, Chief of the Veterinary School of the University of Pennsylvania during which he told his guests that “the only beef that is properly inspected is that eaten by the” Jews, “which is killed according to their rules.”

1889: Members of Ahavath Chesed met tonight “and voted to all they could” to help raise money for the establishment of a “Jewish Cooper Union.”  At the same meeting, “a delegation from the Young Men Hebrew’s Association” pledged their support for this endeavor.

1889: In Cortland, NY, Abraham H. Jachles of Binghamton, NY marred Emily J. Klein of Walterboro, SC.

1890: “An Impossible Shekel” published today described the discovery of coin which the owner claims to be a shekel from the time of Simon the Macabee which is impossible because it has markings including a Star of Bethlehem, that were never used on the genuine coins which made of silver and copper while this one is make of gold, bronze and platinum.

1890: Birthdate of Lithuanian native Samuel Goodman “Sam” Hoffenstein, an American newspaperman and husband of Edith Morgan who moved to Los Angeles where pursued a successful career as a screenwriter.

http://www.filmreference.com/Writers-and-Production-Artists-Ha-Ja/Hoffenstein-Samuel.html

1890: At today’s annual meeting of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society Orphan Asylum Mrs. Philip J. Joachimsen was elected President.

1891: August Belmont received a telegram today in Louisville, KY telling him that the home he and his family were renting in New York had burned down to which he replied “that he would come to New York at once.”



1891: “A dispatch from the St. Petersburg to the New York Daily News says that the United States Immigration Commissioners who have been visiting Russia” were impressed the conditions of suffering under which the Jews of Russia were living.

1891: At Rochester (NY) University, President Hill addressed the Query Club, “a literary club composed largely of young people from Temple Bortih Kodesh” on the subject of “Higher Education.”

1891(6thof Tishrei, 5652): Seventy-two year old Dr. Jacob Eduard Polak “the pioneer of modern medicine in Iran” who served as personal physician to the Shah passed away today.

http://www.ams.ac.ir/AIM/0582/0020.pdf

1892: A fire that started in the rooms of Moritz Feinman, spread to the rest of the tenement at 100 Suffolk Street which drove the nearly 100 residents all of whom were Jewish out into the street.

1892: In New York, Jewish Americans begin the observance of Columbus Day which marks the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the New World.

1892: At Park East Synagogue Rabbi Bernard Drachman delivered a sermon entitled “Israel’s Debt of Gratitude to Columbus and America.

1893: In the elections for the Reichstag, “the Anti-Semites” are running against the Conservatives and National Liberals in seven districts of which they “may capture four.”

1893: Birthdate of Ada Fishman who made aliyah in 1912, played an active role in the development of pre-State Palestine and as Ada Maimon was a member of the first Knesset.

1894: “The east side Hebrew Anarchists have completed preparations to burlesque the fast of Yom Kippur” which begins tomorrow evening, with an evening that will include dancing, singing and a speech by anarchist Emma Goldman at the Clarendon Hall.

1894: “Dental surgeon and businessman Dr. Hugo Ascher and Minna Luise Ascher gave birth to Charlotte Hedwig the younger sister of painter Fritz Ascher a protégé of Max Liebermann

1895: German born American-Jewish inventor/businessman, Emil Berliner founded the Berliner Gramophone Company which was to produce “flat gramophone records” or what would be called phonograph records.  He designed the disc model which replaced Edison’s cylinders.

1895: Birthdate of future Laborite MP and death penalty foe, Sydney Silverman.

1895: The Executive Committee of the Central Conference of American Rabbis is scheduled to meet this morning in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1896: In Oregon, Joseph Simon was elected to the U.S. Senate, making him the first Jew to represent the Beaver State in the Upper Chamber of Congress. 

1896: It is reported today that the Sultan is demanding a payment of $220,000 from the Grand Rabbi following rioting in Hasskeuy.

1897: Birthdate of Kovno native Oscar Straus Caplan, a “Judge in Chicago’s Municipal Courts for more than a quarter of century and after retirement “a part-time instructor at the University of Miami Law School who was the husband of Sarah Caplan and the father of Mitchell Caplan.


1897: “Care of Russian Jews” published today includes a denial by prominent Jewish leaders including Oscar S. Strauss and Jacob Schiff that “the Baroness de Hirsch has given directions” to end the financing of schemes to send Russian Jews to Argentina and “has ordered that the balance of the funds…be devoted to the establishment of technical and industrial schools in Russia.”

1898(22nd of Tishrei, 5669): Shemini Atzeret

1898: Forty-seven year old German born, Portland, Oregon attorney Joseph Simon began serving as the United States Senator from Oregon today.

1898: In response to the announcement by Ismail Bey, the Civil Governor of Crete that Turkish troops are being withdrawn from the island as demanded by Great Britain, Russia, France and Italy, Jews, Christians and Moslems are crowding aboard steamers leaving Crete.

1898: “Gladstone” published today provided a review of The Story of Gladstone’s Life by Justin McCarthy includes chapters on “the long with duel with Disraeli in the House of Common” and his “advocacy of the admissions of Jews to Parliament.”

1900(15th of Tishrei, 5661): Sukkoth

1900: Birthdate of Serge Ivan Chermayeff, “a Russian born, British architect, industrial designer, writer, and co-founder of several architectural societies, including the American Society of Planners and Architects.”

1900:Herzl met with the Austro-Hungarian Prime Minister, Ernest von Koerber.

1902: Two days after he had passed away, eighty-three year old Austrian Rabbi Jacob Jacques Heinrich Hirschfeld, the son “Marie and Emanuel Isak Hirschfeld” and the husband of Pauline Hirschfeld was buried today in Vienna.

1902: Birthdate of Arthur Harold Babitsky, the native of Omaha, Nebraska who gained fame as award winning Disney animator Art Babbit who worked on such classics as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarts” and “Fantasia.


1903(17th of Tishrei, 5664): Chol Hamoed Sukkoth

1903: In Cincinnati, OH, Theodore Mack and Pauline Mack, the Cincinnati born daughter of Joseph and Hannah Sachs, gave birth to Henry Mack.

1903: In San Francisco, having gained approval for the building of a new sanctuary the rabbi and officers of Congregation Sherith Israel gathered this morning for a groundbreaking ceremony.

1904: Birthdate of Minsk native Sol Joseph Taishoff, the Washington, DC raised “editor and cofounder of Broadcasting magazine.


1904: Edmonton, Alberta was incorporated as a city today. Jews had been living there for more than a decade. The first Jews, Abraham and Rebecca Cristall - came to what was then an unincorporated community in 1893.  George and Rose Cristall were the first Jews born in the town. By the time of incorporation there were 17 Jews living in what would become Alberta’s capital city. 

1904: Prince Albert, Saskatchewan was incorporated as a city. By this time two colonies had been established by Baron Hirsch’s Jewish Colonization Society – the second of which was called Hirsch, Saskatchewan founded in 1892. Among the Jews who had come to Saskatchewan and left before the incorporation of Prince Albert were Ekiel and Mindel Bronfman of Seagram’s Whiskey fame. Two years after the incorporation, Jewish immigrants from Lithuania would establish The Edinbridge Hebrew Colony, another of the settlements created by the Jewish Colonization Society


1905: Founding of the Society for domestic art and industry in Palestine.

1905(9th of Tishrei, 5666): Erev Yom Kippur

1905: In London, “The Fast of the Day of Atonement commences at 5:20 p.m. with synagogue services commencing at 5:45 p.m”.

1907: The Tennessee Volunteers coached by Izzy Levene defeated the football team from the Tennessee Military Institute in the school’s first game of the season

1907: Today King Edward VII’s private secretary wrote to Nathaniel Mayer, known as “Natty” the first Lord Rothschild who was an Executor of Benjamin Disraeli’s estate concerning “letters of a very confidential and family nature that may been written by the late Queen Victoria to Lord Beaconsfield between 1874 and 1880.”

1908: Mr. and Mr. William E. Dodd gave birth to Martha Dodd. Martha accompanied her father to his posting as FDR’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Germany.  A romantic figure, she finally became aware of the danger presented by the Nazi regime

1909(23rd of Tishrei, 5670): Simchat Torah

1909: After having been taken to the hospital two weeks, fifty-two year Galicia born poet, author  and Zionist Naphtali Herz Imber  who had first visited Palestine at the age of 16 and is best known “as the author ‘Hatikvah,’ the Zionist National hymn” passed away today in New York.


1911: Birthdate of Czech jazz musician Karel Vlach who had “a day job as a traveling salesman for Jewish notions firm until the German occupation made it untenable” and who played with several Jewish musicians including Fritz Weiss before the war when Weiss was ultimately shipped to his death at Auschwitz.

1912(27th of Tishrei, 5673): Dr. Morris Loeb, Professor of Chemistry and Columbia, a noted scientist and philanthropist and the husband of Eda K. Loeb passed away today in New York City.



1912: In Elmira, NY, founding of the Hebrew Institute.

1912: The First Balkan War began today which when it ended find the 60,000 Jews living in Salonika going from Ottoman rule to Greek rule – a reality that caused concern among the Jews which would lead to the Greek government, in 1917 becoming one of the first supporters of the Balfour Declaration.



1913(7th of Tishrei, 5674): Seventeen year old Schore Feitelsohn passed away today.



1915: It was announced today that “Catholics, Protestants and Jews have joined at Columbia University’s Teacher College in a co-operative union to be known as the Students’ Religious Organization.”



1915: It was reported today that “Djemal Pasha is especially annoyed because of the Zion Mule Corps which consists of volunteers from among the Jewish refugees from Palestine who are engaged in transport work at Gallipoli.



1915: It was reported today that “Djemal Pasha has announced he will extirpate Zionism root and branch and that not a single Jew will be allowed to re-enter Palestine.”

1915: It was reported today “about five hundred Jewish women are confined at the Bella Vista Hotel at Jaffa” where they are suffering “much privation.”

1916(11th of Tishrei, 5677): In New York, retired realtor Samuel Hirsch, the husband of Eugenia Hirsch, whose estate was appraised at $774, 928 passed away today.

1916: It was reported today that an exhaustive report “purports to show that the (Russian) military censor was in definite alliance with the anti-Semitic press and took every” opportunity “to fan the flames of racial antagonism and hatred by having the Jew proclaimed as an enemy of Russia, more to be feared even than the German invader…so that every attempt to reveal the truth about the Jewish solider, his bravery, his fortitude, his unselfishness, the suffering of his helpless wife and children was systematically suppressed.”

1917(22nd of Tishrei, 5678): Shemini Atzeret

1917: In Frankfurt an der Oder, Siegfried and Frieda Nuemann gave birth to Gerhard Neumann, who served with the fabled “Flying Tigers” during WW II, became a leading aviation designer and General Electric executive and earned the Daniel Guggenheim Medal in 1979

1917: It was reported today that there are more than 50,000 Jewish soldiers serving in the U.S. Army, “a percentage far in excess of the ratio of Jews to the general population.

1918: Birthdate of Arthur Mendelowitz, the native of Sighetu Marmației who survived Auschwitz, joined Mosad and gained fame as Amos Manor the Director of Shin Bet.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3433999,00.html

http://www.shabak.gov.il/English/History/heads/Pages/AmosManor.aspx

1918: During World War I, in France, on the Western Front U.S. Army Corporal Samuel Sampler charged an enemy bunker that was inflicting severe causalities and using hand-grenades neutralized the enemy position allowing the unit to continue his advance.  He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his action.

1919: In New York, Hyman and Sophie Shemin Davis gave birth to Sadie Davis who married Morris (Murray) Altman and as Sadie Altman was the mother of Robert and Nathaniel Altman.

1920: Today’s Issue of the American Hebrew is scheduled to be devoted to the “various phases of” the late Jacob “Schiff’s life and activities.”

1920: Harry H. Schlact was “appointed special assistant commissioner of immigration” today.

1920: Rabbi Wise and Judge Elkus are scheduled to speak at the exercises marking the installation of Hebrew Union College graduate Maxwell Silver as the Rabbi of the Flushing Division of the Free Synagogue.

1921(6th of Tishrei, 5682): Shabbat Shuva

1921(6th of Tishrei, 5682): Rabbi Joseph Wasserman, who came to New York City in 1890 and was “active in the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society” passed away today.

1923: In Notting Hill, London, “merchant banker Ellis Arthur Franklin” and the former Muriel Francis Waley, gave birth to Oxford educated, decorated WW II veteran Collin Ellis Franklin the bibliographer and collector of rare books who was the brother of biophysicist Rosalind Franklin and the grand-nephew of Viscount, Sir Herbert Sameul.

1923: Following a summer marked by economic setbacks in the Soviet Union, the uncovering of secret groups within the Communist Party and failure of a Communist revolution in German, Leon Trotsky “sent a letter to the Central Committee and Control Commission which “attributed these” setbacks “to a lack of Intra-Party Democracy. (Editor’s note – This was part of what would become a fight between Trotsky and Stalin for control of the Party and the Soviet Union; a fight that would end with Stalin having Trotsky murdered in 1940.)

1924(10th of Tishrei, 5685): Yom Kippur

1924: While speaking in the lower house of the Hungarian Parliament, Dr. Bela Fabian, a Jewish deputy described the power of the anti-Semitic Association of Awakening Magyars, some of whose members had just been acquitted in case where they had been charged “in the bombing a charity of a charity ball organized by the Jewish Women of Csongrad in which several people were killed.”

1925: At Forbes Field, The Washington Senators, with Buddy Myer at 2nd base lost the second game of the World Series to the Pirates.

1925: Birthdate of NYU basketball star Sidney Tanenbaum who “won the 1947 Bar Kochba Award, which honored him as the best Jewish American athlete.”

http://www.nytimes.com/1986/09/06/obituaries/sid-tanenbaum-60-is-slain-nyu-basketball-star-in-40-s.html

1926: The New York Times reported that Jews in Palestine have called upon the British government not to let Arabs be the ones to repair Rachel’s Tomb.

1927:With Jewish editor Herman Bermstein acting as interpreterMordachai Golinkin, conductor of the Palestine Opera and former director of the Petrograd Opera, told reporters at the Ansonia Hotel how he, his wife, Lea, lyric soprano, and G. Giorini, dramatic tenor, had been detained on Ellis Island for three days. Golinkin had nothing but praise for the way in which he was treated during the internment and expressed a desire to return to the Island to give a concert.  Golinkin is in this country to raise $200,000 to build an opera house in Palestine.  Nathan Struas and Herman Bernstein “were greatly impressed by the artistic merits” of Golinikin’s productions in Israel which have included performances of Fause and Aida in Hebrew.

1927(12thof Tishrei, 5688): Judith Solis-Cohen passed away.

http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/solis-cohen-judith

1927: In Bahía Blanca, Argentina, were Máxima (Vapniarsky) and Lázaro Milstein, a Jewish Ukrainian immigrant gave birth to biochemist César Milstein who “shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984”

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1984/milstein-bio.html

1927: In Omaha, Nebraska, Jacob Lipsey, a Jewish immigrant from Russia who “own a wholesaled poultry and meat market” and “the former Molly Brick” gave birth to Stanford Lipsey, thePulitzer Prize winning publisher and friend of Warren Buffet.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/03/business/media/stanford-lipsey-died-buffalo-news.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

1927:  “Shootin’ Irons,” an “oater” produced by B.P. Schulberg with a script co-authored by Sam Mintz was released today in the United States.

1928:  Joseph Szigeti, the Jewish Hungarian violinist, gives the first performance of Alfredo Casella's Violin Concerto.

1928(24th of Tishrei, 5689): Silent screen comedian Larry Semon reportedly passed away. Semon directed, wrote and starred in the silent screen version the Wizard of Oz. There are those who contend that this is not the date of Semon’s death. According to them, Semon was in financial trouble and he faked his death to get away from his creditors.  However, they have not been able to come up with alternative date for his death.

1928: Hungarian born Joseph Szigeti performed in the début of Alfredo Casella's Violin Concerto. Szigeti is one more in a long line of Jewish virtuoso violinists.

1928: Several people were injured today and three were arrested in “a clash between Hebraist and partisans of the Yiddish language” at Tel Aviv.  “The occasion for the clash was a celebration by the Poale Zion Club commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Czernowitz Conference, where Yiddish was proclaimed as ‘a national language’ of the Jewish people.” G’dud Magginei Ha’saf-fah “a youth organization ‘for the protection of the Hebrew language’ was responsible for the attack.  Among the injured was M. Wescher, a Poale Zion leader and member of the Tel Aviv Municipal Council.

1930: In Pittsfield, MA, Harry and Ruth Klein Kaufman gave birth to Donald Kaufman, the Vice President of KB Toys who was responsible for creating “one of the largest and most valuable collections of antique toy cars and trucks in the world.”

1929 Birthdate of Bronx High School of Science, Arthur Bernard Bisguier who became an International Grandmaster in 1957, the same year in which he played Bobby Fischer at the U.S. Open in Cleveland


.1931:Berlin Alexanderplatz: die Geschichte Franz Biberkopfs (Berlin Alexanderplatz: the story of Franz Biberkopfs) with a script co-authored by Bruno Alfred Döblin premiered today.

 1931: The Habima Theater opened in Tel Aviv. Founded by Nahum Zemach in 1917 in Moscow, Habima (Hebrew word meaning “the stage”) was one of the first Hebrew language theatre groups.  The group left the Soviet Union in 1926 and went on tour before finally settling in Tel Aviv.  Habima was designated as the national theatre in 1958.

1931(27th of Tishrei, 5692):General Sir John Monash, who was the highest ranking Jewish officer to serve in the Australian Army during  the World War I and who served with distinction at Gallipoli and on the Western Front passed away.


1932(8th of Tishrei, 5693): Shabbat Shuva

1932: In Brooklyn, electrical engineer Irwin Appel and the former Lillian Sender gave birth to Kenneth Ira Appel, a “mathematician who harnessed computer” (As reported by Dennis Overbye)

1933(18th of Tishrei, 5694): Fourth Day of Sukkoth

1935(22nd of Tishrei, 5697): Shemini Atzeret

1936: Birthdate of Rona Burstein, who gained fame as Hollywood gossip columnist Rona Barrett

1936: Abraham Kaiser, a Jew living in Duisburg, Germany was sentenced by a National Socialist tribunal to one and a half years imprisonment “for writing to a friend in America a letter that contained uncomplimentary remarks about Chancellor Hitler and the National Socialist party.”

1936: It was reported today that “a nationwide unofficial army was being formed by a WPA group to ‘fight reds’ and quoted” “Wilbert Eldred, a middle-aged employee in the Procurement Division of the Unite States Treasury Department” “as saying that the ‘growing influence of Reds and Jews was menacing the country.’”

1937: Broadcast of the first episode of “Grand Central Station,” a dramatic radio anthology produced by Himan Brown.

1937:The Palestine Post reported that the Franco-Luxembourg-German borders were closed to Jews. All trains arriving at the border were searched and Jews were turned back. Jews seeking to return to Germany were also turned back. In Germany Jews were called to police stations and asked point-blank when they were going to emigrate, or they would face serious consequences.

1937: “Lance Spy” directed by Gregory Ratoff, co-starring Peter Lorre and featuring Luther Adler, Fritz Feld, Joseph Schildkraut and Maurice Moscovith was released in the United States today.

1938: The Slovak Peoples' Party establishes Hlinkova Garda (Hlinka Guard), an anti-Semitic militia that will collaborate with the Germans.

1938:Jewish composer David Rose marries Martha Raye

1939: A new Nazi–Soviet agreement was reached by an exchange of letters between Vyacheslav Molotov and the German Ambassador

1939: Birthdate of Harvey Pekar, the son of Jewish immigrants from Poland, whose autobiographical comic book “American Splendor” would “a cult following for its unvarnished stories of a depressed, aggrieved Everyman negotiating daily life in Cleveland” and would become “ the basis for a critically acclaimed 2003 film.”

1939:The Nazis ordered to the establishment of a Ghetto in Piotrkow, Poland. This was the first of a series of ghettos and camps planned by Heydrich.

1939: “The reported plan of Chancellor Hitler to establish a Jewish State in Polish territory was condemned” today “by the annual conference of the Order of the Sons of Zion.”

1939: The Nazis orchestrated a pogrom against the Jews of Lodz.

1939: “Writer Sees Nazis Leaving No Choice” provided a summary of the views of Anne O’Hare McCormick of the editorial staff of The New York Times on Hitler’s peace proposals most of which she dismissed except for his proposal of “setting up some sort of a Jewish state in Poland – a Hitler homeland for the Jews” which she said “is at least interesting.

1939: Hitler declared that Będzin would be among the Polish territories annexed by Germany which marked the start of the resettlement of 30,000 Jews from other communities in the Polish city.

1939: Germany annexed Western Poland marking the next level of the downward spiral that would come to be known as the Final Solution.

1939: At the annual conference of the Order of the Sons Of Zion a resolution was adopting terming Hitler’s reported plan to establish a Jewish State in Polish territory “a hypocritical scheme fraught with the gravest of dangers to European Jewry.”

1939: Pastor John Hayes Holmes of the Community Church delivered a sermon giving reasons for the United States to remain neutral based in part on the unworthiness of the government of Poland “a place where Jews were a little more miserable than in Germany.”

1939: The NBC Blue radio network broadcast the first episode of “The Colgate Sports Newsreel,” starring Bill Stern.

1940: Dr. Louis L. Mann, the rabbi of Temple Sinai, is scheduled to officiate at the funeral of Henry Horner, the Governor of Illinois. Follow the funeral, the Governor will be interred at Mount Mayriv Cemetery in a grave next to his mother.

1941(17th of Tishrei, 5702: Third Day of Sukkoth

1941(17th of Tishrei, 5702): Fifty-four year old Koblenz born, Chicago raised Gustav Gerson Kahn, known as “Gus Kahn” the lyricist for such “standards” as “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby,” “It Had to Be You” and “Dream a Little Dream of Me” who went on to create musicals in Hollywood while being married to Grace Kahn with whom he had one son, Donald, passed away today.


1941: “The Auschwitz II extermination camp, better known as Auschwitz-Birkenau” was founded today.

1941(17th of Tishrei, 5702): Fifty-four year old lyricist Gus Kahn who wrote an untold number of hit songs during the 1920’s and 1930’s and was the father of songwriter Donald Kahn passed away today.

1941(17th of Tishrei, 5702: The Vitebsk (Belorussia) Ghetto is liquidated; more than 16,000 Jews are killed.

1941: “The prosecutor, Gaston Cassagneau, handed Leon Blum an “additional indictment” that included a lengthy critique of the Popular Front and ended with these words: “Because the unjustifiable weakness of M. Léon Blum’s government compromised both production in the short run and the moral state of the producers, he betrayed the duties of his office.”

1941: “49th Parallel,” a British war movie based on an original story by Emeric Pressburger who wrote the screenplay and starring Leslie Howard premiered in London today.

1942: The USS Drum, the ship on which Maruice Rindskopf spent all of World War II, contacted a convoy of four freighters, and defying the air cover guarding the ships, sank one of the cargo ships before bombs forced her deep.

1943(9th of Tishrei, 5704):Erev Yom Kippur

1943: This morning, one day after he had passed funeral services are scheduled to be held for sixty-four year old Lithuanian native Ephraim Caplan, the “religious editor of the Jewish Morning Journal,” long-time director of the Jewish National Fund of America and President of the Council for Orthodox Jewish Education who was the husband of Eva Caplan with whom he had one daughter, Martha and “three sons, Dr. Leon Caplan, Dr. Joseph Caplan” and Saul Caplan who served with the U.S. Army in WW II, followed by burial in Mount Judah Cemetery.

1943(9th of Tishrei, 5704):: Three thousand Italian prisoners of war are murdered by the SS and Ukrainian guards at La Risiera di San Sabba, Italy, south of Trieste. Of 1,920 Jews in Trieste, 620 are murdered by the SS.

1943(9th of Tishrei, 5704): On the eve of the Jewish Day of Atonement, several thousand ill or weak Jewish men are gassed at Auschwitz.

1943: Sixty-four year old Lithuanian native Ephraim Caplan, the “religious editor of the Jewish Morning Journal,” long-time director of the Jewish National Fund of America and President of the Council for Orthodox Jewish Education who was the husband of Eva Caplan with whom he had one daughter, Martha and “three sons, Dr. Leon Caplan, Dr. Joseph Caplan” and Saul Caplan who served with the U.S. Army in WW II, was buried today at the Mt. Judah Cemetery in Queens .”

1943: Birthdate of R.L. Stine.  Born Robert Lewis Stine, the author is known for his science fiction works.

1944(21st of Tishrei, 5705): Hoshana Rabbah

1944: The Gestapo began arresting members of the anti-Nazi Ehrenfeld Group.

1945(1st of Cheshvan, 5706): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

1945(1st of Cheshvan, 5706): Seventy-six year old author, Felix Salten, born Siegmund Salzmann at Pest (what would be Budapest), best known as the creator of Bambi who fled the Nazis which meant spent the last years of his life in Switzerland and who in 1901 married Ottilie Metzl with whom he had two children – Paul and Anna -- passed away today.


1945: As part of the protest against British treatment of the Jews in Palestine and those trying to reach Palestine Rabbis throughout Palestine are scheduled to add Psalm XX which beings “Let the King hear us when we call” to the daily prayer service.

1945: As part of the protest against British policy in Palestine, 50,000 Jews attended a rally in Tel Aviv and tens of thousands more attended a rally at Edison Hall in Jerusalem where they demanded an end to the White Paper.

1945: In an attempt to spare European Jewish refugees another winter in displaced person camps, Zionist leaders spent two and half hours with the new Colonial Secretary, Arthur Creech Jones, discussing ways to improve British-Jewish relations” in Palestine.

1945: In a sign of Jewish frustration with the continued British enforcement of the White Paper, the Stern Gang reportedly resorted to a new wave of violence tonight with attacks that resulted in the death of two British soldiers and the wounding of scores of others.

1945: “The Seventh Veil” a melodrama with a score by Benjamin Frankel was released today in the UK.

1946(15th of Tishrei, 5710): Shabbat and Sukkoth

1948(5th of Tishrei, 5709): Eighty-seven year old New York native and CCNY grad Albert Ulmann, an author and member of the New York Stock Exchange passed away today.

1948: In Egypt, “the issuance of export and import licenses to Jewish merchants was forbidden,.”

1948: A group of settlers from Hungary founded Kibbutz Ga’aton in the hill country east of Nahariya. According to some it is named for the Ga’aton River which flows nearby.  According to others, it is named for a town thought to have existed in the area before the Babylonian exile.  Regardless, the kibbutz fell under immediate attack from Arabs shooting from the surrounding hills.

1949: The curtain came down temporarily on “Lend an Ear” a musical revue featuring sketches by Joseph Stein ending its run at the Broadhurst Theatre so it could move to the Schubert Theatre.

1950: The Third Maccabiah, the first one to be held in the state of Israel, came to an end today.

1951: “The third government of Israel was formed by David Ben-Gurion.

1952(19th of Tishrei, 5713): Fifth Day of Sukkoth

1952: “The Four Poster” the film version of the play produced by Stanley Kramer, directed by Irving Reis with music by Dimitri Tiomkin and co-starring Lili Palmer was released today in the United States.

1952: In Chicago, Ruth Ellen (née Reich) and Allen Zwick gave birth to Harvard graduate and director/screenwriter/producer Edward Zwick who directed such gems as Glory and Legends of the Fall but shared in the Oscar for the fluffy “Shakespeare in Love.”

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that Dov Shilansky, Gavriel Lichtman, a taxi driver, and Ya'acov Lotan, a regular contributor to the Herut newspaper, were remanded by police in connection with the attempt to sabotage the Israel-German reparations agreement by bombing one of the Foreign Ministry buildings in Jerusalem's Hakirya.

1953(29thof Tishrei, 5714): Seventy-nine year old Junction City, Kansas native Saul Henry Ganz, the “president and Treasurer of D. Lisner and Company, wholesalers and importers of jewelry,” the husband of Ruth Ganza and the father of Paul and Victor Ganz passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1953/10/10/110067724.pdf

1953: ABC broadcast the first episode of “Where’s Raymond” a sitcom produced by Stanley Shapiro.

1956: In Game 5 of the 1956, Don Larsen of the New York Yankees pitched the fall classics first perfect game while playing against the Brooklyn Dodgers which meant that a lot of Jews were either sad or happy since each of these team had a disproportionally large Jewish fan base.  (Editor’s note – Although living in Washington I was an ardent Dodger fan while my older sister and younger brother rooted for the Bronx Bombers)

1956: Today sports broadcaster Bob Wolff provided the radio play by play of Game 5 of the 1956 World Series in which Yankee Don Larsen pitched a perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers.

1959: LA Dodgers beat Chicago White Sox, 4 games to 2 in 56th World Series.  The Dodgers team featured two Jewish players who were brothers – the pitcher Larry Sherry and the catcher Norm Sherry.  Larry Sherry was a rookie who appeared as a relief pitcher in all four of the Dodgers’ victories.

1961: “Actors Joyce and Byrne Piven gave birth to movie director Shira Piven, the sister of actor Jeremey Piven.

1962(10th of Tishrei, 5723): Yom Kippur

1964(2nd of Cheshvan, 5725): Seventy-one year old Viennese born film producer Isadore Goldsmith who continued his career in Great Britain after the Nazis came to power and was the husband of novelist Vera Caspary passed away today in Putney, VT.

1964: “Outrage,” a western film directed by Martin Ritt, with a script by Michael Kanin and starring Paul Newman, Laurence Harvey, Edward G. Robinson, William Shatner and Howard Da Silva (so many Jews) was released today in the United States by MGM.

1966: Birthdate of Memphis native David Frank Kustoff, the University of Memphis alum and Republican political leader who served as a United States Attorney before taking office as “the member of the United States House of Representatives for Tennessee’s 8th congressional district” in 2017 and is the husband of fellow attorney Roberta Kustoff with whom he “has two children.

1966(24th of Tishrei, 5727): One day after Simchat Torah, the cycle begins again – Parashat Bereshit

1966(24th of Tishrei, 5727): Seventy-eight year old Ukrainian born cellist and composer Gdal Saleski passed away today in Los Angeles.

1967: Joseph Brodsky, a victim of anti-Semitism who was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1972 and won the Nobel Prize for leadership and painter Marina Basmanova gave birth to their son Andrei whom Brodsky registered under Marina’s name to spare him attacks by the authorities.

1969: “The Monitors” a sci-fi comedy starring Avery Schreiber and Larry Storch and featuring Adam Arkin, Alan Arkin and Stubby Kaye was released in the United States today.

1969(27th of Tishrei, 5730): Sixty-seven year old Dr. Joseph Quincy Jonas, the New York born son of Goldie and John J. Jonas the husband of Irene Jonas passed away today.

1973: During the Yom Kippur War, two Israeli attempts to reach the east bank of the Suez were beaten back by Egyptian soldiers equipped with Soviet supplied anti-tank weapons.  IDF forces facing Syria were more successful.  Although outnumbered, the IDF forces halted the advance of the Syrians into Israel and by the end of the day have driven them back to the 1967 Armistice Lines and beyond. 

1973: During the Yom Kippur War, Gabi Amir's armored brigade attacks Egyptian occupied positions on the Israeli side of the Suez Canal, in hope of driving them away. The attack fails, and over 150 Israeli tanks are destroyed.

1973: Buoyed by initial Egyptian and Syrian military success, numerous Moslem and Arab states offered aid and support to the aggressors.  The Algerians sent squadrons of planes.  The King of Morocco called on soldiers in his army to volunteer to fight with the Egyptians.  Idi Amin ordered all Ugandan officers in Egypt to join in the fight.  And the Prime Minister of Bangladesh sent telegrams stating the his 75 million countrymen supported the Egyptians and the Syrians “in your just cause” 

1973: Israelis were alarmed by news from the front, which was fragmentary and not good.  Their fears were heightened when a civil defense spokesperson urged Israelis who did not have a shelter to start digging one and that those who had small shelter should enlarge them.  The only good news was Australian volunteers were arriving to perform the work of civilians who had been mobilized and that American Jews had already raised $100 million for the Israeli war effort. 

1973: After touring both battle fronts, Maj. Gen. Haim Bar-Lev and Minister Yigal Allon reported to Prime Minister Meir this evening that the Israeli forces' situation is beginning to improve, while the enemy forces are beginning to suffer serious damage."What they achieved today as compared to yesterday is enormous," Allon said. "The front was breached yesterday. If the Syrians had been more daring, they'd have made significant gains."Bar-Lev explained the Egyptian and Syrian successes as being partly due to technological superiority. "Both have the new Soviet tank plus infrared," he said. "They have an advantage there. On the first night we were surprised; we only knew they had it in theory ... Today we know about it and take it into account."

1973: The 17th Battalion of the Golani Brigade moved up the slopes of Mt. Hermon in the opening round of the Second Battle of Mount Hermon.

1973:Tonight, the Israeli missile boats repeated their success of last night off the Egyptian coast, with three Egyptian missile boats sunk and no Israeli vessel hit. For the remainder of the war, neither the Syrian nor Egyptian fleets would venture out again, enabling more than 100 freighters carrying vital supplies to safely reach Israel, which was in the throes of a brutal, two-front ground war.

1973: Kobi Hayun, Micahel Dvir, Shabtai Ben-Shua, Yoram Peled and Boaz Lerner all made it safely back to Israeli lines when their F-4E Phantom Jets were shot down Syrian SAM’s or Egyptian Anti- Aircraft fire.

1973: Yoram Shachar was taken prisoner after his F-4E Phantom Jet was shot down by a Syrian Surface to Air Missile.

1973: As the Vale of Tears Battle entered its third day the outmanned and outgunned 7thBrigade fought off attacks by the 7th Infantry Division, the 3rdArmored Division and the Assad Republican Guards which by the end of the day left the Israelis with at least fifty dead, untold more wounded and less than 45 working tanks but the IDF continued to blunt the Syrian advance.

1974: NBC broadcast “Where Have All the People Gone?”  a sci-fi thriller written by Sandor Stern and co-starring Verna Bloom.

1975: “Hearts of the West” a comedy directed by Howard Zieff and co-starring Alan Arkin was released in the United States today.

1976: Paramount releases “Marathon Man,” the movie version of the book by William Goldman starring Dustin Hoffman.

1977: White supremacist Joseph P. Franklin shot and killed three people outside of a suburban St. Louis synagogue including Gerald Gordon.

1978(7thof Tishrei, 5739): Seventy-six year old Eliyahu Sasson, the native of Damascus who made Aliyah in 1927 who filled several ambassadorial positions, served as an MK and cabinet minister passed away today.

1979: In a case of “poetic justice” “two Palestinian terrorists were injured attempting to plant a bomb near the Tomb of the Patriarchs.”

1980(28thof Tishrei, 5741): Seventy-three year old David I. Arkin, an innocent victim of the McCarthy Red witch hunt and the father of actor Alan Arkin whose most famous musical effort was the song “Black and White” which celebrated the 1954 Supreme Court Decision that put an end to the legal prop for racially segregated schools passed away today.

1981(10th of Tishrei, 5742): Yom Kippur

1981(10th of Tishrei, 5742): Heinz Kohut an Austrian-born American psychoanalyst best known for his development of Self psychology, an influential school of thought within psychodynamic/psychoanalytic theory which helped transform the modern practice of analytic and dynamic treatment approaches passed away.

1981 ABC broadcast the first episode of Taxi’s Fourth Season directed by James Burrows.

1983: “My Favorite Year,” a comedy directed by Richard Benjamin, produced by Michael Gruskoff and featuring Bill Macy, Lainie Kazan, Selma Diamond, Adolph Green and Lou Jacobi was released in the United States today.

1985(23rd of Tishrei, 5746): Simchat Torah

1985: Today, on the island of Djerba, a Tunisian police officer who had” allegedly “lost a brother” in the attack on the PLO headquarters at Hammam Chott, Tunisia, “fired into a synagogue during Simchat Torah services, killing three people

1985: “An English-language production of Les Misérables” which was a product of a collaboration of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg premiered in London at The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Barbican Theatre.

1985: The hijackers of the Achille Laurocruise liner surrendered after the ship arrived in Port Said, Egypt. Before surrendering, the hijackers threw Leon Klinghoffer, a wheel-chair bound passenger, over the side of the boat.

1986: The Providence Journal "Navy Rabbi To Join Iceland Team: Russian immigrant's grandson picked to lead staff services,” a story about the role of Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff, the U.S. Navy Chaplain sent to Iceland to lead services during the meetings laying the groundwork for the Reagan-Gorbachev Summit.

1987(15th of Tishrei, 5748): Sukkoth

1988: “Jamie Sue Gangel, a network television correspondent for NBC News, and Daniel Silva, a writer and producer for CNN, both in Washington, were married today at the Mayflower Hotel.”

1988: NBC broadcast the first episode of season four of Golden Girls, a sitcom starring Beatrice Arthur and Estelle Getty with theme music by Andrew Gold.

1988: NBC broadcast the first episode of the sitcom created by “Empty Nest” created by Susan Harris (née Spivak).

1990: Israelipolice kill 17 Palestinian rioters. The riots occurred at the Temple Mount and were part of the orchestrated violence against Israelis now known as the First Intifada.  For those of you who like symmetry or have a sense of irony, the Second version of this organized terror would begin in the same place at the same time of the year when Arafat rejected Barak’s peace offer. 

1991: Birthdate of singer and actor Kobi Marimi, the Mizrachi native of Ramat Gan who “studied in the Nissan Nativ Acting Studio” after serving in the IDF.

1992:  Willy Brandt, former Chancellor of Germany, passed away.  The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize had opposed the Nazis when he was a youth living in Germany.  In 1970, Brandt made a highly emotional visit to Warsaw where he fell to his knees in front of the Memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. This silent act of contrition spoke volumes to the world about the new Germany and the willingness take responsibility for its past. In writing about the trip Brandt said, “An unusual burden accompanied me on my way to Warsaw. Nowhere else had a people suffered as in Poland.  The machine-like annihilation of Polish Jewry represented a heightening of bloodthirstiness that no one had held possible.  On my way to Warsaw [I carried with me] the memory of the fight to the death of the Warsaw ghetto. As moving as these words were then, they are even more so now as another generation of leaders has risen filled with inclination to minimize their personal pasts and the Jewish element that made the Holocaust unique.

1993: Edward Rothstein gives a less than an enthusiastic review of Ezra Laderman’s “Marilyn” which was “a City Opera commission” that “opened a world-premiere festival in honor of the company’s 50th anniversary.”


1993: Seventy-five year old Robert Constant Moses, a native of Phillip, SD, a graduate of Beloit High School who was a WW II veteran, a draftsman at Barber Coleman and the father of Nancy Margulis, who became a pillar of the Cedar Rapids Jewish community, was laid to rest today at the Mt. Tabor Cemetery.

1993: “Mr. Jones,” a romantic drama written by Eric Roth was released in the United States today by TriStar Pictures.

1993: “Gettysburg” a massive Civil War epic co-produced by Robert Katz, featuring John Rothman and with a memorable score by Randy Edelman was released today in the United States.

1994: In a letter written today to Sir Martin Gilbert, fourteen and half year old Hirsch Dorbian wrote that he had been “among the thousands of prisoners liberated by the British in the camp at Neustadt earlier that month and that on VE Day, May 8, 1945, “was spent by him in a clean and white bed for the first time three years.

1997(7th of Tishrei, 5758): American architect Bertrand Goldberg best known for the Marina City complex in Chicago, Illinois, the tallest residential concrete buildings in the world at the time of completion passed away.

1999: “The Last Day” an Oscar winning documentary that ‘tell the story of five Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust” was released today in the United Kingdom.

2000(9th of Tishrei, 5671): Erev Yom Kippur

2000:The Sunday New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics related to Judaism including Quarrel & Quandry: Essays by Cynthia Ozick,Einstein In Love: A Scientific Romance by Dennis Overbye, Dream Catcher: A Memoir by Margaret A. Salinger and The Second Coming of Steve Jobs by Alan Deutschman

2000: In “Flash Point: Temple Mount is Holy Ground; Muslims Must Recognize Shrine’s Importance to Judaism” published today Aron U Raskas of the Baltimore Sun wrote “Ten days ago, former defense minister had the good fortune to be able to do that which Jews dispersed for centuries in the diaspora could only hope, dream and pray for: On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year - the liturgy of which is replete with recollections of [Abraham]'s selfless act on the Temple Mount and with prayers for a restoration of the divine presence to this site - Sharon dared to peacefully tread upon this hallowed Jewish ground. The second lesson is that, even after seven years of delusional thinking by Pollyannaish Israelis, the Palestinian people and their leaders are completely unwilling to recognize the Jewish legacy of the Temple Mount, the historic connection of Jews to that place and their inalienable right to worship on that holy ground.”

2001: Forbes published an article entitled “Riklis Driving” that described how Meshulam Riklis drained assets from Dylex Limited, one of Canada’s largest retailers and funneled them into other companies he controlled.

2001(21st of Tishrei, 5762): Hoshana Rabah

2001(21st of Tishrei, 5762): Isidore A. Becker, the husband of Adele Becker, who was an active member of the UJA Federation of New York and the Fifth Avenue Synagogue, passed away today.

2002: “Fighting between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas increased fears of a civil war” between the Arab factions.

2004(23rd of Tishrei, 5765): Simchat Torah

2004:  Haaretz reported that at least thirty-five people were killed and over 100 injured in three separate attacks on holiday resorts in the Sinai Desert that were packed with Israelis celebrating the holiday of Sukkoth. 

2004: Fiamma Nirenstein was an official speaker at the Boston Conference of on 'Anti-Semitism, the Press and Europe'.

2004: “Friday Night Lights” the movie version of  Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H. G. Bissinger, ,directed by Peter Berg who wrote the screenplay along with David Aaron Cohen and produced by Brian Grazer was released in the United States today.

2005(5th of Tishrei, 5766): Shabbat Shauvah is observed by Jews all over the world.

2005: Award winning singer-songwriter, musician, poet, and novelist Leonard Cohen sued Kelley Lynch, alleging that she had misappropriated over US $5 million from Cohen's retirement fund leaving only $150,000.”

2005: Hundreds of Jews lit candles and prayed near the Babi Yar ravine, where the Nazis killed tens of thousands of Ukrainian Jews during World War II, as Jewish leaders expressed concern over recent anti-Semitic acts in the former Soviet republic.

2005: Jonathan Mandell of Chicago took a photograph of a Hebrew inscription in the Cathedral of Monreale which is a testimony to the 1400 years of Jewish settlements in Sicily.


2005: Thanks to Katrina, Rita, OPEC, et al, Americans are confronted with paying record high prices of gasoline and natural gas.  Now, American Jews face an additional financial threat.  According to The Jerusalem Post, people will be paying record high prices for their lulavs this year. Following Egyptian moves to limit the export of Lulavs, one Israeli importer has “cornered the market” by surreptitiously importing 250,000 Lulavs.  Because of his almost complete control of the limited supply, Avi Belali is charging wholesalers five dollars for an item that usually costs one dollar.  Retailers claim they will have to charge as much as twenty dollars to break even and that does not include the cost of the Etrog.  Unbeknownst to most Americans, the lulav industry is “a pretty shady business” where various tricks are tried each year by dealers looking for a way to make a fast buck.  Some Israeli Rabbis are so concerned about profiteering that they have issued a special Halachahic dispensation allowing for the use of branches from the more numerous canary dates may be used for Lulavs.  Apparently, the sages don’t just know about the Law of Moses, they also know about the law of supply and demand.

2006(16thof Tishrei, 5767): Second Day of Sukkoth

2006: The Washington Post featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Primo Levi’s Auschwitz Report andDaniel Mendelsohn’s The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million and an essay written by Elie Wiesel under the title “Why Memory?”

2006: The Sunday New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics related to Judaism including The Shakespeare Wars: Clashing Scholars, Public Fiascoes, Palace Coupsby Ron Rosenbaum and Five Germanys I Have Known by Fritz Stern.

2006: The Israeli Interior Ministry ruled that Valery Dubinin, who had made Aliyah from the Ukraine seven and half years ago, is not a Jew.  This case is newsworthy because the Interior Ministry was overruling the Petah Tikva Rabbinical Court which had provided documents attesting to his Jewishness.

2006(16th of Tishrei, 5767): Second Day Sukkoth; since the first of Sukkoth fell on Shabbat this is the first time, blessings are recited over the Lulav and Etrog.

2006: Services will be held today at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism to honor the memory of Selma Judith Levy Toback.

2007:Shelley Cohn, the former Executive Director of the Arizona Commission on the Arts, is the recipient of the Actor Equity Association’s 2007 Arizona Theatre Service Award. The award was presented to Ms. Cohn at the Union's membership meeting at the Phoenix Theatre

2007: Time Magazine features an article about Jerry Seinfeld entitled “Jerry Seinfeld Goes Back to Work” and reviews of The Coldest Winter by David Halberstam and Exit Ghosts by Phillip Roth.

2008(9th of Tishrei, 5769: Erev Yom Kippur; Kol Nidre is chanted.

2008:A riot in Acre shattered the Yom Kippur calm on Wednesday night as hundreds of the city's Arab residents vandalized Jewish-owned property.

2009: In New Haven, Yale University presents a double-header with an address byTzipi Livni, former Foreign Minister, Member of Knesset and head of the Kadima party, will speak as a Chubb Fellow and a talk by Brandon Friedman, Research Fellow at the Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University, entitled "Iran: Ideology and Foreign Policy"

2009: In New Britain, CT,Ethan Bronner, the New York Times' Israel Bureau Chief delivers a talk entitled "Israel & Palestine: What Happens in 2009?" at Central Connecticut State University, during which he examines what has happened, and what to expect.

2009:As tensions flare once again over a Jerusalem holy site claimed by Israel and Palestinians as their own, one of the most influential leaders of Israel's religious community told the president today that Jews should not make pilgrimages to the Temple Mount so as not to evoke global outrage. "According to halacha (Jewish religious law), it is forbidden to ascend to Temple Mount," Rabbi Yosef Sholom Elyashiv is quoted by Israel Radio as telling President Shimon Peres.

2009:Romania unveiled a monument in memory of 300,000 Jews and Gypsies killed during the Holocaust in the country, which at times in the past had denied that the extermination even occurred.

2009: In San Francisco, “Torah scribe Julie Seltzer began work on a Sefer Torah.”

http://jwa.org/thisweek/oct/08/2009/julie-seltzer

2010(30th of Tishrei, 5771): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

2010(30th of Tishrei, 5771): Eighty-two Chicago born, Yale educated James Emanuel “Jim” Fuchs the winner of bronze medals in shot put at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics passed away today in New York.

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/18/sports/18fuchs.html

2010:The 92Y Resource Center for Jewish Diversity and the Ethiopian Jewish community in New York are scheduled to co-host a festive and authentic Ethiopian Shabbat dinner. The scheduled feast will include traditional Ethiopian dishes such as Doro Wat (chicken stew), Injera (pancake bread) and much more. Diners will be able learn about Ethiopian Jewish history and traditions from Prof. Ephraim Isaac of the Institute for Semitic Studies, Princeton, N.J. The evening is scheduled to include special guests from Israel, Kessotch (Ethiopian rabbis) Pirdo Imhara and Vanda Eli Mentesenout and members of the renowned Ethiopian-Israeli Beta Dance Troupe.

2010: The Telegraph (UK) reported that Professor Mary Beard of Cambridge University has condemned the appointment of historian and presenter Simon Schama as the Coalition Government's new history tsar. She described the announcement as an example of Michael Gove, the education secretary, "playing to the populist gallery".   She described Schama as “a celebrity.”  She did not mention the fact that he was Jewish.

2011(10th of Tishrei, 5772): Yom Kippur

2011(10th of Tishrei): In a tribute to diversity and inclusion, congregants at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids will be able to attend either a Reform or Traditional Yom Kippur Service.  The Traditional Service is rooted in Beth Jacob - a synagogue founded 105 years ago.  Temple Judah is preparing to celebrate its 90th anniversary. When one considers the fate of Jewry in many of America’s small cities and towns, this is quite an accomplishment.

2011: Kenny G. (Kenneth Bruce Gorelick) appeared tonight on “Saturday Night Live with his soprano sax.”

2011(10th of Tishrei, 5772): Eighty-two year old Allen “Al” Davis who played a major role in re-shaping the National Football League as the owner and general manager of the Oakland Raiders and as the commissioner of the AFL passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/sports/football/al-davis-was-a-maverick-until-his-death.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=Amy%20Trask&st=cse

http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-al-davis-20111009-story.html

2011:Hours after far-right-wing graffiti was reported to police in Muslim and Christian cemeteries in Jaffa, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a synagogue in the area today. The projectile struck the roof of the Rabbi Meir synagogue in the city.  No damage or injuries were reported in the attack. Earlier tonight, police said that far-right-wing graffiti was found spray painted in Muslim and Christian cemeteries in Jaffa, but later said they were not convinced the graffiti was actually spray-painted by right-wing extremists.The messages "price tag" and "death to Arabs" were written on the tombstones. However, police later reported that the slogan "death to Russians - G.A. 02" was also spray painted in the cemetery, adding that this graffiti was "linked to a soccer group."

2012(22nd of Tishrei, 5753): Shemini Atzeret

2012(22nd of Tishrei, 5763): One hundred year old Eda Mirsky Mann, the mother of Erica Jong passed away today.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/erica-jongs-mother-eda-mirsky-mann-dead-at-100/

2012: In the United States, observance of Columbus Day which means, for once, the Jewish and Gentile worlds will be celebrating holidays on the same day, even though they are of a completely different nature.

2012: The Alexandria Kletztet is scheduled to play at the Simchat Torah service for Congregation Etz Hayim in Arlington, VA.

2012:Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired more than 30 rockets and mortars — with some Israeli media outlets reporting over 50 rockets — into southern Israel early this morning, causing damage to a residential building

http://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinians-fire-barrage-of-mortars-into-southern-israel/

2013: The Charles E. Smith Life Communities which seeks “to fulfill Jewish values by providing a continuum of quality services for elders and their families” is scheduled to sponsor “An Evening with Tony Kornheiser” at Woodmont Country Club.

2013: Under the leadership of Ed Miliband, Labor MP Luciana Berger began serving as “Shadow Minister for Public Health” today.

2013: The Consulate General of Israel in New York co-hosts this evening’s scheduled screening of “Blues by the beach.”

http://bluesbythebeachfilm.com/

2013: A staged reading of the new play “Stealing Home: The Mystery of Moe Berg” is scheduled to be performed today by member of the Actors Studio in New York.

2013: Howard Epstein completed his service as a member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly “representing the provincial riding of Halifax Chedbucto.”

2013: In Washington, DC, Mark Cohen, author of Overweight Sensation: The Life and Comedy of Allen Sherman is scheduled to speak at The Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival

2013: Today, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences “announced the full list of nations that had submitted a movie for consideration for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film including “Yuval Adler’s “Bethlehem,” which explores a difficult relationship between a Shin Bet agent and a Palestinian teenager and “Transit,” a Philippine film about foreign workers in Israel. (As reported by Debra Kamin)

2013: Eighty-year old Holocaust survivor François Englert, a Sackler Professor by Special Appointment in the School of Physics and Astronomy at Tel Aviv University won the 2013 Nobel Prize

2014(14th of Tishrei, 5775): Erev Sukkoth

2014: The Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life at the University of Connecticut is scheduled to sponsor a noontime “Yiddish Tish”.

2014: Friends and family celebrate the birthday of author Noam Friedlander the daughter of Evelyn Friedlander and Rabbi Albert Friedlander

2014:SukkahPDX, an annual juried outdoor design competition held in Portland, OR, at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education in partnership with Mittleman Jewish Community Center is scheduled to begin today.

2014: The Lunar Eclipse featuring a Blood Moon will be visible throughout much of the United States today. (As reported by Edmond J. Rodman)

http://www.timesofisrael.com/sukkot-lunar-eclipse-is-an-omen-some-say/

2014:Argentinian anti-terror police today arrested a man suspected of planning to attack a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.”

2015: The Jewish Museum of London is scheduled to host “Books at Lunchtime” where a Waterstones Camden bookseller “will share what's new, what's hot, and read extracts from recommended books and bestsellers.

2015: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host “Fresh Jews and Fresh Juice.”

2015: JCC Manhattan is scheduled to host an evening with “Vertigo, Israel’s top dance company” where “choreographer Noa Wertheim will talk about her artistic process, including the creation of the group's eco art village outside of Jerusalem.”

2015:  Eva Moskowitz will not be running for Mayor of New York saying today “that she wanted to redouble her focus on her charter school network…and the task of creating ‘transformation change’ in education.”

2015: During an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN, “Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson…said fewer people would have been killed by the Nazis had been armed” in an apparent attempt to blame “gun control for the extent of the Holocaust.”

2015: “Junun” a film that “dcouments the making of the album of the same name by the Israeli composer Shye Ben” was released today at the New York Film Festival

2015: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host “A Special Evening Commemorating the 30th Anniversary of the Murder of Leon Klinghoffer Aboard the Achille Lauro.” 

2015(25thof Tishrei, 5776): Ninety year old Henry Krystal who survived the Holocaust to become a Professor of Psychiatry at Michigan State University passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/15/science/henry-krystal-holocaust-trauma-expert-dies-at-90.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

2016(6thof Tishrei, 5777): Shabbat Shuva

2016(6thof Tishrei, 5777): Eighty-six year old “Emmy Award-winning documentarian” Morton Silverstein passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/12/arts/television/morton-silverstein-dead.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

2016(6thof Tishrei, 5777): Ninety-six year old Peter Allen, who introduced the Saturday afternoon broadcasts from the Met passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/10/arts/music/peter-allen-a-voice-on-the-radio-for-the-met-opera-dies-at-96.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

2016(6thof Tishrei, 5777): Eight-four year old Professor Jacob Neusner, the prolific and ground-breaking Biblical scholar passed away today in Rhinebeck, NY.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/11/us/jacob-neusner-judaic-scholar-who-forged-interfaith-bonds-dies-at-84.html?_r=1

http://www.timesofisrael.com/jacob-neusner-renowned-jewish-scholar-dies-at-84/

2016:  SERET DC. “a celebration of contemporary Israeli cinema is scheduled to host a screening of

“Abulele.”

2016: Today’s session of “German Iowa and the Global Midwest” is scheduled to present: Tobias Brinkmann speaking on "Small Town Stopover: Jewish Immigrants from Central Europe in the Rural Midwest 1850-80"; Kit Belgum: speaking on “German and Jewish: Civic Connections in Nineteenth-Century Iowa" and Jeannette Gabriel speaking on "We Were German Too: Finding Jewish Women's Voices in Iowa's German Past"

2016: “Exposed” a “six week contemporary dance and physical theatre featuring Israeli and local artists” is scheduled to open in the Metro Atlanta, GA Area today.

2016: “Keeping Up with the Jones,” a spy-spoof featuring Gal Gadot premiered in Los Angeles today.

2016: The 15th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition, named in honor of Lublin born violinist and composer Henryk Wieniawski is scheduled to begin today.

2016: As those living on the southeast coast of the United States deal with Hurricane Mathew “many synagogues are shuttering for Shabbat” including “Temple Emanuel located on the barrier islands of Palm Beach which has cancelled Shabbat morning services.”

2017: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve by Stephen Greenblatt and the recently published paperback edition of The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain.

2017(18th of Tishrei, 5778): Sukkoth Chol Ha’moed

2017: Edith Schumer, a native of Stockstadt, Germany, who “was one of the “1,000 children,” a group of approximately 1,400 German Jewish children who were allowed to come unaccompanied to the United States via an organized rescue effort that occurred nine months prior to the start of World War II” is scheduled to speak at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.

2017: Author and architectural historian Clare Lise Kelly is scheduled conduct a tour that will explore the Montgomery County work of Cohen, Haft & Associates, a leading modernist architecture firm in the D.C. area whose projects have included several Jewish-owned buildings, such as B'nai Israel Congregation and the Charles E. Smith Life Communities campus

2018: Yemen Blues and Lara Bello are scheduled to perform this evening at the American Sephardi Music Festival at the Center for Jewish History.

2018: In Jerusalem, Mercaz Hatarbuyot is scheduled to host an evening Klezmer, Jazz and Classical Music featuring “virtuoso clarinetist Ira Goyfeld” and “concert pianist Eliah Zabaly,” the winner of the “1st Prize of the Paris National Conservatory of Music.”

2018: Today is the deadline for submitting applications for a fellowship “at the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan.”

http://yiddish-sources.com/news/fellowship-opportunity-yiddish-matters-frankel-institute-advanced-judaic-studies-university-mic

2019 (9th of Tishrei, 5780): Erev Yom Kippur; for more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/

2019: “According to the regulations in force among Orthodox Jews, marriages may not be solemnized today because it is “the day preceding the Fast of Atonement.”

2019: The Wilderness Torah is scheduled to host the first of a “Two-day Yom Kippur Retreat” beginning with a trip to the mikveh and a pre-fast meal.



This Day, October 9, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin

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OCTOBER 9 


768: Carloman I and Charlemagne are crowned Kings of The Franks. Charlemagne treated to his Jewish subjects well, even if it meant parting from the doctrine of the Church. For example, he extended the rights previously granted to the Jews of Narbonne by his father. Jews “mingled freely at the Frankish court in defiance of canon law…Disputes between Jews were resolved in Jewish courts.” The increased protection and freedom offered to the Jews by Charlemagne resulted in increased commercial and financial activity, especially trade with the Islamic world.

1184: Judah ben Elijah Hadassi a Karaite Jewish scholar who lived in Constantinople began working on Eshkol ha-Kofter, “a treatise on the Ten Commandments.”

1192: After having negotiated a treaty with Saladin following the Battle of Jaffa, that created a three year truce, Richard III left Acre for a planned return to England.

1217: During the 5th Crusade, a force led by King Andrew II of Hungary landed on Cyprus “from where they sailed to Acre and joined John of Brienne, ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem” and others who were preparing to fight the Ayyubids of Syria.

1238: In Spain, King James I of Aragon founded the Kingdom of Valencia. In 1263, James I presided over the disputation between Nachmanides and a convert to Christianity named Paul Christian.

1253: English scholar and theologian, Robert Grosseteste, the Bishop of Lincoln who in 1244 “decided that the jurisdiction in dipsutes between Jews and Scholars at Oxford should rest with the Chancellor of the University and who was “widely consulted on the correct attitude to be adopted toward Jews” passed away today.

1261: Birthdate of Denis I who as King of Portugal resisted pressure by the clergy to “invoke the restrictions placed on the Jews by the Fourth Lateran Council.

1264: The army of King Alfonso the Wise of Castile conquered the Spanish city of Jerez that had been held by the Moors since 711. The Jewish community of Jerez, complete with a separate Juderia or Jewish quarter had existed since the time of the Moors. At the time of the Spanish conquest, the city had two synagogues with Don Yucaff and his son Don Todros each living in one of the “houses of the rabbis” Among those Jews to whom the king gave houses and/or lands were “Don Yehuda Mosca who made translations from Arabic into Spanish for the king; the "almoxarife" Don Mayr, or rather Mür de Malhea, and his son Çag (Isaac); Çimha (Simḥah) Xtaruçi, whose father lost his life and the whole of his large fortune during the rebellion of the city; Don Vellocid (Vellecid), "ballestero del rey a caballo"; Solomon Ballestero; and Axucuri Ballestero—the last three being in the king's army.” [Editor’s Note – As can be seen from this entry, the image of the Spanish Jews flourishing under the Moors and suffering under the Christians is not an accurate one.]


 1290: Today, St. Denis’s Day, the Jews of London departed in accordance with the Edward’s order of expulsion which was to take full effect in November.

1334: Casmir the Great (Poland) renewed the Charter of Boleslav, granting Jews the freedom of residence in all areas of the kingdom. This document was instrumental in encouraging Jews to begin to flee Germany and move east. King Kazimierz showed how favorably disposed towards Jews he was when he confirmed the privileges granted to Jewish Poles in 1264 by Boleslaus V. Under penalty of death, he prohibited the kidnapping of Jewish children for the purpose of enforced Christian baptism. He inflicted heavy punishment for the desecration of Jewish cemeteries. He invited Jews who were being persecuted elsewhere to settle in Poland, protecting them as 'people of the king'

1390: Despite the best efforts by “his physician Moses ibn Zarzal” King John I died today.



1390: Henry III who appointed the Jewish convert to Christianity Paul of Burgos keeper of the royal seal and Lord Chancellor began his reign as King of Castile and Leon

1526: Today, the Queen regent Maria, the widow of Louis II, continued her anti-Jewish policies first displayed when by expelling the Jews of Sopron by allowing the city of Pressburg, to expel its Jewish citizens.

1547: Christening of the Don Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote. According to some sources, Cervantes mother, Lenor de Cortinas was a descendant of Conversos, Jews who chose Christianity over death or despoliation of their wealth.

1580: Immanuel Tremellius, the Italian Jewish convert to Catholicism who then became a Protestant and was the Regius professor of Hebrew at Cambridge before becoming the Professor of Old Testament at the University of Heidelberg passed away today.
1635: Colonial American Separatist Roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts for preaching that civil government had no right to interfere in religious affairs. (Williams was seeking to establish freedom of worship through the separation of church and state.) Rhode Island would provide the model for the rest of the United States on this issue. In addition to which, William's policy would Rhode Island an attractive place for Jews to settle during the colonial and Revolutionary War periods.
1666(10th of Tishrei, 5427): Yom Kippur


1666(10th of Tishrei, 5427): In Hamburg, Germany, blessings were offered in honor of Sabbatia Zvi during Yom Kippur. The Hamburg community was unaware of the fact the self-proclaimed Messiah had converted to Islam in September of 1666.

1691: English merchant Erasmus Smith whose philanthropy was recognized by Trinity College when it created the Erasmus Smith Chair of Hebrew in 1724 passed away today.

1701: The Collegiate School of Connecticut (later renamed Yale University) is chartered in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. In 1805, Moses Simons became the first Jew to attend Yale. Seventeen years later, Judah P. Benjamin attended Yale Law School, making him the school’s second Jewish student. Benjamin left without graduating. According to recent records 1,200 of Yale’s 5,300 undergraduate students are Jewish while 200 of the 1,200 graduate students are Jewish. The school offers 45 Jewish courses and a minor in Jewish studies but no major. This is a vast improvement over the situation for Jews at Yale as late as the 1960’s when administrators, faculty and alumnae sought to limit Jewish enrollment at the Ivy League school through quotas and other forms of social pressure. You have to wonder if these people knew that Elihu Yale’s Jewish mistress, after whom the school was named, had born him a son. Would the Yalies have accepted Yale’s son?

1766: Uriah and Eva Esther Hendricks gave birth to Jochabed Sarah Hendricks

1771:  Count Jan Klemens Branicki, the Polish nobleman who proclaimed the Jews of Bialystok to be subject to bylaw and other local laws on an equal footing with the other townsmen, passed away

1775(15th of Tishrei, 5536): Sukkoth is observed the first time during the American Revolution

1780(10th of Tishrei, 5541): Yom Kippur

1784: Benjamin Nones, a native of Bordeaux, France who served with distinction during the American Revolution became a naturalized citizen of the United States today.

1789: Birthdate of Meno Burg, “the first and for a long time the only Jew serving as a Prussian staff officer.”



1794(15th of Tishrei, 5555): Sukkoth

1797(19th of Tishrei, 5558): Chol Hamoed Sukkoth

1797(19th of Tishrei, 5558): The Vilna Gaon passed away.  There is no way that we can do justice to this Giant of Judaism.  We urge you all to consult the numerous books, websites and other sources that can give you some sense of the importance of this sage who was such an expert in matters of Torah, Talmud and Halachah that even the descendants of those to whom he stood in opposition recognize his merit.

1798: In Bamberg, the chief rabbi and his wife gave birth to German jurist Karl Feust.

1799(10th of Tishrei, 5560): Final Yom Kippur of the 18th century

1803(23rd of Tishrei, 5564): Simchat Torah

1803: Rabbi Meanchem Mendel Rubin of Linsk, “the first rebbe of the Rosphitz dynasty and the son-in-law of Rabbi Yizchak Halevi Horowitz passed away today.

1809: Birthdate of Adolphe Franck the French philosopher whose work on the Kabbalah was popular with the public and was President of the Société des Etudes Juives

1813(15th of Tishrei, 5574): Sukkoth

1817: Johanna Benzinger and Secekel Loeb Wormser, “the Wonder Rabbi of Michel City” gave birth to Jaidel Wormser

1817: Daniel Rees married Priscilla Davis at the Western Synagogue today.

1818: Birthdate of Benedict Zuckerman, the native of Breslau who was a leading German mathematician who served on the faculty of the Breslau Seminary under the leadership of Zacharias Frankel.

1823(4th of Cheshvan, 5584): Jacob I. Cohen, a native of Bavaria and the son of Joshua and Peslah Cohen, who fought in the Battle of Beaufort while serving under Captain Lushington and who in 1789 “took the lead in organizing the first synagogue in Virginia, passed away today in Philadelphia

1823: In London, Frances Cohen and Joel Benjamin gave birth to Leon Benjamin,

1832(15th of Tishrei, 5593): Sukkoth

1833: In Laupheim, Jewish merchant Viktor Steiner and his Sophie gave birth to German banker and industrialist Kilian von Steiner.

1835: In Wurttemberg, Germany, Bernhard Frankfurter, the son of Mirjam and Moses Levi Frankfurter, and his wife Esther gave birth to “Mirjam Frankfureter.”

1837(10th of Tishrei, 5598): As the economic crisis known as the Panic of 1837 grips the United States Jews observe Yom Kippur.

1840: Birthdate of British painter Simeon Solomon. [There is no way to do justice to this complex man’s life and work in this small space. Among other sites, look at http://simeonsolomon.com/default.aspx

1843(15th of Tishrei, 5604): Sukkoth

1845: The Sephardic Synagogue of Kingston, Jamaica celebrated taking possession of a new Sefer Torah." The service was conducted by the Isaac Lopes, who served as the congregation’s rabbi.

1846: In New York City linguist and orientalist Elias Markens and his wife gave birth to journalist Isaac Markens, a manager and/or reporter for the United Press Association, theNew York Commercial Advertiser and the New York Evening Mail and Express who was a member of the Free Sons of Israel, author of Hebrews In America and the husband of Rachel Benjamin.
1848: In Lübeck, laws were adopted that “abolished all the disabilities” of the Jews thus making them true citizens of the city


1850(3rd of Cheshvan, 5611): Fifty-four year old Israel Friedman of Ruzhyn the Chasidic rebbe known as Der Heiliger Ruzhiner ("The holy one from Ruzhyn"), passed away today.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0017_0_17198.html

http://www.aish.com/jw/s/Hava-Nagilah-The-Story-behind-the-Quintessential-Jewish-Song.html?s=mm

1856(10th of Tishrei, 5617): Yom Kippur

1856: “A God-Send For The Express” published today reported that “the German organ of the Buchanneers in Philadelphia accuses Fremont of being a Hebrew by birth and having been educated in the Mosaic faith besides being born in Alsace. As the Express must by this time be tired of calling Col Freemont a Jesuit, it will be delighted of an opportunity to accuse him of being a descendant of Abraham.” Fremont is John C. Fremont, a native of Virginia, an Episcopalian, military hero and explorer known as the Great Pathfinder. He was also the Republican Party’s first Presidential nominee.

1857: In New York, the Recorder heard a second day of testimony in the case where Nathan Levin, a recently arrived Jewish immigrant from Hungary, had accused Israel Steinhardt, a fellow Hungarian co-religionist of stealing 940 pounds in Bank of England notes. A witness named Francois Guilland testified that he and Steinhardt had sailed on the same ship in September and that he had seen Steinhardt holding several of the bank notes that Levins claim Steinhardt had stolen from him just two days ago in New York. Two other witnesses testified that Levins had not the bank notes in his possession when they met with him just before the theft. It would appear Levins’ accusation that his fellow Jew had violated the 7th commandment was false and that Levins was attempting a swindle. The Recorder is holding the case over until tomorrow at which time a decision will be made as to which Jew is trying to cheat which Jew.

1858: An article entitled "Chronology of Comets" published today reported that "Josephus the historian includes the appearance of a comet among the miracles which announced the destruction of Jerusalem and the ruin of its temple." In 1208, "the Jews of the West" thought that a very bright comet that appeared for two weeks foretold the coming of the coming of the Messiah.


1859: In Mulhouse, Alsace, Raphael and Jeannette Dreyfus (née Libmann) gave birth to the ninth child, Alfred who would enter history as Captain Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish army officer at the center of scandal that rocked France for a decade and helped to produce the modern Zionist movement.

1860: Birthdate of Count Walter Puckler-Muskau, the anti-Semitic agitator known as "Dreschgraf" (the thrashing count) for the calls for violent attack against the Jews that fill his speeches.

1862(15th of Tishrei, 5623): Sukkoth

1862: During the American Civil War, as the Jews on both sides observed Sukkoth, JEB Stuart’s Confederate Cavalry humiliated Union General George McClellan by riding around the Army of the Potomac completely unscathed.

1864(9th of Tishrei, 5625): Yom Kippur

1864: In New York City, “Raphael Levy Maduro Peixotto , a prosperous Ohioan involved in trade with the South, and Myrtillie Jessica Davis gave birth educator and writer Jessica Blanche Peixotto, the second woman to earn a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkley, the “first women to become a full professor at Cal, Berkley and the university’s first woman department chair.



1864: As Sherman’s victorious Union Army completed the occupation of Atlanta during the Civil War, one wonders if the Jewish soldiers serving under him joined the Jews of Atlanta in observing Yom Kippur.

1866: The Law Reports column published today described in detail the breach of contract case brought by a young Jewess named Nanna Solomon against Jewish tailor named Bernard Brown. According to the evidence presented, there was no dispute over the fact that the two were engaged to married and that there had been ample public ceremonies to celebrate the event. There is no dispute that the marriage did not take place. Miss Solomon claimed that the Brown did not marry here because of interference from her mother. Brown implied that Miss Solomon had been seeing other men and was not the stellar character she had presented herself to be. In the end, the jury found for the plaintiff but awarded her only five hundred dollars in damages when she had sought $10,000.

1867(10th of Tishrei, 5628): Yom Kippur

1867(10th of Tishrei, 5628): Abraham Mapu “one of the first, and finest, of the novelists to write in Hebrew” passed away. “Heavily influenced by a wide range of sources--the Bible, the Romantic Novelists, and renewed pride in ancient Jewish history--his works recall the finest works of writers such as Flaubert and other great romantic novelists. His first novel, Ahavat Ziyyon (The Love of Zion), published in 1853, won immediate acclaim. Its sixteen editions attest to its continued popularity. (As reported by Toby Press)

1873: Birthdate of violinist Carl Flesch whose pupils included Jewish violinists Szymon Goldberg, Ivry Gitlis, Ida Haendel, Yfrah Neaman, Eric Rosenblith, Max Rostal, Henryk Szeryng, Henri Temianka and Roman Totenberg

1875(10th of Tishrei, 5636): Yom Kippur which the secular press described as “a solemn fast universally observed among the orthodox Jews by abstaining from food or drink of any nature whatever for twenty-four hours and spending the entire day in continuous attendance at their places of worship.”

1875: In New York City, “Josephine (née Solomon) and Selmar Hess” gave birth to Columbia trained physician Alfred Fabian Hess, the husband of the former Sara Strauss, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Isidor Strauss with whom he had four children and the developer of the Hess Test which came about while studying “the role of nutrition in scurvy and rickets.”

1876(21st of Tishrei, 5637): Hoshana Rabah

1867: Fanny Janauscheck the Austrian actress who would perform in “Zillah, The Hebrew Mother” made her American stage debut at the Academy of Music in New York.

1876: The New York Times featured a review of “Daniel Deronda” by George Elliot which was the penname of Mary Anne Evans. This was her last novel and it featured a sympathetic portrayal of Jewish characters and was sympathetic to the concepts of Zionism.

1877: Charles Stein, who is described the most dangerous confidence man of our times, was arrested in St. Louis, MO. [It can’t always be about Nobel Prize Winners]

1878(12th of Tishrei, 5639): Seventy-eight year old Abraham Oppenheim who had begun his career as a partner in the banking house of his father Salomon Oppenheim passed away.

1879(22nd of Tishrei, 5640): Shemini Atzeret

1880(4th of Cheshvan, 5641): Sixty-four year old Joseph Mayer Montefiore, a nephew of Sir Moses Montefiore who was a member of the Board of Deputies and a director of the Alliance Insurance Company and the National Provincial Bank of Ireland, passed away today.



1880: “Persecution of the Jews of Morocco” published today relies on information that originally appeared in the Petit Marseillais and the Pall Mall Gazette, to describe the brutal murder of a Jew named Bendahan's by the Moslem governor of Estifa.  Bendahan’s crime was that he had taken a Moslem women into his home during the recent famine and provided her with food and shelter.  When the governor heard of this he summoned the Jew and him beaten to death. Apparently, any relationship between a Moslem and a Jew was unacceptable even if was only intended to save a life.

1881: Birthdate of Victor Klemperer, 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. He passed away in 1960.

1881: It was reported that the Minister of Justice in Hungary has introduced a bill in the lower house of the Diet that would legalize marriages between Jews and Christians.

1881: It was reported today that the Russian government “intends to all Jews to acquire land in places where there is no fear of collision between them” and the non-Jewish local

1881: “The Wander Jew in Hull, 1769” recounts the history of this anti-Semitic tale which reinforced the view of the Jew as an evil villain who has walked the earth since the days of the Crucifixion

1881: “Old York,” published today provides a brief history of this ancient English castle and city, including the time when it was “the scene of a gruesome tragedy” when a group of “landless knights” and “broken men” penned up the Jews in the castle with the intent to “plunder” and “murder them.”  However, most of the Jews, their intended victims, “with desperate courage, forestalled them by burning their property and killing their families and themselves.

1882: Three days after he had passed away, sixty year old “Samuel Gettenstein Salaman,” the husband of Rosa Salaman with whom he had two children was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1882: It was reported today that G.P. Putnam’s Sons will be publishing Fundamental Questions Relating to the Hebrew Scriptures, a liberal view of the subject by Edson L. Clarke.

1886(10th of Tishrei, 5647): Yom Kippur

1886: In “Yom Kippur” published today J.S. Moore, a non-Jew, provides a complete description of the observance of the holiday including the observations that “no other religion…has a similar festival” “ and that “ it may be safely predicted that nations, empires and peoples may and will pass and be only remembered in history while the ‘Yom Kippur’ will retain its hold upon a race which has already during the vicissitudes of thousands of years withstood annihilation and bids fair to hold fast to its religion as long as this globe is populated.”
1886: The Uptown Gossip column published today attributed the low attendance rate at theatres in New York yesterday to the fact that the Jews were observing the “fast of Yom Kippur.”  “Jewish people are the most liberal patrons of the theaters, and any fast day which they observe makes a very marked difference in the receipts of theatre’s treasury.”


1886: “Big Hebrew Fair” published today described efforts to host a fundraiser this December that provides funds for the establishment of a “Jewish Cooper Institute.”  The project has the support of the city’s temples and synagogues as well as the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.

1887: “Levitcal Names” published today contends that there is strong evidence of an Egyptian connection between the Levites – the leading tribe of the Exodus – and those who enslaved them.  The names of Moses, Miriam and Pinhcas, Aaron’s grandson, have an Egyptian etymology . The mother of Pinchas was the daughter of Putiel, a name with an Egyptian rather than Hebrew etymology.   Finally, Aaron’s ability to address Pharaoh would indicate a knowledge of the Egyptian language that would be more consistent with an educated Egyptian than a wandering Semitic nomad.

1887(21st of Tishrei, 5648): Sukkoth Chol HaMoed

1887: The day after he had passed away, Nathan Samuel Raphael, the son of “Samuel Raphael and the former Charlotte Levy” who had left his native London for Austrailia in 1849 was buried today in “Orange, NSW, Australia.”

1887(21st of Tishrei, 5648): Sixty-two year old Czech born American musician and impresario Maurice Strakosch, whose autobiography Souvenirs of an Impresario was published in 1886 passed away today in Paris.

1888: As the London police investigated the murder of Catharine Eddowes, The Evening News reported that Jacob Levy, the son of butcher from Aldgate, was “obstinate” when questioned, refusing “to give the slightest information “ leaving “one to inter that he knows something but…is afraid to be called” during the inquest.

1889(14th of Tishrei, 5650): Erev Sukkoth

1889(14th of Tishrei, 5650): Sir Benjamin Samuel Phillips, the son of Samuel Phillips, a London tailor, who founded the publishing house of Fauudel, Phillips & Sons, was a leader of the Anglo-Jewish community and the first  Jewish Lord Mayor of London, passed away today.

1890: In Germany, Das Volk accuses the committee “engaged in gathering the municipal addresses” which are to be presented to Count Von Moltke on his 90th anniversary as being made up of “Jews….seeking pecuniary benefit from their connection with the movement to honor the Count.”

1891: “A Fire on Fifth Avenue” published today described the fire that swept through the New York home of August Belmont.

1891: Mrs. August Belmont and her children awoke at the old Belmont mansion at 109 Fifth Avenue where they had spent the night after their new home at 101 Fifth Avenue had been destroyed by fire.

1891: In Wilkes-Barre, PA, Mendel S. and Rachel Naomi Salsburg gave birth to Philip Salsburg who was the Treasurer of Il Minatore Publishing Company in Scranton, PA.

1891: Gustave S. Drachman of the law firm of Drachman & Nelson who has been retained by Charles Horwitz, a 23 year old Russian Jewish peddler “to look after his interest in an alleged estate in San Francisco valued at $30,000,000” said today that he has not been able to learn about “any man by the name of Horwitz” who “ever died in San Francisco leaving a large fortune.”

1891: According to today’s American Hebrew, “the letter of Mr. Harold Frederic…continue to present the case of the Jews in Russia in vivid colors and convincing tones.”

1892: In the wake of a decision by the Reform movement that circumcision is no longer a necessary part of the conversion process, a “conclave of rabbis” is scheduled to begin meeting today in New York.

1892: “Phases of City Life” published today described eastside Jews as being “as careful with their money as any people in the world” who will “part with the dollars freely under two conditions –sickness or death in the family” as can be seen by the round the clock medical care being provided for a child who was scaled two weeks ago which has required all of the to “work harder than ever to get the money for it all.”



1892: Construction began on a building that would be called the Frances Jacobs Hospital in Denver, Colorado. http://jwa.org/thisweek/oct/09/1892/frances-jacobs

1892: The 15 Jewish families living in the tenement at 100 Suffolk lost personal property in yesterday’s fire that was valued today at approximately $2,000.

1892: In Boston, MA, “Jewish Lithuanian immigrants Joseph Weit and Sarah Magilewski gave birth to economist Harry Dexter White.

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2000/wp00149.pdf

1893: It was reported today that villages on the German borders with Austria and Russia are crowded with Jewish “families who have been expelled from Russia and are eager to come to United States but are so destitute that they “prostrate themselves before travelers and beg for bread or money.”

1894: It was reported today that Mrs. Elke Rubenstein the widow of convicted murderer Pesach Rubenstein has been ordered to leave the country because she might become a public charge and without having been able to claim the $1,000 which her husband when police arrested him for the murder of Sara Alexander.

1894: It was reported today that Brooklyn resident Nathan Bernstein must have died a happy man since he lived to see his son John married by a rabbi to Miss Ida Korne.

1894(9th of Tishrei, 5655): Erev Yom Kippur

1894(9th of Tishrei, 5655): Sixty year old Wolf Cohn “dropped dead while attending services at Adelphi Hall on 52ndStreet and 7th Avenue.

1894: John Most is scheduled to play the lead in “Die Weber” which is part of the anti-Yom Kippur revelry planned for tonight by the Hebrew Anarchists at the Clarendon Hall.

1894: Voter registration is set to begin in New York City which will be a problem because the sites owned by the Jews will have to close well before the official 9 pm closing time due to the Jewish Holiday.

1894: “Anti-Semitic Groups Combine” published today described the formation of the German Social Reform Party which was created by the delegates to a conference led by Jew baiters at Eisenach Germany

1895: Abraham Stern, a wealthy real estate lawyer, filed a the will of his late aunt, Mrs. Babet Karl, for probate today and discounted reports that there was another will which had been prepared under the influence of Rabbi Aaron Wise and son Otto who is an attorney.

1895: Tonight Tammany Hall nominated Joseph E Newburger, a graduate of Columbia Law School, a Judge on the City Court, a director of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and the President of Rodolph Sholom to run for a position on the Court of General Sessions in New York.

1896: As David Schwarz worked to develop a successful airship, a test failed today because the hydrogen used “was not of required purity” and was unable to provide the required life.

1897(13th of Tishrei, 5658): On Shabbat, in Newark, NJ 45 year old Simon Davis “one of the best known” Jews in the city who has been a partner for the last twenty years in a catering service with his brother, passed away today.

1897(13th of Tishrei, 5658): Kate Lintine, the sister of Mrs. Harry Stone of Johannesburg, SA, passed away today in Birmingham, UK.

1898(23rd of Tishrei, 5659):Simchat Torah

1898: Birthdate of Aaron Nissenson, who came to United States from his native Russia in 1911, earned “a degree in pharmacy from Fordham” which he did not use turning instead to a life as “a poet, essayist, novelist and journalist working for The Jewish Morning Journal while being married “the former Kate Heller” with whom he had “a son, Herschel.”

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/nissenson-aaron

1898: Herzl has another audience with Grossherzog Friedrich of Baden. On the same day Herzl is received by Foreign Minister Bernhard von Bülow and Reich’s Chancellor Hohenlohe.

1898: “Sixty or seventy of the most prominent lawyers” in Chicago attended a banquet at the Union League Club in honor of the 70thbirthday of Julius Rosenthal who began his career in 1854 as clerk at the banking of house of R.K. Swift before passing the bar.

1900: Cincinnati born, Harvard educated attorney Edwin South Mack married Della Adler.

1901(26th of Tishrei, 5662): Seventy-year old Sigmund von Henle who represented the city of Munich in the Bavarian Diet from 1873 to 1881 and who served on the board of trustees “of several Jewish societies” passed away today.

1901(26th of Tishrei, 5662): Seventy-five year old Kate(nee Reuben)Aaron the wife of Samuel Aaron  and the mother of Louisa, Rachel and Simeon Aaron passed away today after which she was interred at the Bath Jewish Burial Grounds.

1901: Simon Lipkie married Emily Somers today.

1904: “In the city of Kamenyets, Platon Artemovych Bazhan and his wife gave birth to Ukrainian poet Mykola Bazhan whose 1943 poem “Babi Yar” “explicitly depicted the infamous massacre in the ravine” but does not mention the fact that the victims were Jews.

http://polyhymnion.org/lit/bazhan/

1905(10th of Tishrei, 5666): Yom Kippur

1905(10th of Tishrei, 5666): Forty-two year old Isaac Levy, the husband of Lena Levy, passed away today after which he would be interred at the Jewish Cemetery in Natchitoches, LA.

1907: Three days after he had passed away, Posen native Louis Braun, the husband of the former “Julia Joseph” with whom he had eight children was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1909: The Tennessee Volunteers coached by George Levene lost to the University of North Carolina that scored only three points.

1909: The Sick Benevolent Society of Zialkamian, the hometown of Naphtali Herz Imber who passed away yesterday, asserted its right to take care of the burial of the poet superseding the claim of those who wanted to bury him “in a Rumanian Jewish cemetery at Bayside” where he reportedly owned a plot.

1911: Birthdate of Joe Rosenthal. In 1945, at the age of 33, Rosenthal snapped the most famous of all World War II photos – The Raising of the American Flag on Iwo Jima.

1911: In Paris, France, founded of the Der Yidisher Arbeyter (The Jewish Worker) a Yiddish language newspaper aimed at the “working class” that went out of business in 1914 because it espoused pacifist beliefs at a time when France was on the brink of war.

1911: Birthdate of Jacob L. Trobe, the son of an Orthodox rabbi, who as a representative of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee was among the first relief workers to enter the concentration camps.



1914: It was reported today that at Columbia University, John Dyneley Prince will teach several foreign language courses including one in Hebrew.

1915: It was announced today that Catholics, Protestants and Jews at the Columbia University’s Teacher College have joined together to create “a co-operative union to be known as the Students’ Religious Organization.”

1916: Among the newly released books available to the public is Charles Frohman: Manager and Man, the “authorized biography of the great manager written by those who had access to all the papers, correspondence and records of Charles Frohman and the Empire Theater.”

1917(23rd of Tishrei, 5678); Simchat Torah

1917(23rd of Tishrei, 5678); After enduring days of torture at the hands of the Ottoman authorities Sarah Aaronsohn committed suicide rather than betray her comrades. Aaronsohn was a member of Nili, a Jewish spy ring working for the British in Palestine. Aaronsohn had been born in Palestine in 1890 and was motivated to work for the British when she the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide. She was buried in the cemetery in Zichron Yaakov. There are those who make an annual pilgrimage to her grave on the anniversary of her death so the memory of this brave young Jewess will always be part of the heritage of the Jewish people.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/SAaronsohn.html

1917: Fuad I began his reign as Sultan of Egypt.

1918: Today, ten months after the Parliament of Finland had promulgated an act making it possible “for Jews to become Finnish nationals” “Frederick Charles was elected King of Finland by that same Finnish Parliament.

1919(15th of Tishrei, 5680): Sukkoth

1919: The Cincinnati Reds defeat the Chicago White in the World Series that would become known as the Black Sox Scandal. According to many “experts” Arnold Rothstein, a Jewish born gambler of unsavory reputation, supplied the money to bribe selected members of the White Sox. Abe Attell, a former boxer known as “The Little Hebrew,” was Rothstein’s bagman. According to information left on this blog “Attell was Jewish, but he grew up in an Irish neighborhood. Because of that, he often found himself involved in fights, and according to him, he would get involved in as many as 10 bouts each day as a kid. Attell's father abandoned his family when Attell was 13, and Attell had to sell newspapers to support his family. He used to sell them on the streets and corners, and while selling newspapers, he got a chance to witness the fight between Solly Smith and George Dixon for the world's Featherweight championship. With that, Attell and two of his brothers were convinced that maybe they had a future in boxing.”

1920: Dr. Enlow is scheduled to deliver a sermon “Lessons from the Life of Jacob H. Schiff” during Shabbat Services at Temple Emanu-El in New York.

1920: Birthdate of Jason Wingreen, the native of Brooklyn and graduate of Brooklyn College whose decade’s long acting career known to many as the bartender on “All in the Family.”

http://deadline.com/2016/01/jason-wingreen-dead-prolific-tv-actor-all-in-the-family-boba-fett-the-empire-strikes-back-1201675164/

1921: Dr. Morris Murray Peshkin married Lillian Rapaport today.

http://prabook.com/web/person-view.html?profileId=1411342





1921: In Berlin “historian George Herlitz, the founder of the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem” and his wife gave birth to MK and diplomat Esther Herlitz who became Israel’s first female ambassador when she served represented Israel in Denmark in 1966.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-first-female-ambassador-passes-away-at-94/

1922: In Brownsville immigrant tailor Harry Finkel and his Mary gave birth to Philip “Fyvush” Finkel, the veteran of the Yiddish Theatre, who won an Emmy for his role as a lawyer in the television hit “Picket Fences.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/theater/fyvush-finkel-pillar-of-yiddish-theater-dies-at-93.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

1922: Elinor Fatman Morgenthau and Henry Morgenthau, Jr. who would serve as FDR’s Secretary of the Treasury gave birth of Dr. Joan E. Morgenthau, the wife of Fred Hirschhorn, Jr.

1923: Birthdate of Israeli, poet, novelist, journalist and filmmaker, Haim Gouri. A sabra. Gouri worked with Jewish refugees in Hungary after WW II and fought with the Palmach in the Negev during the War for Independence before pursuing his literary career. He has won the Bialik, Israel and Uri Zvi Grinberg awards.

http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poet/item/3162/12/Chaim-Gouri

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/01/obituaries/haim-gouri-poetic-voice-of-a-rising-israel-is-dead-at-94.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

1924: Dutch diamond polisher and baseball player Hartog Hamburger, the father of psychiatrist and “Jewish resistance fighter Max Hamburger, “was hit in the head by a line drive” today in a freak accident that would lead to his death on the following day.

1924: In Manhattan, “Dr. Sebastian Smigel and the former Bella Soloway” gave birth to Irwin Elliot Smigel, the dentist whose clients included numerous stars.” (As reported by Sam Roberts)

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/18/nyregion/irwin-smigel-new-york-dentist-behind-cosmetic-techniques-dies-at-92.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=1

1925(21st of Tishrei, 5686): Hoshana Rabah

1925: In Sosnowiec, Poland, ‘chocolate salesman Issachar Feiner and Rivka Herzberg gave birth to Haim Feiner who immigrated to Palestine in 1936 and gained fame as songwriter, poet and author Chaim Hefer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/21/world/middleeast/haim-hefer-israeli-songwriter-and-poet-dies-at-86.html?_r=0

1926: Max Derfiner, a pioneer silk manufacturer who arrived in New York from Tel Aviv last week continued to tout the possibilities for developing the silk industry in Palestine. Derfiner who already expressed his belief that in ten years Tel Aviv can become a “second Lyon” said today that one of his keys to success was his ability “to concentrate in one plant all the processes of silk manufacturing…which in France, Switzerland or America would be performed in separate establishments.” Derfiner also said that the Zionists had “developed the ‘Made in Palestine’ label into a commercial asset...” In Jewish homes through the world the name Palestine had a business value as well as a sentimental appeal.



1929: “June Moon,” a play co-authored by George S. Kaufman premiered on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre.

1930: As Dr. Drummond Shiels, British Under-Secretary for Dominions, left his hotel today an angry crowd shouted “Away with Parliament which does do justice to Jews,” “Shame to the British Government” and “Remember Hebron, Safed and Motza,” a reference to the 1929 sites of bloody Arab attacks on defenseless Jews. The crowd sang Hatikvah as Shiels sped away under the protection of the local police. “The demonstration was caused by a report from London that Shiels had promised an Arab delegation that a Parliament for Palestine” would be established. Creation of such an institution was part of a plan to circumvent the creation of a Jewish home in Palestine and guarantee that Jews would always be a minority in Eretz Israel.

1930: “Sir John Monash” published one day after his death stated that “It is not an exaggeration to say that Sir John Monash…was one of the ablest soldiers that the British colonies sent to the World War.”  Monash was known for his ability to train troops as could be seen from his work with the Third Australian Division.  A brave soldier, he was an able tactician and strategist who played a key role in the great assault that broke the Hindenburg Line which forced the Germans to sue for peace. It was said of him “that he would command a division better than a brigade and corps better than a division.” [Nowhere in the article that traced Monash rise to prominence was it mentioned that he was Jewish.]

1932(9th of Tishrei, 5693): Kol Nidre was chanted for the last time during the Presidency of Herbert Hoover.

1933(19th of Tishrei, 5694): Fifth Day of Sukkoth

1933: “Wedding at Lake Wolfgang” a musical directed by Hans Behrendt who died at Auschwitz was released today in Germany.

1933: Birthdate of Martin Gottfried “a drama critic and the author of several biographies of entertainers and playwrights as well as two influential studies of the Broadway musical.”  (As reported by Daniel Slotnik)

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/theater/martin-gottfried-theater-critic-and-author-dies-at-80.html?_r=0

1934: In New York, Minnie and David Alper gave birth to long term IBM employee Ralph Abraham Alper, the husband of the former “Linda Ann Propp.”

1935: U.S. premiere of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” directed by Max Reinhardt at the Warner Bros. Hollywood Theatre in New York City.

1936(23rd of Tishrei, 5697): Simchat Torah

1936: In Chicago, at a rally featuring Al Landon, the Republican candidate for President, Anna Smith told the throng that “It is necessary for Christians, Jews and Gentiles to join together to resist this sinister movement, communism” which ironically was part of what would become a decades long campaign to equate Democrats, liberals and Jews with the Communists and a conspiracy to take over the United States.

1936: It was reported today that “the version of the story” surrounding the arrest and conviction of a Jew named Abraham Kaiser for writing a letter to a friend in America that was critical of Hitler and the Nazis “stated that the police discovered the letter in his flat” while at the same time claiming that Kaiser who lived in Duisburg had mailed the letter from Dusseldorf in order to conceal his identity. (Editor’s Note – accuracy is not necessary in the world of anti-Semitism)



1936: “Libeled Lady” a comedy produced by Lawrence Weingarten was released in the United States today by MGM.

1937: Birthdate of Queens College and Columbia University children’s book author Johanna Hurwitz.

https://www.kidsreads.com/authors/johanna-hurwitz

1937: The Los Angeles Examiner reported today that when Vittorio Mussolini, the son of the Il Duce, came to Hollywood, the Hollywood Ant-Nazi League (HANL) “denounced the visit on behalf of all ‘artists and writers’ declaring that ‘Fascism means the suppression of all freedom of expression.’”

1938: Thirteen year old future “Monuments Man” Harry Ettlinger, and his family arrived in New York having “escaped” from Germany in September.

1938: Today, Maurice Babadu, the Swiss Catholic theology student tried to assassinate Hitler “travelled from Brittany to Baden-Baden, then on to Basel, where he bought a Schmeisser 6.35 mm (.25 ACP) semi-automatic pistol.”

1939: In London, Bill Sedley and his wife gave birth to British jurist Sir Stephen Sedley.

1939: Himmler declared that 550,000 Jews living in Polish provinces should be relocated

1939: “Hitler’s Plan for Jews Scored” published today described the decision of the delegates attending the Order of the Sons of Zion Conference at the Hotel Astor to adopt a resolution condemning the Nazi plan “establish a Jewish State in Polish Territory” as “a hypocritical scheme, fraught with the gravest of dangers to European Jewry.”

1940: Adina Gerstel and Rabbi Louis Wefel were married today.  Werfel would gain fame for his role as a chaplain during WW II who was known as the flying Rabbi.  Unfortunately, his would be cut short when he died when his aircraft crashed in 1943 while he was bring the joy of Chanukah to U.S. troops fighting in North Africa.

1940: In Great Britain, the Committee of Privileges reported that the detention of the anti-Semitic MP Archibald Maule Ramsay under Regulation 18B that applies to people “suspected of disloyalty” “was not a breach of privilgege.” He would be released in 1944 and would return to the House of the House of Commons where he introduced a resolution calling for the banishment of the Jews as had been done by King Edward I.

1941(18th of Tishrei, 5702): Chol Hamoed Sukkoth

1941(18th of Tishrei, 5702): Forty-seven year old Dallas resident Herbert Mallinson, “the chairman of the Southwest region of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the son of Samuel and Rose Mallinson and husband of Beatrice Mallinson, passed away today “while attending a meeting of the Dallas Jewish Federation for Social Service.”

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1941/10/11/105164141.pdf

1941: The Nazis murdered 3,726 Jews including 717 children in the Poligon barracks near Swieciany, Lithuania.

1941: A recruiting rally was held in Tel Aviv as part of a campaign to get another 5,000 Jews from Palestine to enlist in the British Army. Currently there are approximately 10,000 Jews from Palestine serving in the British Army and RAF throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East. The leading Jewish institutions sponsoring the campaign have adopted the slogan “Jews are fighting with the Allies for victory.”


1941: Parades of Jewish veterans of World War I were greeted by cheering throngs in Haifa and Tel Aviv. The parades were the climax of week’s long effort to recruit more Jewish recruits for the British military. Jewish leaders encouraged every man who can be spared to “enroll under the Union Jack” to “help in the fight against Adolf Hitler.”


1941: Hans Frank told the ministers of the General Government in Cracow; "As far as Jews are concerned . . . I want to tell you quite frankly that they must be done away with one way or another."

1941: The Nazi-allied government led by Marshal Ion Antonescu began deporting Jews to camps located in Transnistria, an occupied area in the former Soviet Union.

1941: J.D. Salinger who had been corresponding with Marjorie Sheard, “a Toronto woman about his age” wrote to her today asking that she send him a picture of herself.

1941: Governor Lehman will not be attending “the dinner forum on ‘Europe Today’ scheduled to be held this evening which is co-chaired by Lillian Hellman and Ernest Hemingway because a number of the committees sponsoring the event “have long been connected with Communist activities.”  (Editor’s note – Hemingway was not Jewish.  The dinner demonstrated the problem that was to plague America for years: how to oppose fascism without ending up “in bed” with the Communists.)

1941: Two months before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt approved what became known as the Manhattan Project, America’s unprecedented effort to build an atomic bomb.  The number of Jews involved in this decision including Einstein is surpassed only by the number of Jewish scientist involved in the effort.

1942: Eighty one year old Jesse Houghton Metcalf, the former Republican Senator from Rhode Island passed away.  In 1933, Metcalf was one of the Senators who spoke out against the German treatment of the Jews. While addressing the chamber declared, “We as a nation can only declare the existence of racial or religious prejudice to be untenable as a national ideal.

1942: Anne Frank, who was hiding with her family in an Amsterdam warehouse, wrote in her diary: “The British radio speaks of their (the Jews) being gassed.”

1942: In Brussels, Belgium, five of six leading members of the Belgian Jewish community are released from incarceration following the intervention of Cardinal Joseph-Ernst van Roey and Belgium's Queen Elizabeth.

1942: The USS Drum, the submarine on which Maurice Rindskopf served throughout WW II survived a heavy depth charge attack from the vessels escorting the cargo ships she had sunk the day before.

1942: Thousands of Jews from Miedzyrzec, Poland, are deported to the Treblinka death camp.


1943(10th of Tishrei, 5704): Yom Kippur

1943(10th of Tishrei, 5704): On Yom Kippur, over 1,000 men and women at Birkenau, deemed too sick to work, were gassed to death. At Plaszow, 50 Jews were murdered. Ironically, 600 Jews were permitted to pray in Sobibor

1943(10th of Tishrei, 5704): Hundreds of Jews were deported from Trieste and shipped to Auschwitz.

1943(10th of Tishrei, 5704): In Anconcia, a Catholic priest, Don Bernadino, warned the local Rabbi, Elio Toaff, of the impending deportation of the Jewish population. The Jews went into hiding, most of them being sheltered by Christian families. Only ten Jews would be caught and deported and one of them survived the war.



1943: A unnamed Jewish pilot went to Yom Kippur Services in the Grande Synagogue in Tunis “and spent almost the entire day in prayer and please for life and safety and happiness.” (As reported by Rabbi Louis Werfel, the chaplain known as “The Flying Rabbi”)

1944(22nd of Tishrei, 5705): Shemini Atzeret

1944: At Birkenau, on Simchat Torah, 650 boys involved with the Birkenau revolt were locked in the barracks together. Most of them would be tortured and then killed on October 20.

1944: Mordechai Adler (who became Mordechai Eldar) “celebrated his 15th birthday at Auschwitz-Birkenau

1944: Mordechai Eldar cheated death today.  Having been “selected” at Auschwitz and having already stripped naked, for some unknown reason German officers had Eldar and 49 others step outside, put on shoes and uniforms, and sent them to work in Canada, the facility where the Germans had prisoners sort and store all the possessions of those who arrived at the Death Camp.


1944: The SS arrests three Jewish women at the Auschwitz munitions factory for complicity in the smuggling of explosives used in the uprising of October 6-7


1945: Tonight, "security at the Atlit Detention Center near Haifa - a camp for 'illegal' Jewish immigrants in Mandatory Palestine - was breached; 200 detainees mainly Holocaust survivors and recent arrivals from Europe, were released in a daring operation launched by the Palmach."

1945: After his trial in Paris, Pierre Laval, head of the Vichy Government is executed by firing squad. General Petain was the titular head of the Vichy Government. Laval really ran the show. Vichy was the name of the French collaborationist government that worked with the Nazis during World War II. Vichy’s supporters included France’s own, home-grown anti-Semites. The Vichy government was so eager to ingratiate itself with the New German Order, that it was rounding up Jews and turning them over to the Nazis before the Nazis asked them to do so.



1945: Loy Henderson, the head of the Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs at the United States State Department who was an Arabist opposed to the creation of Jewish state in Palestine sent Secretary of State James Byrnes “a memo regarding what he called ‘urgent problems relating to the Palestine.’”

1946(16th of Tishrei, 5710): Second Day of Sukkoth


1946(16th of Tishrei, 57100” Ninety year old Lottie Miriam Jaffe, the mother of Louis Isaac Jaffe, the “Pulitzer Prize winningedtor of the Norfolk Virginian Pilot. 

1946: An announcement was made today that “Israel Aron Friedman, a member of the board of directors of General Mercantile Corporation of Palestine, Ltd., has arrived in New York from Tel Aviv. “The corporation is concerned with the procurement of raw materials and machinery for the basic Jewish industries of Palestine.”

1946: Birthdate of Gustin L. Reichbach, the Columbia University protest leader who went on to a career in the law and as a distinguished jurist. (As reported by Jim Dwyer)

1947: “High Button Shoes, a musical with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Sammy Cahn opened on Broadway at the New Century Theatre.



1947: “The Jewish Agency…called upon…Jewish veterans of the North African and Italian campaigns” now living in Palestine “to form the nucleus of a Jewish army that would be ready for a ‘life or death showdown’ with Arab forces. Mrs. Gold Meyerson, head of the Agency’s political department told veterans assembled at Tel Aviv that salvation for Palestine Jews rested not at Lake Success but ‘right here. If the Arab leaders have their way, we must either give up the link between the Jews and Palestine or die in a last-ditch struggle…We are not looking for trouble, but we are ready for it.’”

1947: President Truman learned that the Arab League Executive had requested its member nations to dispatch troops to the Palestine border as part of a plan to invade the Mandate Territory. Truman responded by instructing Secretary of State Marshall to support the planned partition of Palestine.

1948: During the War for Independence, Egypt launched a major attack in the Negev. This
attack constitutes a major violation of the UN brokered truce. This Egyptian offensive along with other violations will lead to a major Israeli military effort later in the month of October.


1951(9th of Tishrei, 5712) Erev Yom Kippur

1951: Birthdate of actor Robert Wuhl who played the title role in the HBO hit “Arli$$.”

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that since 1948, Youth Aliyah had absorbed more than 5,000 young people from Morocco. Their parents were given a choice of three types of educational institutions: Orthodox, traditional (keeping of Sabbath, festivals and Kashrut), and non-religious.

1955(23 of Tishrei, 5716): Simchat Torah

1955: A Double Simcha for Sid Gillman as his Los Angeles win their third straight of the season defeating the Detroit Lions 17 to 10.

1956(4th of Cheshvan, 5717): Arab terrorists killed two workers in an orchard of the youth village, Neve Hadassah, in the Sharon region.

1958: HMS Springer an S class submarine of the Royal Navy was sold to the Israeli navy today and renamed the Tanin

1958: Pope Pius XII passed away 19 years after being elevated to the Papacy. The Pope’s role in the Holocaust has been too well documented to need to be covered here.

1960:  Birthdate of actress and “voice” Madeleine Blaustein,

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSmcid=47541371&GRid=85663250&

1961: In Los Angeles Boris Sagal and his wife Sara Zwilling of blessed memory gave birth to twin daughters Jean and Liz Sagal who made it possible for them to star in the television series “Double Trouble.”
1962: The film adaptation of “Long Day’s Journey into Night” “directed by Sidney Lumet, produced by Ely Landau with Joseph E. Levine and Jack J. Dreyfus, Jr. as executive producers with a score by Andre Previn and cinematography by Boris Kaufman” was released in the United States today by Embassy Pictures.


1963: Birthdate of journalist Daniel Pearl who was brutally murdered by Moslem terrorists on February 21, 2002.

1967(5th of Tishrei, 5728): French author Andre Maurois, born Emile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog, passed away at the age of 82.




1968: Hugo Weisgall’s ‘Nine Rivers from Jordan” premiered today at the New York City Opera

1968: Forty-seven Jews praying at the Tomb of the Patriarchs were wounded in a grenade attack by Arabs.

1969: In Boston, a funeral service is scheduled to be held at Temple Israel for sixty-nine year old Russian born, Harvard educated Dr. William Dameshek, “a pioneer in the study of blood” and leader in the movement to “establish hematology as a specialty” who was married to Rose Dameshek with whom he had one child.

1971: “The Incomparable Max” a play co-authored by Jerome Lawrence based on a short story by Max Beerbohm had its first “preview” performance today.

1972: Birthdate of Etan Kalil Patz

http://www.biography.com/people/etan-patz-20851519

1973: On the third day of the Yom Kippur war a pessimistic Moshe Dayan addresses a group of journalist leading them to believe that Israeli forces are in such precarious shape that they will have to surrender most of the Sinai to the advancing Egyptians and make a stand in the eastern edge of the peninsula. Prime Minister Golda Meir is so alarmed by Dayan’s emotional about-face that she refuses to let him address the nation on television in the evening. Israeli news broadcasts reported for the first time that the Egyptian attack had driven Israeli forces from the east bank of the Suez Canal. While Syrian artillery was able to shell villages in the Jezreel Valley, Israeli planes had attacked installations in around Damascus. Inadvertently, one of the attacks had hit the Soviet Cultural Center in the Syrian capital. In a television later in the evening an Israeli general pointed out that the Soviets had been arms into the Arab states for the past six years creating a military imbalance of striking proportion. He also said that Israeli forces would not cease operation action until the Arab states learned that they could not violate a truce with impunity without paying a high price.

1973: During a meeting of the war cabinet, Defense Minister Dayan voiced confidence in the Israeli forces' ability to overcome Syria and asked permission to bomb targets in Damascus. "There's an order: No retreat on the Golan," he said. "Fighting to the death and not moving ... What I'm suggesting and asking for approval of [is] bombings inside the city." Prime Minister Meir asked whether he meant within the city itself, and Dayan confirmed this. He said the IDF can't muster a column to march on Damascus even as a decoy, but bombing in and around the city could "break the Syrians" - though he conceded, "You can't say the population wouldn't be hurt."Why would it necessarily break them?" Meir asked. "Would a bombing here break us?” General Elazar replied: "A heavy bombing here, on Reading and Ramat Aviv, would seriously disrupt things."

1973: Aharon Sagi, Harel Gilutz and Yosef Ye'ari made it back safely to Israeli lines after their F-4E Phantom Jets were shot down.

1973: Lt. Col. Yossi Ben Hanan who had cut short his honeymoon in Nepal at the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War “took command of a scratch force of Israeli tanks that had been put together by Shmuel Askarov, one of the survivors of the decimated 188th Armored Brigade. Leading his command in a desperate battle against overwhelming numbers of Syrian T-62s, Ben Hanan restored the tactical situation but at the cost of most of his command and his own Centurion tank. Blown out of the turret when his tank was hit by a Sagger anti-tank missile, Ben Hanan lay wounded on the battlefield until he was rescued from behind enemy lines by Yonatan Netanyahu, a legendary member of the IDF's elite Sayeret Matkal.”  A Sabra, born in 1945, Hanan was a second generation military leader.  He father, Michael Ben Hanan had been a Haganah commander in Jerusalem.



1973: As of today those parts of the Golan that were the responsibility of the Golani Brigade were back under Israeli control, and the Syrians had been pushed back over the Purple Line. The Purple Line was the name given to the cease fire line drawn between Israel and Syria after the 1967 war.

1973: “Against orders, reserve Maj. Gen. Ariel Sharon launches a counterattack against Egyptian forces in the canal area which led to the loss of 20 tanks, most of which were left in enemy territory. Sharon’s actions lead to moves for his dismissal.”(As reported by JTA)

1973: U.S. Jewish leader Max Fisher urges President Richard Nixon in a meeting at the White House to “please send the Israelis what they need.” That night, Nixon tells Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir that “all your aircraft and tank losses will be replaced.” (As reported by JTA)

1973: Lt. Colonel Avigdor Kahalani was awarded the Medal Valor for his leadership and valor shown starting today during the Yom Kippur War when “he commanded a hastily assembled group of tanks and crews from different armor units” that “repelled a vastly superior Syrian force which had overrun the Israeli positions  in the first days of the war.”  The scene of the fighting was so “littered with hundreds of burned tanks that it was renamed “Emek Ha-Bacha” (the Valley of Tears)

1973: Birthdate of Erin Daniels. Born Erin Cohen the Vassar College grad is known for her career as a television actress.

1974: Birthdate of Dina Aviv, the daughter of Aliza Avi, who gained fame as Israeli pop singer Din Din Aviv.

1974: Oskar Schindler, the Schindler in “Schindler’s List” passed away.

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005787

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/schindler.html

1974: “Shanks” an “American horror film” starring Marcel Marceau was released in the United States today by Paramount Pictures.

1975: It was announced today that Andrei Sakharov, a leading Soviet dissident and champion of human rights whose wife’s mother was Jewish, had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1975: In a move designed to strengthen their influence in the Arab world, the Soviets greeted President Assad of Syria on the first day of his visit to the Soviet Union.

1976(15th of Tishrei, 5737): Sukkoth is celebrated for the last time during the Presidency of Gerald Ford.

1976(15th of Tishrei, 5737): Sixty-four year old Polish born American Zionist leader and JNF executive Abram Salomon, the husband of the “former Helena Himmelbblau” with whom he had three children, passed away today.

1976: The “second Broadway production of ‘The Robber Bridegroom, a musical with a book and lyrics by Alfred Uhry’ opened today at the Biltmore Theatre.”

1977: In New Orleans, Arlene S. Wieder was married at the New Orleans Hilton in that hotels first such event.

1979(18th of Tishrei, 5740): Chol Hamoed Sukkoth

1979: Two days after he had passed away funeral services are scheduled to be held “at the Congregational Son of Israel Temple in Upper Nyack, NY for eighty-four year old “Irving Maidman, a major owner of properties around Times Square, the dean of West Side Development,” “a founder of the Albert Einstein Medical School” and husband of “the former Edith Shvitiz with whom he had four children – Robert, Mathew, Rebecca and Ellen – followed by burial “at Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, Queens.”

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1979/10/08/112128060.pdf



1980(29th of Tishrei, 5741): A bomb planted in a motorcycle saddlebag outside the Copernic Street synagogue in a wealthy eastern Paris neighborhood exploded on a Friday night, killing three Frenchmen and Aliza Shagrir, 42, and wounding 22 others. Shagrir, an Israeli cinematographer, was walking past the synagogue with her 15-year-old son, Haggai, who would eventual go to work at the Foreign Ministry. Aliza Shagrir was the wife of Micha Shagrir a well-known television, film and documentary producer who lives in Jerusalem and who established the Aliza Shagrir Fund prize for outstanding documentaries in her name. Eventually, Hassan Diab a Lebanese native living in Canada would be charged with crime.

1980: The funeral for seventy-eight year old hotel owner and philanthropist Hyman B. Cantor who was survived by his wife Gertrude, his son David and his daughters Marcia Wasserman and Nancy Lynn, is scheduled to be held today at Temple Isaiah in Forest Hills, Queens

1981: Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Thomas T. Johnson ruled in favor of Mel Mermelstein, finding that he had provided sufficient evidence to prove his claim that Jews were gassed in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. The Court issued a judgment requiring the Institute for Historical Review (IHR) to pay Mermelstein $50,000, plus $40,000 for personal suffering, and to write a public apology to Mermelstein.

1981: “Tatoo, a thriller” produced by Richard P. Levine and Joseph E. Levine was released in the United States today by 20thCentury Fox.

1981: “Body and Soul” a remake of the 1947 classic produced by Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan was released today in the United States

1982(22nd of Tishrei, 5743): Shabbat and Shmini Atzeret

1982(22nd of Tishrei, 5743): Eighty-six year old Anna Freud, the youngest of Sigmund Freud’s children who followed in his footsteps to become a leading psychonalyst.

https://www.verywellmind.com/anna-freud-biography-1895-1982-2795536



1982(22nd of Tishrei, 5743): “Stefano Gaj Tache, a 2-year-old Jewish boy was killed and another 37 were injured in an attack on the Great Synagogue of Rome carried out by Palestinian terrorists.” (As reported by Forward)



1985: A day after having murdered Leon Klinghoffer, a wheel-chair bound Jewish American passenger and then throwing his body overboard, the Arab/Moslem terrorists who had high jacked the Achille Lauro negotiated with authorities as the ship steamed towards Port Said



1986: Senator Claiborne Pell (D- R.I.) enter into the Congressional Record an article, "Navy Rabbi To Join Iceland Team: Russian immigrant's grandson picked to lead staff services," published in the Providence Journal that described the role played in by Rabbi Arnold Resnick, a U.S. Navy Chaplain in leading Yom Kippur services in Greenland during the planning meetings for the latest Soviet-American summit



1987: Claire Boothe Luce passed away. Most people remember her as the wife of Henry Luce, the man who created the Time-Life publishing empire. Others remember her as a Republican Party political figure and ambassador. But Mrs. Luce considered herself first and foremost a playwright, a role that brought her great success before World War II. In 1939, she wrote Margin for Error, a comedy about a policeman assigned to protect the German consul in New York. The Consul is a Nazi. The police officer is an American Jew. The play was considered the first successful anti-Nazi play to reach Broadway.



1988(28th of Tishrei, 5749): Eighty-four year old playwright Edward Chodorov, a friend of Moss Hart and S.J. Pereleman passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/12/obituaries/edward-chodorov-84-playwright-and-writer-and-producer-of-films.html


1988: Today CBS released “Liberace: Behind the Music” a biopic “co-starring Victor Garber and Saul Rubinek” and featuring Shawn
1988: Active polio viruses have been discovered in sewage and a water purification plant in four more Israeli cities, bringing the total number of infected areas to nine, Israel Radio said today.


1989(10th of Tishrei, 5750): Yom Kippur

1980(10th of Tishrei, 5750): Nine-one year old Richard F. Ulhmann, the former head of Ulhmann Grain Company and former “president of the Chicago Board of Trade” who was the husband of Catherine Ulhmann with whom he had three children – Frederick, Janis and Audrey – passed away today in Highland Park, Il.

https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/14/obituaries/richard-f-uhlmann-grain-dealer-91.html

1989: Penthouse Magazine's Hebrew edition hits the newsstands

1990: Saddam Hussein threatens to hit Israel with a new missile.

1991: “Homicide” a crime film “written and directed by David Mamet” and featuring Robin Spielberg was released in the United States today

1992: Janet Rosenberg Jagan became the “First Lady of Guyana” today.

1992: “A River Runs Through It” a cinematic gem based on a novel of the same name featuring Joseph Gordon-Levitt was released in the United States today.

1993(24th of Tishrei, 5754): On Shabbat, “Dror Forer and Aran Bachar were murdered by terrorists in Wadi Kelt in the Judean Desert. The Popular Front and the Islamic Jihad 'Al-Aqsa Squads' each publicly claimed responsibility.”

1994: “Nowhere to Hide” a made for television film co-starring Max Pomeranc was broadcast for the first time on ABC.

1994(4th of Cheshvan): Holocaust survivor, successful businessman and founder of the NYC Marathon, Fred Lebow, passed away. (As reported by Michael Janofsky)

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/10/obituaries/fred-lebow-is-dead-at-62-founded-new-york-marathon.html

1994: Corey Pavin won the Tokai Classic.  The golf tournament was Japanese; the golfer was Jewish.

1994: Alfred Doulton wrote to Sir Martin Gilbert describing the heavy casualties suffered by the 49th Infantry Division, including the murder of their brigadier on October 25, 1945, as the British sought to quell the uprising by the Indonesians who had declared their independence from the Netherlands.

1995(15th of Tishrei, 5756): Sukkoth

1995(15th of Tishrei): Ninety-five year old Polish born Lillian Nassau, a major mogul in the world antiques and the wife of Dr. Leo S Palitz passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/10/world/lillian-nassau-a-dealer-in-art-nouveau-antiques-is-dead-at-95.html

1996(26th of Tishrei, 5757): Ninety-year old Julius Raskin, the captain of CCNY basketball team known as “Little Tubby” because his older brother Morris was called “Big Tubby” who went on to career in education passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/03/nyregion/julius-raskin-90-a-retired-principal.html

2000(10th of Tishrei, 5761): Yom Kippur is observed for the first time in the 21st century.

2001(22nd of Tishrei, 5762): Shmini Atzeret

2003: The Israeli Gesher Theater starts its tour of Moscow. The Moscow critics have already called the tour the biggest event of the theater season. The Gesher Theater was founded in 1990 in Tel Aviv by Russian immigrants

2004: The first National Day of Commemorating the Holocaust was held in Romania. October 9 was chosen as a date for this event because it marks the beginning of Romanian deportations of Jews to Transnistria, in 1942.

2004: Final performance of the London production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeny Todd.”

2004: While play Georgia Tech today, University of Maryland punter Adam “Podlesh had a then-career high nine punts for a then-career high 448 net yards.

2004(24th of Tishrei, 5765): On Shabbat Jews begin the cycle of Torah readings with Bereshit.

2004(24th of Tishrei, 5765): Sixty-five year old economics professor Herschel Grossman passed away unexpectedly today.

https://www.brown.edu/academics/economics/index.php?q=about/faculty/memorium/memorium-herschel-grossman

2004(24th of Tishrei, 5765: Philosopher Jacques Derrida passes away at the age of 74. (As reported by Jonathan Kandell)

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/10/obituaries/jacques-derrida-abstruse-theorist-dies-at-74.html

2005: The Romanian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu, participated in the laying of a wreath at the Holocaust Memorial in Iasi and the inauguration of The Centre for Hebrew Studies. During the inaugural National Day of Commemorating the Holocaust, the National Institute for Studying the Holocaust in Romania was also opened.



2005: The Histadrut labor federation renews the strike against the Religious Councils. Funerals will be performed only at night and there will be no registration of marriages or Kashrut supervision in restaurants, hotels and catering halls.



2005: Despite threats from suicide bombers and other terrorists, Israelis work to develop a fruitful society and create an air of normalcy. For example, Haaretz reported that Israel’s 2 – 1 victory over Faroe Islands in a World Cup soccer qualifier in the Ramat Gan stadium means Israel still has a chance of qualifying for the World Cup in Germany 2006. Israel will not know if it will qualify for the automatic birth or if it has to play a European team to get to the match in Germany until later in the week. The Israeli coach had said earlier that if the announcement if made on Thursday which is Yom Kippur, he will have to wait until Thursday night to find out the fate of his team.


2005: Bishop Von Galen, the German bishop known as the "Lion of Muenster" for his courageous anti-Nazi sermons during World War II took a step on the road to sainthood when he was beatified in St. Peter’s Basilica. The Nazis deported 37 priests to concentration camps 10 of whom perished in von Galen's place as punishment for the homilies, according to a brief biography by Reinhard Lettmann. However von Galen was not arrested. The Nazis were worried that if von Galen were arrested and killed, Muenster's residents would be angered and "written off as lost during the duration of the war," Lettmann wrote. Von Galen helped a Protestant pastor to hide a Jewish boy in an institute belonging to the bishop's office and took responsibility for the youth, who after the war was reunited with his mother, according to testimony carried by Vatican Radio.


2005(6th of Tishrei, 5766): Comedian Louis Nye passed away. (As reported by James Barron)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/11/arts/television/11nye.html?_r=0



2005: The New York Times reviewed The Pagoda in the Garden: a Novel in Three Parts by Wendy Lesser.

2005: The Times of Londonreviewed We Are at War: The Remarkable Diaries of Five Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times by Simon Garfield




2006: A ceremony took place for setting the keystone of the National Holocaust Memorial in Bucharest.

2006: Haaretz reported that Holocaust survivor groups here have joined the recommendation of the Polish president, Lech Kaczynski, to award the Nobel Peace Prize to 96-year-old Irena Sandler who was a member of the Polish underground group Zegota that was dedicated to saving Jews and who was recognized by the Yad Vashem Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority in 1965 for smuggling numerous Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto..

2007: A special preview screening of The Counterfeiters takes place as part of the UK Jewish Film Festival. “The Counterfeiters is based on the true story of the largest counterfeiting operation in history, set up by the Nazis in 1936.


2008(10th of Tishrei, 5769): Yom Kippur

2008: At Adas Israel in Washington, D.C. during a late afternoon break between Musaf and Mincha, Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher and Emily Yoffe of Slate lead a learning session that opens with the study of a classic text on the use of speech in public followed by a discussion of the ethical dilemmas of reporting and the spiritual importance of truth-telling.



2008: In Acre, both Jews and Arabs clashed with police in various parts of the ethnically divided city, leading to 10 arrests. In total, at least eight people were slightly injured in the successive nights of violence.

2008: CBS broadcast the first episode of season nine of the original CSI  (later known as CSI Las Vegas) a long-running cerebral crime series created by Antony E. Zuker and brought to the small screen by executive producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Carol Mendelsohn

2009: Michael Chabon, author of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Wonder Boys and the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, discusses his first book of nonfiction, Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son, at Lisner Auditorium, George Washington University, Washington,D.C.

2009: Scott Turow, the bestselling author of the legal thrillers Presumed Innocent and The Burden of Proof, presents a lecture, "Confessions of a Death Penalty Agnostic," drawn from his book "Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyer's Reflections on Dealing with the Death Penalty," at the Fairfax County Government in Fairfax, Va..

2009: Kol Shira will be performing at Java House in downtown Iowa City Kol Shira is an all women sextet known for its eclectic fusion performances of International Jewish music, including songs from Russia, Cuba, Eastern Europe, Iraq, Yemen, France, Spain, Middle East, Italy, Romania, Algeria and more. The group features vocals, flute, guitar, piano, bass, cello and hand-held percussion. Jim Musser, music reviewer for the Iowa City Press Citizen, described Kol Shira as “remarkable” and “exquisite.” At the end of 2004, Musser ranked their CD as one of the top six independent releases from the Eastern Iowa area.

2009 (21 Tishrei, 5770): Hoshanah Rabbah
2009: While Friday prayers ended without incident at the al-Aksa Mosque on the Temple Mount, Palestinian rioters clashed with police in the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Issawiya, Ras el-Amud and Sur Baher this afternoon.


2009(21st of Tishrei, 5770): “Stuart M. Kaminsky, a film scholar-turned-detective novelist who was widely known for his prodigious output, complex characters, and rich evocations of time and place, including Hollywood in its Golden Age, died today at the age of 75.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/arts/14kaminsky.html

2009 (21st  Tishrei, 5770): Richard W. Sonnenfeldt, who fled Nazi Germany as a teenager, became the chief interpreter for American prosecutors at the Nuremberg war crimes trials and interrogated some of the most notorious Nazi leaders of World War II, died today  at his home in Port Washington, N.Y. at the age of 86.(As reported by A.G. Sulzberger)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/nyregion/13sonnenfeldt.html

2009: Even on Hoshanah Rabah there is no rest from reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife by Francine Prose (Los Angeles Times) and Michael Bloomberg: Money, Power, Politics by Joyce Purnick (NY Times)


2010: A special Ethiopian Shabbat luncheon is scheduled to take place at the 92nd St Y in Manhattan. This scheduled event is intended to provide “special opportunity for Ethiopian Jews and any interested Amharic speakers based in New York to get together as a community to celebrate Shabbat in their native tongue and to be in the presence of their revered Kessotch on a rare visit from Israel.”



2010(1 Cheshvan, 5771): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan



2010: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has told Arab leaders he may seek U.S. recognition for a Palestinian state, which would include all of the West Bank, should peace talks with Israel break down, an aide said today. The idea, raised during Arab League deliberations in Libya yesterday, would place new pressure on Israel to extend a recently expired freeze on construction of settlements in the West Bank - a Palestinian condition for continuing recently re-launched direct peace negotiations

2010: In a case of Jew versus Jew, Andy Samberg played the part of Mark Zuckerberg  in Saturday Night Live’s lampoon of Facebook and its creator.

2011: StrorahSteps is scheduled to present Norah’s Rainbow at the 14th Street Y in Manhattan.

2011: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Lucky Bruce:A Literary Memoir” by Bruce Jay Friedman.

2011: A top Israeli security official is visiting Cairo, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram reported today, amid recent tensions between Israel and Egypt over security arrangements in the Sinai.

2011:The Yom Kippur War ceremony in Tel Aviv was almost canceled today after not a single government minister attended, causing uproar among the bereaved families. The ceremony, held annually at the Kiryat Shaul Cemetery which is the resting place of 780 soldiers who were killed during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, was supposed to begin at 4 pm but was delayed after government representatives failed to arrive.

2012: A screening of Amos Gati’s “Field Diary” is scheduled to take place at the New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center.

2012: “Fill the Voice,” “the first film about haredi life directed by an insider for a secular audience” is scheduled to have US premiere at the New York Film Festival

2012(23 of Tishrei, 5773): Simchat Torah for Orthodox and Conservative Jews.

2012: The funeral for Dr. Joan Morgenthau Hirschhorn is scheduled to take place Temple Emanu-El in New York City followed by a private burial.

2012: Two Kassam rockets fired by terrorists from the Gaza Strip tonight landed near the southern Israeli town of Sderot, while three Grad rockets fell outside the nearby town of Netivot.

2012: Serge Haroche, a French-Jewish physicist, has won the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with David Wineland from the United States. (As reported by JTA)

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/10/09/3108811/french-jew-american-researcher-share-nobel-prize-in-physics

http://www.timesofisrael.com/french-jew-is-co-recipient-of-2012-nobel-prize-in-physics/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=5656b1a69c-2012_10_09&utm_medium=email

2013: Jerry Dauber, author of The Worlds of Sholem Aleichem: The Remarkable Life and Afterlife of the Man Who Created Tevye is scheduled to deliver The Bernard Wexler Lecture on Jewish History in Washington, DC

2013: “Meditations on Equilibrium: Works in Glass and Paper” by Alex Hirsch is scheduled to open at the Oregon Jewish Museum



2013: “Bat Mitzvah Comes of Age” is scheduled to open at the Oregon Jewish Museum.

2013, Janet Yellen was officially nominated to replace Ben Bernanke as head of the Federal Reserve.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/business/announcing-fed-nomination-obama-praises-yellen.html?hp&_r=0

2013: Prof. Arieh Warshel, who was born in Israel and now lives in California, and Prof. Michael Levitt, a South African native who made aliya and now splits his time between the US and Israel, Prof. Martin Karplus, an Austrian native who fled to the US before the Holocaust won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry today. Warshel and Levitt are Israel’s 11th and 12th Nobel Prize laureates. (As reported by Judy Siegel-Itzkovich)

2013: Pope Francis told Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud) he would visit Israel, but did not specify a date.

2013: Michael Applebaum, the first Jewish Mayor of Montreal, is scheduled to make his first court appearance after having been “arrested and indicted on 14 charges including fraud, conspiracy, breach of trust, and corruption in municipal affairs.”

2013: Two IDF soldiers were hurt today after two mortar shells fired from Syrian territory landed near their position in the Golan Heights

2013(5th of Cheshvan, 5774): Sixty-nine year old Roger Richman, the son of a rabbi who became a major “talent agent” passed away today. (As reported by William Yardley)

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/business/roger-richman-agent-who-fought-for-rights-of-stars-heirs-dies-at-69.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&hpw=&adxnnlx=1412727054-kCJDxcJyRhmTUCKZv91s8g



2013(5th of Cheshvan, 5774): Ninety-seven year old movie critic Stanley Kaufman passed away today. (As reported by William Grimes)

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/business/roger-richman-agent-who-fought-for-rights-of-stars-heirs-dies-at-69.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&hpw=&adxnnlx=1412727054-kCJDxcJyRhmTUCKZv91s8g

2014(15th of Tishrei, 5775): Sukkoth

2014: In Romania observance of “National Day of Commemorating the Holocaust.”

2014: “Hamas continued to signal its willingness today to engage in negotiations with Israel to exchange the bodies of two IDF soldiers killed in Gaza for the release of Palestinian security detainees.” (As reported Eilor Levy)

2014: “Patrick Modiano of France, who has made a lifelong study of the Nazi occupation and its effects on his country, won the 2014 Nobel Prize in literature today for what one academic called “crystal clear and resonant” prose. (As reported by Karl Ritter and Malin Rising)

http://www.timesofisrael.com/patrick-modiano-writer-on-nazi-occupation-jewishness-wins-literature-nobel/

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/10/books/patrick-modiano-wins-nobel-prize-in-literature.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSumSmallMediaHigh&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0



2014: “Gett,” “a stark divorce drama from brother-and-sister duo Ronit and Shlomi Alkabetz” is one of the films scheduled to be shown at the Hamptons International Film Festival which opens today.



2015(26th of Tishrei. 5776): Seventy-five year old Larry Rosen, “a founder of the pop- jazz record label GRP” passed away today. (As reported by Ben Ratfliff)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/15/arts/music/larry-rosen-digital-audio-pioneer-dies-at-75.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

2015: A year after premiering at the Vienna International Film Festival, “99 Homes” starring Andrew Garfield was released in the United States today.

2015: The Eden-Tamar Music Center is scheduled to host “Loving Bach” part of The Three Piano Series.

2015: “Allied in the Fight: Jews, Blacks and the Struggle for Civil Rights,” “ a new exhibit” recounting “the efforts made by American Jews and African-Americans to fight for the fundamental American promise of equality before and during the Civil Rights era” is scheduled to go on display today at the Center for Jewish History.2016: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Richard Posner by William Domnarski and the recently paperback edition of Give Us The Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America by Ari Berman

2016: Today “Jewish actress Arianne Zucker, the subject of Donald Trump’s comments about women from a decade-old tape” in which he discussed “sexually assaulting women and trying to have sex with married  while he was married to his current wife” commented on the subject declaring that she is “a strong, independent, hard working mother, business woman and partner to a great man” and announcing her “to stand tall with self-respect” while decrying the facts that “there are too many people in power who abuse their position…and rewarded for it.”

2016: “The first group of Ethiopian Jews to move to Israel after waiting for three years is scheduled to arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport this evening, almost a year after the government approved the immigration of 9,000 Jews still left in Ethiopia.” (As reported by Melanie Lidman

2016: This afternoon, Temple Israel is scheduled to host a tour which will tell the story of the Memphis Jewish community “as it migrated from Main Street where the state’s first synagogue was established in in 1857 to present-day East Memphis.”

2016: In Coralville, IA, Odeh Bisharat and Galit Dahan Carlibach are scheduled to speak at the “Morning with the International Writers Prgoram.”



2016: Jews all over the world are scheduled to take part in the annual custom of “Kever Avot” – visiting the graves of our ancestors.

2016: “A Palestinian gunman, known to Israeli police for violence and incitement on social media, killed two Israelis and wounded several others while shooting a rifle from his car in Jerusalem” today.

2016: “A public concert schedule to be held in Tel Aviv’s Rabin square today” will not take place “because World Zionist Organization and Radio Lev Hamedina, two of the chief backers of the show, pulled out following a report, which revealed the event did not include any women among its lineup of seven performers because one of the financiers is opposed to women singing before a mixed audience on religious grounds.”

2016: Rabbi Mendel Deitsch  “a Chabad rabbi who was severely beaten in a train station in the western Ukrainian city of Zhitomir was airlifted to Israel by emergency medical transport.”

2016: On its closing night, SERET, DC, a celebration of contemporary Israeli cinema is scheduled to show “Sandstorm”

2016: Today, on the anniversary of the birth of Alfred Dreyfus, “one of his grandsons unveiled a stute of him at a local park’ in his home town “Mulhouse.”

2016: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and Center for Jewish History are scheduled to present a conference on “The Blood Libel Then and Now: The Enduring Impact of an Imaginary Event” featuring Elissa Bemporad, Raphael Israeli, David Kertzer, Hillel Kieval, E.M. Rose, Magda Teter, and Barbara Weissberger.

2016: A memorial service is scheduled to be held today for Miky Gershenson of blessed memory

2017: In the United States; Columbus Day observed

2017(19th of Tishrei, 5778): Sukkoth Chol Ha’moed;

2017: Beit Avi Chai is scheduled to host a series of Sukkoth activities aimed children including a play about Saul including “struggles over kingship, desert chases and the magic of music.

2017: “The second annual NoshFest,, Toronto’s Jewish food festival” organized by Andrea Segal and Michelle Gordon is scheduled to take place to at Artscape Wychwood Barnes featuring “Jewish delicacies, cooking demonstrations, cookbook signings and the Klezmer band, Jonno LIghtstone and the Rock the Shtetl.

2017: Seventy-two year old Professor Richard Thaler “was award the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics today.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/09/business/nobel-economics-richard-thaler.html

2018: This evening the Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a dinner during which attendees will discuss “New Beginnings in Jewish Thought: A Start-up Practice.”

2018: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to host the book launch of Historical Atlas of Hasidism by “Marcin Wodziński, a professor of Jewish studies at the University of Wrocław in Poland and David Biale, the Emanuel Ringelblum Distinguished Professor of Jewish History at the University of California, Davis.”

https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11268.html

2018: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host “An Evening with Simon Schama” the author of two weighty tomes entitled The Story of the Jews.

2018(30thof Tishrei, 5779): First Day Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

2019 (10th of Tishrei, 5780): Yom Kippur; for more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/

2019: In New Orleans, the Jewish Federation is scheduled to the “Federation-JNOLA Break Fast.

2019: As Jews all over the world remember the 46thAnniversary of the Yom Kippur War, some may be wondering what the impact of the decision of the United States to abandon the Kurds and allow Turkey to invade parts of Syria will mean for the long term security of the region.

 
OCTOBER 9

768: Carloman I and Charlemagne are crowned Kings of The Franks. Charlemagne treated to his Jewish subjects well, even if it meant parting from the doctrine of the Church. For example, he extended the rights previously granted to the Jews of Narbonne by his father. Jews “mingled freely at the Frankish court in defiance of canon law…Disputes between Jews were resolved in Jewish courts.” The increased protection and freedom offered to the Jews by Charlemagne resulted in increased commercial and financial activity, especially trade with the Islamic world.

1184: Judah ben Elijah Hadassi a Karaite Jewish scholar who lived in Constantinople began working on Eshkol ha-Kofter, “a treatise on the Ten Commandments.”

1192: After having negotiated a treaty with Saladin following the Battle of Jaffa, that created a three year truce, Richard III left Acre for a planned return to England.

1217: During the 5th Crusade, a force led by King Andrew II of Hungary landed on Cyprus “from where they sailed to Acre and joined John of Brienne, ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem” and others who were preparing to fight the Ayyubids of Syria.

1238: In Spain, King James I of Aragon founded the Kingdom of Valencia. In 1263, James I presided over the disputation between Nachmanides and a convert to Christianity named Paul Christian.

1253: English scholar and theologian, Robert Grosseteste, the Bishop of Lincoln who in 1244 “decided that the jurisdiction in dipsutes between Jews and Scholars at Oxford should rest with the Chancellor of the University and who was “widely consulted on the correct attitude to be adopted toward Jews” passed away today.

1261: Birthdate of Denis I who as King of Portugal resisted pressure by the clergy to “invoke the restrictions placed on the Jews by the Fourth Lateran Council.

1264: The army of King Alfonso the Wise of Castile conquered the Spanish city of Jerez that had been held by the Moors since 711. The Jewish community of Jerez, complete with a separate Juderia or Jewish quarter had existed since the time of the Moors. At the time of the Spanish conquest, the city had two synagogues with Don Yucaff and his son Don Todros each living in one of the “houses of the rabbis” Among those Jews to whom the king gave houses and/or lands were “Don Yehuda Mosca who made translations from Arabic into Spanish for the king; the "almoxarife" Don Mayr, or rather Mür de Malhea, and his son Çag (Isaac); Çimha (Simḥah) Xtaruçi, whose father lost his life and the whole of his large fortune during the rebellion of the city; Don Vellocid (Vellecid), "ballestero del rey a caballo"; Solomon Ballestero; and Axucuri Ballestero—the last three being in the king's army.” [Editor’s Note – As can be seen from this entry, the image of the Spanish Jews flourishing under the Moors and suffering under the Christians is not an accurate one.]


 1290: Today, St. Denis’s Day, the Jews of London departed in accordance with the Edward’s order of expulsion which was to take full effect in November.

1334: Casmir the Great (Poland) renewed the Charter of Boleslav, granting Jews the freedom of residence in all areas of the kingdom. This document was instrumental in encouraging Jews to begin to flee Germany and move east. King Kazimierz showed how favorably disposed towards Jews he was when he confirmed the privileges granted to Jewish Poles in 1264 by Boleslaus V. Under penalty of death, he prohibited the kidnapping of Jewish children for the purpose of enforced Christian baptism. He inflicted heavy punishment for the desecration of Jewish cemeteries. He invited Jews who were being persecuted elsewhere to settle in Poland, protecting them as 'people of the king'

1390: Despite the best efforts by “his physician Moses ibn Zarzal” King John I died today.



1390: Henry III who appointed the Jewish convert to Christianity Paul of Burgos keeper of the royal seal and Lord Chancellor began his reign as King of Castile and Leon

1526: Today, the Queen regent Maria, the widow of Louis II, continued her anti-Jewish policies first displayed when by expelling the Jews of Sopron by allowing the city of Pressburg, to expel its Jewish citizens.

1547: Christening of the Don Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote. According to some sources, Cervantes mother, Lenor de Cortinas was a descendant of Conversos, Jews who chose Christianity over death or despoliation of their wealth.

1580: Immanuel Tremellius, the Italian Jewish convert to Catholicism who then became a Protestant and was the Regius professor of Hebrew at Cambridge before becoming the Professor of Old Testament at the University of Heidelberg passed away today.
1635: Colonial American Separatist Roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts for preaching that civil government had no right to interfere in religious affairs. (Williams was seeking to establish freedom of worship through the separation of church and state.) Rhode Island would provide the model for the rest of the United States on this issue. In addition to which, William's policy would Rhode Island an attractive place for Jews to settle during the colonial and Revolutionary War periods.
1666(10th of Tishrei, 5427): Yom Kippur


1666(10th of Tishrei, 5427): In Hamburg, Germany, blessings were offered in honor of Sabbatia Zvi during Yom Kippur. The Hamburg community was unaware of the fact the self-proclaimed Messiah had converted to Islam in September of 1666.

1691: English merchant Erasmus Smith whose philanthropy was recognized by Trinity College when it created the Erasmus Smith Chair of Hebrew in 1724 passed away today.

1701: The Collegiate School of Connecticut (later renamed Yale University) is chartered in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. In 1805, Moses Simons became the first Jew to attend Yale. Seventeen years later, Judah P. Benjamin attended Yale Law School, making him the school’s second Jewish student. Benjamin left without graduating. According to recent records 1,200 of Yale’s 5,300 undergraduate students are Jewish while 200 of the 1,200 graduate students are Jewish. The school offers 45 Jewish courses and a minor in Jewish studies but no major. This is a vast improvement over the situation for Jews at Yale as late as the 1960’s when administrators, faculty and alumnae sought to limit Jewish enrollment at the Ivy League school through quotas and other forms of social pressure. You have to wonder if these people knew that Elihu Yale’s Jewish mistress, after whom the school was named, had born him a son. Would the Yalies have accepted Yale’s son?

1766: Uriah and Eva Esther Hendricks gave birth to Jochabed Sarah Hendricks

1771:  Count Jan Klemens Branicki, the Polish nobleman who proclaimed the Jews of Bialystok to be subject to bylaw and other local laws on an equal footing with the other townsmen, passed away

1775(15th of Tishrei, 5536): Sukkoth is observed the first time during the American Revolution

1780(10th of Tishrei, 5541): Yom Kippur

1784: Benjamin Nones, a native of Bordeaux, France who served with distinction during the American Revolution became a naturalized citizen of the United States today.

1789: Birthdate of Meno Burg, “the first and for a long time the only Jew serving as a Prussian staff officer.”



1794(15th of Tishrei, 5555): Sukkoth

1797(19th of Tishrei, 5558): Chol Hamoed Sukkoth

1797(19th of Tishrei, 5558): The Vilna Gaon passed away.  There is no way that we can do justice to this Giant of Judaism.  We urge you all to consult the numerous books, websites and other sources that can give you some sense of the importance of this sage who was such an expert in matters of Torah, Talmud and Halachah that even the descendants of those to whom he stood in opposition recognize his merit.

1798: In Bamberg, the chief rabbi and his wife gave birth to German jurist Karl Feust.

1799(10th of Tishrei, 5560): Final Yom Kippur of the 18th century

1803(23rd of Tishrei, 5564): Simchat Torah

1803: Rabbi Meanchem Mendel Rubin of Linsk, “the first rebbe of the Rosphitz dynasty and the son-in-law of Rabbi Yizchak Halevi Horowitz passed away today.

1809: Birthdate of Adolphe Franck the French philosopher whose work on the Kabbalah was popular with the public and was President of the Société des Etudes Juives

1813(15th of Tishrei, 5574): Sukkoth

1817: Johanna Benzinger and Secekel Loeb Wormser, “the Wonder Rabbi of Michel City” gave birth to Jaidel Wormser

1817: Daniel Rees married Priscilla Davis at the Western Synagogue today.

1818: Birthdate of Benedict Zuckerman, the native of Breslau who was a leading German mathematician who served on the faculty of the Breslau Seminary under the leadership of Zacharias Frankel.

1823(4th of Cheshvan, 5584): Jacob I. Cohen, a native of Bavaria and the son of Joshua and Peslah Cohen, who fought in the Battle of Beaufort while serving under Captain Lushington and who in 1789 “took the lead in organizing the first synagogue in Virginia, passed away today in Philadelphia

1823: In London, Frances Cohen and Joel Benjamin gave birth to Leon Benjamin,

1832(15th of Tishrei, 5593): Sukkoth

1833: In Laupheim, Jewish merchant Viktor Steiner and his Sophie gave birth to German banker and industrialist Kilian von Steiner.

1835: In Wurttemberg, Germany, Bernhard Frankfurter, the son of Mirjam and Moses Levi Frankfurter, and his wife Esther gave birth to “Mirjam Frankfureter.”

1837(10th of Tishrei, 5598): As the economic crisis known as the Panic of 1837 grips the United States Jews observe Yom Kippur.

1840: Birthdate of British painter Simeon Solomon. [There is no way to do justice to this complex man’s life and work in this small space. Among other sites, look at http://simeonsolomon.com/default.aspx

1843(15th of Tishrei, 5604): Sukkoth

1845: The Sephardic Synagogue of Kingston, Jamaica celebrated taking possession of a new Sefer Torah." The service was conducted by the Isaac Lopes, who served as the congregation’s rabbi.

1846: In New York City linguist and orientalist Elias Markens and his wife gave birth to journalist Isaac Markens, a manager and/or reporter for the United Press Association, theNew York Commercial Advertiser and the New York Evening Mail and Express who was a member of the Free Sons of Israel, author of Hebrews In America and the husband of Rachel Benjamin.
1848: In Lübeck, laws were adopted that “abolished all the disabilities” of the Jews thus making them true citizens of the city


1850(3rd of Cheshvan, 5611): Fifty-four year old Israel Friedman of Ruzhyn the Chasidic rebbe known as Der Heiliger Ruzhiner ("The holy one from Ruzhyn"), passed away today.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0017_0_17198.html

http://www.aish.com/jw/s/Hava-Nagilah-The-Story-behind-the-Quintessential-Jewish-Song.html?s=mm

1856(10th of Tishrei, 5617): Yom Kippur

1856: “A God-Send For The Express” published today reported that “the German organ of the Buchanneers in Philadelphia accuses Fremont of being a Hebrew by birth and having been educated in the Mosaic faith besides being born in Alsace. As the Express must by this time be tired of calling Col Freemont a Jesuit, it will be delighted of an opportunity to accuse him of being a descendant of Abraham.” Fremont is John C. Fremont, a native of Virginia, an Episcopalian, military hero and explorer known as the Great Pathfinder. He was also the Republican Party’s first Presidential nominee.

1857: In New York, the Recorder heard a second day of testimony in the case where Nathan Levin, a recently arrived Jewish immigrant from Hungary, had accused Israel Steinhardt, a fellow Hungarian co-religionist of stealing 940 pounds in Bank of England notes. A witness named Francois Guilland testified that he and Steinhardt had sailed on the same ship in September and that he had seen Steinhardt holding several of the bank notes that Levins claim Steinhardt had stolen from him just two days ago in New York. Two other witnesses testified that Levins had not the bank notes in his possession when they met with him just before the theft. It would appear Levins’ accusation that his fellow Jew had violated the 7th commandment was false and that Levins was attempting a swindle. The Recorder is holding the case over until tomorrow at which time a decision will be made as to which Jew is trying to cheat which Jew.

1858: An article entitled "Chronology of Comets" published today reported that "Josephus the historian includes the appearance of a comet among the miracles which announced the destruction of Jerusalem and the ruin of its temple." In 1208, "the Jews of the West" thought that a very bright comet that appeared for two weeks foretold the coming of the coming of the Messiah.


1859: In Mulhouse, Alsace, Raphael and Jeannette Dreyfus (née Libmann) gave birth to the ninth child, Alfred who would enter history as Captain Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish army officer at the center of scandal that rocked France for a decade and helped to produce the modern Zionist movement.

1860: Birthdate of Count Walter Puckler-Muskau, the anti-Semitic agitator known as "Dreschgraf" (the thrashing count) for the calls for violent attack against the Jews that fill his speeches.

1862(15th of Tishrei, 5623): Sukkoth

1862: During the American Civil War, as the Jews on both sides observed Sukkoth, JEB Stuart’s Confederate Cavalry humiliated Union General George McClellan by riding around the Army of the Potomac completely unscathed.

1864(9th of Tishrei, 5625): Yom Kippur

1864: In New York City, “Raphael Levy Maduro Peixotto , a prosperous Ohioan involved in trade with the South, and Myrtillie Jessica Davis gave birth educator and writer Jessica Blanche Peixotto, the second woman to earn a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkley, the “first women to become a full professor at Cal, Berkley and the university’s first woman department chair.



1864: As Sherman’s victorious Union Army completed the occupation of Atlanta during the Civil War, one wonders if the Jewish soldiers serving under him joined the Jews of Atlanta in observing Yom Kippur.

1866: The Law Reports column published today described in detail the breach of contract case brought by a young Jewess named Nanna Solomon against Jewish tailor named Bernard Brown. According to the evidence presented, there was no dispute over the fact that the two were engaged to married and that there had been ample public ceremonies to celebrate the event. There is no dispute that the marriage did not take place. Miss Solomon claimed that the Brown did not marry here because of interference from her mother. Brown implied that Miss Solomon had been seeing other men and was not the stellar character she had presented herself to be. In the end, the jury found for the plaintiff but awarded her only five hundred dollars in damages when she had sought $10,000.

1867(10th of Tishrei, 5628): Yom Kippur

1867(10th of Tishrei, 5628): Abraham Mapu “one of the first, and finest, of the novelists to write in Hebrew” passed away. “Heavily influenced by a wide range of sources--the Bible, the Romantic Novelists, and renewed pride in ancient Jewish history--his works recall the finest works of writers such as Flaubert and other great romantic novelists. His first novel, Ahavat Ziyyon (The Love of Zion), published in 1853, won immediate acclaim. Its sixteen editions attest to its continued popularity. (As reported by Toby Press)

1873: Birthdate of violinist Carl Flesch whose pupils included Jewish violinists Szymon Goldberg, Ivry Gitlis, Ida Haendel, Yfrah Neaman, Eric Rosenblith, Max Rostal, Henryk Szeryng, Henri Temianka and Roman Totenberg

1875(10th of Tishrei, 5636): Yom Kippur which the secular press described as “a solemn fast universally observed among the orthodox Jews by abstaining from food or drink of any nature whatever for twenty-four hours and spending the entire day in continuous attendance at their places of worship.”

1875: In New York City, “Josephine (née Solomon) and Selmar Hess” gave birth to Columbia trained physician Alfred Fabian Hess, the husband of the former Sara Strauss, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Isidor Strauss with whom he had four children and the developer of the Hess Test which came about while studying “the role of nutrition in scurvy and rickets.”

1876(21st of Tishrei, 5637): Hoshana Rabah

1867: Fanny Janauscheck the Austrian actress who would perform in “Zillah, The Hebrew Mother” made her American stage debut at the Academy of Music in New York.

1876: The New York Times featured a review of “Daniel Deronda” by George Elliot which was the penname of Mary Anne Evans. This was her last novel and it featured a sympathetic portrayal of Jewish characters and was sympathetic to the concepts of Zionism.

1877: Charles Stein, who is described the most dangerous confidence man of our times, was arrested in St. Louis, MO. [It can’t always be about Nobel Prize Winners]

1878(12th of Tishrei, 5639): Seventy-eight year old Abraham Oppenheim who had begun his career as a partner in the banking house of his father Salomon Oppenheim passed away.

1879(22nd of Tishrei, 5640): Shemini Atzeret

1880(4th of Cheshvan, 5641): Sixty-four year old Joseph Mayer Montefiore, a nephew of Sir Moses Montefiore who was a member of the Board of Deputies and a director of the Alliance Insurance Company and the National Provincial Bank of Ireland, passed away today.



1880: “Persecution of the Jews of Morocco” published today relies on information that originally appeared in the Petit Marseillais and the Pall Mall Gazette, to describe the brutal murder of a Jew named Bendahan's by the Moslem governor of Estifa.  Bendahan’s crime was that he had taken a Moslem women into his home during the recent famine and provided her with food and shelter.  When the governor heard of this he summoned the Jew and him beaten to death. Apparently, any relationship between a Moslem and a Jew was unacceptable even if was only intended to save a life.

1881: Birthdate of Victor Klemperer, 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. He passed away in 1960.

1881: It was reported that the Minister of Justice in Hungary has introduced a bill in the lower house of the Diet that would legalize marriages between Jews and Christians.

1881: It was reported today that the Russian government “intends to all Jews to acquire land in places where there is no fear of collision between them” and the non-Jewish local

1881: “The Wander Jew in Hull, 1769” recounts the history of this anti-Semitic tale which reinforced the view of the Jew as an evil villain who has walked the earth since the days of the Crucifixion

1881: “Old York,” published today provides a brief history of this ancient English castle and city, including the time when it was “the scene of a gruesome tragedy” when a group of “landless knights” and “broken men” penned up the Jews in the castle with the intent to “plunder” and “murder them.”  However, most of the Jews, their intended victims, “with desperate courage, forestalled them by burning their property and killing their families and themselves.

1882: Three days after he had passed away, sixty year old “Samuel Gettenstein Salaman,” the husband of Rosa Salaman with whom he had two children was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1882: It was reported today that G.P. Putnam’s Sons will be publishing Fundamental Questions Relating to the Hebrew Scriptures, a liberal view of the subject by Edson L. Clarke.

1886(10th of Tishrei, 5647): Yom Kippur

1886: In “Yom Kippur” published today J.S. Moore, a non-Jew, provides a complete description of the observance of the holiday including the observations that “no other religion…has a similar festival” “ and that “ it may be safely predicted that nations, empires and peoples may and will pass and be only remembered in history while the ‘Yom Kippur’ will retain its hold upon a race which has already during the vicissitudes of thousands of years withstood annihilation and bids fair to hold fast to its religion as long as this globe is populated.”
1886: The Uptown Gossip column published today attributed the low attendance rate at theatres in New York yesterday to the fact that the Jews were observing the “fast of Yom Kippur.”  “Jewish people are the most liberal patrons of the theaters, and any fast day which they observe makes a very marked difference in the receipts of theatre’s treasury.”


1886: “Big Hebrew Fair” published today described efforts to host a fundraiser this December that provides funds for the establishment of a “Jewish Cooper Institute.”  The project has the support of the city’s temples and synagogues as well as the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.

1887: “Levitcal Names” published today contends that there is strong evidence of an Egyptian connection between the Levites – the leading tribe of the Exodus – and those who enslaved them.  The names of Moses, Miriam and Pinhcas, Aaron’s grandson, have an Egyptian etymology . The mother of Pinchas was the daughter of Putiel, a name with an Egyptian rather than Hebrew etymology.   Finally, Aaron’s ability to address Pharaoh would indicate a knowledge of the Egyptian language that would be more consistent with an educated Egyptian than a wandering Semitic nomad.

1887(21st of Tishrei, 5648): Sukkoth Chol HaMoed

1887: The day after he had passed away, Nathan Samuel Raphael, the son of “Samuel Raphael and the former Charlotte Levy” who had left his native London for Austrailia in 1849 was buried today in “Orange, NSW, Australia.”

1887(21st of Tishrei, 5648): Sixty-two year old Czech born American musician and impresario Maurice Strakosch, whose autobiography Souvenirs of an Impresario was published in 1886 passed away today in Paris.

1888: As the London police investigated the murder of Catharine Eddowes, The Evening News reported that Jacob Levy, the son of butcher from Aldgate, was “obstinate” when questioned, refusing “to give the slightest information “ leaving “one to inter that he knows something but…is afraid to be called” during the inquest.

1889(14th of Tishrei, 5650): Erev Sukkoth

1889(14th of Tishrei, 5650): Sir Benjamin Samuel Phillips, the son of Samuel Phillips, a London tailor, who founded the publishing house of Fauudel, Phillips & Sons, was a leader of the Anglo-Jewish community and the first  Jewish Lord Mayor of London, passed away today.

1890: In Germany, Das Volk accuses the committee “engaged in gathering the municipal addresses” which are to be presented to Count Von Moltke on his 90th anniversary as being made up of “Jews….seeking pecuniary benefit from their connection with the movement to honor the Count.”

1891: “A Fire on Fifth Avenue” published today described the fire that swept through the New York home of August Belmont.

1891: Mrs. August Belmont and her children awoke at the old Belmont mansion at 109 Fifth Avenue where they had spent the night after their new home at 101 Fifth Avenue had been destroyed by fire.

1891: In Wilkes-Barre, PA, Mendel S. and Rachel Naomi Salsburg gave birth to Philip Salsburg who was the Treasurer of Il Minatore Publishing Company in Scranton, PA.

1891: Gustave S. Drachman of the law firm of Drachman & Nelson who has been retained by Charles Horwitz, a 23 year old Russian Jewish peddler “to look after his interest in an alleged estate in San Francisco valued at $30,000,000” said today that he has not been able to learn about “any man by the name of Horwitz” who “ever died in San Francisco leaving a large fortune.”

1891: According to today’s American Hebrew, “the letter of Mr. Harold Frederic…continue to present the case of the Jews in Russia in vivid colors and convincing tones.”

1892: In the wake of a decision by the Reform movement that circumcision is no longer a necessary part of the conversion process, a “conclave of rabbis” is scheduled to begin meeting today in New York.

1892: “Phases of City Life” published today described eastside Jews as being “as careful with their money as any people in the world” who will “part with the dollars freely under two conditions –sickness or death in the family” as can be seen by the round the clock medical care being provided for a child who was scaled two weeks ago which has required all of the to “work harder than ever to get the money for it all.”



1892: Construction began on a building that would be called the Frances Jacobs Hospital in Denver, Colorado. http://jwa.org/thisweek/oct/09/1892/frances-jacobs

1892: The 15 Jewish families living in the tenement at 100 Suffolk lost personal property in yesterday’s fire that was valued today at approximately $2,000.

1892: In Boston, MA, “Jewish Lithuanian immigrants Joseph Weit and Sarah Magilewski gave birth to economist Harry Dexter White.

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2000/wp00149.pdf

1893: It was reported today that villages on the German borders with Austria and Russia are crowded with Jewish “families who have been expelled from Russia and are eager to come to United States but are so destitute that they “prostrate themselves before travelers and beg for bread or money.”

1894: It was reported today that Mrs. Elke Rubenstein the widow of convicted murderer Pesach Rubenstein has been ordered to leave the country because she might become a public charge and without having been able to claim the $1,000 which her husband when police arrested him for the murder of Sara Alexander.

1894: It was reported today that Brooklyn resident Nathan Bernstein must have died a happy man since he lived to see his son John married by a rabbi to Miss Ida Korne.

1894(9th of Tishrei, 5655): Erev Yom Kippur

1894(9th of Tishrei, 5655): Sixty year old Wolf Cohn “dropped dead while attending services at Adelphi Hall on 52ndStreet and 7th Avenue.

1894: John Most is scheduled to play the lead in “Die Weber” which is part of the anti-Yom Kippur revelry planned for tonight by the Hebrew Anarchists at the Clarendon Hall.

1894: Voter registration is set to begin in New York City which will be a problem because the sites owned by the Jews will have to close well before the official 9 pm closing time due to the Jewish Holiday.

1894: “Anti-Semitic Groups Combine” published today described the formation of the German Social Reform Party which was created by the delegates to a conference led by Jew baiters at Eisenach Germany

1895: Abraham Stern, a wealthy real estate lawyer, filed a the will of his late aunt, Mrs. Babet Karl, for probate today and discounted reports that there was another will which had been prepared under the influence of Rabbi Aaron Wise and son Otto who is an attorney.

1895: Tonight Tammany Hall nominated Joseph E Newburger, a graduate of Columbia Law School, a Judge on the City Court, a director of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and the President of Rodolph Sholom to run for a position on the Court of General Sessions in New York.

1896: As David Schwarz worked to develop a successful airship, a test failed today because the hydrogen used “was not of required purity” and was unable to provide the required life.

1897(13th of Tishrei, 5658): On Shabbat, in Newark, NJ 45 year old Simon Davis “one of the best known” Jews in the city who has been a partner for the last twenty years in a catering service with his brother, passed away today.

1897(13th of Tishrei, 5658): Kate Lintine, the sister of Mrs. Harry Stone of Johannesburg, SA, passed away today in Birmingham, UK.

1898(23rd of Tishrei, 5659):Simchat Torah

1898: Birthdate of Aaron Nissenson, who came to United States from his native Russia in 1911, earned “a degree in pharmacy from Fordham” which he did not use turning instead to a life as “a poet, essayist, novelist and journalist working for The Jewish Morning Journal while being married “the former Kate Heller” with whom he had “a son, Herschel.”

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/nissenson-aaron

1898: Herzl has another audience with Grossherzog Friedrich of Baden. On the same day Herzl is received by Foreign Minister Bernhard von Bülow and Reich’s Chancellor Hohenlohe.

1898: “Sixty or seventy of the most prominent lawyers” in Chicago attended a banquet at the Union League Club in honor of the 70thbirthday of Julius Rosenthal who began his career in 1854 as clerk at the banking of house of R.K. Swift before passing the bar.

1900: Cincinnati born, Harvard educated attorney Edwin South Mack married Della Adler.

1901(26th of Tishrei, 5662): Seventy-year old Sigmund von Henle who represented the city of Munich in the Bavarian Diet from 1873 to 1881 and who served on the board of trustees “of several Jewish societies” passed away today.

1901(26th of Tishrei, 5662): Seventy-five year old Kate(nee Reuben)Aaron the wife of Samuel Aaron  and the mother of Louisa, Rachel and Simeon Aaron passed away today after which she was interred at the Bath Jewish Burial Grounds.

1901: Simon Lipkie married Emily Somers today.

1904: “In the city of Kamenyets, Platon Artemovych Bazhan and his wife gave birth to Ukrainian poet Mykola Bazhan whose 1943 poem “Babi Yar” “explicitly depicted the infamous massacre in the ravine” but does not mention the fact that the victims were Jews.

http://polyhymnion.org/lit/bazhan/

1905(10th of Tishrei, 5666): Yom Kippur

1905(10th of Tishrei, 5666): Forty-two year old Isaac Levy, the husband of Lena Levy, passed away today after which he would be interred at the Jewish Cemetery in Natchitoches, LA.

1907: Three days after he had passed away, Posen native Louis Braun, the husband of the former “Julia Joseph” with whom he had eight children was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1909: The Tennessee Volunteers coached by George Levene lost to the University of North Carolina that scored only three points.

1909: The Sick Benevolent Society of Zialkamian, the hometown of Naphtali Herz Imber who passed away yesterday, asserted its right to take care of the burial of the poet superseding the claim of those who wanted to bury him “in a Rumanian Jewish cemetery at Bayside” where he reportedly owned a plot.

1911: Birthdate of Joe Rosenthal. In 1945, at the age of 33, Rosenthal snapped the most famous of all World War II photos – The Raising of the American Flag on Iwo Jima.

1911: In Paris, France, founded of the Der Yidisher Arbeyter (The Jewish Worker) a Yiddish language newspaper aimed at the “working class” that went out of business in 1914 because it espoused pacifist beliefs at a time when France was on the brink of war.

1911: Birthdate of Jacob L. Trobe, the son of an Orthodox rabbi, who as a representative of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee was among the first relief workers to enter the concentration camps.



1914: It was reported today that at Columbia University, John Dyneley Prince will teach several foreign language courses including one in Hebrew.

1915: It was announced today that Catholics, Protestants and Jews at the Columbia University’s Teacher College have joined together to create “a co-operative union to be known as the Students’ Religious Organization.”

1916: Among the newly released books available to the public is Charles Frohman: Manager and Man, the “authorized biography of the great manager written by those who had access to all the papers, correspondence and records of Charles Frohman and the Empire Theater.”

1917(23rd of Tishrei, 5678); Simchat Torah

1917(23rd of Tishrei, 5678); After enduring days of torture at the hands of the Ottoman authorities Sarah Aaronsohn committed suicide rather than betray her comrades. Aaronsohn was a member of Nili, a Jewish spy ring working for the British in Palestine. Aaronsohn had been born in Palestine in 1890 and was motivated to work for the British when she the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide. She was buried in the cemetery in Zichron Yaakov. There are those who make an annual pilgrimage to her grave on the anniversary of her death so the memory of this brave young Jewess will always be part of the heritage of the Jewish people.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/SAaronsohn.html

1917: Fuad I began his reign as Sultan of Egypt.

1918: Today, ten months after the Parliament of Finland had promulgated an act making it possible “for Jews to become Finnish nationals” “Frederick Charles was elected King of Finland by that same Finnish Parliament.

1919(15th of Tishrei, 5680): Sukkoth

1919: The Cincinnati Reds defeat the Chicago White in the World Series that would become known as the Black Sox Scandal. According to many “experts” Arnold Rothstein, a Jewish born gambler of unsavory reputation, supplied the money to bribe selected members of the White Sox. Abe Attell, a former boxer known as “The Little Hebrew,” was Rothstein’s bagman. According to information left on this blog “Attell was Jewish, but he grew up in an Irish neighborhood. Because of that, he often found himself involved in fights, and according to him, he would get involved in as many as 10 bouts each day as a kid. Attell's father abandoned his family when Attell was 13, and Attell had to sell newspapers to support his family. He used to sell them on the streets and corners, and while selling newspapers, he got a chance to witness the fight between Solly Smith and George Dixon for the world's Featherweight championship. With that, Attell and two of his brothers were convinced that maybe they had a future in boxing.”

1920: Dr. Enlow is scheduled to deliver a sermon “Lessons from the Life of Jacob H. Schiff” during Shabbat Services at Temple Emanu-El in New York.

1920: Birthdate of Jason Wingreen, the native of Brooklyn and graduate of Brooklyn College whose decade’s long acting career known to many as the bartender on “All in the Family.”

http://deadline.com/2016/01/jason-wingreen-dead-prolific-tv-actor-all-in-the-family-boba-fett-the-empire-strikes-back-1201675164/

1921: Dr. Morris Murray Peshkin married Lillian Rapaport today.

http://prabook.com/web/person-view.html?profileId=1411342





1921: In Berlin “historian George Herlitz, the founder of the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem” and his wife gave birth to MK and diplomat Esther Herlitz who became Israel’s first female ambassador when she served represented Israel in Denmark in 1966.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-first-female-ambassador-passes-away-at-94/

1922: In Brownsville immigrant tailor Harry Finkel and his Mary gave birth to Philip “Fyvush” Finkel, the veteran of the Yiddish Theatre, who won an Emmy for his role as a lawyer in the television hit “Picket Fences.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/theater/fyvush-finkel-pillar-of-yiddish-theater-dies-at-93.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

1922: Elinor Fatman Morgenthau and Henry Morgenthau, Jr. who would serve as FDR’s Secretary of the Treasury gave birth of Dr. Joan E. Morgenthau, the wife of Fred Hirschhorn, Jr.

1923: Birthdate of Israeli, poet, novelist, journalist and filmmaker, Haim Gouri. A sabra. Gouri worked with Jewish refugees in Hungary after WW II and fought with the Palmach in the Negev during the War for Independence before pursuing his literary career. He has won the Bialik, Israel and Uri Zvi Grinberg awards.

http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poet/item/3162/12/Chaim-Gouri

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/01/obituaries/haim-gouri-poetic-voice-of-a-rising-israel-is-dead-at-94.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

1924: Dutch diamond polisher and baseball player Hartog Hamburger, the father of psychiatrist and “Jewish resistance fighter Max Hamburger, “was hit in the head by a line drive” today in a freak accident that would lead to his death on the following day.

1924: In Manhattan, “Dr. Sebastian Smigel and the former Bella Soloway” gave birth to Irwin Elliot Smigel, the dentist whose clients included numerous stars.” (As reported by Sam Roberts)

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/18/nyregion/irwin-smigel-new-york-dentist-behind-cosmetic-techniques-dies-at-92.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=1

1925(21st of Tishrei, 5686): Hoshana Rabah

1925: In Sosnowiec, Poland, ‘chocolate salesman Issachar Feiner and Rivka Herzberg gave birth to Haim Feiner who immigrated to Palestine in 1936 and gained fame as songwriter, poet and author Chaim Hefer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/21/world/middleeast/haim-hefer-israeli-songwriter-and-poet-dies-at-86.html?_r=0

1926: Max Derfiner, a pioneer silk manufacturer who arrived in New York from Tel Aviv last week continued to tout the possibilities for developing the silk industry in Palestine. Derfiner who already expressed his belief that in ten years Tel Aviv can become a “second Lyon” said today that one of his keys to success was his ability “to concentrate in one plant all the processes of silk manufacturing…which in France, Switzerland or America would be performed in separate establishments.” Derfiner also said that the Zionists had “developed the ‘Made in Palestine’ label into a commercial asset...” In Jewish homes through the world the name Palestine had a business value as well as a sentimental appeal.



1929: “June Moon,” a play co-authored by George S. Kaufman premiered on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre.

1930: As Dr. Drummond Shiels, British Under-Secretary for Dominions, left his hotel today an angry crowd shouted “Away with Parliament which does do justice to Jews,” “Shame to the British Government” and “Remember Hebron, Safed and Motza,” a reference to the 1929 sites of bloody Arab attacks on defenseless Jews. The crowd sang Hatikvah as Shiels sped away under the protection of the local police. “The demonstration was caused by a report from London that Shiels had promised an Arab delegation that a Parliament for Palestine” would be established. Creation of such an institution was part of a plan to circumvent the creation of a Jewish home in Palestine and guarantee that Jews would always be a minority in Eretz Israel.

1930: “Sir John Monash” published one day after his death stated that “It is not an exaggeration to say that Sir John Monash…was one of the ablest soldiers that the British colonies sent to the World War.”  Monash was known for his ability to train troops as could be seen from his work with the Third Australian Division.  A brave soldier, he was an able tactician and strategist who played a key role in the great assault that broke the Hindenburg Line which forced the Germans to sue for peace. It was said of him “that he would command a division better than a brigade and corps better than a division.” [Nowhere in the article that traced Monash rise to prominence was it mentioned that he was Jewish.]

1932(9th of Tishrei, 5693): Kol Nidre was chanted for the last time during the Presidency of Herbert Hoover.

1933(19th of Tishrei, 5694): Fifth Day of Sukkoth

1933: “Wedding at Lake Wolfgang” a musical directed by Hans Behrendt who died at Auschwitz was released today in Germany.

1933: Birthdate of Martin Gottfried “a drama critic and the author of several biographies of entertainers and playwrights as well as two influential studies of the Broadway musical.”  (As reported by Daniel Slotnik)

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/theater/martin-gottfried-theater-critic-and-author-dies-at-80.html?_r=0

1934: In New York, Minnie and David Alper gave birth to long term IBM employee Ralph Abraham Alper, the husband of the former “Linda Ann Propp.”

1935: U.S. premiere of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” directed by Max Reinhardt at the Warner Bros. Hollywood Theatre in New York City.

1936(23rd of Tishrei, 5697): Simchat Torah

1936: In Chicago, at a rally featuring Al Landon, the Republican candidate for President, Anna Smith told the throng that “It is necessary for Christians, Jews and Gentiles to join together to resist this sinister movement, communism” which ironically was part of what would become a decades long campaign to equate Democrats, liberals and Jews with the Communists and a conspiracy to take over the United States.

1936: It was reported today that “the version of the story” surrounding the arrest and conviction of a Jew named Abraham Kaiser for writing a letter to a friend in America that was critical of Hitler and the Nazis “stated that the police discovered the letter in his flat” while at the same time claiming that Kaiser who lived in Duisburg had mailed the letter from Dusseldorf in order to conceal his identity. (Editor’s Note – accuracy is not necessary in the world of anti-Semitism)



1936: “Libeled Lady” a comedy produced by Lawrence Weingarten was released in the United States today by MGM.

1937: Birthdate of Queens College and Columbia University children’s book author Johanna Hurwitz.

https://www.kidsreads.com/authors/johanna-hurwitz

1937: The Los Angeles Examiner reported today that when Vittorio Mussolini, the son of the Il Duce, came to Hollywood, the Hollywood Ant-Nazi League (HANL) “denounced the visit on behalf of all ‘artists and writers’ declaring that ‘Fascism means the suppression of all freedom of expression.’”

1938: Thirteen year old future “Monuments Man” Harry Ettlinger, and his family arrived in New York having “escaped” from Germany in September.

1938: Today, Maurice Babadu, the Swiss Catholic theology student tried to assassinate Hitler “travelled from Brittany to Baden-Baden, then on to Basel, where he bought a Schmeisser 6.35 mm (.25 ACP) semi-automatic pistol.”

1939: In London, Bill Sedley and his wife gave birth to British jurist Sir Stephen Sedley.

1939: Himmler declared that 550,000 Jews living in Polish provinces should be relocated

1939: “Hitler’s Plan for Jews Scored” published today described the decision of the delegates attending the Order of the Sons of Zion Conference at the Hotel Astor to adopt a resolution condemning the Nazi plan “establish a Jewish State in Polish Territory” as “a hypocritical scheme, fraught with the gravest of dangers to European Jewry.”

1940: Adina Gerstel and Rabbi Louis Wefel were married today.  Werfel would gain fame for his role as a chaplain during WW II who was known as the flying Rabbi.  Unfortunately, his would be cut short when he died when his aircraft crashed in 1943 while he was bring the joy of Chanukah to U.S. troops fighting in North Africa.

1940: In Great Britain, the Committee of Privileges reported that the detention of the anti-Semitic MP Archibald Maule Ramsay under Regulation 18B that applies to people “suspected of disloyalty” “was not a breach of privilgege.” He would be released in 1944 and would return to the House of the House of Commons where he introduced a resolution calling for the banishment of the Jews as had been done by King Edward I.

1941(18th of Tishrei, 5702): Chol Hamoed Sukkoth

1941(18th of Tishrei, 5702): Forty-seven year old Dallas resident Herbert Mallinson, “the chairman of the Southwest region of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the son of Samuel and Rose Mallinson and husband of Beatrice Mallinson, passed away today “while attending a meeting of the Dallas Jewish Federation for Social Service.”

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1941/10/11/105164141.pdf

1941: The Nazis murdered 3,726 Jews including 717 children in the Poligon barracks near Swieciany, Lithuania.

1941: A recruiting rally was held in Tel Aviv as part of a campaign to get another 5,000 Jews from Palestine to enlist in the British Army. Currently there are approximately 10,000 Jews from Palestine serving in the British Army and RAF throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East. The leading Jewish institutions sponsoring the campaign have adopted the slogan “Jews are fighting with the Allies for victory.”


1941: Parades of Jewish veterans of World War I were greeted by cheering throngs in Haifa and Tel Aviv. The parades were the climax of week’s long effort to recruit more Jewish recruits for the British military. Jewish leaders encouraged every man who can be spared to “enroll under the Union Jack” to “help in the fight against Adolf Hitler.”


1941: Hans Frank told the ministers of the General Government in Cracow; "As far as Jews are concerned . . . I want to tell you quite frankly that they must be done away with one way or another."

1941: The Nazi-allied government led by Marshal Ion Antonescu began deporting Jews to camps located in Transnistria, an occupied area in the former Soviet Union.

1941: J.D. Salinger who had been corresponding with Marjorie Sheard, “a Toronto woman about his age” wrote to her today asking that she send him a picture of herself.

1941: Governor Lehman will not be attending “the dinner forum on ‘Europe Today’ scheduled to be held this evening which is co-chaired by Lillian Hellman and Ernest Hemingway because a number of the committees sponsoring the event “have long been connected with Communist activities.”  (Editor’s note – Hemingway was not Jewish.  The dinner demonstrated the problem that was to plague America for years: how to oppose fascism without ending up “in bed” with the Communists.)

1941: Two months before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt approved what became known as the Manhattan Project, America’s unprecedented effort to build an atomic bomb.  The number of Jews involved in this decision including Einstein is surpassed only by the number of Jewish scientist involved in the effort.

1942: Eighty one year old Jesse Houghton Metcalf, the former Republican Senator from Rhode Island passed away.  In 1933, Metcalf was one of the Senators who spoke out against the German treatment of the Jews. While addressing the chamber declared, “We as a nation can only declare the existence of racial or religious prejudice to be untenable as a national ideal.

1942: Anne Frank, who was hiding with her family in an Amsterdam warehouse, wrote in her diary: “The British radio speaks of their (the Jews) being gassed.”

1942: In Brussels, Belgium, five of six leading members of the Belgian Jewish community are released from incarceration following the intervention of Cardinal Joseph-Ernst van Roey and Belgium's Queen Elizabeth.

1942: The USS Drum, the submarine on which Maurice Rindskopf served throughout WW II survived a heavy depth charge attack from the vessels escorting the cargo ships she had sunk the day before.

1942: Thousands of Jews from Miedzyrzec, Poland, are deported to the Treblinka death camp.


1943(10th of Tishrei, 5704): Yom Kippur

1943(10th of Tishrei, 5704): On Yom Kippur, over 1,000 men and women at Birkenau, deemed too sick to work, were gassed to death. At Plaszow, 50 Jews were murdered. Ironically, 600 Jews were permitted to pray in Sobibor

1943(10th of Tishrei, 5704): Hundreds of Jews were deported from Trieste and shipped to Auschwitz.

1943(10th of Tishrei, 5704): In Anconcia, a Catholic priest, Don Bernadino, warned the local Rabbi, Elio Toaff, of the impending deportation of the Jewish population. The Jews went into hiding, most of them being sheltered by Christian families. Only ten Jews would be caught and deported and one of them survived the war.



1943: A unnamed Jewish pilot went to Yom Kippur Services in the Grande Synagogue in Tunis “and spent almost the entire day in prayer and please for life and safety and happiness.” (As reported by Rabbi Louis Werfel, the chaplain known as “The Flying Rabbi”)

1944(22nd of Tishrei, 5705): Shemini Atzeret

1944: At Birkenau, on Simchat Torah, 650 boys involved with the Birkenau revolt were locked in the barracks together. Most of them would be tortured and then killed on October 20.

1944: Mordechai Adler (who became Mordechai Eldar) “celebrated his 15th birthday at Auschwitz-Birkenau

1944: Mordechai Eldar cheated death today.  Having been “selected” at Auschwitz and having already stripped naked, for some unknown reason German officers had Eldar and 49 others step outside, put on shoes and uniforms, and sent them to work in Canada, the facility where the Germans had prisoners sort and store all the possessions of those who arrived at the Death Camp.


1944: The SS arrests three Jewish women at the Auschwitz munitions factory for complicity in the smuggling of explosives used in the uprising of October 6-7


1945: Tonight, "security at the Atlit Detention Center near Haifa - a camp for 'illegal' Jewish immigrants in Mandatory Palestine - was breached; 200 detainees mainly Holocaust survivors and recent arrivals from Europe, were released in a daring operation launched by the Palmach."

1945: After his trial in Paris, Pierre Laval, head of the Vichy Government is executed by firing squad. General Petain was the titular head of the Vichy Government. Laval really ran the show. Vichy was the name of the French collaborationist government that worked with the Nazis during World War II. Vichy’s supporters included France’s own, home-grown anti-Semites. The Vichy government was so eager to ingratiate itself with the New German Order, that it was rounding up Jews and turning them over to the Nazis before the Nazis asked them to do so.



1945: Loy Henderson, the head of the Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs at the United States State Department who was an Arabist opposed to the creation of Jewish state in Palestine sent Secretary of State James Byrnes “a memo regarding what he called ‘urgent problems relating to the Palestine.’”

1946(16th of Tishrei, 5710): Second Day of Sukkoth


1946(16th of Tishrei, 57100” Ninety year old Lottie Miriam Jaffe, the mother of Louis Isaac Jaffe, the “Pulitzer Prize winningedtor of the Norfolk Virginian Pilot. 

1946: An announcement was made today that “Israel Aron Friedman, a member of the board of directors of General Mercantile Corporation of Palestine, Ltd., has arrived in New York from Tel Aviv. “The corporation is concerned with the procurement of raw materials and machinery for the basic Jewish industries of Palestine.”

1946: Birthdate of Gustin L. Reichbach, the Columbia University protest leader who went on to a career in the law and as a distinguished jurist. (As reported by Jim Dwyer)

1947: “High Button Shoes, a musical with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Sammy Cahn opened on Broadway at the New Century Theatre.



1947: “The Jewish Agency…called upon…Jewish veterans of the North African and Italian campaigns” now living in Palestine “to form the nucleus of a Jewish army that would be ready for a ‘life or death showdown’ with Arab forces. Mrs. Gold Meyerson, head of the Agency’s political department told veterans assembled at Tel Aviv that salvation for Palestine Jews rested not at Lake Success but ‘right here. If the Arab leaders have their way, we must either give up the link between the Jews and Palestine or die in a last-ditch struggle…We are not looking for trouble, but we are ready for it.’”

1947: President Truman learned that the Arab League Executive had requested its member nations to dispatch troops to the Palestine border as part of a plan to invade the Mandate Territory. Truman responded by instructing Secretary of State Marshall to support the planned partition of Palestine.

1948: During the War for Independence, Egypt launched a major attack in the Negev. This
attack constitutes a major violation of the UN brokered truce. This Egyptian offensive along with other violations will lead to a major Israeli military effort later in the month of October.


1951(9th of Tishrei, 5712) Erev Yom Kippur

1951: Birthdate of actor Robert Wuhl who played the title role in the HBO hit “Arli$$.”

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that since 1948, Youth Aliyah had absorbed more than 5,000 young people from Morocco. Their parents were given a choice of three types of educational institutions: Orthodox, traditional (keeping of Sabbath, festivals and Kashrut), and non-religious.

1955(23 of Tishrei, 5716): Simchat Torah

1955: A Double Simcha for Sid Gillman as his Los Angeles win their third straight of the season defeating the Detroit Lions 17 to 10.

1956(4th of Cheshvan, 5717): Arab terrorists killed two workers in an orchard of the youth village, Neve Hadassah, in the Sharon region.

1958: HMS Springer an S class submarine of the Royal Navy was sold to the Israeli navy today and renamed the Tanin

1958: Pope Pius XII passed away 19 years after being elevated to the Papacy. The Pope’s role in the Holocaust has been too well documented to need to be covered here.

1960:  Birthdate of actress and “voice” Madeleine Blaustein,

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSmcid=47541371&GRid=85663250&

1961: In Los Angeles Boris Sagal and his wife Sara Zwilling of blessed memory gave birth to twin daughters Jean and Liz Sagal who made it possible for them to star in the television series “Double Trouble.”
1962: The film adaptation of “Long Day’s Journey into Night” “directed by Sidney Lumet, produced by Ely Landau with Joseph E. Levine and Jack J. Dreyfus, Jr. as executive producers with a score by Andre Previn and cinematography by Boris Kaufman” was released in the United States today by Embassy Pictures.


1963: Birthdate of journalist Daniel Pearl who was brutally murdered by Moslem terrorists on February 21, 2002.

1967(5th of Tishrei, 5728): French author Andre Maurois, born Emile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog, passed away at the age of 82.




1968: Hugo Weisgall’s ‘Nine Rivers from Jordan” premiered today at the New York City Opera

1968: Forty-seven Jews praying at the Tomb of the Patriarchs were wounded in a grenade attack by Arabs.

1969: In Boston, a funeral service is scheduled to be held at Temple Israel for sixty-nine year old Russian born, Harvard educated Dr. William Dameshek, “a pioneer in the study of blood” and leader in the movement to “establish hematology as a specialty” who was married to Rose Dameshek with whom he had one child.

1971: “The Incomparable Max” a play co-authored by Jerome Lawrence based on a short story by Max Beerbohm had its first “preview” performance today.

1972: Birthdate of Etan Kalil Patz

http://www.biography.com/people/etan-patz-20851519

1973: On the third day of the Yom Kippur war a pessimistic Moshe Dayan addresses a group of journalist leading them to believe that Israeli forces are in such precarious shape that they will have to surrender most of the Sinai to the advancing Egyptians and make a stand in the eastern edge of the peninsula. Prime Minister Golda Meir is so alarmed by Dayan’s emotional about-face that she refuses to let him address the nation on television in the evening. Israeli news broadcasts reported for the first time that the Egyptian attack had driven Israeli forces from the east bank of the Suez Canal. While Syrian artillery was able to shell villages in the Jezreel Valley, Israeli planes had attacked installations in around Damascus. Inadvertently, one of the attacks had hit the Soviet Cultural Center in the Syrian capital. In a television later in the evening an Israeli general pointed out that the Soviets had been arms into the Arab states for the past six years creating a military imbalance of striking proportion. He also said that Israeli forces would not cease operation action until the Arab states learned that they could not violate a truce with impunity without paying a high price.

1973: During a meeting of the war cabinet, Defense Minister Dayan voiced confidence in the Israeli forces' ability to overcome Syria and asked permission to bomb targets in Damascus. "There's an order: No retreat on the Golan," he said. "Fighting to the death and not moving ... What I'm suggesting and asking for approval of [is] bombings inside the city." Prime Minister Meir asked whether he meant within the city itself, and Dayan confirmed this. He said the IDF can't muster a column to march on Damascus even as a decoy, but bombing in and around the city could "break the Syrians" - though he conceded, "You can't say the population wouldn't be hurt."Why would it necessarily break them?" Meir asked. "Would a bombing here break us?” General Elazar replied: "A heavy bombing here, on Reading and Ramat Aviv, would seriously disrupt things."

1973: Aharon Sagi, Harel Gilutz and Yosef Ye'ari made it back safely to Israeli lines after their F-4E Phantom Jets were shot down.

1973: Lt. Col. Yossi Ben Hanan who had cut short his honeymoon in Nepal at the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War “took command of a scratch force of Israeli tanks that had been put together by Shmuel Askarov, one of the survivors of the decimated 188th Armored Brigade. Leading his command in a desperate battle against overwhelming numbers of Syrian T-62s, Ben Hanan restored the tactical situation but at the cost of most of his command and his own Centurion tank. Blown out of the turret when his tank was hit by a Sagger anti-tank missile, Ben Hanan lay wounded on the battlefield until he was rescued from behind enemy lines by Yonatan Netanyahu, a legendary member of the IDF's elite Sayeret Matkal.”  A Sabra, born in 1945, Hanan was a second generation military leader.  He father, Michael Ben Hanan had been a Haganah commander in Jerusalem.



1973: As of today those parts of the Golan that were the responsibility of the Golani Brigade were back under Israeli control, and the Syrians had been pushed back over the Purple Line. The Purple Line was the name given to the cease fire line drawn between Israel and Syria after the 1967 war.

1973: “Against orders, reserve Maj. Gen. Ariel Sharon launches a counterattack against Egyptian forces in the canal area which led to the loss of 20 tanks, most of which were left in enemy territory. Sharon’s actions lead to moves for his dismissal.”(As reported by JTA)

1973: U.S. Jewish leader Max Fisher urges President Richard Nixon in a meeting at the White House to “please send the Israelis what they need.” That night, Nixon tells Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir that “all your aircraft and tank losses will be replaced.” (As reported by JTA)

1973: Lt. Colonel Avigdor Kahalani was awarded the Medal Valor for his leadership and valor shown starting today during the Yom Kippur War when “he commanded a hastily assembled group of tanks and crews from different armor units” that “repelled a vastly superior Syrian force which had overrun the Israeli positions  in the first days of the war.”  The scene of the fighting was so “littered with hundreds of burned tanks that it was renamed “Emek Ha-Bacha” (the Valley of Tears)

1973: Birthdate of Erin Daniels. Born Erin Cohen the Vassar College grad is known for her career as a television actress.

1974: Birthdate of Dina Aviv, the daughter of Aliza Avi, who gained fame as Israeli pop singer Din Din Aviv.

1974: Oskar Schindler, the Schindler in “Schindler’s List” passed away.

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005787

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/schindler.html

1974: “Shanks” an “American horror film” starring Marcel Marceau was released in the United States today by Paramount Pictures.

1975: It was announced today that Andrei Sakharov, a leading Soviet dissident and champion of human rights whose wife’s mother was Jewish, had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1975: In a move designed to strengthen their influence in the Arab world, the Soviets greeted President Assad of Syria on the first day of his visit to the Soviet Union.

1976(15th of Tishrei, 5737): Sukkoth is celebrated for the last time during the Presidency of Gerald Ford.

1976(15th of Tishrei, 5737): Sixty-four year old Polish born American Zionist leader and JNF executive Abram Salomon, the husband of the “former Helena Himmelbblau” with whom he had three children, passed away today.

1976: The “second Broadway production of ‘The Robber Bridegroom, a musical with a book and lyrics by Alfred Uhry’ opened today at the Biltmore Theatre.”

1977: In New Orleans, Arlene S. Wieder was married at the New Orleans Hilton in that hotels first such event.

1979(18th of Tishrei, 5740): Chol Hamoed Sukkoth

1979: Two days after he had passed away funeral services are scheduled to be held “at the Congregational Son of Israel Temple in Upper Nyack, NY for eighty-four year old “Irving Maidman, a major owner of properties around Times Square, the dean of West Side Development,” “a founder of the Albert Einstein Medical School” and husband of “the former Edith Shvitiz with whom he had four children – Robert, Mathew, Rebecca and Ellen – followed by burial “at Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, Queens.”

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1979/10/08/112128060.pdf



1980(29th of Tishrei, 5741): A bomb planted in a motorcycle saddlebag outside the Copernic Street synagogue in a wealthy eastern Paris neighborhood exploded on a Friday night, killing three Frenchmen and Aliza Shagrir, 42, and wounding 22 others. Shagrir, an Israeli cinematographer, was walking past the synagogue with her 15-year-old son, Haggai, who would eventual go to work at the Foreign Ministry. Aliza Shagrir was the wife of Micha Shagrir a well-known television, film and documentary producer who lives in Jerusalem and who established the Aliza Shagrir Fund prize for outstanding documentaries in her name. Eventually, Hassan Diab a Lebanese native living in Canada would be charged with crime.

1980: The funeral for seventy-eight year old hotel owner and philanthropist Hyman B. Cantor who was survived by his wife Gertrude, his son David and his daughters Marcia Wasserman and Nancy Lynn, is scheduled to be held today at Temple Isaiah in Forest Hills, Queens

1981: Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Thomas T. Johnson ruled in favor of Mel Mermelstein, finding that he had provided sufficient evidence to prove his claim that Jews were gassed in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. The Court issued a judgment requiring the Institute for Historical Review (IHR) to pay Mermelstein $50,000, plus $40,000 for personal suffering, and to write a public apology to Mermelstein.

1981: “Tatoo, a thriller” produced by Richard P. Levine and Joseph E. Levine was released in the United States today by 20thCentury Fox.

1981: “Body and Soul” a remake of the 1947 classic produced by Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan was released today in the United States

1982(22nd of Tishrei, 5743): Shabbat and Shmini Atzeret

1982(22nd of Tishrei, 5743): Eighty-six year old Anna Freud, the youngest of Sigmund Freud’s children who followed in his footsteps to become a leading psychonalyst.

https://www.verywellmind.com/anna-freud-biography-1895-1982-2795536



1982(22nd of Tishrei, 5743): “Stefano Gaj Tache, a 2-year-old Jewish boy was killed and another 37 were injured in an attack on the Great Synagogue of Rome carried out by Palestinian terrorists.” (As reported by Forward)



1985: A day after having murdered Leon Klinghoffer, a wheel-chair bound Jewish American passenger and then throwing his body overboard, the Arab/Moslem terrorists who had high jacked the Achille Lauro negotiated with authorities as the ship steamed towards Port Said



1986: Senator Claiborne Pell (D- R.I.) enter into the Congressional Record an article, "Navy Rabbi To Join Iceland Team: Russian immigrant's grandson picked to lead staff services," published in the Providence Journal that described the role played in by Rabbi Arnold Resnick, a U.S. Navy Chaplain in leading Yom Kippur services in Greenland during the planning meetings for the latest Soviet-American summit



1987: Claire Boothe Luce passed away. Most people remember her as the wife of Henry Luce, the man who created the Time-Life publishing empire. Others remember her as a Republican Party political figure and ambassador. But Mrs. Luce considered herself first and foremost a playwright, a role that brought her great success before World War II. In 1939, she wrote Margin for Error, a comedy about a policeman assigned to protect the German consul in New York. The Consul is a Nazi. The police officer is an American Jew. The play was considered the first successful anti-Nazi play to reach Broadway.



1988(28th of Tishrei, 5749): Eighty-four year old playwright Edward Chodorov, a friend of Moss Hart and S.J. Pereleman passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/12/obituaries/edward-chodorov-84-playwright-and-writer-and-producer-of-films.html


1988: Today CBS released “Liberace: Behind the Music” a biopic “co-starring Victor Garber and Saul Rubinek” and featuring Shawn
1988: Active polio viruses have been discovered in sewage and a water purification plant in four more Israeli cities, bringing the total number of infected areas to nine, Israel Radio said today.


1989(10th of Tishrei, 5750): Yom Kippur

1980(10th of Tishrei, 5750): Nine-one year old Richard F. Ulhmann, the former head of Ulhmann Grain Company and former “president of the Chicago Board of Trade” who was the husband of Catherine Ulhmann with whom he had three children – Frederick, Janis and Audrey – passed away today in Highland Park, Il.

https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/14/obituaries/richard-f-uhlmann-grain-dealer-91.html

1989: Penthouse Magazine's Hebrew edition hits the newsstands

1990: Saddam Hussein threatens to hit Israel with a new missile.

1991: “Homicide” a crime film “written and directed by David Mamet” and featuring Robin Spielberg was released in the United States today

1992: Janet Rosenberg Jagan became the “First Lady of Guyana” today.

1992: “A River Runs Through It” a cinematic gem based on a novel of the same name featuring Joseph Gordon-Levitt was released in the United States today.

1993(24th of Tishrei, 5754): On Shabbat, “Dror Forer and Aran Bachar were murdered by terrorists in Wadi Kelt in the Judean Desert. The Popular Front and the Islamic Jihad 'Al-Aqsa Squads' each publicly claimed responsibility.”

1994: “Nowhere to Hide” a made for television film co-starring Max Pomeranc was broadcast for the first time on ABC.

1994(4th of Cheshvan): Holocaust survivor, successful businessman and founder of the NYC Marathon, Fred Lebow, passed away. (As reported by Michael Janofsky)

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/10/obituaries/fred-lebow-is-dead-at-62-founded-new-york-marathon.html

1994: Corey Pavin won the Tokai Classic.  The golf tournament was Japanese; the golfer was Jewish.

1994: Alfred Doulton wrote to Sir Martin Gilbert describing the heavy casualties suffered by the 49th Infantry Division, including the murder of their brigadier on October 25, 1945, as the British sought to quell the uprising by the Indonesians who had declared their independence from the Netherlands.

1995(15th of Tishrei, 5756): Sukkoth

1995(15th of Tishrei): Ninety-five year old Polish born Lillian Nassau, a major mogul in the world antiques and the wife of Dr. Leo S Palitz passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/10/world/lillian-nassau-a-dealer-in-art-nouveau-antiques-is-dead-at-95.html

1996(26th of Tishrei, 5757): Ninety-year old Julius Raskin, the captain of CCNY basketball team known as “Little Tubby” because his older brother Morris was called “Big Tubby” who went on to career in education passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/03/nyregion/julius-raskin-90-a-retired-principal.html

2000(10th of Tishrei, 5761): Yom Kippur is observed for the first time in the 21st century.

2001(22nd of Tishrei, 5762): Shmini Atzeret

2003: The Israeli Gesher Theater starts its tour of Moscow. The Moscow critics have already called the tour the biggest event of the theater season. The Gesher Theater was founded in 1990 in Tel Aviv by Russian immigrants

2004: The first National Day of Commemorating the Holocaust was held in Romania. October 9 was chosen as a date for this event because it marks the beginning of Romanian deportations of Jews to Transnistria, in 1942.

2004: Final performance of the London production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeny Todd.”

2004: While play Georgia Tech today, University of Maryland punter Adam “Podlesh had a then-career high nine punts for a then-career high 448 net yards.

2004(24th of Tishrei, 5765): On Shabbat Jews begin the cycle of Torah readings with Bereshit.

2004(24th of Tishrei, 5765): Sixty-five year old economics professor Herschel Grossman passed away unexpectedly today.

https://www.brown.edu/academics/economics/index.php?q=about/faculty/memorium/memorium-herschel-grossman

2004(24th of Tishrei, 5765: Philosopher Jacques Derrida passes away at the age of 74. (As reported by Jonathan Kandell)

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/10/obituaries/jacques-derrida-abstruse-theorist-dies-at-74.html

2005: The Romanian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu, participated in the laying of a wreath at the Holocaust Memorial in Iasi and the inauguration of The Centre for Hebrew Studies. During the inaugural National Day of Commemorating the Holocaust, the National Institute for Studying the Holocaust in Romania was also opened.



2005: The Histadrut labor federation renews the strike against the Religious Councils. Funerals will be performed only at night and there will be no registration of marriages or Kashrut supervision in restaurants, hotels and catering halls.



2005: Despite threats from suicide bombers and other terrorists, Israelis work to develop a fruitful society and create an air of normalcy. For example, Haaretz reported that Israel’s 2 – 1 victory over Faroe Islands in a World Cup soccer qualifier in the Ramat Gan stadium means Israel still has a chance of qualifying for the World Cup in Germany 2006. Israel will not know if it will qualify for the automatic birth or if it has to play a European team to get to the match in Germany until later in the week. The Israeli coach had said earlier that if the announcement if made on Thursday which is Yom Kippur, he will have to wait until Thursday night to find out the fate of his team.


2005: Bishop Von Galen, the German bishop known as the "Lion of Muenster" for his courageous anti-Nazi sermons during World War II took a step on the road to sainthood when he was beatified in St. Peter’s Basilica. The Nazis deported 37 priests to concentration camps 10 of whom perished in von Galen's place as punishment for the homilies, according to a brief biography by Reinhard Lettmann. However von Galen was not arrested. The Nazis were worried that if von Galen were arrested and killed, Muenster's residents would be angered and "written off as lost during the duration of the war," Lettmann wrote. Von Galen helped a Protestant pastor to hide a Jewish boy in an institute belonging to the bishop's office and took responsibility for the youth, who after the war was reunited with his mother, according to testimony carried by Vatican Radio.


2005(6th of Tishrei, 5766): Comedian Louis Nye passed away. (As reported by James Barron)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/11/arts/television/11nye.html?_r=0



2005: The New York Times reviewed The Pagoda in the Garden: a Novel in Three Parts by Wendy Lesser.

2005: The Times of Londonreviewed We Are at War: The Remarkable Diaries of Five Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times by Simon Garfield




2006: A ceremony took place for setting the keystone of the National Holocaust Memorial in Bucharest.

2006: Haaretz reported that Holocaust survivor groups here have joined the recommendation of the Polish president, Lech Kaczynski, to award the Nobel Peace Prize to 96-year-old Irena Sandler who was a member of the Polish underground group Zegota that was dedicated to saving Jews and who was recognized by the Yad Vashem Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority in 1965 for smuggling numerous Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto..

2007: A special preview screening of The Counterfeiters takes place as part of the UK Jewish Film Festival. “The Counterfeiters is based on the true story of the largest counterfeiting operation in history, set up by the Nazis in 1936.


2008(10th of Tishrei, 5769): Yom Kippur

2008: At Adas Israel in Washington, D.C. during a late afternoon break between Musaf and Mincha, Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher and Emily Yoffe of Slate lead a learning session that opens with the study of a classic text on the use of speech in public followed by a discussion of the ethical dilemmas of reporting and the spiritual importance of truth-telling.



2008: In Acre, both Jews and Arabs clashed with police in various parts of the ethnically divided city, leading to 10 arrests. In total, at least eight people were slightly injured in the successive nights of violence.

2008: CBS broadcast the first episode of season nine of the original CSI  (later known as CSI Las Vegas) a long-running cerebral crime series created by Antony E. Zuker and brought to the small screen by executive producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Carol Mendelsohn

2009: Michael Chabon, author of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Wonder Boys and the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, discusses his first book of nonfiction, Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son, at Lisner Auditorium, George Washington University, Washington,D.C.

2009: Scott Turow, the bestselling author of the legal thrillers Presumed Innocent and The Burden of Proof, presents a lecture, "Confessions of a Death Penalty Agnostic," drawn from his book "Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyer's Reflections on Dealing with the Death Penalty," at the Fairfax County Government in Fairfax, Va..

2009: Kol Shira will be performing at Java House in downtown Iowa City Kol Shira is an all women sextet known for its eclectic fusion performances of International Jewish music, including songs from Russia, Cuba, Eastern Europe, Iraq, Yemen, France, Spain, Middle East, Italy, Romania, Algeria and more. The group features vocals, flute, guitar, piano, bass, cello and hand-held percussion. Jim Musser, music reviewer for the Iowa City Press Citizen, described Kol Shira as “remarkable” and “exquisite.” At the end of 2004, Musser ranked their CD as one of the top six independent releases from the Eastern Iowa area.

2009 (21 Tishrei, 5770): Hoshanah Rabbah
2009: While Friday prayers ended without incident at the al-Aksa Mosque on the Temple Mount, Palestinian rioters clashed with police in the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Issawiya, Ras el-Amud and Sur Baher this afternoon.


2009(21st of Tishrei, 5770): “Stuart M. Kaminsky, a film scholar-turned-detective novelist who was widely known for his prodigious output, complex characters, and rich evocations of time and place, including Hollywood in its Golden Age, died today at the age of 75.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/arts/14kaminsky.html

2009 (21st  Tishrei, 5770): Richard W. Sonnenfeldt, who fled Nazi Germany as a teenager, became the chief interpreter for American prosecutors at the Nuremberg war crimes trials and interrogated some of the most notorious Nazi leaders of World War II, died today  at his home in Port Washington, N.Y. at the age of 86.(As reported by A.G. Sulzberger)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/nyregion/13sonnenfeldt.html

2009: Even on Hoshanah Rabah there is no rest from reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife by Francine Prose (Los Angeles Times) and Michael Bloomberg: Money, Power, Politics by Joyce Purnick (NY Times)


2010: A special Ethiopian Shabbat luncheon is scheduled to take place at the 92nd St Y in Manhattan. This scheduled event is intended to provide “special opportunity for Ethiopian Jews and any interested Amharic speakers based in New York to get together as a community to celebrate Shabbat in their native tongue and to be in the presence of their revered Kessotch on a rare visit from Israel.”



2010(1 Cheshvan, 5771): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan



2010: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has told Arab leaders he may seek U.S. recognition for a Palestinian state, which would include all of the West Bank, should peace talks with Israel break down, an aide said today. The idea, raised during Arab League deliberations in Libya yesterday, would place new pressure on Israel to extend a recently expired freeze on construction of settlements in the West Bank - a Palestinian condition for continuing recently re-launched direct peace negotiations

2010: In a case of Jew versus Jew, Andy Samberg played the part of Mark Zuckerberg  in Saturday Night Live’s lampoon of Facebook and its creator.

2011: StrorahSteps is scheduled to present Norah’s Rainbow at the 14th Street Y in Manhattan.

2011: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Lucky Bruce:A Literary Memoir” by Bruce Jay Friedman.

2011: A top Israeli security official is visiting Cairo, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram reported today, amid recent tensions between Israel and Egypt over security arrangements in the Sinai.

2011:The Yom Kippur War ceremony in Tel Aviv was almost canceled today after not a single government minister attended, causing uproar among the bereaved families. The ceremony, held annually at the Kiryat Shaul Cemetery which is the resting place of 780 soldiers who were killed during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, was supposed to begin at 4 pm but was delayed after government representatives failed to arrive.

2012: A screening of Amos Gati’s “Field Diary” is scheduled to take place at the New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center.

2012: “Fill the Voice,” “the first film about haredi life directed by an insider for a secular audience” is scheduled to have US premiere at the New York Film Festival

2012(23 of Tishrei, 5773): Simchat Torah for Orthodox and Conservative Jews.

2012: The funeral for Dr. Joan Morgenthau Hirschhorn is scheduled to take place Temple Emanu-El in New York City followed by a private burial.

2012: Two Kassam rockets fired by terrorists from the Gaza Strip tonight landed near the southern Israeli town of Sderot, while three Grad rockets fell outside the nearby town of Netivot.

2012: Serge Haroche, a French-Jewish physicist, has won the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with David Wineland from the United States. (As reported by JTA)

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/10/09/3108811/french-jew-american-researcher-share-nobel-prize-in-physics

http://www.timesofisrael.com/french-jew-is-co-recipient-of-2012-nobel-prize-in-physics/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=5656b1a69c-2012_10_09&utm_medium=email

2013: Jerry Dauber, author of The Worlds of Sholem Aleichem: The Remarkable Life and Afterlife of the Man Who Created Tevye is scheduled to deliver The Bernard Wexler Lecture on Jewish History in Washington, DC

2013: “Meditations on Equilibrium: Works in Glass and Paper” by Alex Hirsch is scheduled to open at the Oregon Jewish Museum



2013: “Bat Mitzvah Comes of Age” is scheduled to open at the Oregon Jewish Museum.

2013, Janet Yellen was officially nominated to replace Ben Bernanke as head of the Federal Reserve.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/business/announcing-fed-nomination-obama-praises-yellen.html?hp&_r=0

2013: Prof. Arieh Warshel, who was born in Israel and now lives in California, and Prof. Michael Levitt, a South African native who made aliya and now splits his time between the US and Israel, Prof. Martin Karplus, an Austrian native who fled to the US before the Holocaust won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry today. Warshel and Levitt are Israel’s 11th and 12th Nobel Prize laureates. (As reported by Judy Siegel-Itzkovich)

2013: Pope Francis told Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud) he would visit Israel, but did not specify a date.

2013: Michael Applebaum, the first Jewish Mayor of Montreal, is scheduled to make his first court appearance after having been “arrested and indicted on 14 charges including fraud, conspiracy, breach of trust, and corruption in municipal affairs.”

2013: Two IDF soldiers were hurt today after two mortar shells fired from Syrian territory landed near their position in the Golan Heights

2013(5th of Cheshvan, 5774): Sixty-nine year old Roger Richman, the son of a rabbi who became a major “talent agent” passed away today. (As reported by William Yardley)

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/business/roger-richman-agent-who-fought-for-rights-of-stars-heirs-dies-at-69.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&hpw=&adxnnlx=1412727054-kCJDxcJyRhmTUCKZv91s8g



2013(5th of Cheshvan, 5774): Ninety-seven year old movie critic Stanley Kaufman passed away today. (As reported by William Grimes)

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/business/roger-richman-agent-who-fought-for-rights-of-stars-heirs-dies-at-69.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&hpw=&adxnnlx=1412727054-kCJDxcJyRhmTUCKZv91s8g

2014(15th of Tishrei, 5775): Sukkoth

2014: In Romania observance of “National Day of Commemorating the Holocaust.”

2014: “Hamas continued to signal its willingness today to engage in negotiations with Israel to exchange the bodies of two IDF soldiers killed in Gaza for the release of Palestinian security detainees.” (As reported Eilor Levy)

2014: “Patrick Modiano of France, who has made a lifelong study of the Nazi occupation and its effects on his country, won the 2014 Nobel Prize in literature today for what one academic called “crystal clear and resonant” prose. (As reported by Karl Ritter and Malin Rising)

http://www.timesofisrael.com/patrick-modiano-writer-on-nazi-occupation-jewishness-wins-literature-nobel/

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/10/books/patrick-modiano-wins-nobel-prize-in-literature.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSumSmallMediaHigh&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0



2014: “Gett,” “a stark divorce drama from brother-and-sister duo Ronit and Shlomi Alkabetz” is one of the films scheduled to be shown at the Hamptons International Film Festival which opens today.



2015(26th of Tishrei. 5776): Seventy-five year old Larry Rosen, “a founder of the pop- jazz record label GRP” passed away today. (As reported by Ben Ratfliff)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/15/arts/music/larry-rosen-digital-audio-pioneer-dies-at-75.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

2015: A year after premiering at the Vienna International Film Festival, “99 Homes” starring Andrew Garfield was released in the United States today.

2015: The Eden-Tamar Music Center is scheduled to host “Loving Bach” part of The Three Piano Series.

2015: “Allied in the Fight: Jews, Blacks and the Struggle for Civil Rights,” “ a new exhibit” recounting “the efforts made by American Jews and African-Americans to fight for the fundamental American promise of equality before and during the Civil Rights era” is scheduled to go on display today at the Center for Jewish History.2016: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Richard Posner by William Domnarski and the recently paperback edition of Give Us The Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America by Ari Berman

2016: Today “Jewish actress Arianne Zucker, the subject of Donald Trump’s comments about women from a decade-old tape” in which he discussed “sexually assaulting women and trying to have sex with married  while he was married to his current wife” commented on the subject declaring that she is “a strong, independent, hard working mother, business woman and partner to a great man” and announcing her “to stand tall with self-respect” while decrying the facts that “there are too many people in power who abuse their position…and rewarded for it.”

2016: “The first group of Ethiopian Jews to move to Israel after waiting for three years is scheduled to arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport this evening, almost a year after the government approved the immigration of 9,000 Jews still left in Ethiopia.” (As reported by Melanie Lidman

2016: This afternoon, Temple Israel is scheduled to host a tour which will tell the story of the Memphis Jewish community “as it migrated from Main Street where the state’s first synagogue was established in in 1857 to present-day East Memphis.”

2016: In Coralville, IA, Odeh Bisharat and Galit Dahan Carlibach are scheduled to speak at the “Morning with the International Writers Prgoram.”



2016: Jews all over the world are scheduled to take part in the annual custom of “Kever Avot” – visiting the graves of our ancestors.

2016: “A Palestinian gunman, known to Israeli police for violence and incitement on social media, killed two Israelis and wounded several others while shooting a rifle from his car in Jerusalem” today.

2016: “A public concert schedule to be held in Tel Aviv’s Rabin square today” will not take place “because World Zionist Organization and Radio Lev Hamedina, two of the chief backers of the show, pulled out following a report, which revealed the event did not include any women among its lineup of seven performers because one of the financiers is opposed to women singing before a mixed audience on religious grounds.”

2016: Rabbi Mendel Deitsch  “a Chabad rabbi who was severely beaten in a train station in the western Ukrainian city of Zhitomir was airlifted to Israel by emergency medical transport.”

2016: On its closing night, SERET, DC, a celebration of contemporary Israeli cinema is scheduled to show “Sandstorm”

2016: Today, on the anniversary of the birth of Alfred Dreyfus, “one of his grandsons unveiled a stute of him at a local park’ in his home town “Mulhouse.”

2016: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and Center for Jewish History are scheduled to present a conference on “The Blood Libel Then and Now: The Enduring Impact of an Imaginary Event” featuring Elissa Bemporad, Raphael Israeli, David Kertzer, Hillel Kieval, E.M. Rose, Magda Teter, and Barbara Weissberger.

2016: A memorial service is scheduled to be held today for Miky Gershenson of blessed memory

2017: In the United States; Columbus Day observed

2017(19th of Tishrei, 5778): Sukkoth Chol Ha’moed;

2017: Beit Avi Chai is scheduled to host a series of Sukkoth activities aimed children including a play about Saul including “struggles over kingship, desert chases and the magic of music.

2017: “The second annual NoshFest,, Toronto’s Jewish food festival” organized by Andrea Segal and Michelle Gordon is scheduled to take place to at Artscape Wychwood Barnes featuring “Jewish delicacies, cooking demonstrations, cookbook signings and the Klezmer band, Jonno LIghtstone and the Rock the Shtetl.

2017: Seventy-two year old Professor Richard Thaler “was award the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics today.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/09/business/nobel-economics-richard-thaler.html

2018: This evening the Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a dinner during which attendees will discuss “New Beginnings in Jewish Thought: A Start-up Practice.”

2018: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to host the book launch of Historical Atlas of Hasidism by “Marcin Wodziński, a professor of Jewish studies at the University of Wrocław in Poland and David Biale, the Emanuel Ringelblum Distinguished Professor of Jewish History at the University of California, Davis.”

https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11268.html

2018: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host “An Evening with Simon Schama” the author of two weighty tomes entitled The Story of the Jews.

2018(30thof Tishrei, 5779): First Day Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

2019 (10th of Tishrei, 5780): Yom Kippur; for more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/

2019: In New Orleans, the Jewish Federation is scheduled to the “Federation-JNOLA Break Fast.

2019: As Jews all over the world remember the 46thAnniversary of the Yom Kippur War, some may be wondering what the impact of the decision of the United States to abandon the Kurds and allow Turkey to invade parts of Syria will mean for the long term security of the region.



This Day, October 10, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin

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614: Today the fifth Council of Paris “prohibited the Jews from asking or from exercising civic or administrative rights.”

680: At the Battle of Karbala, Shia Imam Husayn bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, was decapitated by forces under Caliph Yazid I. This is commemorated by Shi'a Muslims as Aashurah. This is part of the split between the Shiites and the Sunnis that has led to so much violence and had an impact on the terrorist war against Israel and other nations of the world.

732: At the Battle of Tours which was fought near Poitiers, France, the leader of the Franks (modern day French) Charles Martel and his men, defeat a large army of Moors, stopping the Muslims from spreading into Western Europe. This meant that the territory south of the Pyrenees – Spain – would remain in Islamic hands for the better part of the next seven centuries while the rest of Europe would remain in Christian hands for the time being. This demarcation would lead to the development of different variants of Judaism depending up whether the Jews lived in Moslem and Christian dominated parts of Europe.

1384: A judicial inquiry was held in a castle at Châtel, by order of Prince Amadeus, Count of Savoy with purpose of confirming the charges by his Christian subjects that the Jews were guilty of poisoning the wells, springs “and other things which the Christians use.” Numerous Jews of both sexes have been imprisoned based on these charges. The case rested, in part, on the admission of Jew named Agimet from Geneva, who confessed after having been subject to only “a little” torture that he had engaged in such practices.

1619(2nd Cheshvan, 5380): Rabbi Joseph Pardo passed away today in Amsterdam.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0015_0_15416.html

1674(10thof Tishrei, 5435): David Cohen de Lara, the “Haham, lexicographer and writer on ethics” passed away today in Hamburg.

1723: The party responsible for slandering a group of Jews was put to death in an auto-de-fe at Lisbon. The person had alleged groups of men were assembling to practice Jewish customs. The men were later arrested and jailed where many of them had died.

1740(19thof Tishrei, 5501): Joseph Moses Schiff, the husband of Brendle Schiff, passed away after which he was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Frankfurt Am Main today.

1744: Sampson Gideon, “a banker in the city of London” and his wife Jane gave birth to Sampson Eardley, 1st Baron Eardley.

1751: In “Amersfoot, Utrecht, Netherlands,” Eva Jacob Cohen and Benjamin Jonas Cohen gave birth to Abraham Benjamin Cohen who was the husband of “Elisabeth Gompertz and Eva Gompertz.”

1755: In a 4 month period ending today, eight Jewish merchants were listed in the Custom House records of New York

1777(9thof Tishrei, 5538): The sounds of Kol Nire might have clashed with the feelings of joy and relief over the recent American victory at Saratoga.

1792: One day after she had passed away, “Breindla bat Joseph” was buried at the “Alderney Road (Globe Road) Jewish Cemetery” today.

1792(24thof Tishrei, 5553): Seventy-nine year old Dutch born businessman, Talmudist and Hebrew language poet David Franco Mendes passed away after spending the last six months of his life as honorary secretary of the Spanish-Portuguese community at Amsterdam.

1802: In Philadelphia, a group of German Jews formed a society that they called the “Hebrew German Society Rodef Shalom” which was one of the earliest German Jewish congregations in America. “The society was reorganized and chartered in 1812. Among the earliest rabbis were Wolf Benjamin, Jacob Lipman, Bernhard Illowy, Henry Vidaver, Moses Sulzbacher, and Moses Rau.”

1810: Benjamin Gompertz married Abigail Montefiore at the Hambro Synagogue today.

1818(10thof Tishrei, 5579): Yom Kippur

1823: Birthdate of Russian scholar and philanthropist Joshua ben Aaron Zeitlin.

1825: In London, Rebecca Montefiore and Joseph Solomon gave birth to Sophia Solomon.

1830(23rdof Tishrei, 5591): Simchat Torah

1831: One day he had passed away, “Samuel Solomo” was buried at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”

1836: Abraham Hart and Rebecca Cohen Hart, the New York born daughter of Catherine and Sampson Mears Isaacks gave birth to Edward Carey Hart.

1837:Löbl Strakosch and Julia Schwarz gave birth to their son Ferdinand, the younger brother of Maurice and Max Strakosch.

1839: Francis Henry Goldsmid married Louisa Sophia Goldsmid at the Great Synagogue today.

1842: Three days after she had passed away, “Golda Isaacs, the wife Isaac Isaacs” was buried today at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery”

1845: Founding of the U.S. Naval Academy. Today there are approximately 140 Jewish Midshipman at the Naval Academy. The dedication of the multi-million dollar Uriah P. Levy Jewish Center and Chapel in 2005 marked a major milestone in the development of Jewish life at the Annapolis institution. For more about the history of the Jews at the U.S. Naval Academy see “The Judaic Experience at the U.S. Naval Academy” by Joel Ira Holwitt

1847: In Hamburg, Germany, Julie and Samuel Lewishon gave birth to Leonard Lewisohn who gained fame and fortune in the United States as a businessman and philanthropist.

1847: A constitution was adopted forming 'The Ladies Sewing Association, of the Congregation Shearith Israel, of New York.' The society consisted of an initial fifty members who would make garments for the needy.

1848: Two days after he had passed away, 24 year old Benjamin Nathan, the son of Barnett Nathan and the former Julia Solomons was buried today at the “Canterbury Jewish Cemetery.

1851: Communications pioneer Paul Julius Reuter “established a telegraph office at the I Royal Exchange Buildings, near the London stock exchange. From this location he transmitted stock market quotations between London and Paris, using the new Calais-Dover telegraph cable under the English Channel. Recognizing the need for a news service, Reuter would the next seven years working hard to build the agency and promote his services to newspapers.”

1853: “Jewish Educational Institute” published today described the cornerstone laying ceremony for a Jewish Educational Institute to be built in New York next to B’nai Jeshraun Synagogue on Greene Street. Rabbi Morris Raphall’s address to the attendees included the statement that he was as proud of the establishment of this academy for Jewish study as he was of the role he had played in establishing a similar such institution in Birmingham, England. He stressed the importance of Jews receiving both a secular and religious education. He spoke of the unique benefits Jews enjoyed in the United States. And he predicted that a day would come when the United States would surpass the United Kingdom and when the Jews of the United States would have to assume a leadership role for Jews throughout the world.

1854: The Jewish Theological Seminary, “the first rabbinical seminary in Central Europe, opened today in Breslau.

1855: Isaac Hart married Louisa Levy at the Great Synagogue today.

1856: Members of the “Philadelphia Battery,” a unit Max Einstein formed as the Philadelphia Flying Artillery Company, presented him with “a magnificent silver sword, encased in a scabbard of gold.”

1860: In London, Mr. Joseph Isaacs and his wife gave birth to Rufus D. Isaacs the nephew of Sir Henry Isaacs and the husband of Alice Edith Cohen, the third daughter of Albert Cohen who “entered Middle Temple in 1887” and began serving as the Liberal MP from Reading in 1904

1860: Joseph M. Montefiore, the President of the Board of Deputies and his wife gave birth to Sir Francis Abraham Montefiore “who became high sheriff of the country of Kent in 1894 and Sussex in 1895” while serving as “chairman of the executive committee of the English Zionist Federation” and “chairman of the Elders of the Spanish and Portuguese congregation.

1860: Birthdate of “Schklov, Russia,” native Solomon Baroway who came to the United States in 1883 and went to Kansas with “25 other Jewish young men” to start an agricultural community at Lasker in Clark County before moving on eventually settling in Baltimore where he “was the Superintendent of the Hebrew Benevolent Society for twenty-five years.

1862: In Crawley, West Sussex, England Joseph Montefiore, the president of the Board of Deputies and his wife gave birth to Sir Francis Abraham Montefiore who served as the high sheriff of Kent and Sussex as well as the “chairman of the executive committee of the English Zionist Federation.” (The Jewish Encyclopedia and The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo –Jewish History show the date as October 10, 1860)

1862: Philadelphian William Moss, the son of Joseph L. and Julia Moss completed his one year of service as the Surgeon for the 70th Regiment “which he helped to raise) today after  which “he became Surgeon of United States Volunteers.”

1862: Zillah and Samuel Henry Beddington gave birth to Ada Beddington who married Ernest Leverson and as Ada Leverson became a noted British author and friend to the famous as well as the mother of George and Violet Leverson.

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/leverson-ada



1864(10th of Tishrei, 5625): Yom Kippur

1864: Jews gathered at the home of a merchant in Salt Lake City to observe Yom Kippur. This was probably the first communal Jewish activity to take place in this Mormon dominated regioned.

1864: The New York Timesreported that “To-day will be generally observed by our Jewish fellow-citizens as a rigid fast-day and period of strict religions observance. It is known as Your Kippur Day of Atonement. Every Israelite in every part of the world, who believes in the Law of Moses and the doctrine of a future world, keeps the day as a strict fast-day. From sunset yesterday till sunset to-day no food or drink is indulged in. Every Jew and Jewess, and children above thirteen, must observe the fast. According to Jewish tradition, on the first day of the New Year, the Israelites are summoned in judgment before their Creator, but sentence upon their misdeeds is reserved till the tenth day Your Kippur. If, during the ten intermediate days, called the Arsareth Yermi Tersluaro, ten day of repentance, penitence is made, and the "sinner turneth from the evil of his ways," the anger of the Lord is assuaged, and on the day of atonement forgiveness is accorded. When the Isralites worshipped in the Temple at Jerusalem, the service of this day was equally solemn and splendid. It was the only day throughout the year on which even the Cohen Hagodol (High priest,) presumed to enter the most holy sanctuary of the temple, or to pronounce the renevated and deladed name of the Deity which at any other time it was unlawful even for him to utter. The glories of this day are commemorated in the musaf or midday service of the synagogue. According to Jewish tradition, also the Your Kippur even before the giving of the law was a day of atonement and pardon. Adam did penance and was pardoned on this day. Abraham entered the covenant of the circumcision on this day. Moses, after he had broken the first tables, ascended the Mount again on the first day of Elul, so that the second forty days expired with the Your Kippur. The eve is allotted to solemn feasting, and at sunset the twenty-four hours fast and continued prayers commence. It is also customary in the evening for parents to bestow a solemn benediction on their children. Whosoever meet on that day, be they previously acquainted or complete strangers, salute each other with brotherly love and sincerity. If any dispute exists between the Jews, it is obligatory on them to become reconciled before either of them presumes to appear in the presence of his God. The law which ordains the observance of the day likewise commands the Jew "to afflict his soul." The affliction of the soul by means of the body, according to Jewish custom, consists in abstaining from five indulgences -- eating and drinking, bathing, perfuming, wearing shoes and sexual enjoyment. The observance of the festival is most strict by everyone who claims the name of Jew, and even those who make light of other observances throughout the year, pay due regard to this day. The exercises in the synagogue are of a striking and impressive character, the edifice is thronged with worshippers, the ministers and officials are draped in white shrouds while prayers of lamentation and penitence are heard on all sides. The services are divided into five parts the kol nidri, or eve service for last night; the sharcheris, or morning service; the musaf, or midday service, the mincha, or afternoon service; the nela, or conclusion. The synagogues open to-day at 6 A.M., and remain open till sunset.

1864(10th of Tishrei, 5625): Jews of Tunis and Tripoli were massacred.

1865: Joseph M. Montefiore, the President of the Board of Deputies and his wife gave birth to Sir Francis Abraham Montefiore who served as the High Sheriff of the counties of Kent and Sussex and as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the English Zionist Federation.

1866: One day he had passed away, 65 year old Moses Emanuel, the husband of Elizabeth Moses, with whom he had five children – “Joshua, Joseph, Simeon, Abraham and Henry” – was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”

1869(5thof Cheshvan, 5630): Eighty-five year old Rabbi Abraham Sutro who was an ardent advocate for Jewish emancipation in Prussia passed away today.

1870: In Vienna, “Anna Sara Hinda Halban and Philipp Halban gave Josef von Halban the pioneer obstetrician and gynecologist who was marred to “Austrian operatic soprano” Selma Kurz.

1870: “Rabbi Gabriel of Shereshev and his wife Haya” gave birth to the first of their eleven children, Rabbi David Almond, the Polish trained Talmudist and graduate of London University and Jew’s College where he was ordained who was admitted to the bar after earning an LLD from John Marshal Law School in Chicago where “he served the North Shore Congregation B’nai Israel until its consolidation with the First Hungarian Congregation Agudas Achim in 1923, after which he led several congregations on Chiciago’s South Side.”

1871(25th of Tishrei, 5632): Sixty-seven year old Joseph Zedner passed away.  Born in Germany, he served as librairian of the Hebrew Department of the British Museum from 1845 until 1869 when he resigned and returned to Germany due to his failing health.

1871: Birthdate of “German rabbi and folklorist” Max Grunwald.

1871(25thof Tishrei, 5632): Sixty-seven year old Joseph Zender the German born librarian of the Hebrew department of the British Museum in London passed away today.

1871: On the last day of the Great Chicago Fire it was noted that a void now existed in the city. The Hebrew Relief Association’s Hospital had been destroyed during the catastrophic conflagration.

1872: Birthdate of Harold Phillips who would be buried in the Jewish cemetery at Natchitoches, LA when he passed away at the age of 13.

1874: Ceremonies were held this evening in New York City marking the formal opening of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association. Lewis May, the president of the organization opened the event with a brief address followed by Dr. Mark Blumenthal’s speech provided a brief history of YMHA. Judge Philip J. Joachimsen and Rabbi Isaacs of the 19th Street Synagogue were among the dignitaries who attended the event.

1875: Today, the officials of the Kane Street Synagogue, or Congregation Baith Israel Anshei Emes,in Brooklyn “set forth the rules for the congregation’s Sunday school” including “from the opening to closing of school children are not allowed to speak unless permission be given by the teacher,” to “scholars absenting themselves for four consecutive Sundays shall be discharge, unless good excuse be given” to a requesting that “scholars bring two cents each and every Sunday” which the teachers of the “different class are to collect.”

1875: According to reports published today that while the Moslems have political control of Jerusalem, the Jews, who number 8,000 souls and even more during festivals, make up a majority of the city’s population.

1875: “Jerusalem” published today provides a thumbnail sketch of the city including

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9B0DE5DC133BEF34BC4852DFB667838E669FDE

1875: In Grodno, Belarus, Aaron Bublic and his wife gave birth to Gedaliah Bublick who the writer and Zionist who drifted from Paris to Argentina to New York where he became editor-in-chief of the Yiddishe Tageblatt.

https://www.jta.org/1948/03/21/archive/gedaliah-bublick-noted-writed-and-mizrachi-leader-dies-at-meeting-was-73

1876(22nd of Tishrei, 5637): Shemini Atzeret

1876: In New York, Dr. Isaac Adler and the former Frieda Brumbacher gave birth to Herman Morris Adler the nephew of Felix Adler and the husband of Frances Porter who graduated from Columbia and Harvard Medical School who went on to a career as a “psychiatrist and criminologist.”

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Adler%2C%20Herman%20M%2E%20%28Herman%20Morris%29%2C%201876%2D1935

http://texts.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb9q2nb5z2&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00002&toc.depth=1&toc.id

1878: Birthdate of Lithuanian born tailor Simon Ackerman the founder of a clothing chain that bears his name and the founder of “Chester Barrie is a semi-bespoke gentleman's tailor located at No19 Savile Row, London.”

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/02/15/83669598.pdf

1879(23rd of Tishrei, 5640): Simchat Torah

1879: Daniel Edward Bandmann played Shylock in tonight’s opening performance of “The Merchant of Venice” at the Standard Theatre in New York City. His portrayal of Shakespeare’s Jew differs from that of Edwin Booth who creates an “over-tragic and impassioned” figure.

1879: Birthdate of Eugen Täubler who wrote his dissertation on Josephus and lectured at the Higher Institute for Jewish Studies in Berlin.

1883(9thof Tishrei, 5644): Erev Yom Kippur

1883: Three hundred boys attended Kol Nidre services at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum that were led by Dr. Herman Baar, the Superintendent.

1884(21st of Tishrei, 5645): Hoshanah Rabbah

1884(21stof Tishrei, 5645): Seventy six year old Johanna Goldschmidt the wife of Moritz David Goldschmidt who was a philanthropist, author and an advocate for the right’s of women passed away today in Hamburg.

1884(21st of Tishrei, 5645): Dr. Adolph Huebsch, “one of the most popular and influential…rabbis” in New York “died suddenly from heart disease from heart disease” from “heart disease” at 4:30 this morning. Born in Hungary in 1830, earned a doctorate at the University of Prague after which he took a pulpit in that Czech city.  In 1886, he came to the United States where began serving as rabbi at Ahaveth Chesed. In addition to leading his congregation through a period of growth that included the building of a new sanctuary, he was a noted scholar.

1885: Birthdate of Dr. Ernst Eylenburg who was transported from Berlin to Terezin in 1943 and from Terezin to Auschwitz in 1944 where he was murdered.

1885: George S. Stinson, a special agent of the Internal Revenue Department discovered today that “crooked whiskey was being manufactured by four Hebrews at Bruynswick, NY.

1886(11th of Tishrei, 5647): David Levy Yulee, the first Jewish United States Senator passed away. David Yulee (also spelled Yule) was known simply as David Levy for the first three and half decades of his life. He had been born on the West Indian island of St. Thomas and brought to Florida by his father Moses Levy. The younger Levy turned Yulee was a successful planter and lawyer, a perfect background for a further career in politics. When Florida became a state in 1845, Yulee was chosen to serve as one of her senators. Yulee was not active in Jewish communal life and married a non-Jew. However, his political opponents did not ignore this fact. When the Civil War broke out, Yulee joined the other Jewish senator, Judah P. Benjamin in secession. During the war he served in the Confederate Congress. After the war, he served a year in prison on for reasons not recorded. He had been arrested while on his way to Washington, D.C. in an effort to gain Florida’s re-entry into the Union. It is ironic that the only claim to fame of a Jew who sought to assimilate is tied to that very Jewishness.

1886(11th of Tishrei, 5647): In St. Louis, Frank Sandmeyer, a Jew who was employed as a waiter at Esher’s Variety Theatre took his own life after killing his wife.

1886: Birthdate of Kamila Adelová who was transported from Prague to Terezin in 1942 and from Terezin to Maly Trostine where she was murdered.

1886: Birthdate of New York native and Columbia trained attorney Philip Goldfarb.

1886: It was reported that an actor named “Curtis” will be appearing at the 14thStreet Theatre in New York.  His forte is his comic portrayal or “caricature” of “the superficial traits of the modern German” Jew.

1887: Birthdate of Schenectady, NY, native Lester Louis Bauer, the Northwestern University Law School graduate, “publisher of the Jewish Standard” and the “President of the Federation of the Reformed and Conservative Temples.”

1889(15thof Tishrei, 5650): Sukkoth

1890: The Vossiesche Zeitung declared that the charges published in the Das Volkattacking the committee honoring Count von Moltke as being Jews seeking to make money from the event are “a calumny.”

1890: The anti-Semitic May Laws were modified to allow Jews to rent, but not buy, lands within certain city limits that will be used for grazing purposes only.

1890: It was reported today that “Mr. Charles Frohman’s newly-organized company will soon be appearing in a new play called ‘Men and Women’” featuring among its characters “a rich Hebrew, President of a national bank.”

1890: “Plans were filed with the Building Bureau…for the erection of a five-story orphan asylum for the Hebrew Shelter and Guardian Society” in New York City.

1891(8thof Tishrei, 5652): Shabbat Shuva

1891: In Paris, author and humorist Tristan Bernard and his wife gave birth to director and screenwriter Raymond Bernard.

1891(8thof Tishrei, 5652): Thirty-five year old Anna Hilkofsky who suffered from epilepsy died this evening when she died in a fire that started while she was cooking and fell into the stove.

1891:”Alleged Great Expectations” published today described the action being taken by 23 year old Charles Horowitz, a Jewish peddler who came to the United States from Russia two years ago to obtain his share of his late uncle’s estate who reportedly died in San Francisco leaving his heirs $30,000,000.

1893(30th of Tishrei, 5654): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

1893(30th of Tishrei, 5654): Lipman Emanuel "Lip" Pike, the first professional Jewish baseball player passed away.

1893: In Jersey City, NJ, the Moral Reform Society, an organization composed of representatives from various Protestant Churches met for the first time and decided to include Jews and Catholics in its membership.

1894(10thof Tishrei, 5655): Yom Kippur

1894: “Died at the Services” published today described the death of sixty year old Wolf Cohn who passed away during Kol Nidre services.

1894: Due to the observance of the Day Atonement, the 1,000 Jewish registrars who would have served both the Republicans and Tammany Hall will not be able to serve.

1894: “Business on the Stock Exchange…was restricted owing to the absence of many operators who were away observing the Hebrew fast of the Atonmenet.”

1894: In New York, Temple Beth-El will use “the new order of services for Yom Kippur adopted at the Central Conference of American Rabbis at the meeting in Atlantic City.  In a more shocking move, German will no longer be used and all prayers will be in English or Hebrew.

1895: “Two Wills In A Week” published today described a dispute over the estate of Mrs. Babet Karl involving Rabbi Aaron Wise of Congregation Rodoph Sholom and his son Otto Irving Wise on one side family members including her nephew Abraham Stern on the other side.

1896: It was reported today that a rare copy of William Blake’s “Jerusalem” had been sold at action by Bangs & Co for $14.50.

1896: The University of Wisconsin football team led by first year head coach Philip King, a Jewish native of Washington, DC defeated Lake Forest today in the season opening game.

1897(14thof Tishrei, 5658): Erev Sukkoth

1897: In Manchester Israel Cohen and the former Annie Eugenie Seligmann gave birth a baby girl.

1897: Six days after he had passed away, 20 year old “Ernest Vivian Eskell Kennard, the second son of Eva and Alfred Kennard” was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1897: At Temple Israel on 125th Street and 5th Avenue Rabbi Maurice Harris officiated at services which included an address by Daniel P. Hays, President of the congregation.

1897: Samuel D. Levy presided over the 18th annual meeting of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society

1898(24thof Tishrei, 5659): Author and numismatist David Henriques de Castro passed away in Amsterdam the city where he was born in 1832.

1898(24thof Tishrei, 5659): Seventy-three year old author and philosopher Fabius Mieses passed away today.

http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Mieses_Fabius

1898: Samuel Elfenbein, the son of Moses and Rosa Elfenbein and Ceilia Elfenbein gave birth to Hiram Elfenbeim

1899: The New York Timesbegins publishing a supplemental section devoted to reviewing books. The New York Times Book Sectionhas provided numerous reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or special interest to Jewish readers for over a century. It has been an invaluable resource for this blog.

1900: During the “Konitz Affair,” an episode of Jewish blood libel, “Jacob Jacoby of Tuchel, was sentenced to confinement for one year in the penitentiary for perjury.”

1900: Forty-three year old Joseph Mayer Rice, the New York born son of Mayer and Fanny Rice and Columbia trained physician who went on to work in the field of “psychology and pedagogics” married Deborah Levinson today.

1900: In Detroit, Congregation Beth El made the decision to build a new Temple which will be located at the corner of Woodward Avenue and Eliot Street.

1902 (9th of Tishrei, 5663): Erev Yom Kippur

1903: The Young Men’s Zionist Society of Newark, NJ, is scheduled to host a ball tonight.

1905: Maurice J. (Moses) Mandelbaum, the Cleveland born son of “Jacob and Amelia (Lehman) Mandelbaum and “philanthropist, banker and interurban-railway magnate” married his second wife, Florence S. Levy, died today.

1906(21st of Tishrei, 5667): Hoshanah Rabah

1907: Ernesto Nathan, a Jew, was elected Mayor of Rome.

1908(15thof Tishrei, 5669): Sukkoth

1908: Movie mogul Harry Warner and his wife, Rea Levinson gave birth to their first child, Lewis Warner.

1909: The coffin “covered with the blue and white flag of Zion” carrying the body of Naphtali Herz Imber “the east side poet and author of ‘Hatikvah,’ the Zionist national hymn” who had died erev Shabbat “was followed from the Educational Alliance Building on East Broadway to the Mount Zion Cemetery by 10,000 sincere mourners including Rabbi J.L. Magnes.

1910(7thof Tishrei, 5671): Mrs. Chawe Wolpe passed away today.

1910: Birthdate of Photographer Julius Shulman. Born in Brooklyn, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, his family moved to a farm in Connecticut, where Shulman first developed a love of nature that, he said, awakened him to light and shadow and influenced his life's course. When Julius was 10, his father moved the family to the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, which at that time was predominantly Jewish, and opened the New York Dry Goods Store. His father died of tuberculosis in 1923, leaving Julius' mother to run the business and raise five children.

1910: Ten Jewish men founded Tau Episolon Phi (TEP) fraternity at Columbia University.

1911(18thof Tishrei, 5671): Fourth Day of Sukkoth

1911(18thof Tishrei 5671): Fifteen year old Miss Schlowe Stein passed away today.

1912(29thof Tishrei, 5673): “Communal worker” Henry Jonas passed away in Butte, Montana/

1912: Today, Dr. Joseph Silverman officiated at the funeral of Professor Morris Loeb. The funeral which was attended by more than 500 people representing most of the Jewish charitable and religious organizations of New York and many of its educational institutions was held at Temple Emanu-El Cemetery, Salem Fields, Cypress Hills. Dr. Samuel Schulmann of Temple Beth-El gave the closing prayer.

1913(9thof Tishrei, 5674): Erev Yom Kippur – Kol Nidre is heard for the last time before the start of World War I when, as the British Foreign Minister said, the lights went out all over the world and we do not know if we shall ever see them turned again.”

1913: Based on Judge Roan’s ruling on August 26, today was to be the day when Leo Frank was to be hung.

1914: Birthdate of Pinchas Anchipolovsky, the native of the shtetl of Krevoe Ozero who gained fame as Pinchas Ben Porat one of the first pilots in what became the IAF who actually flew in support of Jewish settlers before the declaration of independence and who died when his El Al aircraft was shot down by the Bulgarian Air Force in 1955.

1915(2ndof Cheshvan, 5676): Alfred Hyman Louis, the native of Birmingham and son of Hyman T. Louis, “a well-to-do merchant and his wife Maria” who “was called to the Bar in 1855 and who claimed to have been the inspiration “for the consumptive mystic Mordecai” in George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda passed away today after which he “was buried as a Jew” having renounced his previous conversion to Christianity.

1915: Today, 29 year old Louis Lefkowitz, the brother of Aaron Lefkowitz and founder of “Louis Lefkowitz and Brother, manufacturers of leather belts” and other such items, “married Miss Sadie Leah Weiss” with whom he had one child, a daughter named Doris.

1915: Today was designated as the deadline for various Jewish organizations to name those who will be attending the “general congress of American Jews” to be held next month under the auspices of the American-Jewish Committee.

1915: It was reported today that “the Jews of Russian Poland, now in the hands of the Austrians and Germans, appear to have suffered, prior to the Russian retreat more than the normal amount of hardship imposed by war” which included “a rather promiscuous execution by the Russians of the Jews accused of espionage…and the plundering of Jewish shops and houses by the Russian soldiery.

1915: The list of “Five Hundred Leading Books This Fall” published today included Forest Izard’s Sarah Bernhardt which provides “a brief sketch of her career and an appreciative criticism of her work and her genius, Israel Friedlander’s The History of the Jews In Russia And Poland in which “the author traces the restrictions placed, the oppressions exercised against and the accusation made respecting the Jews in Poland up to the time of the partition of that country in 1772 and thereafter the treatment of the Jews under Russian Role” and Morris Jastrow’s The Civilization of Babylonia and Assyria

1915: “The Neighborhood’s Year” published today provided a preview of the attractions that will be offered this season by the little Neighborhood Playhouse on Grand Street which will include performances by the Yiddish Folksong Singers of Boston.

1915: In the Ukraine, Elie Gottmann and Sonia-Fanny Ettinger gave birth to their only child French geographer Jean Gottman.

1915: It was reported today that “there are 1,846 student in the Teacher’s College” at Columbia University “this year and since many of them are interested in settlement and church work” the school has proposed that Catholics, Jews and Protestants work together “in devising means for making religious instruction more efficient.”

1915: The chairman of the Interchurch Committee on Religious Education which includes Jewish members said that its members are ready to help implement William Wirt’s “Gary Plan” for the schools in New York City.

1916: In Petah Tikva, Isaac and Hemda Diskin, “the husband of Dinah Diskin.”

1917: “After traveling for six months by sea and leaving and encountering many hardships ninety-one Jewish refugees” including “ten old men, forty women and forty-one children” arrived today “at an Atlantic port from Palestine to join their relatives in his country

1917:  In Brownsville, Pincus Schacter, “a seventh generation shochet” and his wife “the former Miriam Schimmelman” gave birth to Herschel Schacter the first US Army Chaplain to enter and participate in the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp and the chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

1918: During the final Allied offensive on the Western Front, the 165th Regiment, including Sergeant Abraham Blaustein hiked to Excamont where they found the Prussian Guards holding their strong points just beyond the town.

1919(16thof Tishrei, 5680): Second Day of Sukkoth

1919: In the aftermath of WW I British troops, which had been sent to Russia in an attempt to keep her in the war were withdrawn from Murmansk which strengthened the hand of the Bolsheviks with all that that meant for the Jewish people of Eastern Europe.

1920: The Goldman Concert Band, “which recently concluded its most successful series of Summer concerts at Columbia University” is scheduled to “give its one and only concert at Carnegie Hall” this evening.

1920: In Chicago, Illinois, Hugo M. Friend, the Judge who presided over trial of the so-called Chicago Black Sox (the players who threw the World Series) was appointed judge of the Circuit Court today.

1921: In Jersey City, David Gross, a haberdasher and his wife, the former Fay Kushner gave birth to Gerald Jeremiah Gross, a Jewish World War II veteran who was responsible for the publishing of Albert Speer’s memoirs. (As reported by Bruce Weber)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/22/books/gerald-gross-who-published-memoirs-of-a-hitler-associate-is-dead-at-94.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

1922(18thof Tishrei, 5683): Fourth day of Sukkoth

1922: In Poland, Chana and Moshe Berkowitz gave birth to Joseph Berkowitz who gained fame as Joseph Kushner, the husband of Rae Kushner, the father of American real estate moguls Murray and Charles Kushner, the grandfather of Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, Joshua Kushner and Marc Kushner.

1922(18thof Tishrei, 5683): Sixty-eight year old Isaac Guggenheim, the Philadelphia born son of Meyer and Barbara Guggenhim and husband of Carrie Sonnebom, who ““director of the American Smelting and Refining Company, the National Park Bank” and a “member of the firm of M. Guggenheim’s Sons” passed away today after which he was buried at the Salem Fields Cemetery in Brooklyn.

1923: Birthdate of major league pitcher, Saul Rogovin.

1924(12thof Tishrei, 5685): After being “hit on the head by a line drive” yesterday, thirty-seven year old “Dutch diamond polisher and baseball player” Hartog Hamburger, an infielder for OVVO in Amsterdam and the father of psychiatrist and future resistance fighter Max Hambruger, died today making him the one of the few, if not the only European to die from an injury sustained while playing the American national pastime.

1925(22nd of Tishrei, 5686): Shemini Atzeret

1925: Birthdate of Mark Shulman the husband of Margaret A. Shulman

1926: In the Bronx, Edward Marshall and “the former Ethel Tilzer” gave birth to Joan Evelyn Marshall who gained famed as “Joan Helpern, the creative half of the husband-and-wife team that combined comfort and class as the eponymous owners of the Joan & David line of shoes.” (As reported by Sam Roberts)

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/business/joan-helpern-joan-david-shoes-co-founder-dies-at-89.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

1926: The weeklong campaign of the Jewish Welfare Board to raise $150,000 is scheduled to come to an end today.

1927: “A Harp in Rock,” a melodrama written by Sonya Levien and starring Rudolph Schildkraut as “Isaac Abrams” was released in the United States today.

1927: “Did You Mean It?” a revue with music by Jean Schwartz and lyrics by Sid Silvers transferred from the 44th Street Theatre to the Winter Garden Theatre today.

1927: The original Broadway production of “The Five O’Clock Girl” with music by Harry Ruby and lyrics by Bert Kalmar opened at the 44th Street Theatre today.

1929: Ten Days before the Stock Market crash that triggered the Great Depression, Abraham Strauss opened its renovated store on Fulton Street, during the same year in which “the company also joined Filene's, Lazarus, and Bloomingdale's to form Federated Department Stores.

1929: Die gelbe Jacke (The Yellow Jacket) an operetta with a libretto co-authored by Fritz Lohner-Beda was performed, at the Metropol Theatre, Berlin for the first time today.

1930: In Hackney, east London "Jack" Pinter, a ladies' tailor and his wife, Frances (née Moskowitz) gave birth to English playwright and Nobel Prize Winner, Harold Pinter.

1931: Sid Gillman was among the Buckeyes who were miserable following Vanderbilt’s victory over Ohio State in the second game of the college football season.

1932: The Supreme Court, whose members included Louis Brandeis and Benjamin Cardozo heard arguments in Powell v. Alabama, a case in which Walter H. Pollack represented the petitioners who were known as “the Scottsboro Boys.”

1933(20th of Tishrei, 5694): Sixth day of Sukkoth

1933(20th of Tishrei, 5694): The Nazis killed Dr. Theo Katz at Dachau. According to Martin Gilbert, Katz had worked in the camp hospital before his murder.

1934: Ella Driori and Amnon Drori gave birth to Alexander (Alex) Drori

1935: In New York, Norman and Betty Hirschfield gave birth to studio executive Alan James Hirschfield.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/29/business/media/alan-j-hirschfield-79-hollywood-executive-is-dead.html

1935: George Gershwin's "Porgy & Bess" opened on Broadway. The Jewish music master used his talents to bring the life of African-Americans to mainstream entertainment.

1936(24thof Tishrei, 5697): Parashat Bereshit – on Shabbat begin the Torah reading cycle again

1936: At Temple Emanu-El Rabbi Nathan Perlman is scheduled to deliver a sermon entitled “Ways of Pleasantness and Paths of Peace.”

1936: At the West End Synagogue, Rabbi Nathan Stern is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Driven From Paris.”

1936: In New York, many rabbis are scheduled to deliver sermons describing “the work of the New York section of the National Council of Jewish Women” including “the religious work done on Welfare Island under the chairmanship of Mrs. A. H. Goodman” and “the very important classes for deaf children.”

1936: In the Bronx, religious classes and services are being held at the Council House under the chairmanship of Mrs. Julius Wolff.

1936: At Temple Rodeph Sholom, Rabbi Louis Newman is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Where Do We Stand Together?”

1936: In Philadelphia, a tailor named Joseph Cohen and his wife the former Gertrude Schwab gave birth to David Pesach Cohen whose work “in the public interest” included serving as President of Common Cause. (As reported by Sam Roberts)

http://www.594.com/tributes/binder/aw.html

1937: The Palestine Postreported that the Mandatory Administration assured the British government that no question of security would interfere with the plans to send a new commission to Palestine. This new commission will be well protected and will be well able to consider how to implement the country's partition, as requested by the Mandatory Commission of the League of Nations at their General Assembly meetings in Geneva.

1937: The Post reported that a tax collector's van was robbed by armed Arabs on the Nablus-Jenin road.

1938: Sh'chita (Jewish ritual slaughter) is banned in Italy.

1938: In accord with the terms of the Munich Agreement signed in September, German troops took control of the Sudetenland and gained de facto control over the rest of Czechoslovakia. The agreement gave the Nazis direct control over another portion of Europe’s Jewish population. More importantly, it was one more bloodless victory for Hitler. It helped drive the Soviets to sign a non-aggression pact with Hitler’s Germany which led to the invasion of Poland which led to…well you know the rest.

1938: In statement issued today, U.S. Representative Emanujel Celler of New York urged President Roosevelt “to remind Prime Minister Neville Chamerlain of Great Britain’s solemn pledge in the Balfour Declaration for a Jewish national homeland in Palestine and to declare that the United States ‘views with great conern and alarm a departure by Great Britain from its obligations under that pact.’” Celler went on to express concern that the promise of the Balfour Declaration was about to be “scrapped.”

1939: “A memorial to Felix Warburg will be started today when foundations are laid for seventy farms at Kfar Felix Warburg in southern Palestine.

1939: The period of forced labor for Jewish men in Slovakia is scheduled to come to an end today.

1939: The Germans create a Generalgouvernement in Poland. It is an administrative area not incorporated into Greater Germany. The Germans will locate their death camps in the Generalgouvernement.

1939: A one-hour adaption of “Lilom” which had been translated into English by Benjamin Glazer for a production starring Joseph Schildkraut, was broadcast by the CBS Campbell Playhouse Program.

1941(19th of Tishrei, 5702): Fifth Day of Sukkoth

1941: Marshal Walther von Reichenau instructed his troops that, "The soldier must fully understand the need for severe but just atonement of the Jewish sub-humans." Contrary to one of the myths surrounding the Holocaust, the German army was a willing accomplice in the slaughter of the Jews. The use of gas vans by the roaming Eisengruppen would not put an end to the involvement of German soldiers in the destruction of European Jewry.

1941(19th of Tishrei, 5702): Eliaho Hayeem Victor Cohen, a Lieutenant with the 9th Jat Regiment of the British Indian Army was killed in an accident today during World War II. Although he is buried in the Penang Jewish Cemetery which is believed to be the oldest Jewish cemetery in Malaysia, his grave is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

1941: Thousands of Slovak Jews are sent to labor camps at Sered, Vyhne, and Nováky.

1941: Slovak, Bohemian, and Moravian Jews are forced from their homes and into ghettos.

1941: “Great Guns” a comedy produced by Sol M. Wurtzel and featuring Ludwig Stössel, one of the many Jewish artists forced to flee Europe after the Nazis came to power, was released today by 20th Century Fox.

1941: The Philip Morris Playhouse broadcast an adaptation of Lillian Hellman’s “The Little Foxes.”

1942: “Eva-Marie Buch, a book seller who was part of the Schutze-Boysen-Harnack Resistance Group, also known as  The Red Orchestra was arrested today for passing messages to French slave laborers working in factories.”

1942: Dr. Tamarath Knigin Yolles, the 1939 NYU Medical School graduate and “daughter of Max H. and Bessie (Krokoff) Knigin” married Stanley Fausst Yolles with whom she had two children – Jennifer and Melanie.

1942: The SS issued a decree to “cleanse all concentration camps of Jews.”

1943(11thof Tishrei, 5704): Twenty-six year old German-Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon died today at Auschwitz.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Salomon#mediaviewer/File:Charlotte_Salomon_-_JHM_4762_-Kristallnacht.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Salomon#mediaviewer/File:Charlotte_Salomon_painting_in_the_garden_about_1939.jpg

1943: A non-Jewish Latvian named Yanis Lipke rescues three Jews in Riga by offering ghetto guards two packs of cigarettes for "some Yids to work in my kitchen garden"

1943: At the Sobibór death camp, a revolt is planned by Jewish laborers and Jewish Red Army POWs.

1943(11thof Tishrei,5704): On the day after Yom Kippur, a pilot who had spent -the Day of Atonement praying at the Grande Synagogue in Tunis “flew on a mission and never returned.”  (As reported by Louis Werfel, “the flying chaplain”)

1944(23rd of Tishrei, 5705): Simchat Torah

1944: Fourteen men from the Sonderkommando who escaped during the revolt of October 7 are found. They are tortured along with many other picked up during the prior two days. But none gave away the locations of the hiding survivors. None of the men would survive the interrogation.

1944: Four additional women involved in smuggling explosives used in the October 6-7 uprising at Auschwitz are arrested, including an inmate named Roza Robota. Fourteen men from the camp's Sonderkommando unit also are arrested. The sole surviving conspirator, a Greek Jew named Isaac Venezia, will later die of starvation after Auschwitz inmates are evacuated by their captors to Ebensee, Austria.

1945: According to reports from Jerusalem, Dr. Chaim Weizmann will resign as President of the World Zionist Organization if the British government reaches decisions that are “unfavorable to the Jewish cause in Palestine.” David Ben Gurion, who is expected to return from London next week, is mentioned as his most likely successor.

1945: The Palmach freed two hundred “illegal” Jewish immigrants who had been rounded up by British troops and were being held at a detention facility near Haifa.

1945: Joseph Darnard who had served under Pierre Laval as the commander of the Vichy militia was executed by a firing squad today.

1946: Birthdate of Arnold E. Resnicoff the Washington D.C. native who became a Conservative Rabbi and served as a chaplain in the U.S. Navy for a quarter of a century.

1945: Birthdate of Chicago native Bruce Karatz, the Boston University undergrad and USC Law School grad turned businessman – Chairman and CEO of KB Home – and philanthropist who contributed funds to rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

1946: Release of “The Jolson Story,” a biopic that gives the Hollywood treatment to the life of Al Jolson.

1947: “Deputy Mayor John H. Bennett spoke at the presentation of a piece of fire apparatus to the volunteer fire brigade of Tel Aviv” which a gift from the New York City Fire Department.

1948: “The intensity of the Egyptian shelling on the southern suburbs (of Jerusalem) was such that the United Nations observers believed that a full-scale Egyptian assault on the city was imminent.

1949: U.S. premiere of “Thieves’ Highway” directed by Jules Dassin, co-starring Lee J. Cobb (Leo Jacob) as “Mike Figlia” with music by Alfred Newman.

1949: Two days after closing at the Schubert Theatre, “Lend An Ear”  a musical revue with sketches by Joseph Stein opened at the Schubert Theatre.

1951(10thof Tishrei, 5712): Yom Kippur

1951: Birthdate of Avichai Rontzki “the former Chief Military Rabbi of the IDF” who “served in the position from 2006 to 2010 with a rank of Brigadier General” – a service marked by several controversies.

1951: Twentieth Century Fox released “Love Next,” an American comedy-drama directed by Joseph Newman and written by I.A.L. Diamond

1951: Mrs. Alfred F. Hess read a statement at today's meeting of the Board of Trustees of Barnard College expressing their sorrow at the recent death of Mrs. Annie Nathan Meyer, one of the founders of and original trustees of Barnard.

1952: The Jerusalem Postreported that the Palestine Conciliation Commission had announced that Israel agreed to release one million in sterling. These funds belonged to Palestinian Arabs who had fled Israel during the fighting when the Arabs tried to destroy the state of Israel at the moment of its birth. The commission commented that the Israeli move was "an important step towards the settlement of the differences existing between Israel and her neighbors." The Israelis hoped that this act of good will would help lead to a peace agreement and that the Arab states would now give the Jews who had fled such places as Iraq would now have access to the funds they had been forced to leave behind. As has happened so many times, the hope proved illusory.

1956: At the urging of Moshe Dayan, the cabinet agreed to an attack aimed at destroying the Kalkilya police fort in response to murders at Even Yehuda. The attack would be led by Mordechai Gur who would later be IDF Chief of Staff. The attack was costly in terms of Israeli casualties and brought an end to the period of night-time tit-for-tat reprisal raids.

1956: In response to a terrorist attack launched from Jordan on October 4 that claimed the lives of four civilians,“the Israeli military conducted a counter attack codenamed Operation Samaria in which the IDF attacked the Qalqilya police station at the Tegart fort. After a fierce battle the fort was blown up. 18 IDF soldiers died in the operation and 68 were injured. About 88 Jordanians were killed and 15 were wounded.”

1957(15thof Tishrei, 5718): Sukkoth

1961: Seven months after having premiered in Germany “Town Without Pity” starring Kirk Douglas and with music by Dimitri Tiomkin was released in the United States today.

1961: U.S. premiere of “Splendor in the Grass,” with music by David Amram and filmed by Boris Kaufman.

1961: Milk and Honey opened on Broadway in the Martin Beck Theatre and ran for 543 performances. “Milk and Honey is a musical…music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. The story centers on a busload of lonely American widows hoping to catch husbands while touring Israel and is set against the background of the country's fight for recognition as an independent nation.”

1962: “Charmaine” a song written by Lew Pollack for “What Price Glory?” was recorded today.

1963(22ndof Tishrei, 5724): Shmini Atzeret

1963: In Princeton, NJ, Ruth and Judea Pearl gave birth to journalist Daniel Pearl whowas kidnapped by Pakistani terrorists and later murdered by Al-Qaeda member Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Pakistan.

http://www.danielpearl.org/

https://www.washingtonian.com/projects/KSM/

1964: The Summer Olympics in which Volleyball player Georgy Mondzolevski represented the Soviet Union opened today.

1964(4th of Cheshvan, 5725): Eddie Cantor passed away. The comedian with the “banjo eyes” enjoyed a career that ran from vaudeville to the crazy days of live television variety shows. One of Cantor’s famous running gags centered around the fact that he had five children – all girls. He passed away at the age of 72.

http://www.eddiecantor.com/bio.html

1965: In Cambridge, MA, Carl R. Pidgeon, a visiting professor at MIT and his wife Elaine, a yoga teacher gave birth to singer-songwriter Rebecca Pidgeon the wife of David Mamet.

1965: “Drat! The Cat!” a musical “with a book and lyrics by Ira Levin” with a cast that included Elliot Gould and co-produced by Jerry Adler opened on Broadway today at the Martin Beck Theatre, “where it ran for only eight performances.”

1966: Seventy-one year old Abraham Wolf Binder who served as music director of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue for forty years and was a lead in the Reform Movement passed away today.

http://www.594.com/tributes/binder/aw.html

1966: “The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine,” a song by Simon and Garfunkle was released today.

1968: “Barbarella” a science fiction film co-starring Marcel Marceau was released today.

1970(10th of Tishrei, 5731): Yom Kippur

1971(21stof Tishrei, 5732): Hoshana Raba

1971: Birthdate of child piano prodigy Evgeny Kissin

http://www.kissin.dk/biography.html

1972: Jews in Moscow held a press conference expressing their support of the Senator Henry Jackson’s legislation granting trade benefits to the East Bloc nations in turn for liberalization of their immigration policies (which would make it possible for Jews to leave the Soviet Union and go to Israel)

1972(2ndof Cheshvan, 5733): Sixty-nine year old Russian born American and Radcliffe trained political scientist who worked for such luminaries as Governor Herbert H. Lehman and General Lucius D. Clay passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/1972/10/12/archives/vera-mictieles-dean-69dies-international-a-flairs-specialist.html

1973: 14th of Tishrei, 5734): Economist Ludwig von Mises passes away at the age of 92.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=25164836

1973: 14th of Tishrei, 5734): Erev Sukkoth; as Jews around the world prepare to celebrate Sukkoth, all thoughts are turned to Israel’s fight for survival that had begun on Yom Kippur.

1973: Fighting continued during the Yom Kippur War. A morning counter-attack launched against the Syrians drove their tanks back to line from which they had launched their sneak attack four days ago. General Elazar wanted to push on, but Defense Minister Dayan wanted to stop lest penetration towards Damascus upset the Soviets. Golda Meir sided with Elazar who made plans to attack across the old cease fire line. In the evening, Mrs. Meir addressed the nation describing Israel’s perilous position. The Soviets had armed the Arabs with all matter of modern weaponry and were re-supplying them even as Mrs. Meir spoke. She urged King Hussein not to repeat his mistake of 1967 when he joined the Egyptians and the Syrians. She said that Jews could not allow themselves “the luxury of despair.” She had but one prayer in her heart, “that this will be the last war.

1973: In an effort to relieve Israeli pressure on the Syrian front, where the IDF has gained back the southern Golan, Egyptian forces move further into the Sinai, beyond the range of their SAM umbrella which creates an opportunity for the IAF to go on the offensive.

1973: “Aminister in government and former chief of the IDF General Staff, Chaim Bar-Lev, was effectively put in control of the southern front instead of Shmuel Gonen.” (As reported by Mitch Ginsburg)

http://www.timesofisrael.com/remembering-a-man-slowly-killed-by-the-yom-kippur-war/

1973: 14th of Tishrei, 5734): Israeli political leader and former MK Ada Maimon passed away at the age of 80 today.

1974(24thof Tishrei, 5735): Just two months shy of his 64th birthday, historian and Holocaust survivor Joseph Wulf passed away.

http://stevenlehrer.com/joseph_wulf.htm

1974: Birthdate of Asi Cohen, the native of Ashdod who gained fame as a comedian and actor.

1975: Parliamentarians from 12 Western European countries formed a committee in support of Soviet Jewish emigration.

1975: As the Soviets sought to strengthen their position in the Middle East and the Syrians look for aid in destroying Israel, President Assad completed his visit to the USSR.

1975: “Shivers” a science fiction produced by Ivan Reitman and directed by David Cronenberg who also wrote the script was released today in Canada.

1975: “Lisztomania” a biopic about Franz Liszt co-starring Sara Kestelman and filmed by cinematographer Peter Suschitzky was released in the United Kingdom today.

1976(16thof Tishrei, 5737): Second day of Sukkoth

1976: Mr. and Mrs. Max Gerstein, the president the Petrie Stores Corporation, a national chain of women’s retail clothing stores announced the engagement of their daughter Nancy Ellen Gerstein to John Camper Novogrod an attorney whose father Leonard is a “retired president of W & J Sloane, Inc.”

1978(9thof Tishrei, 5739): Erev Yom Kippur

1979(19thof Tishrei, 5740): Fifth Day of Sukkoth

1979(19thof Tishrei, 5740): Seventy-nine year old composer and Cantor David Josef Puttennan passed away today.

1980(30thof Tishrei, 5741): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

1980(30thof Tishrei, 5741): Eighty-three year old Jackson, Mississippi born Reform Rabbi Julian Beck Feibelman, the longtime spiritual leader of Temple Sinai, New Orleans leading Reform Congregation passed away today after which he was buried at the Metairie Cemetery.

http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0094/ms0094.html

http://crdl.usg.edu/people/f/feibelman_julian_beck_1897/?Welcome

1980: Private Benjamin, a comedy directed by Howard Zeiff and produced by Nancy Meyers who helped to write the script and produced by Goldie Hawn who also starred in the title role was released in theaters across the United States.

1982: The New York Timesbook section included a review An Orphan in History: Retrieving a Jewish Legacy by Paul Cowan describing the “beautiful and moving account of his search for his religious and cultural roots.”

1983: Ruby Myers, who was the Indian actress known as Sulochana passed away today.

http://www.oldindianphotos.in/2011/09/actress-sulochana-real-name-ruby-myers.html

1983: Israel's Knesset voted 60-53 to endorse Yitzhak Shamir as Prime Minister. Shamir was part of the Right Wing Likud and a successor to Menachem Begin.

1983: Mordechai Tzipori completed his service as Deputy Minister of Defense.

1983: Haim Meir Drukman “broke away from the NRP and attempted to form a Knesset faction by the name of Zionist Religious Camp, but was refused permission to do so by the House Committee.”

1983: As Israel changed governments, David Levy retained his position as Deputy Prime Minister.

1984: In the U.K. premiere of “1984” Michael Radford’s cinematic treatment of George Orwell’s novel by the same name.

1984: Birthdate of New York City native Matthew “Matt” Shear the St. John’s College graduate and actor best known for his role as “Detective Lucius Isaacson” on TNT’s hit series “The Alienist.”

1985: U.S. fighter jets forced an Egyptian plane carrying the hijackers of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro to land in Italy, where the gunmen were taken into custody. This was part of a farce that resulted in the hijackers getting off without punishment for their murderous act of piracy.

1986: Israel Prime Minister Shimon Peres resigned. Peres was and is a leader of what was the original Labor Zionist movement that dominated the governments of Israel for the first two decades of its existence.

1986: Jumpin' Jack Flash, a comedy featuring Jon Lovitz was released in the United States today by 20th Century Fox.

1987: Birthdate of Danny Rosenbaum who played for Xavier University and was drafted by the Washington Nationals.

1990(21stof Tishrei, 5751): Hoshana Rabah

1990(21stof Tishrei, 5751): Eighty-three year old Broadway producer Irene Mayer Selznick passed at today at the Pierre Hotel in NYC.  (As reported by Eric Pace)

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/11/obituaries/irene-mayer-selznick-dies-at-83-producer-of-broadway-streetcar.html

1993: “Witchboard 2: The Devil's Doorway” a horror film starring Laraine Newman and featuring Marvin Kaplan was released today by Blue Rider Pictures.

1994(5th of Cheshvan, 5755): Tzvi Gal-chen, the father of author Rivka Galchen, and a scientist known for his work on wind and thermodynamic variables passed away today.

1995(16thof Tishrei, 5756): Second day of Sukkoth

1995(16thof Tishrei, 5756): Ninety year old Sigmund Jeselsohn, the German born son of Samuel and Malchen Jeselsohn and husband of Karolina Jeselsohn passed away today in New York.

1995: As part of Israel’s agreement with the PLO, two members of the PLO’s former Jerusalem Committee crossed into Israel from Jordan as a prelude to becoming Governors of Ramallah and Nablus. Twenty years earlier these same to men had masterminded the bombing in Zion Square which killed fourteen civilians, including three Arabs.

1995: As Israel turned over control of 460 West Bank villages to the Palestinian Authority, a banner flew over the village of Salfit declaring “Today Salfit, tomorrow Jerusalem.”

1996: Yad Vashem decided to recognize Baron Friedrich von Oppenheim as Righteous Among the Nations

http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/righteous/stories/oppenheim.asp

1996(27thof Tishrei, 5757): Ninety-two year Harry Rosen the founder of Junior’s Restaurant, home to what some claim is the best cheesecake in the world passed away today. (As reported by Eric Asimov)

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/11/nyregion/harry-rosen-is-dead-at-92-junior-s-restaurant-founder.html

1997(9thof Tishrei, 5758): Erev Yom Kippur

1999: Bruce Fleischer won The Transamerica golf tournament.

1999: The Sunday New York Timesfeatured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics related to Judaism including We Can Report Them by Michael Brodsky, When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi by David Maraniss and The Magic of Dialogue: Transforming Conflict Into Cooperation by Daniel Yankelovich.

2001(23rdof Tishrei, 5762): Simchat Torah

2001: “Jon Lovitz sang a duet of the song “Well, Did You Evah” at the Royal Albert Hall.

2001: First broadcast of season four of “Felicity” a drama star created by J.J. Abrams and co-starring Greg Grunberg.

2001: “A Man of Good Fortune” published today tells the story of the Moussaieff family.

http://www.haaretz.com/a-man-of-good-fortune-1.71559

2002: Hamas took credit for today bombing at the Bar-Illan interchange on the Geha Road.

2002: Richard Blumenthal was awarded the Raymond E. Baldwin Award for Public Service by the Quinnipiac University School of Law.

2002: Representative Shelley Berkley of Nevada was among the 81 House Democrats who voted in favor of authorizing the invasion of Iraq.

2003(14thof Tishrei, 5764): Erev Sukkoth

2003(14thof Tishrei, 5764): Sixty-year old Atara Chana Beile Marmor the daughter of David Feuerwerker and Taube Rachel Feuerwerker passed away today.

2003(14thof Tishrei 5764): Eighty-five year old Max Rayne the British businessman and philanthropist who was knighted and later made a life peer so that he was known as Baron Rayne passed away.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/oct/14/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries

http://www.raynefoundation.org.uk/

2004: The Sunday New York Timesfeatured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics related to Judaism including Harold Blum’s Where Shall Wisdom Be Found?

2004: In an article designed to encourage gardeners to follow proper transplanting procedures, the Times of London writes approvingly of the practices of “the great rhododendron enthusiast Lionel de Rothschild who used to move fully mature rhododendrons around his garden at his estate.”

2005: Sociology professor Majd el-Haj was named Haifa University's next dean of research, making him the first Arab faculty member to serve at the vice presidential level of an Israeli university.

2005: With a sigh of great relief the feared Lulav Shortage has been avoided. Thanks to aggressive action by the Ministry of Agriculture, the sound of shaking frond will be heard at Sukkah time after all. As part of a long range solution, the Agriculture ministry will work to encourage domestic production of this religious necessity. Hopefully, the Israeli will develop a lulav that will not lose its leaves and an etrog with a stem that UPS cannot break

2006: H.B.O presents the premiere of The Journalist and the Jihadi: the Murder of Daniel Pearl.

2006(18thof Tishrei, 5767): Sixty-eight year old “writer, director and producer” Jerry Belson passed away today.

http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2006/10/jerry-belson-1938-2006.html

2007: In Australia, Richard Pratt was formally accused of price fixing in what would be that nation’s largest case of its kind.

2007: The third and final performance of “Idan Raichel Songs for Peace: The Acoustic Series” takes place at the Museum of Jewish Heritage-A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York City.

2007: Johtje Vos, a modest Dutch woman who saved three dozen Jews during World War II passed away in Saugerties, NY at the age of 97.

2007: Nearly 200 Israeli sailors who served in the British Royal Navy during World War II gathered at the home of the British ambassador to Israel who, together with Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai, awarded them the Veterans Badge to commemorate the victory over the Nazis.

2007: Attendees at a conference in Jerusalem hope to revive Ladino.

2007 The New York Times reported that the Israelis had shared the dossier showing proof of their strike on the Syrian nuclear reactor in the Deir –ez Zor region with Turkey.

2008: While in Paris for the, inaugural meeting of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation - a forum established by European Jewish Congress head Moshe Kantor and former politicians from 10 European countries whose stated goal is to further initiatives that promote dialogue and coexistence Aleksander Kwasniewski, the former president of Poland sat down with The Jerusalem Post to talk about his own vision of tolerance and the special connection Poland has with the Jewish people.

2008: USA network broadcast the first episode of “The Starter Wife” starring Debra Messing

2009 (22 Tishrei, 5770): Shemini Atzertz

2009: Drew University hosts lunch and discussion with graphic artist and author David Stromberg who is also the book review editor for Zeek.

2010(2ndof Cheshvan, 5771): Ninety two year old Shlomo Eidelberg, the Polish born son of Rabbi Mordechai Dov Eidelberg , WW II resistance fighter and at the time of his death Professor Emertius of Jewish History at Yeshiva University in New York passed away today.

https://biblio.co.uk/the-jews-and-the-crusaders-by-eidelberg-shlomo/work/2165583

2010: As part of Sigid, the Ethiopian Jewish Festival and Dance Performance is scheduled to take place at the 92nd Street Y. “

2010: The New York Timesfeatured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Nemesis by Phillip Roth, Final Verdict: What Really Happened in the Rosenberg Case by Walter Schneir and The Invisible Harry Gold: The Man Who Gave the Soviets the Atom Bomb by Allen M. Hornblum

2010: The Los Angeles Timesfeatured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Great House by Nicole Krauss

2010: Earth: A Visitors Guide to the Human Race by Jon Stewart, the fake newsman who was the subject of an anti-Semitic diatribe earlier in the week tops the October 10 LA Times Best Seller List.

2010: Cabinet ministers today approved by a majority vote a controversial amendment which would require every non-Jew wishing to become a citizen of Israel to pledge loyalty to "the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state." Twenty-two ministers voted in favor of the amendment, including most of Likud, Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu. Eight ministers were opposed, five of them from the Labor Party and three - Benny Begin, Dan Meridor and Michael Eitan - from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud.

2010: Israeli artists, writers and intellectuals held a demonstration today against the cabinet's approval of a controversial amendment to the citizenship bill, requiring non-Jews seeking citizenship to pledge allegiance to Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.

2010: During today’s radio show, Glen “Beck described how Soros, who was born in Hungary to Orthodox Jewish parents, ‘used to go around with this anti-Semite and deliver papers to the Jews and confiscate their property and then ship them off. And George Soros was part of it. He would help confiscate the stuff. It was frightening. Here’s a Jewish boy helping send the Jews to the death camps.’” [This statement would draw a response from ADL national director Abe Foxman who released a statement slamming the Fox News commentator's criticism of Soros.]

2011: Aluf Ram Rothberg assumed command of the Israeli Navy.

2011: The Lo Tishkach Foundation is scheduled to sponsor memorial services in the Ukrainian town of Tarascha in honor of the Jews who were slaughtered there in 1941 during World War II.

2011: Center for Jewish History and Center for Traditional Music and Dance are scheduled to present The Hidden Musical Treasures of Romania –A Fulbright Scholar’s Quest a program that explores “the deep roots that connect Romanian music and klezmer music.”

2012: A reception sponsored by the Hebrew Union is scheduled for tonight to mark the opening of “The Sexuality Spectrum,” “a groundbreaking exploration of sexual orientation through the creativity of over fifty international contemporary artists.”

2012:The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington and The Israel Project is scheduled to present “A Presidential Candidate Surrogate Debate featuring Congressman Robert Wexler, representing the Democrats and Under Secretary Dov Zakheim representing the Republicans.

2012:Robert Lefkowitz, a Jewish physician and biochemist, won the Nobel Prize in chemistry with Brian Kobilka, a Stanford University researcher. Lefkowitz, 61, and Kobilka, 57, won for “groundbreaking discoveries that reveal the inner workings of an important family ... of receptors: G-protein-coupled receptors,” a posting on the website of the Nobel Prize stated.today. Understanding how these receptors function helped further explain how cells could sense their environment, according to the text. They will share a $1.2 million grant from the Nobel Prize Committee.

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/10/10/3108891/new-york-born-jewish-doctor-co-recipient-of-nobel-prize-in-chemistry

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/11/science/2-american-scientists-win-nobel-prize-in-chemistry.html?hp

2012: French police found an explosives lab that they say was used by a "jihadist cell" in the bombing of a kosher store near Paris. Francois Molins of the Paris prosecutor’s office said at a news conference today that the firearms and “all the elements necessary to produce explosive devices” were discovered the previous day at a parking lot in the eastern Paris suburb of Torcy

2012:The exhibition, “Zionism 2000 Collection, 1920-1960,” which has been on displayed at Shenkar College of Engineering and Design in Ramat Gan, is scheduled to come to an end.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/iconic-posters-of-a-nation-under-construction/

2012: The National Book Award finalists announced today included Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe by Anne Applebaum and The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Joseph Caro

2013: In the best sense of Tikun Olam, Agudas Achim is scheduled to host “Interfaith Gathering for Prayer and Sharing co-sponsored by the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Johnson County and the Consultation of Religious Communities of Johnson County.

2013: Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids is scheduled to host the first in a series of lectures “Engaging Israel, Foundations for a New Relationships”

2013: The JCC of Northern Virginia is scheduled to sponsor the Middle East Forum on “Iran – The Nuclear Threat and Implications for the Greater Middle East.”

2013: Arkadi Zaides, an independent choreographer born in the Soviet Union in 1979, who immigrated to Israel in 1990, is scheduled to perform his interpretation of “Dig Deep” in New York City.

2013: “In a display of muscle-flexing to Tehran ahead of nuclear talks between Iran and world powers, Israel made a rare announcement today that its air force had conducted a series of drills in which fighter aircraft practiced midair refueling and a simulated strike on a distant target.” (As reported by Gavriel Fiske)



2013(6th of Cheshvan, 5774): Colonel (Res.) Seraiah Ofer was killed in an attack outside his home in the Jordan Valley settlement of Brosh Habika at 10 P.M. tonight and his  wife Monique was moderately wounded, but managed to escape and contact police. (As reported by Chaim Levinson, Gili Cohen and Eli Ashkenazi)



2013:The clandestine World War II work of champion cyclist Gino Bartali was recognized today when a ceremony was held in Jerusalem to mark his help in rescuing Jews in his native Italy. (As reported by Andrew Dampf)

http://www.timesofisrael.com/italian-cycling-legend-gino-bartali-honored-by-yad-vashem/



2014(16th of Tishrei, 5775): Second day of Sukkoth

2014: Moishe House, OJMCHE and MJCC are scheduled to bring you a party under the sukkah canopies in NW Portland, with live music, beer and great vegetarian food as part of Shabbat in the Sukkah.



2014: Professor Robert Cargill is scheduled to deliver a lecture on the Book of Ecclesiastes at Agudas Achim in Coralville, Iowa.



2014: “A Jewish girl is among some 100 girls and young women from France who have left to join jihad fighters in Syria in recent months, a French intelligence official said today.”



2014: “Israel beat Cyprus in Nicosia 2-1 to successfully open its UEFA European Championship qualifying campaign today.”



2014: In Israel, Channel 2 reported today “the United Nations last month secured the release of 45 Fijian peacekeeping soldiers, kidnapped on the Syrian side of Golan Heights by the Nusra Front, through the payment of a $25 million ransom by Qatar.”  (As reported by Ilan Ben Zion)



2015: Today, shortly before 11 a.m., a 16-yearold Arab stabbed two Jewish men in their 60s some 150 meters from Damascus Gate, leaving them moderately and lightly wounded followed by a second attack at approximately 3 p.m when a 19-year-old Palestinian stabbed two officers from the police’s Special Patrol Unit near Damascus Gate.



2015: The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host “The Best of Chamber Music” featuring the Elysee String Quartet from France.



2015: The Jewish Museum of Maryland is scheduled to host a “members only” opening of “Paul Simon, Words & Music, featuring The Guthrie Brothers.”



2015: The Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans is scheduled to sponsor a screening of “Rosenwald”



2015: The Vertigo Dance Company is scheduled to appear at The Performing Arts Center in NYC.

https://tickets.artscenter.org/single/eventDetail.aspx?p=5526 



2016: In London, JWE and UKJF are scheduled to host a screening of “Anthropoid” a cinema version about the mission to assassinate Nazi General Reynhard Heydrich. 

2016: ‘In the predawn hours, Israeli troops conduct a raid at Azzun as part of their campaign to “rid the West Bank of arms used by terrorists including “the Carlo” a crude but effective “handmade submachine gun.”

2016: At the London Jewish Cultural Centre Sir Ralph Kohn is scheduled to “discuss his new book, Recital of a Lifetimewith Jewish historian Trudy Gold.

2016: “The Accountant” a crime thriller with a twist co-starring Jeffrey Tambor premiered at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles.



2016(8th of Tishrei, 5777):  Oliver Hart, a member of the distinguished Montagu family, was one of two economist awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science today for “insights into how best to write contracts, the deal deals that bind together employers and their workers, or companies and their customers.”

2017(20th of Tishrei, 5778): Sukkoth Chol Ha’moed;

2017: Today, “The State Department announced a $7 million reward for information about Talal Hamiyah, who runs Hezbollah's External Security Organization, and $5 million for information about Fu'ad Shukr, a senior operative who helped plan the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon.” (As reported by Jeff Seldin)

2017:.The three Solomon’s Pools near Bethlehem which were built by Herod that “provided water to Jerusalem and the Second Temple” are to be restored in a $750,000 project funded by the United States, officials said today.”

2017:Today, “Ehud Barak, the former Israeli leader known for his hawkish views on Iran, said it would be a “mistake” for President Trump to decertify the Iran nuclear deal, both because it would play to Iran’s advantage and because it would scuttle any hope of a negotiation with North Korea.” (As reported by Mark Landler.

2017: Today Tens of thousands of participants from 80 different countries took part in the annual march in Jerusalem marking the 50th anniversary of the city's unification.

2017: The Chaplains at Oxford are scheduled to host “Pizza in the Hut” for Sukkoth

2017: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “In Between” a film about “three young Arab-Israeli women” sharing “a flat in Tel Aviv.

2017: “Beyond Chicken Soup: Jews and Medicine in America” which “was created by the Jewish usuem of Maryland in Baltimore and includes more than 200 artifacts and phots and documents” opened at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage in Beachwood, Ohio.

2018(15th of Tishrei): On the secular calendar, Yarhrzeit of William “Bill” Schueller, beloved husband of Eleanor Schueller, father of Deb Levin, father-in-law of Mitchell Levin and dairy farmer “par excellence.”

2018: As part of the “Who We Are” film series, the Streicker Center is scheduled to host a screening of a film about “the private side of playwright Arthur Miller” followed by a discussion with is daughter Rebeca Miller and the film’s producers.

2018: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to host “On Radical Jewish Female Voices In Eastern Europe, a lecture by Professor Elissa Bemporad and Professor Natalia Aleksium that “will examine the dynamics of Jewish women’s entry into politics in modern Eastern Europe.”

2018(1stof Cheshvan, 5779):  Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

2019: Today Jews around the world are left to wonder what 5780 will actually be like in the wake of the armed attack on a German synagogue filled with those attending Yom Kippur services yesterday.

2019: JW3 is scheduled to host three screenings of “Curtiz” one of which will take place in Glasgow.

2019: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a “special pub meet up this evening at the Oxford Retreat for all Brookes Jewish freshers.”

2019: Israeli pianist and the Shanghai Quartet are scheduled to perform at the Elebash Recital Hall.

2019(15th of Tishrei): On the secular calendar, Yarhrzeit of William “Bill” Schueller, beloved husband of Eleanor Schueller, father of Deb Levin, father-in-law of Mitchell Levin and dairy farmer “par excellence.”






This Day, October 11, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin

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OCTOBER 11


1138: Massive earthquake strikes Aleppo, Syria.  According to tradition, the Jewish community traces its origins back to the time of King David.  This is based on the description of the conquest of the city by Joab found in the Book of Samuel.  The Great Synagogue, the most famous Jewish edifice in the city was originally built in the fifth century of the Common Era. The real importance of the community can be traced to the Aleppo Codex,the earliest known manuscript containing the entire text of the Bible. Tradition states that Maimonides consulted the Aleppo Codex when he set down the exact rules for writing Torah scrolls.”The Codex was copied by the scribe Shlomo Ben-Buya'a over 1,000 years ago. It was deposited with the Aleppo community at the end of the 14th Century and kept in a small vault in the Cave of Elijah under the Joab Ben Zeruiah Synagogue of Aleppo. The community guarded it for over 600 years." Whatever loss the community suffered during the earthquake, we know it survived and thrived since it was visited by Rabbi Petachya of Regensburg (Germany) starting in 1170 and Benjamin of Tudela in 1173.  Benjamin’s visit was part of his “round the world tour” which he described in his literary work entitled the Travels of Benjamin.

1285: Following a false charge that the Jews had purchased a Christian child from an old woman and then killed, a mob in Munich attacked the Jews community.  Those who escaped the mob took refuge in the synagogue which the mob then burned killing 180 Jews.

1347: Emperor Louis IV, the German ruler who had given Gottfried von Eppstein permission to settle Jews in Eppstein, Homburg and Steinheim in 1335, passed away.

1394: Ordination of Benedict XIII, one of the Avignon Popes whom the Catholic Church classifies as an Anti-Pope.  In an attempt to gain acceptance of his Papacy, Benedict attacked the Jews.  Not content to adopt oppressive laws at aimed Children Of Israel, he initiated the Disputation of Tortosa in 1413 one of those one-sided debates that the Church loved.  As a result of this one, the works of Maimonides were burned and copies of the Talmud were to be confiscated so that they could be censored.

1400: Jews were burned alive in Prauge.

1531: Forty-seven year old Huldrych Zwingli, the leader of the Reformation in Switzerland who at a minimum “studied and admired the Hebrew language, used it to some advantage” in his work and “took over some Hebraic teachings while evincing little concern for contemporary Jews” passed away today.

1727: George II and Caroline of Ansbach are crowned King and Queen of Great Britain. King George II was the monarch who gave “the royal assent” to the Jewish Naturalization Act of 1753.  Unfortunately, the act was repealed a year later.

1727: “Zadok the Priest,” an anthem composed by George Frederic Handel based on First Kings 1:38-40 which describes the coronation of King Solomon was performed today during the coronation of King George II.

1741: George Fredrick Handel completed the second of “Samson,” his oratorio based on the figure from the Book of Judges.

1771: In Eppingen, Germany, “Kusche Karoline Maier” and “Laemmle Heinshiemer “ gave birth to “Moses Lemle Heinsheimer, the father of Maier and Jakob Heinsheimer.

1777(10th of Tishrei, 5538): Four days after the Americans completed their game-changing victory at the Battle of Saratoga, Jews observe Yom Kippur

1783(15th of Tishrei, 5544): Sukkoth

1787: In Georgia Philip Mosses Russell and Esther Mordecai Russell gave birth to Isaac Russell, their first son and third child who would have two younger siblings.

1789(21st of Tishrei, 5550): Hoshanah Rabah

1792(25th of Tishrei, 5553): Seventy-nine year old Hebrew poet and businessman David Franco Mendes passed away today in his home town of Amsterdam.

1796(9th of Tishrei, 5557): Erev Yom Kippur; Kol Nidre is chanted for the last time during the Presidency of George Washington.

1796: While sailing to the United States aboard the sloop Simionhoff, Israel Baer Kursheedt used the English bible of the ship’s captain to explain to him the significance of Yom Kippur which he was about to begin observing.

1797(21st if Tishrei, 5558): Hoshanah Rabah

1821(15th of Tishrei, 5582): Sukkoth

1826(10th of Tishrei, 5587): Yom Kippur

1835: Today in Moravia, the leaders of the Loschitz Jewish community prepared a contract that would make Abraham Neuda their rabbi.

1838(22nd of Tishrei, 5599): Shmini Atzeret

1838(22nd of Tishrei, 5599): Sixty-nine year old Silesia native Adolf Martin Schlesinger, the Berlin music publisher whose “ongoing lobbying on the issue of musical copyright (prompted by copyright infringement of his publication of Weber's Der Freischütz), was a major factor in the introduction of the influential Prussian copyright law of 1830” passed away leaving a business that was so successful that his widow had no financial problems and his sons were able to expand the business to include a Paris branch.

1842: In New York City Moses and Esther Lazarus gave birth to Sarah Lazarus, a sister of Emma Lazarus.

1845(10th of Tishrei, 5606): The day after the United States opened the Naval Academy in Annapolis whose most famous Jewish graduated was Admiral Hyman Rickover, Jews observe Yom Kippur

1845(10th of Tishrei, 5606): A minyan led by Mayer Klein and Philip Newberg held services in Chicago, Ill, marking the first time that his occurred in “The Windy City”

1846: Birthdate of Carlos Enrique José Pellegrini, the Argentine President who was sympathetic to attempts to settle Jewish refugees in his country.

1850: In Albany, NY founding of Congregation Anshe Emeth which would consolidate a year later with Congregation Beth Emeth to for Congregation Beth Emeth.

1850: The University of Sydney, Australia’s oldest university, opened its doors. Percy Marks, described as “Jewish Renaissance Man” was one of its earliest and most famous Jewish graduates. The Australian Union of Jewish Students or AUJS is an on campus organization whose aim is to promote Jewish continuity.  Today the University has a Department of Hebrew, Biblical and Jewish studies whose website asks and answers the following:  “Why enroll in Jewish Studies at the University of Sydney?? * Challenging: Where else would you find such a stimulating fusion of diverse ethnic and religious groups studying together? Learn about religion and politics in an open and fun environment.


* Educational: Further your knowledge and insights into Jewish Studies. Learn about the issues around assimilation and Jewish civilization and master classical or Modern Hebrew or Yiddish.
* Practical: For undergraduate students, taking one of these courses will count towards qualifications in General Studies or part of your Arts, Arts/Law or Education degrees. It will also enable budding teachers to pursue a career in Modern Hebrew, Jewish Studies and Tanach.
* Unique: Delve into Jewish philosophy, history and politics, delivered by expert lecturers in their fields.
There is a Jewish club called AUJS (Australian Union of Jewish Students) which has many purposes, one of which is to promote Jewish continuity!

1851(15th of Tishrei, 5612): Sukkoth

1852: Famed German mathematician Ferdinand Eisenstein passed away at the age of thirty.  Eisenstein’s fate was typical of many Germans.  His parents were Jewish, but they converted to a Protestant denomination before their son’s birth to gain full entrée into German society.

1853(9th of Tishrei, 5614): Erev Yom Kippur; Kol Nidre is recited for the first time during the Crimean War which had just begun earlier this month.

1854(19th of Tishrei, 5615): Fifth Day of Sukkoth

1854(19th of Tishrei, 5615): Sixty-nine year old Baltimore born David Hart passed away today in New York.

1855: Johann Ludwig Schneller, a German Lutheran missionary “bought from the people of Lifta, a parcel of land outside LIfta, approximately 3 kilmotres (1.9 miles) northwest of Jaffa Gate.

1860: In London, Isaac Mozes Pereira Mendoza and Sara Isaac Monis gave birth to Esther Mendoza today.

1862: During the Civil War Joseph Bear who would be wounded on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg and who would reach the rank of Sergeant began his service with Company of the 153rd Regiment.

1863(15th of Tishrei, 5764): Sukkoth

1863: Sixty-eight year old Jane (Raphael) Salaman, the wife of Isaac S. Salaman was buried today at the Brompton Jewish Cemetery.

1863: “The House of Rothschild” published today based on information from the London Globeprovided a fascinatingly detailed contemporary look at this most prominent of Jewish dynasties.

“A few days ago, our Paris correspondent told us that a congress of the members of the illustrious house of Rothschild has been sitting at Paris. The purport of the meeting was nothing less than to rearrange the dominions of the great banking dynasty. In one word, the great object of the Rothschild congress was to reduce the five branches of the house who now rule Europe to four, and following the example of Garibaldi, to strike another sovereign of Naples from the list of reigning monarchs. Henceforth there are to be but four kings of the house of Rothschild, with secure thrones at London, Paris, Vienna, and Frankfort. It is now exactly a hundred years since a poor Jew, called Mayer Anselm, made his appearance at the City of Hanover; barefooted, with a sack, oa his shoulders, and a bundle of rags on his back. Successful in trade, like most of his co-religionists, he returned to Frankfort at the end of a few years, and set up a small shop in the "Jew-lane," over which hung the signboard of a red shield, called in German roth-schild. As a dealer in old and rare coins, he made the acquaintance of the Serene Elector of Hesse Cassel, who, happening to be in want of a confidential agent for various open and secret purposes, appointed the shrewd-looking Mayer Anselm to the post. The Serene Elector being compelled soon after to fly his country. Mayer Anselm took charge of his cash, amounting to several millions of florins. With the instinct of his race, Anselm did not forget to put the money out on good interest, so that, before Napoleon was gone to Elba, and the illustrious Elector had returned to Cassel, the capital had more than doubled. The ruler of Hesse Casse thought it almost a marvel to get his money safely returned from the Jew-lane of Frankfort, and at the Congress of Vienna was never tired of singing the praise of his Hebrew agent to all the Princes of Europe. The dwellers under the sign of the Red Shield laughed in their sleeves; keeping carefully to themselves the great fact that the electoral two million florins had brought them four millions of their own. Never was honesty a better policy.  Mayer Anselm died in 1812, without having the supreme satisfaction of hearing his honesty extolled by kings and princes. He left five sons who succeeded him in the banking and money-lending business, and who, conscious of their social value, dropped the name of Anselm, and adopted the higher sounding one of Rothschild, taken, from the sign board over the paternal house. On his deathbed their father had taken a solemn oath from all of them, to hold his four millions well together, and they have faithfully kept the Injunction. But the old City of Frankfort clearly was too; narrow a realm for the fruitful sowing of four millions; and, in consequence, the five were determined after a while to extend their sphere of operations by establishing branch banks at the chief cities of Europe. The eldest son, Anselm, born 1773, remained at Frankfort; the second, Salomon, born in 1774, settled at Vienna; the third, Nathan, born in 1777, went to London; the fourth, Charles, the infant terrible of the family, established himself in the soft climate of Naples, and the fifth and youngest, James, born 1792, took up his residence at Paris. Strictly united, the wealth and power of the five Rothschilds S was vested in the eldest born; nevertheless, the shrewdest of the sons of Mayer Anselm, and the heir of his genius, Nathan, the third son, soon took the reins of government into the own hands. By his faith in Wellington and the flesh and muscle of British soldiers, he nearly doubled the fortune of the family, gaining more than a million sterling by the sole battle of Waterloo, the news of which he carried to England two days earlier than the mail. The weight of the solid millions gradually transferred the ascendancy in the family from Germany to England, making London the metropolis of the reigning dynasty of Rothschild. Like the royal families of Europe, the members of the house of Rothschild only intermarry with each other. James Rothschild married the daughter of his brother Salomon: his son Edmond heir apparent of the French line, was united to his first cousin, the daughter of Lionel, and granddaughter of Nathan Rothschild; and Lionel again-M.P. for London -- gave his hand in 1836 to his first cousin Charlotte the daughter of Charles Rothschild, of Naples. It is unnecessary to say that, though these matrimonial alliances have kept the millions wonderfully together, they have not improved the race of old Mayer Anselm, of the Red Shield. Already signs of physical weakness are becoming visible in the great family. So, at least, hint the French papers in their meager notices about the Rothschild congress at Paris. From all that can be gathered out of a wilderness of canards, thin faces and thick fiction, it appears that the sovereigns of the Stock Exchange met in conference for the double purpose of centralizing their money power and widening their matrimonial realm. In other words, the five reigning kings; descendants, according to the law of primogeniture, of the five sons Mayer Anselm, came to the decision to reduce their number to four by cutting off the Neapolitan branch of Charles Rothschild; while it was likewise decided that permission should be given to the younger members of the family to marry, for the benefit of the race, beyond the range of first cousinship. What has led to the exclusion of the Neapolitan line of Rothschild seems to have been the constant exercise of a highly blameable liberality, unheard of in the annals of the family. Charles, the prodigal son of Mayer Anselm, actually presented, in the year 1846, 10,000 ducats to the orphan asylum of St. Carlo, at Naples, and the son and heir of Charles (Gustavus) has given repeated signs of his inclination to follow in the footsteps of his father. Such conduct, utterly unbecoming of the policy of the house of Rothschild, could not be allowed to pass unnoticed, and, accordingly -- we quote the rumor of Paris journalism -- the decheance of the Neapolitan line has been pronounced. However, Baron Gustavus De Rothschild is not to retire into private life, like famous Charles V., with only a cassock on his shoulders and a prayer-book in his hand, but is allowed to take with him a small fortune of 150,000,000 francs, or about six millions sterling -- a mere crumb from the table of the descendants of poor Mayer Anselm, who wandered shoeless through the electorate of good King George III. It is certain that no romance of Royalty is equal to the romance of the house of Rothschild

1864: Campina Grande was elevated to the status of city in Brazil.  Campina Grande is in northeast Brazil.  Based on a recent documentary many Catholics in that region follow various Jewish customs without being aware of their origin, In all likelihood, the region was originally settled by Marranos or Conversos.  Their descendants continued practicing rituals such as not eating pork, circumcising new born males, reciting special prayers on the first day of the month and a variety of customs relating to dealing with the dead without being aware of their origins. 

1864 The General News column today reported that “In consequence of a Jewish feast occurring yesterday, there were fewer buyers at the yards, and the gentiles had the business of buying and selling to themselves, -- this gave less animation to the sale yards. It is thought that the Jews will bring in some stock to-morrow, and that there will be considerable business transacted.”

1867: Birthdate of Abraham L. Saltzstein, who in 1884 came from his native Poland to the United States, finally settling in Milwaukee where he became a “general agent for the New Mutual Life Insurance Company of Wisconsin.”

1869(6th of Cheshvan, 5630): Seventy-one year old Lyon Hart passed away today in his home town of New York City.

1872(9th of Tishrei, 5633): Erev Yom Kippur

1874(30th of Tishrei, 5635): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

1874: During today’s opening session of the Supreme Lodge of the Order of Kesher Shel Barzel, in the Bowery. J.P. Solomon of New York was chosen as Supreme Rosh. Other officers elected were, Deputy Rosh, L.H. Cohen of Ohio and Supreme Sopher, A.T. Jones of Pennsylvania.

1874: In Denver, founding of Congregation Emanuel whose members have included Rabbi William S. Friedman, Henry Frankle and William Weil and which holds services at 7:45 on Friday evening and at 10:30 on Saturday morning.

1876(23rd of Tishrei, 5637): Simchat Torah

1878(14th of Tishrei, 5639): Erev of Sukkoth



1878: A fire broke out tonight in New York City “in the temporary building erected in the yard at #67 Hester Street for the celebration of…Sukkoth.”  The fire took place during services which created panic among the worshippers all of whom escaped without injury

1878: It was reported today that dispatches sent from Berlin by The Pall Mall Gazette (a British publication) say the European Powers are still refusing to recognize the independence of Romania until the government at Bucharest fulfills its treaty obligations granting full rights to its Jewish citizens.  The Romanian government has been using a series of legal gimmicks to avoid granting the Jews the civil rights that had been promised during negotiations in Berlin.

1879: Citizens of Bolivar County, Mississippi, meeting at Bolivar Landing passed a resolution denouncing Edward Storm, the Republican nominee for Supervisor as “a dishonest Jew, the servile tool of the slave owner before the war and convenient and abandoned ally of the corrupt carpet-bagger” since the end of the Civil War. (This maybe a reference to Edward Storm, a native of Berlin, Germany who served in the Confederate Army from 1861 until 1865 and is buried in Greenville, MS

1879: It was reported today that there are between six and seven million Hebrews in the world which is about the same number that were alive in the days of King David. This includes 5 million Jews in Russia, 200,000 in Asia, 80,000 in Africa and a million to a million and a half in America. Russia has the largest European Jewish population followed by Austria. There are only about 500,000 Jews living in Germany 45,000 of whom reside in Berlin.  Most of the African Jews live in Algeria and Ethiopia.  The 13,500 Jews living in Jerusalem constitute over half of that city’s total population.

1881: In Prague, Adolf Kelsen and Auguste Löwy gave birth to jurist and philosopher and Hans Kelsen.

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/kelsen-hans

1881(18th of Tishrei, 5642): Chol Ha Moed Sukkoth

1881(18th of Tishrei, 5642: Sixteen year old Bath Hyman, a native of Prussia, passed away today in Louisiana.

1883(10th of Tishrei, 5644): Yom Kippur

1883: Rabbi Kaufman will deliver today’s sermon in German at Temple Beth-El in New York City.

1884(22nd of Tishrei, 5645): Shemini Atzeret

1884: It was reported today that the funeral of Dr. Adolphus Huebsch, the rabbi who has led Ahavet Chesed since 1866 and passed away suddenly last night will be held on the day after Simchat Torah.

1884: Birthdate of Eleanor Roosevelt.  Contrary to what the anti-Semites said, neither FDR nor his wife was Jewish.  However, Mrs. Roosevelt certainly had numerous Jewish friends.  As a champion of the downtrodden including Jews seeking to escape Hitler’s Europe and those seeking to create a Jewish homeland, she certainly enjoyed a certain kind of celebrity and popularity with Jews living during the middle of the twentieth century.

1884: “Hebrew Charity For Children” published today presented a summary of the annual report of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society.  Since its opening in September of 1879, this New York Institution has received applications for admission from more than 600 boys and girls.  In addition to maintaining sex segregated facilities for those needing residential assistance, the society provided 7,983 free meals to “poor people and children” not living in one of these facilities.  Mrs. P.J. Joachimsen will continue to serve as President for another year.

1884: It was reported today that two Jews named “Ritter and Strochlenski” have been found guilty and sentenced to death in Poland for having “murdered a Christian girl.”

1885: According to reports published today, there are 100,000 people living in Bagdad, 30,000 of whom are Jews struggling “for a bare subsistence.”

1885: It was reported today that officials had destroyed an illegal still near Newburg, NY, that was reputed to be owned by four Jews who escaped apprehension.

1886: In St. Louis, MO, an inquest was scheduled to be held today to determine the facts concerning death of Josie Martel who was supposed to have been killed by her husband Frank Sandmeyer, a Jewish waiter who took his own life after taking hers.

1887(23rd of Tishrei, 5648): Simchat Torah

1887: Birthdate of New York native and Columbia trained surgeon and radiation therapist Ira I Kaplan, an active member of the Society for the Advancement of Judaism.

1888: Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler’s address at tonight’s meeting of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association was followed by musical program that was conducted by Frederick Brandies.

1890: Novosti expresses the opinion that “the expulsion of the Jews from the districts not specifically assigned to them is one of the main causes of the present critical condition of commerce.”

1890: A list published today of the newly elected officers of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society Orphan Asylum included: President – Mrs. Phillip J. Joachimsen; Vice President – Mrs. Teller; Treasurer –Mrs. Barnett; Secretary – Mrs. Meyer.

1891: Unless friends or relations claim the body, “the Hebrew Charities Organization” will bury Anna HIlkofsky, the thirty-six year old epileptic who died tragically yesterday in a fire.

1891(9th of Tishrei, 5652): Erev Yom Kippur.

1891: “The Fast of Yom Kippur Published today described the differences in observance between the Orthodox and Reformed Jews while acknowledging that the holiday is so “popular” that “temporary places of worship have been established in a number of public halls, particularly on the east side of the city to accommodate those who are not regular members of any congregation.”

1891: “University of Rochester” published today included a summary of a speech delivered by David Jayne Hill the school’s president to the Query Club on “Higher Education” in which he “referred to the achievements of many of the Jews” whom “he said…were among the leaders of advanced thought and in literature, art, music and other departments they had brought honor upon the race. A people without a country, they have made the world their home.”

1892: In New York, today’s Columbus Day Parade included a group of “very little boys from the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, some of them scarcely five years old” marking behind “their tiny Drum Major;” a scene that drew “many cheers” from the onlookers.

1892(20th of Tishrei, 5653): Chol Ha Moed Sukkoth

1892(20th of Tishrei, 5653): Four year old Willie Lewis Kranson passed away today after which he was buried at the Jewish Cemetery in Natchitoches, LA.

1892: One of the Columbus Day Parades had a total of 24, 620 participants, 128 of whom were from the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.

1893(1st of Cheshvan, 5654): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

1893: Robert Stone, A. Druger, Issac Schachat, Arbram Levin and Harris Baskin are the five pupils of the Bardon de Hirsh Trade School on East Ninth Street who have “been turned out of their boarding house” by order of Colonel J.E. Bloom who had expelled them from the school because “they refused to obey the rules necessary for discipline in the workshops.”

1894: Otto Slimbach, a well-known bully in the eastern district of Brooklyn was mortally stabbed by an unknown assailant this evening after having engaged in drinking at several saloons, beating his mother and going through the “Hebrew quarter” and indulging in Jew-baiting for further amusement.”

1894: An unknown number of striking cloakmakers, many of whom were Jewish, were clubbed tonight in Rutgers Place.

1894: General Mercier, the Secretary of War meets with three leaders including Charles Dupuy, the President of the Cabinet before moving ahead with the arrest of Captain Dreyfus on charges of selling secrets to a foreign power.

1894: “Who The Nominees Are” published today provides biographies of the those nominated by Tammany including Nathan Strauss who is their candidate for Mayor.

1895: The list of Tammany Judicial candidates published today included Joseph E. Newburger, a graduate of Columbia Law School who is a director of the of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and President of Rodoph Sholom.

1896: In Moscow, Osip and Anna Jakobson gave birth to Roman Jakobson, “the father of modern structural linguistics who elaborated sophisticated theories of language and communication that had profound effects on such disciplines as anthropology, art criticism and brain research…”

1896(4th of Cheshvan, 5657: Eleven month old Julius Kranson passed away today after which he was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Natchitoches, LA.

1896: The Syracuse Section of the National Council of Women was organized with thirty members being enrolled at that time.

1897(15th of Tishrei, 5658): Sukkoth

1897: Birthdate of Boston native, violinist and bandleader Leo F. Reisman who gave pianist and bandleader Eddie Duchin “his big break.”




1897: “Thirty-four new cases of yellow fever were reported today in New Orleans, four of which were found at the Jewish Home” and they will be treated at Tuoro Infirmary, a non-sectarian medical facility supported by the city’s Jewish population.

1897: “The Feast of Tabernacles” published today provided a description of the celebration of Sukkoth which is immediately followed by the celebration of Simchat Torah, “The Rejoicing of the Law,” “when the last section of the law is read in the temples by what is called ‘The Bridegroom of the Law.’”

1898: Colonel Theodore Roosevelt delivered his first stump speech tonight during which he talked about the Rough Riders where all members were treated on their “merits as a man” whether Protestant, Catholic or Jew.” (Yes the famous regiment had Jewish members)

1899: The Second Boer War in which approximately 2,800 Jews fought on the British side and 300 Jews fought with the Boers, began today.

1900: Twenty-six year old broker Charles Sincere, the Chicago born son of Henry and Rose Sincere married “Mayme W. Wershinski” with whom he had one son and one daughter.

1902(10th of Tishrei, 5663): Yom Kippur

1906(22nd of Tishrei, 5667): Shemini Atzeret

1906: Birthdate of Charles Revson, Canadian born founder of Revlon Cosmetics.

1911: “The first meeting of Study Circle No. 1 of the Council of Jewish Juniors is scheduled to meet this evening where Charles Strauss will lead a class examining “the Jewish characters in literature from the fifteenth century to the present day” starting with “The Merchant of Venice” and “The Jew of Malta.”

1912(30th of Tishrei, 5673): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

1912(30th of Tishrei, 5673): Seventy-one year old Civil War veteran Moses Shelt passed away in Covington, KY.

1912:Louis D. Brandeis addressed some 200 social workers from the charitable and philanthropic organizations of New York and Brooklyn today at a meeting in the United Charities Building. Mr. Brandeis in his speech told the workers they might expect much help from Gov. Woodrow Wilson if he is elected President.

1912: According to reports published today, a special meeting of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society of New York was held to pass a lengthy a resolution marking the recent death of Professor Morris Loeb

1913(10th of Tishrei, 5674): Yom Kippur

1913: On Yom Kippur, 26 year old philosopher Franz Rosenzweig who was planning on following in the footsteps of his cousin and converting to Christianity attended services at an Orthodox Synagogue in Berlin.  In a change of heart that continues to confound many to this day. Rosenzweig’s time at prayer led him to later declare that conversation “for me is impossible now.  I remain a Jew.”

1913: In Rochester, NY, Rose and Harry Simon gave birth to Hymie Simon, who gained fame as Joe Simon the writer and illustrator who created Captain America. (As reported by Bruce Weber)

1914: In the Bronx, Russian-Jewish immigrants “Jacob and Bertha (Nedner) Fine” gave birth to psychologist and chess champion Reuben Fine passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/1993/03/27/obituaries/reuben-fine-american-chess-giant-dead-at-79.html

1914: The Jewish Consumptives Relief Society which had found in 1904 held its “tenth annual meeting today in Denver, CO.”

1914(21st of Tishrei, 5675): As combined British and French Armies fought the Battle of La Bassee which was part of their respective “races to the sea” Jews on both sides of the front observed Hoshanah Rabah

1915: In “Call Jewish Congress American” published today it was reported that “in accepting his election as an advisory member of the Jewish Congress Organization Committee Dr. Henry Moskowitz has written the Secretary of the committee defending as strictly American in spirit the plan to form a congress of Jews which shall ‘assert the claims of Israel among the nations and seek fundamental civil and political rights’ for Jews in the countries at war.”

1915: “The interviews with Alexi Khvostfoff, the new Minster of the Interior published today” in Petrograd “do not announce his program but quote a number of interesting…statements” including his view that he “would remove most disabilities” that the Jews have had to endure.

1915: Louis D. Brandeis and Dr. Schmarja Levin address he first Fall meeting of the University Zionist Society which was held” tonight “at the home of L.A. Steinhard” on East 92ndStreet.

1915: The Overseas News Agency distributed a statement “Fighting in Moscow’s Streets” that includes the belief of the “aristocracy and merchants of Moscow” that the current rioting is caused by “the disloyalty of the Jews.”

1915: F.H. Williams wrote from Bristol, CT, asking about the origins of “Pop Goes the Weasel” saying that his when he was at his grandfather’s house some time before 1855 he “distinctly heard” “three German Jews sing: ‘Queen Victoria’s very sick, Napoleon has the measles, Sebastopol’s not taken yet, Pop goes the Veasles.’”

1916(14thof Tishrei, 5677): Erev of Sukkoth

1916: “A novel turn to an ancient religious service will be given” this evening “when Methodist, Protestant and Presbyterian Army Chaplains”  take part in Sukkoth services “in the Young Men’s Hebrew Association Building in Douglas, AZ, under the auspices of the Army and Navy Committee of the Young Men’s Hebrew and Kindred Council

1916: Today Nathan Straus wrote to Felix Warburg that in accord with the promise he made last spring he was enclosing a check for $50,000 “for war relief” and that he hoped it would help to encourage “American Jewry to do their duty toward their unfortunate co-religionists abroad.”

1917: Screenwriter Sonya “Levien married her husband Carl Hovey” today.

1917: Jacob S. Davidson, his wife and his daughters who are among the refugees from Jaffa and Jerusalem that have arrived in New York are staying with Davidson brother “who lives at 120 Cannon Street.”

1918:”In the Jewish Maternity Hospital at 270 East Broadway on Manhattan’s Lower East Side” Lena (Rips) and Harry Rabinowitz gave birth to Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz who gained fame as choreographer, director, dancer, and theater producer Jerome Robbins possibly best known for directing Leonard Bernstein’s musical version of Romeo and Juliet called “West Side Story.”


1918(5th of Cheshvan, 5679): Corporal Nathan Solomon who was “cited for valor in the Battle of the Marne” was killed in action today while serving with the Sixth Machine Gun Battalion of the U.S. Marines Corps.

1918: In Brighton Raphael Lyons, a turf accountant who died in 1944 and his wife gave birth to Braham Jack Lyons who gained fame as :”journalist and public relations consultant” Dennis Lyons whom the Prime Minister gave a life peerage to in 1974 making Baron Lyons of Brighton.

1919: Major General Hans von Seeckt began serving as the first commander of The Truppenamt or 'Troop Office' which was in all but name, the German General Staff – an organization that was not supposed to exist under the Versailles Treaty and an organization whose existence proved that Germany never really had any intention of accepting the outcome of WW I, long before the Nazis came to power.

1920: More than 1,000 men and women are expected to attend this evening “gala festival” sponsored by the United Waist League of America” “on the Century Roof atop the Century Theatre.

1921(9thof Tishrei, 5682): Jews hear Kol Nidre for the first time during the Presidency of Warren G. Harding.

1922(19thof Tishrei, 5683): Fifth Day of Sukkoth

1922: In Berlin, Aron Zuckermann, “the owner of a metal and leather factory” and “singer Gittel (Hutsnecker) Zuckermann gave birth to Wolfgang Joachim Zuckerman, the Jewish refugee who gained fame as “a piano technician and ….harpsichord builder.” (As reported by Richard Sandomir)


1923: In Manhattan “Sam A. Lewisohn and the former Margaret Seligment gave birth to the third of their four daughters, Elizabeth Ann Lewisohn who gained fame as historian Elizabeth L. Eisentstein. (As reported by Margalit Fox)


1924: Birthdate of Maurice Sanford Fox, “the son of poor Russian Jewish immigrants” who became “an American geneticist and molecular biologist, and professor Emeritus of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.”

1925(23rdof Tishrei, 5686): Simchat Torah

1925: In Washington, the Senators won game three of the World Series with Buddy Myer at second base.

1926(3rdof Cheshvan, 5687): Twenty-eight year old Hymie Weiss, the north side mobster who was a rival of Al Capone was gunned down today.




1926(3rdof Cheshvan, 5687): Sixty-three year old Maxim Vinaver, a Russian lawyer, Duma member and leader of the Jewish community who moved to Paris after the Bolshevik Revolution passed away today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Vinaver

1926: Birthdate of major league baseball player Myron Nathan “Joe” Ginsberg.

1926: “Young April” a romantic comedy starring Joseph Schildkraut and Rudolph Schildkraut was released in the United States today

1927(15thof Tishrei, 5688): Sukkoth

1927: In a statement made public today, “Justice Jacob Panken of the Municipal Court flatly rejected an offer of Communist support for re-election.”

1929: In Manhattan, Irving Westin and the former Etta Furman gave birth to Alan Furman Westin “a legal scholar who nearly half a century ago defined the modern right to privacy in the incipient computer age” (As reported by Margalit Fox)

1930: “Sinner’s Holiday,” featuring Noel Madison as “Buck Rogers” was released today in the United States.

1930: Northwestern University led by Guard Hyman “Hy” Crizevsky defeated Ohio State in its second straight win of the season.

1931(30thof Tishrei, 5692): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

1931(30thof Tishrei, 5692: Sixty-seven Russian born immigrant Jacob Bellin, the husband of Fanny Bellin and the father of Katie, Samuel, Anna and Sadie Bellin passed away today after which he was buried at Mt. Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, NY.

1931: Formation of the Harzburg Front, a right wing alliance that included the Nazi Party which was formed to undermine the democratically elected government of Chancellor Heinrich Bruning, the person who held that post for the longest period of time during the Weimar Republic.

1933(21stof Tishrei, 5694): Hoshana Raba observed for the first time during the Presidency of FDR and Chancellorship of Hitler.

1935(14thof Tishrei, 5696): Erev Sukkoth and Erev Shabbat

1935(14thof Tishrei, 5696): Warsaw native and Sorbonne graduate Israel Eitan, the philologist who in 1921 came to the United States where he lived in Pittsburgh and taught at Duquesne University passed away today.

1935: Brooks Atkinson described last night’s performance of the upgraded version of Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess.”




1936: In “Life in Tel Aviv, That Sudden Town,” published today Katherine Woods reviews Spring Up, O  Well by Ruth Kahn, a book that describes the Jewish “resettlement of Palestine”

1936: At the Free Synagogue, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise was one of the speakers at a memorial service honoring his lifelong friend Reverend S. Parkes Cadman.

1936: “Approximately 150 delegates representing 26 communities” heard Louis Lipsky, the former president of the Zionist Organization of America deliver a speech at the annual convention of the Long Island Region today at the Jamaica (Queens) Jewish Center in which “he described the British attitude toward Palestine as one of indifference and avoidance of the issues.”

1936: Dr. Stephen S. Wises presided at a dinner at the Hotel Plaza “at which the American Jewish Congress honored Louis Sturz, chairman of the finance committee and treasurer of the World Jewish Congress.

1936: “The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee reported” today “that a total of 7,750 Jews had been helped to migrate from their homes in Germany during the first six months of this by service agencies affiliated with the committee.”

1936: “While all available police were shepherding a march of 5,000 Communists through the East End tonight a group of Mosley’s gangsters shouting Fascist slogans raided Jewish shops in Mile End Road,” slashing bystanders with razors, hurling bricks through shop windows, overturning and setting on fire two cars and scattering the property of the Jews in the roadway,

1936: “An Arab Plot” published today provides a review of Talbot Mundy’s Jimgim And Allah’s Peace” an adventure novel whose hero is “Major Grim (Jimgrim) a British Military Intelligence officer on service in Jerusalem to thwart the plots of the belligerent Arab sheiks against their age-old enemies, the Jews…”

1937: Birthdate of actor Ron Leibman.  Born in New York City, his portrayal of the union organizer in the film hit Norma Rae won him kudos even if Sally Fields got the Oscar.

1937: The Palestine Post published an extensive report on the deteriorating condition of Jews in Poland and German Upper Silesia. According to Alexander Kahn, the vice-chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee in Poland, entire Jewish communities in towns and villages were subjected to unspeakable brutalities of local nationalists, anti-Semites and hooligans. There were riots at the Vilna and Lvov universities where Jewish students were beaten and, when forced to seat on the left side, preferred to stand instead. The Polish administration welcomed an economic anti-Jewish boycott while trade organizations urged to create "a ghetto" for Jewish tradesmen in the markets. In the village of Mushlatova a Jewish merchant and his wife were murdered at night, the fifth such crime in that district. Note that these outbreaks took place two years before the Nazis occupied Poland.  Anti-Semitism was part of the European cultural landscape.  It was this reality that helped to make the Final Solution possible.  “They did not hear our cries, not because they were deaf, but because they did not want to hear them.”  Anon

1938: In Cairo, at the concluding session of the Moslem Congress, the Proposals Committee presented a resolution making nine demands on the British government including nullification of the Balfour Declaration, cessation of Jewish immigration into Palestine, an end to any plans to partition Palestine and end to the mandate which would mirror the earlier end to the British Mandate in Iraq.

1939: Dr. Alexander Sachs, “a Russian born economist” read President Roosevelt “a report from Albert Einstein predicting that an atomic bomb carried by ship, could destroy an entire port complex and surrounding area” to which President Roosevelt responded “with characteristic vigor” brushing “aside the hesitations of American scientists and officials” and “set the atomic project on its irrevocable course and pressed it toward the historic climax that came at Hiroshima after his death.” (From the obituary of Alexander Sachs)

1939:  President Franklin Roosevelt received a letter signed by Albert Einstein urging that the United States begin an urgent program to develop what would become the atomic bomb.  It was Einstein’s support that garnered Roosevelt’s support for what would be known as the Manhattan Project – America’s program to build the Atomic Bomb.  At the time, it was viewed as a race which, if won by the Germans, would have cost the Allies the war.

1939: Today, Dr. Alexander Sachs, “a Russian born economist” “read to Mr. Roosevelt a report from Albert Einstein predicting that an atomic bomb, carried by ship could destroy an entire port complex and surrounding area.”


1940(9th of Tishrei, 5701): Erev Yom Kippur

1940: “In compliance with War Department circular No. 5, all soldiers of the Jewish faith will be granted furloughs” starting at noon today “so they may observed the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.”

1940: In New York, “at Temple Emanu-El, Rabbi Samuel H. Goldenson” is scheduled to “preach tonight on “Believing In God.”

1940: In New York, “at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, Rabbi David de Sola Pool” is scheduled to “preach tonight on ‘Hope for Mankind.’”

1940: In New York, at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, Rabbi Israel Goldstein” is scheduled to “preach tonight on ‘Jewish Selfhood.’”

1940: In New York, “Rabbi William F. Rosenblum” is scheduled to “preach at Temple Israel tonight on ‘The Philosophy of Faith.’”

1940: In New York, “Rabbi Louis I. Newman” is scheduled to “preach at Temple Rodeph Sholom tonight on ‘The Secret of Kol Nidre’s Power.’”

1940: In New York, “at the Free Synagogue in Carnegie Hall, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise” is scheduled to “preach tonight on ‘How Can the Prophets Help Us Now?’”

1940: In New York, “at West End Synagogue, Rabbi Nathan Stern” is scheduled to “preach tonight on ‘Standing Before the Lord.’”

1940: In New York, “Rabbi Asher Block” is scheduled to “preach at Tempe Gates of Israel tonight on ‘The Art of Jewish Living.’”

1940: In New York, at Mount Neboh Congregation “Rabbi Samuel M. Segal” is scheduled “to preach tonight on ‘Hear, O Israel.’”

1940: In New York, “Rabbi Jonah B. Wise” is scheduled to “preach at Central Synagogue tonight on ‘Can Freedom Starve?’”

1940: As the deportation of the Jews of Cracow continued a group of un-named Jews were captured at prayer by an unknown photographer.


1940(9th of Tishrei, 5701); Eight-year old Italian Mathematician Vito Volterra passed away in Rome.


1940: The Glenn Miller Orchestra recorded "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square,” “a romantic British popular song written in 1939 with lyrics by Eric Maschwitz”

1941: Birthdate of Edmond E. Levy the native of Bara who made Aliyah at the age of 10 and rose to become an Israeli judge of the Supreme Court of Israel.

1941: Sol J. Wallach read a congratulatory letter from President Roosevelt at tonight’s dinner celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding The Mendelssohn Benevolent Society which was attended by almost four hundred people in New York City.

1941: A Jewish ghetto at Chernovtsy, Romania, is established.

1941(20th of Tishrei, 5702: Sixth Day of Sukkoth; Shabbat

1941(20th of Tishrei, 5702: Thousands of Jews are murdered at Edineti, Romania.

1942(30th of Tishrei, 5703): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

1942(30th of Tishrei, 5703):Over the next 48 hours eleven thousand Jews from Ostrowiec-Swietokrzyski, Poland, are killed at the Treblinka death camp

1943: An article in Time magazine entitled “Quality of Mercy” describes the rescue of the Danish Jews and their trip to Sweden. “Across the narrow waters of the Ore Sund word came to Sweden last week that 1,800 Gestapo men sent to Copenhagen specialty for the job had broken into Jewish homes and synagogues during Rosh Hashanah, arresting most of Denmark’s 10,000 Jews.  The reports said the Germans planned to ship their prisoners to the charnel houses of Poland.  Next day the Swedish government told the German Government that there was immediate, unconditional sanctuary for all Danish Jews in Sweden.  The Germans ignored the offer. At the end of the week, end upwards of 1,000 wretched Jews from Denmark had found their way across the cold Ore Sund to merciful Sweden.

1943: One day after rescuing three Jews from the Riga (Latvia) Ghetto by asking guards for Jews to labor on his property, Yanis Lipke rescues additional Jews using the same ruse.\

1943: Heinrich Himmler appeared on the cover of Time magazine.


1943: The trains kept rolling to Sobibor. According to Alexander Pechersky – on this day “the crematorium burned longer than usual. Helpless and distressed, we looked at the bodies of our brothers and sisters."New arrivals panicked and ran toward barbed wire, only to be machine-gunned by guards.

1944: “Laura” produced and directed by Otto Preminger with music by David Raskin was released in the United States by 20th Century Fox.

1944: U.S. premier of “To Have and Have Not” co-starring Laruen Bacall (the cousin of Shimon Peres) in her first major film role and music by Franz Waxman.

1945: According to reports published today, “Fritz Wiedemann, former German consul in San Francisco will be a leading Allied witness in the prosecution of Nazi war criminals” who will be tried according to rules established by the International Court of Justice. Wiederman had been the lover of Princess Stephanie who had spied on top Nazis.

1945(4th of Cheshvan, 5706): Social activist Alice Goldmark Brandeis, the widow of Justice Louis Brandeis passed away today.


1945: Early this morning, a group of armed Jewish attackers overpowered the guards at the British Army camp at Rehovot and stole a quantity of weapons and ammunition which they loaded into stolen trucks that were used to make a clean get—away.

1945: The USS President Warfield was struck from the U.S. Naval Vessel Register.  This was but one of the many steps that would lead this packet steamer to re-emerge as the Exodus in 1947.

1946: Seventy-eight year old Austrian diplomat Alfred Rappaport who had converted to Roman Catholicism in 1883 passed away today.


1946: Rabbi Phillip Bernstein of Rochester, NY, who serves as an adviser to Generals Joseph T. McNarney and Mark Clark” commanders of the American zones of occupation in Germany and Austria is returning to Germany today after meeting with President Truman at the White House.  Truman expressed concern for the plight of the Jews and said he wanted more firsthand information.  Bernstein said that the “original concept of resettling 100,000 European Jews is untenable” since the number of Jewish displaced persons is closer to 225,000.

1946: One hundred fifty of the four hundred Jews imprisoned at the Latrun detention camp began partial hunger strike in protest over their lengthy detention without ever having been charged let alone tried with any crime.

1946: An organization called the Arab Higher Fighters executed “two Arab land brokers” accused of having sold land to Jews.

1947: “Twenty British constables armed with Sten guns guarded the American consulate against possible Arab attack today after the United States announced its support of the partition of Palestine…The precautionary measures followed the bombing of the Swedish consulate…by Arabs…which was believed to have been an answer to a speech by the Swedish chairman of the United Nations special committee on Palestine” at the United Nations which is meeting a Lake Success, NY.

1947: The University of Michigan, led by Dan Dworsky who played “linebacker, fullback and center” defeated the University of Pittsburgh for their third straight win of the season

1948:At 5 p.m., former Gov. Herbert H. Lehman and Dr. Nelson Glueck, president of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, speak in a pre-Yom Kippur broadcast of the American Jewish Committee carried by WCBS and the Columbia Broadcasting System.

1948” “Where’s Charley?” a musical with lyrics and music by Frank Loesser opened on Broadway at the St. James Theatre where it “ran for 792 performances.

1948: After the completion of Operation Taskit – an aerial operation the mapped “the deployment of enemy forces west of the Jordan River that took five nights to complete – David Judah, the IAF’s Director of Operations “sent a letter of congratulations and appreciation to Eddy Kaplansky, who had piloted all five flights.”

1950: In Haifa, “Munio Weinraub (Gitai), an architect formed at the pre-war German Bauhaus art school, and to Efratia Margalit, an intellectual, storyteller and a teacher” gave birth to Technion and Cal-Berkley architect turned film maker Amos Gitai, the husband of Rivka Gitai.

http://www.amosgitai.com/html/home.asp

1951: In Paris, Ruth Ambrunn and Alter Mojze Goldman gave birth to Jean-Jacques Goldman a Grammy Awards-winning French singer-songwriter, who is hugely popular in the French-speaking world and since 2003, was the second-highest-grossing French living pop singer, after Johnny Hallyday.

1952(22ndof Tishrei, 5713): Shmini Atzeret and Shabbat

1952:Howie Greenfield knocked on Neil Sedaka’s door and asked him if “he wanted to write songs” with him.  Sedaka “didn’t know how to write songs and didn’t have any inclination” to learn how to.  Greenfield would convince him to change his mind and Sedaka later said it was a good thing “because we ended up writing over 300 songs together over the next 20 years.”

1953: NBC broadcast Paddy Chayefsky’s teleplay “The Bachelor Party” on the Philco Television Playhous.

1953: General Mordechai Makleff, the 3rd Chief of Staff of the IDF, and at 32 the youngest to hold the position, announced his intention to resign after repeated disputes with government leaders.

1955: In Los Angeles, premiere of “Oklahoma,” the cinematic version of the Rogers and Hammerstein musical directed by Fred Zinnemann.

1955: Funeral are scheduled to be held today in Jerusalem for 81 year old Dr. Hantke, an early supporter of and close assistant of Theodore Herzl who was the long-time director of the JNF (Jewish National Fund).

1956: The two act version of A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller “opened at the New Watergate Theatre Club in New York.”

1956: On CBS, “Playhouse 90” a live dramatic anthology show, broadcast the Peabody award winning “Requiem for a Heavyweight” with a cast that included Ed Wynn, Max Baer, Eddie Cantor, Ned Glass and Max Rosenbloom.

1958: Three days after its premiere, ”The Old Man and the Sea,” a movie version of the novel with a screenplay by Peter Viertel and music by Dimitri Tiomkin was released throughout the United States.

1959(9thof Tishrei, 5720): Erev Yom Kippur

1959(9thof Tishrei, 5720): Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik, the Brisker Rov passed A native of Belarus, he escaped the Holocaust and settled in Jerusalem. A leader of the Haredi community, he advocated completed withdrawal from involvement with the state of Israel.  Unlike others, this meant he opposed accepting any financial aid from the state. 

1960: “The Siege of Sidney” a historic film with music by English composer Stanley Black (Solomon Schwartz) was released in the United Kingdom today. 

1961(1st of Cheshvan, 5722): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

1961(1st of Cheshvan, 5722): Leonard "Chico" Marx passed away at the age of 74.


1961: U.S. Premiere of “King of Kings,” the biblical blockbuster produced by Samuel Bronston

1961: U.S. Premier of the 3rdversion of “Back Street” based on a novel by Fannie Hurst

1962: Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council or Vatican II. The Council marked a turning point in improving relations between the Catholic Church and the Jewish People.

1963(23rd of Tishrei, 5724): Simchat Torah

1963:  Popular French singer Edith Piaf passed away.  The popular Piaf was accused by some of collaborating with the Nazis while they occupied Paris during the war.  In her defense, Piaf’s supporters pointed that she helped the Jewish composer Michael Emer escape from occupied France. More to the point during the war she carried on an affair with the Jewish pianist Norbert Glanzberg, Okay, so it’s not Schindler’s List or Raoul Wallenberg; but saving Jews is saving Jews.

1964: “The System,” an English film directed by Michael Winner and with music by Stanley Black (Solomon Schwartz) was released today in the UK.

1965(15thof Tishrei, 5726): Sukkoth

1971(22ndTishrei, 5732): Shmini Atzeret

1973(15th of Tishrei, 5734): Sukkoth

[Editor’s note – the next three entries are incomplete.  They are not a catalogue of failure, but a record of very brave men, fighting against great odds, not unlike those members of the RAF who fought so courageously during the Battle of Britain – never have so have so many owed so much to so few)

1973: An F-4E Phantom carrying Kobi Hayun and Uri Arad was shot down by an Egyptian MiG-21

1973: An F-4E Phantom carrying Yonatan Ofir and Eran was shot down by an Egyptian MIG=21

1973: An F-4E Phantom carrying Asher Snir was shot down by a SAM or anti-aircraft batteries.

1973: During the Yom Kippur War, after pushing Syrian troops from the Golan Heights, Israeli troops under General Raful Eitan counterattacked into Syrian territory. During the battle for the Golan, the Syrian army lost approximately 1,100 tanks. Some 3,500 Syrians were been killed, and 370 prisoners taken. At the end of the battle “a special paratroop unit led by a young officer called Yoni, made its way through Syrian-occupied territory, and in a dramatic rescue operation,” evacuated Lieutenant-Colonel Naty Yossi, who had led a gallant tank attack. The Yoni mentioned here is none other than Yoni Netenyahu, the man who will lose his life three years later on the rescue mission at Entebbe.  His second in command described the scene, “Yoni attacking, shooting and his leading his men into battle, leading them, not giving orders from behind.”  By nightfall, the Israelis were ten kilometers inside Syria and literally on the road to Damascus.  Despite this moment of victory, the fate of the Jewish state still hung in the balance and the situation was quite precarious to say the least.  

1974: Sylva Zalmanson, who had been freed on August 22ndafter having served “4 years of a 10 yeaer sentence imposed at the end of the 1970 Leningrad Trial, arrived in Israel.

1974: Ten people participated in the first of two demonstrations took place in Moscow today during which demands were made for the granting of exit visas.

1974: “Child Under A Leaf” co-starring Al Waxman was released in Canada today.

1975: Debut of Saturday Night Live, produced by Lorne Michaels, or, as he was known when growing up in Canada, Lorne Michael Lipowitz

1976: Funeral services are scheduled to be held today for 64 year old Abram Solomon the Polish born refugee from Nazi Europe and executive vice president of the JNF who is the husband of the former Helena Himmelblau and the father of three children.


1977(29th of Tishrei, 5738): Five days before his 67th birthday Sir Misha Black founder of the Artists’ International Association and winner of the Minerva Medal, the Chartered Society of Designers highest award.

1977:The Jerusalem Post reported that Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan told the UN General Assembly that for the past 10 years, 1967-1977, Israel was committed, but to no avail, to territorial concessions on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip in return for a genuine peace. There was no sign that Arabs were ready for a settlement. And the same can still be said today.

1978(10th of Tishrei, 5739): Yom Kippur

1980(1st of Cheshvan, 5741): Parashat Noach and Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

1980(1st of Cheshvan, 5741): Eighty-four year old Maxwell M. Geffen, the Brooklyn born graduate of the Columbia University School of Journalism who made a career of developing a series of “specialty magazines” passed away today.


1981: “One Day At A Time” starring Bonnie Franklin opens on CBS for its seventh season.

1981:  “My Dinner with Andre” produced by George W. George the son of cartoonist Rube Goldberg was released today in the United States.

1984(15th of Tishrei, 5745): Sukkoth

1984: After premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, “Once Upon a Time America” a film that “chronicles the lives of Jewish ghetto youths who rise to prominence in New York City's world of organized crime” based on The Hoods by Harry Grey was released today in the United States was released today into the United Kingdom

1985: Birthdate of actress Michelle Trachtenberg.

1986(8th of Tishrei, 5747): Shabbat Shuva

1987: “House of Games,” which marked the directorial debut of David Mamet who also wrote the screenplay with Jonathan Katz was released today in the United States by Orion Pictures

1987: “How An Orchestra Fell Silent” published today descried the demise of the White Plains Symphony which Siegfried Landau served as music director for a quarter of a century.


1988: ACT UP, an organization co-founded by Larry Krammer “had one of its most successful demonstrations (both in terms of size and in terms of national media coverage) when it successfully shut down the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for a day” today.

1989(12th of Tishrei, 5750): Just days before his 83rdbirthday Pennsylvania native Theodore Lorber who “was a member of the United States Fencing Team at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics passed away today.

1989(12th of Tishrei, 5750): Eighty-five year architect Percival Goodman, known for the many synagogues he designed and for his willingness to challenge the visions and power of Robert Moses who was the husband of Naomi Goodman with whom he had two children – George and Joel – passed away today.


1989: Today, Albert J. Amateau provided a sworn statement “on the allegations that Armenians suffered ‘genocide’ by the government of the Ottoman Empire.”

1990(22nd of Tishrei, 5751): Shmini Atzeret

1991: “Drop Dead Fred” a “dark comedy” with music by Randy Edelman was released in the United Kingdom today.

1991: “City of Hope” featuring Gina Gershon as “Laurie Rinaldi” opened today in Boston and New York City.

1991: The first shows of season two of The Simpsons, a cartoon sitcom developed by James L. Brooks and Sam Simon was broadcast today.

1991: Nina Totenberg’s reporting about the Anita Hill connection to Clarence Thomas changes the scope of the hearings and opens the door to the whole issue of inappropriate sexual relationships in the workplace/


1993: A month after the signing of the Declaration of Principles had taken place in Washington, D.C. between Israel and the PLO, the Israeli Foreign Minister “sent a letter to the Norwegian Foreign Minister in which he confirmed that ‘the Palestinian institutions of East Jerusalem and well-being of the Palestinians of East Jerusalem are great importance and will be preserved.’”

1997(10th of Tishrei, 5758): Yom Kippur

1996: “The Chamber,” a film version of the novel by the same name with a screenplay by William Goldman was released in the United States today.

1998: The New York Timesbook section featured a review of Phillip Roth’s novel, I Married A Communist.

2000: Avraham Shochat began serving as Minister of Energy and Water Resources (AKA – Ministry of National Infrastructure)

2000: In addition to his other duties, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer began serving as Minister of House and Construction

2000: Portions of the INS Dakar, the Israeli submarine that sank in 1968, were raised from the floor of the Mediterranean Sea. (They were later placed at the memorial to the sub and its crew located at the National Military and Police Cemetery on Mt. Herzl.)

2001: “Knockaround Guys” a crime-comedy co-written, and co-directed by Brian Koppelman, co-produced by Lawrence bender featuring Josh Mostel and Dov Tiefenbach was released in the United States today.

2001: The Polaroid Corporation filed for bankruptcy marking the end of a company founded on the dream and the genius of Edwin Land and his instant photography.

2002: “Below,” a horror film written and produced by Darren Aaronofsky  was released in the United States.

2003(15th of Tishrei, 5764): Sukkoth

2004: At the start of the Knesset winter session, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon “outlined his plant to start legislation for the disengagement” from Gaza “beginning in November.”

2005(8th of Tishrei, 5766): Brent Shapiro’s death today lead to the found of “The Brent Shapiro Foundation,” “a non-profit organization which aims to raise drug awareness” chaired attorney Robert Shapiro, Brent’s father.

2005: Israeli mathematician Robert J. Aumann and Thomas C. Schelling won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science for their work in game theory, which explains the choices that competitors make in situations that require strategic thinking.

2005: The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage opened in suburban Cleveland.  It is named for Milton Maltz and his wife, Tamar. The museum describes the heritage of the Jewish community through sound, visuals and interactive displays. The museum shares a campus with The Temple-Tifereth Israel. Founded in 1850, it's one of the oldest reform congregations in the United States.

2006(14th of Tishrei, 5767): A double barreled celebration as Sukkoth and Shabbat both begin on Friday night.

2006: FrontPageMagazine.com reported that Randy Weinstein is regretfully resigning the from Student Government Association (SGA) at Georgia Tech when that organization decided to provide funding for the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) so that it could put on a program that provided “a one-sided attack on Israeli anti-terrorism policy.”

http://www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org/news/2226/RandyWeinsteinGAtechbias101106.htm

2006: As of today, General Universal Stores (GUS) which had been under the control of Leonard Wolfson since 1970, was listed as two separate entities – Home Retail Group and Experian - on the London Stock Exchange.

2007: In Washington, D.C. the DCJCC as part of the HymanS. and Freda Bernstein Jewish LiteraryFestival a noon time discussion ofJewish Washington: Scrapbook of an American Community, a fascinating and authoritative chronicle of the history and heritage of Washington's vibrant Jewish community.

2007: The Oxford Union debating society raised ire among student groups and activists on Thursday after its president announced that he had invited Holocaust denier David Irving to come speak at the university.

2007: In “The Horrible History of the Holocaust” published today, Adam Tooze reviewed The Years of Extermination by Saul Friedlander.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/non_fictionreviews/3668451/The-horrible-history-of-the-Holocaust.html

2007: Today David “Frum announced on his blog that he was joining Rudolph Giuliani's presidential campaign as a senior foreign policy adviser.”

2008: At the Jerusalem Cinematheque, a screening of the short film “So We Said Goodbye” ( “נפרדנו כך”) in which “65-year-old Yaakov is saying goodbye to his sons and grandchildren, who are leaving Israel and recalls the moment when as a child he bid farewell to his family in 1937 Poland. The film was the winner of the 1990 Aliza Shagrir Award.”

2009 (23 Tishrei, 5770): Simchat Torah

2009:Israeli poet Efrat Mishor reads at Prairie Lights Bookstore in Iowa City, IA.

2009:American fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv will have the opportunity this fall to watch their team in action at Madison Square Garden, tonight when the Israeli team takes to the court against the New York Knick in a rematch of the teams' meeting in 2007.

2009: “Intersections Intersected: The Photography of David Goldblatt,” an exhibition on view at New York’s New Museum is scheduled to come to an end today.

http://designobserver.com/article.php?id=10557

2009: The Sunday edition of the Washington Postincluded reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Why the Dreyfus Affair Really Matters by Louis Begley

2009: The Sunday edition of the Los Angeles Timesincluded reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb

2009: The New York Times included reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Anne Frank: The book, the Life, the Afterlife by Francine Prose and Mike Bloomberg: Money, Power, Politics by Joyce Purnick.

2010: Israeli author Joshua Sobol is scheduled to take part in a reading at McNally Jackson bookstore in New York City.

2010: The Knesset is scheduled to convene for its Winter Session.

2010: Steve Linde reported today that “Irene Rosenfeld, an American Jewish businesswoman who is chief executive of Kraft Foods, came in second place on Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most powerful women published this month. The list, which is headed by first lady Michelle Obama, features several other prominent Jewish women:

• Mary Schapiro, the head of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (17th),

• Elana Kagan, the new Supreme Court justice (25th), • Sarah Jessica Parker, the attractive actress in Sex in The City (45th),

• Suze Orman, a personal finance expert, author and TV host (61st),

• Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer (66th), and

• Donna Karan, the famous fashion designer (96th).

2010:The 2010 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science was awarded to three recipients today including Peter A. Diamond, a professor of MIT.

2010(3rd of Cheshvan, 5771): Seventy four year old Carla Cohen who Politics and Prose was a bookstore was more a cultural landmark than a commercial venture, passed away today. (As reported by Ashley Parker)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/books/12cohen.html

2010(3rd of Cheshvan, 5771): Seventy-nine year old Claire Rayner passed away in London.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/oct/12/claire-rayner-obituary

2010(3rd of Cheshvan, 5771): Ninety four year old real estate developer Robert V. Tishman, whose work included the World Trade Center, passed away today. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/13/business/13tishman.html

2011: Ethan Halpren is scheduled to host an Israeli Dance Workshop and Marathon at the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia featuring internationally recognized choreographer and instructor Ira Weisburd.

2011: Israeli pianist Ran Dank is scheduled to perform the works of Chopin and Beethoven at the Merkin Concert Hall in New York City.

2011: After more than five years, Arthur Mitchell completed his service as Leader of the Official Opposition in the Legislative Assembly of Yukon.

2011: ABC broadcast the first episode of “Last Man Standing” co-starring Molly Ephriam.

2011: Under the agreement, announced today, Israel is to free 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for its soldier, Gilad Shalit, held captive in Gaza for the past five years. Kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit will be returned to Israel next week, Israeli authorities reported. Shalit is expected to be transferred to the Sinai Peninsula through Rafah crossing, then to Israel. According to reports, Israel Defense Forces intend to allow Shalit to be reunited with his family as soon as possible.

2011:Unknown vandals scrawled "Death to the Jews" on four synagogues and a vehicle in the northern city of Safed on tonight.

2011: “The bridge and forward sail of the ‘INS Dakar’” which are now on display in Haifa were raised from the Mediterranean today.

2012: “The Gatekeepers,” a film created by Israeli director Dror Moreh is scheduled to be shown at the New York Film Festival

2012: “Here Comes the Boom” with a script by Allan Loeb and starring Henry Winkler was released in the United States today.

2012: In Washington, DC, Robin Jacobson, the Librarian at Adas Israel is scheduled to lead a discussion about Comedy in a Minor Key which “tells the story of a Dutch couple who harbor a Jew during the Holocaust and the consequences of their relationship.”

2012:Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced today that the elections for the 19th Knesset will be held on Tuesday, January 22, 2013.

2012: Gina “Gershon's first book written for adults, In Search of Cleo: How I Found My Pussy and Lost My Mind, the true story of the hunt for her runaway cat was released today.

2012: Barbra Streisand performed before the sold out crowd at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn tonight.





2012:The leader of Hezbollah claimed responsibility today for launching an Iranian-made drone aircraft into Israeli airspace earlier this week, adding more tension to an already explosive Mideast atmosphere.

2012:Over seven years after he vanished without a trace, a Daliat al-Carmel resident discovered the remains of missing Druse soldier Majdi Halabi two weeks ago in a forest near Usfiya, the IDF confirmed today. Halabi went missing in May 2005.

2012: “Fill the Void,” “the award-winning movie debut from Israel’s Rama Burshtein” is scheduled to have its Israeli premier. (As reported by JTA and Times of Israel)

2013: The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host “Mozart’s Women – Cose fan tutte”



2013: Shrek is scheduled to open at the Lawrence Family JCC in San Diego, CA



2013: The Ninth Grade is scheduled to lead Shabbat Eve services at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, IA.



2013: The Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival is scheduled to present “The Great Children’s Read: Bringing Books to Life” featuring Pamela Mayer, author of Don’t Sneeze at the Wedding.



2013:Construction and Housing Minister Uri Ariel (Bayit Yehudi) today called on Israel to halt direct talks with the Palestinians following the fatal attack of an Israeli man overnight in a settlement in the northern Jordan Valley, Army Radio reported. (As reported by JP Staff)



2014(17th of Tishrei, 5775): Shabbat Chol Hamoed Sukkoth



2014: In Washington, Adas Israel is scheduled to hold Shabbat services for the first time since Gil Steinhauf, the congregation’s senior rabbi informed the community that he and his wife are divorcing while declaring “I have come to understand that I am gay.”

http://forward.com/articles/207077/how-gil-steinlauf-chose-personal-torah-over-one-tr/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily_Newsletter_Mon_Thurs%202014-10-09&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_term=The%20Forward%20Today%20%28Monday-Friday%29



2014: Today “six Israelis claimed the world open water relay record after swimming 380 kilometers (236 miles) home from Cyprus in a challenge also meant to highlight ocean pollution.”

http://www.timesofisrael.com/six-israelis-break-world-record-by-swimming-home-from-cyprus/



2014: “Two Israelis were arrested in the West Bank today after a group attacked a Palestinian family picking olives at the start of harvest season — a frequent source of tension.”

2014: Lewis Black is scheduled to perform this evening at the Pabst Theatre in Milwaukee, WI.

2015: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Pastrami On Rye: An Overstuffed History of the Jewish Deliby Ted Merwin.

2015: In Ottumwa, IA, Congregation B’nai Jacob which was founded in 1915 is scheduled to celebrate its centennial with a Centennial Open House led by President Harvey Disenhouse.

2015: ‘From Jaffa to Agripas a special project initiated by the c.a.t.m.o.n dance group and its creative director Elad Schechter is scheduled to take placed for the second time in Jerusalem,



2015: Temple Judah is scheduled to host its communal Sukkah Breakdown, a sure sign that the holiday season is over

2015: The Jewish Museum of Maryland is scheduled to host Scott R. Benarde speaking on “Stars of David: Rock ‘n’ Roll Jewish Stories” a “program that provides a look into how Judaism influence the makers of popular music over the past fifty years.”

2015: In New York, filmmaker Paula Fouce, Anne Frank’s stepsister Eva Schloss Geiringer and Jonathan Brent are scheduled to discuss “No Asylum: The Untold Chapter of Anne Frank’s Story” after its screening this evening.

2015: “Light & Noir: Exiles and Émigrés in Hollywood, 1933–1950 and exhibition that tells the fascinating story of immigration, acculturation, and innovation that influenced Hollywood film as an American cultural phenomenon” is scheduled to opened at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center.



2015: In New Orleans, the JCRS is scheduled to host its annual Chanukah Gift Wrapathon.



2015:  Near Gan Shmuel, next to Hadera, a twenty year old terrorists “used his car to run over two soldiers waiting at the bus stop” and got and stabbed three more people ages 15, 19, and 45.



2015: The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to host “Courage, Hope, and Survival of the Holocaust by Eva and Les Aigner.”



2015: Natalee Birchansky, one of the next generation of leaders of the Cedar Rapids Jewish community is scheduled to host her first Art Show.

http://www.nataleeart.com/



2016(9thof Tishrei, 5777):  Erev Yom Kippur

G'mar Hatima Tova”

2016: Atlantic Medi announced today in a memo to its employees” that “Jeffrey Goldberg, a longtime correspondent for The Atlantic who has written frequently about Middle East affairs is the 159 year old magazines’ new editor in chief.”

2016: “A 20-year-old Arab man who threw firebombs at border police during a riot in southeast Jerusalem’s Silwan neighborhood was shot dead shortly after Yom Kippur commenced tonight, as police responded to two other riots in Arab areas in the capital.”

2016: “Security arrested a Hamas operative who planned a number of terrorist attacks in the Jerusalem area, including a suicide bombing on a bus in the capital’s Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood, authorities announced this morning.”

2017(20th of Tishrei, 5778): Hoshana Raba;

2017: In the evening, the University of Iowa Hillel chapter is scheduled to host Shmini Atzeret services and a holiday dinner.

2017: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host the last screening of “In Between” starring Shaden Kanboura winner of the Ophir Award for Best Actress and Mouna Hasa the winner of the Ophir Award for Best Supporting Actress.

2017: “The head of a government bureau responsible for clearing background checks told lawmakers today he has "never seen that level of mistakes" when asked about numerous omissions in Jared Kushner's security clearance application.”

2017: Today, “The Simon Wiesenthal Center said it would remove Harvey Weinstein name from its “roster of honorees,” following a string of sexual harassment allegations against the film mogul.”

2017: In the evening, the chaplains at Oxford are scheduled to host a Shemini Atzeret dinner.

2018: The Atlanta Botanical Garden is scheduled to host a lecture by Rabbi Ari Kaiman of Congregation Shearith Israel who will share a taste of the rich and beautiful history of this special fruit from biblical times until today. Join us for Pomegranate tasting and deseeding tips.”

2018: “A judge dismissed one of six criminal charges against the disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein today after prosecutors acknowledged that the lead detective in the case had committed a serious error.” (As reported by Jan Ransom and Alan Feuer)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/11/nyregion/harvey-weinstein-lucia-evans-charge-dismissed.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=New%20York


2018: As part of the “Historic Jewish Atlanta Tour” series, the Breman Museum is scheduled to host a tour of the Oakland Cemetery.


2018: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to present a lecture by Christian Picciolini, author of White American Youth: My Descent into America’s Most Violent Hate Movement – and How I Got Out.

2018: “Learning Officer Shereen Hunte” is scheduled to lead “a tour revealing objects relating to Black History and Black Jewish History” in the collections belonging to the Jewish Museum in London.

2018: Dr. Steve Feller, B.D. Silliman Professor of Physics is scheduled to “lead the Coe Thursday Forum on three of Leon Uris’s historical and important novels – Mila 18, Exodus and Armageddon.”

2019: Netflix is scheduled to air “Home,” the final episode in the min-series “The Spy” based on the life of Mossad agent Eli Cohen.

2019: It was reported today, that “a group of Israel’s most prestigious writers, entertainers, researches and scientists” including David Gross, Gavri Bania, Alice Shalvi, Ohad Naharin and Michael Na’aman” “are planning to petition the Supreme Court against the controversial Nation-State Law which critics say discriminates against the country’s non-Jewish citizens.

2019: In what many might say is a case of crocodile tears, it was reported today that Hamas has condemned this week’s Yom Kippur synagogue attack in Germany.

2019: This morning, the Tower of David Museum is schedule to host “a guided tour of both the Citadel moat and the “Kishle”, one of the most fascinating hidden spaces in the Tower of David Museum compound – an underground space that spans the history of Jerusalem.”


This Day, October 12, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin

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OCTOBER 12


539 BCE: The Persian armies of Cyrus the Great captured Babylon.  Within the year, Cyrus would make it possible for the Jews to return to their homeland.

1129: The tombstone of Elijah ben Simon dated October 12, 1129 is among the oldest evidence of the Jewish settlement in Nuremberg goes back to the 12th century.

1285: The Jews of Munich (Germany) were caught in a claim of blood libel which resulted in the death of most the Jewish community.  When 180 Jewish survivors refused baptism, they were burned alive in their synagogue.

1366:  In Sicily, Jews were forbidden to decorate the outside of their houses of worship.

1491: During the Blood Libel tied to the Holy Child of La Guardia, inquisitors arranged for a meeting between Yucef Franco and Benitor Garcia, the two Jews accused in this event.

1492: After sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sights a Bahamian island, which led him to believe he had reached East Asia. His expedition, including Hebrew speaker Luis de Torres (the translator) went ashore the same day and claimed the land for Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain, who sponsored his attempt to find a western ocean route to China, India, and the fabled gold and Spice Islands of Asia. Louis de Torres, a Marrano, was the first member of Columbus’ expedition to set foot in the Western Hemisphere. He discovered and introduced tobacco into Europe. According to one legend he saw a bird he thought to be a peacock and called it a "tuki" (Hebrew for peacock - I Kings X22). Today that bird is known as a turkey. (There are those who say that the story of the Turkey is pure fiction.  All that I can say is “Of this I do not know.”)

1504: Thirty-one year old John Corvinus, the pretender to the Hungarian throne who expelled the Jews from Tata where they had lived since the second of the 11thcentury, passed away today.

1576:  Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor passed away. Maximilian reversed the decree that had banished the Jews from Prague. Furthermore, he allowed them to return to other towns in Bohemia and to settle in Austria.  The life of the Jews in these domains was far from tranquil thanks to pressure from the Catholic Church.  But under Maximilian II it was better than it had been under his predecessor Ferdinand.

1589(2ndof Cheshvan, 5350): Rabbi Samuel ben Moses Medina (RaShDaM) passed away in Salonica.  Born in 1505, his disciples included Abraham de Boton and Joseph ibn Ezra and his grandson was Samuel  Hayyun, author of “Bene Shemuel “

1711: Charles VI who sought to limit the number of Jews living in Austria and Hungary began his reign as Holy Roman Emperor. Among his subjects was Ḥayyim Judah Löb Ettinger, the Austian Rabbi who was the son of Eliezer ha-Levi Lichtenstein Ettinger and the brother-in-law of Chaim Cohen Rapport, who served as a rabbi in Lemberg.

1759(21stof Tishrei, 5520): Hoshanah Rabah

1767: In Richmond, VA, Abigail Seixas and Hillel Judah gave birth to Gershom Seixas Judah.

1769: In Savannah, GA, Frances Hart and Mordecai Sheftall gave birth to Moses Sheftall.

1772(15thof Tishrei, 5533): Sukkoth

1773: Birthdate of Wallerstein, Bavaria native Sarah Weil, the husband of Isaac Ottenheimer with whom she had nine children.

1775: The Continental Congress creates the United States Navy. Some of the famous Jews to serve in the U.S. Navy include: Commodore Uriah P. Levy who played a key role in ending flogging as a punishment for seamen; Admiral Hyman Rickover, the father of the Nuclear Navy; Admiral Jeremy Michael Boorda, Chief of Naval Operations.

1778: In Denmark, Philip Hartvig Rée and Hanna Hartvig von Essen gave birth to Hartvig Philip Ree.

1781: Birthdate of Ludvig Mariboe, one of a small number of Jewish converts to Christianity who had settled in Norway in the first decade of the 19thcentury when Jews were not accepted as citizens.

1789(22ndof Tishrei, 5550): Shemini Atzeret is observed for the first time during the Presidency of George Washington.

1783: Rachel Pinto, a Loyalist who had taken the oath allegiance sought “to attempt to obtain indemnification from the British government” for having billeted the King’s troops in her home.

1793:  The cornerstone of Old East the oldest state university building in the United States is laid on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  This is an important date in Jewish history because my sister, Judy Sharon (Levin) Rosenstein, of blessed memory was a Tar Heel Grad.  She met her husband, Larry Rosenstein of blessed memory, at Chapel Hill.  All three of their sons are also Carolina grads. Of such moments are real Jewish history made.

1795: In Charleston, SC, Rebecca Moses and Solomon Harby gave birth to “Samuel Dacosta Harby.”

1796(10thof Tishrei, 5557): Yom Kippur is observed for the last time during the Presidency of George Washington.

1796: Birthdate of “educator, poet and mathematician” Jacob Eichenbaum, the native of Galicia who was “one of the pioneers of modern education among the Russian Jews.”

1796: Israel Baer Kursheedt observed Yom Kippur as the only Jew aboard an American sloop sailing to the United States from Hamburg.

1797(22ndof Tishrei, 5558): Shemini Atzeret

1797: In Charleston, SC, Solomon and Rebecca Moses Harby gave birth to George Washington Harby, “a writer and teacher like his older brother Isaac,” the founder of “a boy’s school in New Orleans” and the husband of Mary Olivia Lucas and then the husband of New Orleanian  Marie Ulaine Pouillott.

1800(23rdof Tishrei, 5561): Jews celebrate Simchat Torah for the first time in the 19thcentury and for the last time during the Presidency of John Adams.

1810: Today’s marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Bavaria marked the start of the first Oktoberfest.


1814: Peter Simeon married Sarah Rees at the Great Synagogue today.

1819(23rdof Tishrei, 5580): Simchat Torah

1822: Birthdate of Seligman Solomon, the German born American businessman and philanthropist best known for his support of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in New York City

1826: In Kingston, Jamaica, Rebecca Cohen and David Alexander gave birth to Frederick Alexander.

1829(15thof Tishrei, 5590): First Day of Sukkoth

1830: Birthdate of Antony Mayer de Worms, a London born descendant of Amschel Moses Rothschild and Schoenche Lechnich

1831: Joel Coleman Joel married Sophia Samuel at the Great Synagouge today.

1837(13thof Tishrei, 5598): Seventy-five year old Talmudist, interpreter of Halacha and moel Rabbi Akiva Eger passed away today in Poznan


1838(23rdof Tishrei, 5599): Simchat Torah

1842: In Reckendorf, Bavaria, Nathan and Rosa Walter gave birth to Moritz Walter the husband of Sophie Walter.

1842: Birthdate of London native Rose Nelson, the wife of Louis Allen and the mother of Nancy, Samuel, Sylvia, Rachel, Leah, John and Nathaniel Allen.

1843: Abdallah Ben Cassan married Mary Ann Talbot in London today.

1845: Abraham Einstein and Helene Moos gave birth to Heinrich Einstein one of the six siblings of Albert Einstein.

1848(15thof Tishrei, 5609): Sukkoth

1852: In Minsk, Joseph Dubov and his wife gave birth to Marcus H. Dubov who served congregations in Grodno, Russia; Graudenz, Prussia; Sioux City, Iowa; and Canton, Ohio before becoming Rabbi of Congregation B’nai Moshe in Evansville, Indiana

1853(10th of Tishrei, 5614): Yom Kippur

1853: Rabbi Raphall led services today at the Greene Street Synagogue in New York.

1854: Birthdate of Ida Kuhn, the daughter of Clara Regina Kuhn who became Ida Cohen after marrying Eduard Cohen

1864: The General News column reported today, Wednesday, that Monday’s livestock market was fairly active despite “the absence of the Hebrews, who” were “observing the Day of the Atonement, one of their principal fasts.” Tuesday’s market was more active than usual, in part, because “on account of the numbers of Jews present.”

1864: In Iowa, “a dozen raiders disguised as Union soldiers terrorized Davis County, where they looted residences and kidnapped and murdered three Iowans near Bloomfield.”

1865: In a column styled “Our London Correspondence,” The New York Times reported that, “If you want a present proof that Mammon rules here, take the fact that yesterday Mr. PHILLIPS, a gentleman of the Hebrew persuasion, was elected Lord Mayor of London. Not that a Jew has not teeth, hands, organs, dimensions, and all that, as well as any other man; but, in the face of English prejudice, money and money alone could make a man who is a Jew by birth and religion, member of Parliament or Lord Mayor.” “Mr. Phillips” referred to Benjamin Samuel Phillips, a prominent British citizen and leader of the Anglo-Jewish community who had been elected Lord Mayor in September of 1865.  He served with such distinction that Queen Victoria knighted him for his service. Phillips was the second the Jew to hold the post; the first being David Salomons.  His son, Sir George, would also serve as Lord Mayor. The level of anti-Semitism displayed in this items stands in stark contrast with the detailed and sympathetic description of Jewish holidays that this paper was publishing in the 19th century.

1865(22nd of Tishrei, 5626): Shmini Atzeret

1866: Birthdate of Morris Aaron who would be buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Natchitoches, LA when he passed away in 1943.

1872(10thof Tishrei, 5633): Yom Kippur

1873(21stof Tishrei, 5634): Hoshanah Rabah

1873: “Curiosities of Superstition” published today traces the history of “host desecration” including a description of the 38 Jews who were burned to death in 1510 “because they had tortured the consecrated host until bled.”

1875: Birthdate of Yaakov Ben Zion Morein who gained famed as Rabbi Yaakov Ben Zion HaCohen Mendelsohn who served a congregation in Glasgow, Scotland before settling in the United States where he founded “his own shul, Congregation Beis Hamedrash Hagadol.”

1877: An application was made to Judge Barrett on behalf of the two children of the late Abraham Weisberg to order the Public Administrator to turn the two hundred dollars that constituted his estates to Rabbi Ash of the Ludlow-Street Synagogue so that he could send the money to the children living in Poland.  Weisberg was a Jewish peddler who had been murdered two years ago in New York’s Westchester Country.  The judge denied the application saying a guardian for the minor children would have to be appointed before going forward with the dispersal of funds.

1876: Two days after he had passed away, Augustus Davis, the son of Henry Davis and the former Ellen Lewis and the husband of “Ann (Annie) Davis” with whom he had two children was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1878(15thof Tishrei, 5639): Sukkoth

1878(15thof Tishrei, 5639): S. S. Man.Maximilien, Baron von Königswarter, the Dutch born French banker who supported Napoleon III passed away today.

1878: The strict anti-Socialist legislation passed today outlawed, for all practical purposes, the German Socialist Democratic Party whose leaders included Eduard Bernstein

1879: “Fish in Morocco” published today which was devoted to describing the rich variety of shell-fish used by cooks in Morocco pointed out that these are “utterly tabooed” when it comes to the local Jewish population.

1881: At Beth Elohim, Rabbi David Levy officiated at the marriage of Herman Leidloff, of Berlin and Selna Davega of Charleston, SC.

1882: It was reported today that the Prime Minister told members of the Hungarian Chamber of Deputies, that the recent anti-Jewish riots in Pressburg “might …degenerate into” an event “of a socialistic character.” He declared that would he would not tolerate “such excesses.” 

1884(23rdof Tishrei, 5645): Simchat Torah

1884: As the effects of the sever economic recession, which has necessitated the closing of many major employers, including the Falls Cotton Mills, grip New England, it is reported that the Polish Jews living in Baltic, a city 8 miles north of Norwich, Conn, are reduced to begging from door to door.

1884: Roderick Waters, who is Christian and Michael Hauman, who is Jewish nearly came to blows today as they vied for the affections of a Jewish widow living in St. Mark’s Place.

1884: “News of the World” published today described the change in fortunes for Mahmoud Pasha, aka Jacob Freund   The Sultan has brought him back from the Island of Rhodes where he had been living in exile since 1876 and restored him to his former position of prominence.  Mahmoud Pasha was a Polish born Jew named Jacob Freund who had fled Hungary after the revolution there failed and, after converting, became “the ablest of Turkish Generals.

1885: David J. Seligman and Adelaide (Addie) Seligman gave birth to Gladys Seligman who, after she married Henri Wertheim became Gladys Wertheim.

1885: “The Only One In America” published today described the opening of the first and only “Hebrew-Christian Church” in the United States.  Located in New York, it is the only congregation that has been established by Jewish converts to Christianity. (Editor’s note – Jews for Jesus type movements are obviously note a creation of the late 20th century.)

1886: In Pittsburgh, PA, “Maria and Salomon Stossel” gave birth to Jeno Stossel who gained fame as Jacob Stacel, “one of four Jews named to sit as judges of the Cleveland Municipal Court…by Governor Cooper in December of 1930” who was the husband of Minnie W. Stacel.

1886: “The Anchroia’s Long Trip” described the perilous ocean crossing of a steamer that that had its propeller shaft brake causing havoc among the crew and passengers. Fortunately, only two passengers died in the chaos, one of whom was an unnamed Polish Jew who was buried at sea.

1888(7thof Cheshvan, 5649): Just two months before his 76th birthday, Joseph Moses Levy, the English newspaper editor and publisher whose properties included The Daily Telegraph passed away.

1887: In Munich, “Isidor Landauer and Josephine Pepi Guggenhimer” gave birth to “Dr. Karl Elias Landuer, a colleague of Sigmund Freud, who after seeking refuge from the Nazis in Sweden and the Netherlands ended up being murdered at Bergen-Belsen just months before the end of WW II


1888: “The Fifteenth Season” published today described the first event of 1888-1889 season sponsored by the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.  Among those who addressed those attending the gala at Chickering Hall was Chauncey M. Depew. (Depew was not Jewish. He was an attorney who became President of the New York Central Railroad and U.S. Senator from New York. His willingness to speak at the YMHA gathering gives an indication of the importance of the organization.)  The speeches were followed by an evening of choral music with violin accompaniment.

1889: Max Maretzek, the Moravian born American opera conductor and composer, celebrated his Golden Jubilee

1889: Birthdate of Providence, RI native and Boston University trained attorney William W. Bearman who served as “assistant city attorney” in Los Angeles.

1890: “Russia’s Milling Industry” published today attributed the decline in the country’s grain milling industry and the decline in the price of corn to “the persecution of the Jews.”

1891(10th of Tishrei, 5652): Yom Kippur

1891: Birthdate of Boston native Jennie Loitman the Boston University trained lawyer and jurist who when she married attorney Samuel Barron, Jr. became Jennie Loitman Barron, the name under which she broke legal ground in numerous arenas including being the first woman to serve as a Justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court.



1891:  Several “temporary places of worships have been established” in New York city “public halls” to accommodate the large number of people attending services, especially on the Lower East Side.

1891: In Columbus, GA, more than fifty Jewish owned stores closed because of the Day of Atonement.

1891: In Brooklyn, Sophie and Pincus Weinberg gave birth to Sidney James Weinberg


1891: An Indictment of Russia” published today described the view of the Jews that Nicholas I who reigned from 1825 to 1855 was “a Second Haman” whose 30 year reign “was filled with special hardship for” them. Much to their surprise, the reign of Alexander III has proved to be even worse.

1891:  Birthdate of Edith Stein the convert to Catholicism who became a nun taking  the name "Teresia Benedicta ac Cruce."  Sister Teresia left Germany for Holland after the Nazis came to power.  In 1942, the Nazis ordered the arrest of Catholics of Jewish origin living in Holland.  This included clergy like Sister Teresia.  Sister Teresia was once again Edith Stein.  She died in Auschwitz in August of 1942.  If people who converted to Catholicism are really Catholics it is hard to understand how the Pope gave up these members of his flock. Eventually, Edith Stein would be made Saint.  Cynics would say that in one respect the Church has remained consistent.  It loves Jews, as long as they are dead. The fate of Edith Stein gave those studying in Cedar Rapids something to discuss when they studied the Papal response to Hitler and the Holocaust.

1891: Today, Jews in Missouri are upset by the recent attack John T. Blake the manager for William Warner, the Republican candidate for governor has made on Mr. Isaac Isaacs, Secretary of the Republican clubs that included a “roast of the Jews.”

1892(21stof Tishrei, 5653): Hoshana Rabah

1892: In New York, a conference of Orthodox rabbis which has dealt with changes espoused by the Reform including doing away requiring circumcision as part of the conversion ceremony, is scheduled to come to an end

1892: Carlos Pellegrini, who has a German-Jewish brother-in-law, completed his term of office as President of Argentina during which he expressed his support for Baron Hirsch’s plan to settle a half a million Russian Jews in the Argentine Republic.

1892: A part of the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage, a celebration which Jewish communities participated, “school children recite the original ‘Pledge of Allegiance” which did not contain the phrase “under God” – a phrase that was added in the 1950’s as a measure designed to “defeat” the Soviets during the Cold War.

1892: Birthdate of Kiev native and Tufts and U of Chicago trained social worker Samuel Gerson.

1893: Julius Bien, the President of B’Nai B’rith is scheduled to address the opening session of a three day affair marking the Golden Anniversary of the Jewish fraternal organization.

1894: Alfred Gobert, “the handwriting expert from the Bank of France,” was summoned to the rue Saint-Dominique where he spent the day examining the treasonous documents supposedly written by Captain Dreyfus.(For more see The Dreyfus Affair by Piers Paul Read)

1894: Two days after she had passed away. Fanny Goldberg, the “wife of Abraham Goldberg” was buried at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery on Buckingham Road.”

1894: This evening, General de Boisdeffre told Commandant du Paty de Calm that “he had been chosen to arrest Dreyfus.”  Du Paty tried to avoid the task but the general insisted.

1895(24thof Tishrei, 5656): Seventy-eight year old German politician and jurist Isaac Wolffson, the son of “businessman Meyer Wolffson” and the father Albert Wolffson who served in the Hamburg Parliament for thirty years, passed away today.

1895 The Louisiana Section of the National Council of Jewish Women, which has sent money to the St. Louis Shoe Fund and the Chicago Jewish Training School was formed today.

1896: Birthdate of Lodz, Poland native Victor Jeremy Jerome the American Communist who was convicted under the Smith Act and whose interests were varied enough that he edited the works of Lenin and started writing a novel based on the life of Jewish philosopher and outcast Baruch Spinoza.


1897(16thof Tishrei, 5658): Second Day of Sukkot

1897: Birthdate of Aleppo, Syria native Joseph Ashear, the founder, in the United States, of Ashear Brothers, a firm manufacturing and importing handkerchiefs who was the founder and first President of the Magen David Community Center in Brooklyn, the division chairman of the UJA for seven years and the recipient of numerous leadership award including the UJA’s Masada Medal.

1897: In Kansas City, clothing store owner Jacob Epstein and his wife gave birth to Jane Epstein, the future wife Goodman Ace who became half of the comedy team known as “Easy Aces.”

1897: Expenses estimates submitted at today’s meeting of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment included: Aguilar Free Library $41, 500; Maimonides Free Library $5,000; Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum $324,992; Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society $89,000; Sanitarium for Hebrew Children $5,500; Mt. Sinai Hospital $26,000

1899: One day after he had passed away, “Solomon Shock” was buried at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery in London.”

1899: In Ardmore, OK, Julius and Rebecca (Meyer) Kan gave birth to O.U. and NYU educated WW I veteran Simon Stiefel Kahn an engineer for Ford Motor Company and holder of numerous patents who was the husband of Frances Solomon with whom he had two daughters.

1903(21stof Tishrei, 5664): Hoshana Rabah

1903: Birthdate of Walter Jurmann the “Austrian born composer” who moved to France after the Nazis came to power and then to the United States where Louis B. Mayer employed him at MGM.

1904: Birthdate of Samuel Zimelman, who served as the “cantor of Hochshule Synagogue in his native Łomazy, Poland who in 1946 came to the United States where he served as the chazzan at Congregation Shaarey Tphiloh in Portland Maine and who is the father of Cantor Solomon “Sol” Zim.

1906(23rdof Tishrei, 5667): Simchat Torah

1906: In Australia, Sir Isaac Alfred Isaacs began serving as Puisne Justice of the High Court of Australia.

1907: Birthdate of Chicago native Phil “Mickey” Weinbtraub the outfielder and first baseman who began his career with Loyola Univesity, went on to a record shattering season with the minor league Nashville Vols before playing in the majors with the Giants, Cards, Reds and Phillies.

1907: The Tennessee Volunteers coached by Izzy Levene defeated the football team from the University of Georgia for the second straight victory of the season.

1908(17thof Tishrei, 5669): Chol Hamoded Sukkoth

1908(17thof Tishrei, 5669): Fifty-seven year old Isaac Asher Isaacs, the “son of Asher and Esther Isaacs” and husband of “Hannah (Annie) Zyberlast Isaacs with whom he had six children and who had been presented with a “Testimonial from the Manchester Congregation of British Jews” in February of 1908 “in recognition of her service as secretary for twenty seven years” passed away today.


 1909: The Bible Class which had studied the Book of Genesis at Temple Beth Ahabah is scheduled to meet this afternoon to study the Book of Exodus

1909: Mrs. Sam Cohen, the President Ladies’ Hebrew Benevolent Association (LHBA) is scheduled to chair a fund raising meeting today.

1910(9thof Tishrei, 5671): Erev Yom Kippur

1910: Birthdate of Canadian screenwriter Ben Barzman who fell afoul of HUAC and ended up on one of its infamous blacklists.

1911: Multiple telegrams were received in London from Malta, Gabes and Djerba, appealing for help for the many thousands of Jewish refugees who had come from Tripoli. 

1912: Birthdate of Elizabeth H. Friedman, the wife of Sylvan N. Friedman, the Jewish political leader who served in both houses of the Louisiana state legislature.

1912: While playing Center for Georgia Tech led the Yellow Jackets to a 20-3 upset victory over Alabama despite the fact that he broke three fingers in the game which proved to be an inspiration to his underdog teammates.

1913(12thof Tishrei, 5674): Mrs. Beile Weinberg passed away today.

1913: Birthdate of Landstuhl, Germany native Annelise Abraham.

1914(22ndof Tishrei, 5675): Shemini Atzeret

1914: “Turkey Gathers Troops” published today reported that the Turks “are showing much energy” in several of its Middle Eastern territories including “Palestine where they are concentrating troops at a number of points and fortifying important places on the coast and on routes to the interior.”

1914: “The Committee on Foreign Relations this morning ordered a favorable report to the Senate of the peace treaty with Russia” even though “the committee has received no word from the Department of State indicating that any progress has been made toward negotiating a new treaty of commerce with Russia to take the place of the treaty of 1832 abrogated by the United States because of Russia’s treatment of American Jews.”

1914: Birthdate of Mauricio Leib Lasansky, “an Argentine-born master printmaker who was equally well known for a series of drawings depicting the horrors of Nazism…” (As reported by Margalit Fox)

1915: Assistant Under-Secretary of State Bertam Cubitt wrote to General Sir John Maxwell “that to grant the ZMC (Zion Mule Corps) pensions that would be granted to enlisted British soldiers would be unduly liberal” as they were only “temporary employees” – a status he ascribed to men who wore the uniform of His Majesty’s forces and many of whom “permanently gave their lives” under fire at Gallipoli.

1915: Edith Louisa Caviell, the British nurse who in addition to providing medical aid to battlefield casualties regardless of their nationality, was executed today by the Germans today for helping Allied soldiers escape after a court martial in which she had been represented by Sadi Kirschen whose Jewish family would be forced to flee Belgium 25 years later when the Nazis came to power.

1915:  “More Rioting In Russia” published today described fighting in the streets of Moscow which has included civilians building barricades in the city and which the “aristocracy and merchants “attribute to the disloyalty of the Jews and the granting to them of the rights of suffrage” – a condition that they will cure by returning to “the customs of the ancient Muscovite Empire” making it “once more a land of orthodox Slavs.

1915: Birthdate of New York native Leonard “Len” Maidman the NYU all-star basketball player, 1940 graduate of NYU Med School “who served as a Captain in the Medical Corps” during WW II after which he practiced medicine in Connecticut for forty years.

1915: Alexei Khvostoff, the new Russian Minister of the Interior was reported to believe that “the step already taken to extend the rights of the Jews must be followed up” and that “the only restriction that should be maintained with regard to the Jews after the war is the prohibition of the purchase of real estate.”

1915: As of today, according to Professor R.J. H. Gottheil, the Temporary Chairman of the University Zionist Society, Eugene Meyer, Jr. is the society’s new president and E.L. Thurman is the society’s new Secretary.

1916(15thof Tishrei, 5677): Sukkoth

1916: During the Punitive Expedition into Mexico led by General Pershing “Rabbis sent to the Mexican border for the holidays by the Army and Navy Committee and by the Central Conference of American Rabbis” are scheduled to Sukkoth services in Texas “at McAllen, El Paso, San Antonio, Brownsville, Laredo and Eagle Pass” while “elsewhere along the…border Succoth will be observed out of doors or in tenets which will prove peculiarly appropriate in view of the fact that Succoth celebrations are held whenever possible in out-of-door booths in token of the harvest origin of the holiday.”

1916: Dr. J.L. Magnes, a Brooklyn born member of the American Jewish Relief Committee arrived in Warsaw where he will be distributing “funds collected in the United States” to “the poor Jews in Poland.”

1916: During tonight’s Columbus Day celebration at Carnegie Hall sponsored by the New York Chapter of the Knights of Columbus former Assemblyman Aaron J. Levy delivered a speech in which he said “When I was invited to take part in these exercise, I had some doubt of my right to be here but when I recalled that five members of Columbus’s crew were Jews and that another Jew prominent at the” Spanish Court “financed that famous expedition of discovery by contributing $250,000” leading me to “believe that I have the best right to be here.”

1917: “For the Tsar and Holy Russia,” “a new reactionary organization” conducted a “vigorous anti-Jewish campaign” and distributed millions of copies of circulars urging anti-Jewish uprisings.”

1917: In Tsaritsin, “Bankers and Trust Companies establish a company to sell insurance again casualties and losses resulting from pogroms.”

1917: In Lubashevka, “peasant women attack Jewish shops demanding food at lower prices” followed by looting of the shops with the goods being taken by force.

1917: Three hundred more Jewish refugees are expected to arrive shortly in New York from Palestine which can be added to the total of 91 saved souls who arrived yesterday after having been driven from their homes in Jaffa and Jerusalem.

1918: Dr. Madisen Clinton Peters, the former pastor of the Bloomingdale Church and author whose works included Justice to the Jew, The Jews as Patriot, The Wit Wisdom of the Talmud, The Jews in America and the Jews Who Stood by Washington, passed away after losing his week-long fight with Spanish Influenza.

1918: Upon hearing that the German government had accepted President Wilson’s condition for negotiation, “the German born Zionist Arthur Ruppin noted in his diary how he ‘went for a long walk and continuously repeated to myself the one word: Peace! How much it means.’” Ruppin’s joy was premature and it would be another month before Peace would become a reality.

1919: The New York Times includes a review of Past and Present: A Collection of Essays by Dr. Israel Friedlander, a noted member of the faculty of the Jewish Theological Seminary and an author of several volumes on Jewish history.

1920: The Kane Street Temple, one of the oldest congregations in Brooklyn is scheduled to host the opening night of its Bazar and Fair at the 23rdRegiment Armory.

1921(10thof Tishrei, 5682): Yom Kippur

1921: In New York City, attorney Allen Blaustein and his wife the former Rose Brickman gave birth to law professor and “constitution drafter Albert P. Blaustein.


1921: According to New York City political leaders yesterday's drop in voter registration, as compared with both the first day's registration and that of last year was mainly due to the fact that the Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur began yesterday evening.  “In many instances Jewish registration inspectors left their booths at sundown” which delayed registration for those waiting in line.  “The Jewish holiday kept the registration down on the East side of Harlem” and other East side locations because Jews did not come out to register on the eve of Yom Kippur.  The importance of observing Yom Kippur was a universal factor among Jews regardless of affiliation as can be sen by the fact that Jacob Schiff, who was serving as Chairman of one of the registration boards and a co-religionist serving on the board “quit work at sunset.”  When Schiff was challenged by waiting voters he replied, “We are sorry, but you observe your holidays and we must observe ours.”  The Board of Elections admitted that it had not even considered the disruption that would take place when voter registration coincided with the most important holiday on the Jewish calendar.

1922(20thof Tishrei, 5683): As Europe endures Fascist violence in Italy and Greeks and Armenians flee from the Turks taking control of Thrace, Jews observe Sixth Day of Sukkoth

1923: In Brooklyn, David Slutsky, a cab driver and Mae Rodin Slutsky, a manicurist gave birth to Jean Evelyn Slutksy who gained fame as Jean Nidetch, founder of Weight Watchers. “The story of the establishment of Weight Watchers International begins with the personal story of a New York housewife who wanted to succeed at losing weight. In 1963, Mrs. Jean Nidetch , a Jewish woman in her forties, who had experienced many failed attempts at losing weight and gaining weight, decided to lose weight forever.”  So begins the saga as described by the Weight Watchers Program.  There are those who say the program is very Jewish.  Like Moses, Ms. Nidetch started with a list of foods you could not eat and book.


1924: Birthdate of Erich Gruenberg, the Austrian born violinist who studied at the Jerusalem Conservatory and “led the Palestine Broadcasting Corporation Orchestra from 1938 to 1945.

1925: Birthdate of Julius Bronstein, a 34 for year veteran of the Chicago Police Department

1925: In what will be one of the few glory moments in the history of the Washington Senators, the Nats with Buddy Myer at 2nd base take a three games to lead over the Pirates in the World Series.

1925: Birthdate of Alan Howard Abelson, the New York native who became an editor of Barron’s magazine where he wrote “a pugnacious, sagacious stock market column that denounced Wall Street hucksterism and routinely rocked share prices (As reported by Douglas Martin)


1925(24thof Tishrei, 5685):  Thirty-two year old Polish born circus performer Siegmund Breitbart known as the “Strongest Man in the World” passed away today in Berlin after having injured himself during a performance.

1926: In the Bronx, William Schlesinger, “a pants salesman” and his wife Lillian who was “a milliner gave birth to “printer, historian, composer and printer Carl Tobias Schlesinger.


1926: Birthdate of Dr. Ruth L. Kirschstein, a National Institutes of Health pathologist who helped develop and refine tests to ensure the safety of vaccines for polio and measles, organized the NIH response to the AIDS epidemic, and became the first woman appointed director of an NIH institute.”

1927: Anna Boudin, Mrs. Jacob Panken and Florence Dolowitz organized the first meeting of the Women's American ORT (WAO). Originally founded in Tsarist Russia in the 1880s, ORT (the Russian acronym stands for Organization for the Distribution of Artisanal and Agricultural Skills) was organized to provide vocational training to help impoverished Russian Jews become more economically self-sufficient. The American arm of ORT, founded in 1922, was only open to men. Dolowitz and Boudin, who were married to ORT officers, founded WAO to assist in funding ORT programs intended to help Eastern European Jews devastated by World War I. Starting with fundraising concerts and bazaars, WAO grew in response to the rise of Nazism and the plight of Jewish refugees. Women's American ORT became an independent organization in 1940, helping to fund International ORT's growing number of vocational high schools in Europe, India, Israel, and North Africa. Today WAO focuses primarily on fundraising for ORT schools and programs around the world, including schools in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. These programs assist disadvantaged individuals and communities to be self- sufficient by providing education and training in employment skills. The organization also maintains a public policy platform advocating for quality public education, increased literacy and women's rights, the separation of church and state, the elimination of anti-Semitism, and the fostering of Jewish communities worldwide. (As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archives)

1927: It was reported today that Justice Jacob Panken has rejected the endorsement of the Communist Party because, the Communists “believe in dictatorship and ridicule and denounce the principles and practices of social democracy, while the Socialist Party believed that whatever “changes are to be made in the United States must the result of education and the intelligent use of the ballot”

1928: On the 33rd anniversary of his death, a bust of Jurist Isaac Wolffson was placed “in the vestibule of the Court of Appeals Building” in Hamburg.

1929: The British High Commissioner sends a telegram to the government in London warning that the Arabs of Palestine had recently obtained a considerable number of arms from Transjordan and the Hedjaz which they intended to use in attacks on the Jewish population.

1930: Birthdate of New Rochelle native Jack Gottlieb, a noted composer who “served as President of the ASJM for a number of years.”


1932: “The Flag Lieutenant,” a British made WW I movie featuring Abraham Sofaer as “Meheti Salos” was released in the United Kingdom today by Woolf and Freedman.

1933(22nd of Tishrei, 5694): Shmini Atzeret

1933: In Los Angeles, garment workers, most of whom were “Mexicans” began a strike organized by Rose Posetta (Rakhel Peisoty) of the ILGWU who believed that “Mexican garment workers” could be the backbone of a West Coast organizing movement.

1933: William E. Dodd, FDR’s newly appointed Ambassador to Germany, defied the conventional wisdom and gave a speech to the American Chamber of Commerce in Berlin in which he was highly critical of the Nazi regime.  Among the high-ranking Nazis in attendance were Goebbels and Alfred Rosenberg.

1934: In Newark, NJ, “Carolyn (Kaltenbacher) and Jerome Meier, a wholesale wine and liquor salesman gave birth to “the oldest of their three sons” Cornell University trained architect Richard Meier, the winner of 1984 Prtizker Architecture Prize.

1934: In Salem, Massachusetts, Jacob Joseph Kekst, a Hebrew school teach from Lithuania and his Palestinian born wife Hannah gave birth to Gershon Kekst, the founder Kekst and Company.



1934: U.S. premiere of “The Gay Divorcee,” a musical directed by Mark Sandrich with a score by Max Steiner and filmed by cinematographer David Abel.

1935(15thof Tishrei, 5695): Sukkoth

1935: “Jubilee,” “a musical comedy with a book by Moss Hart premiered on Broadway tonight at the Imperial Theatre

1935: Birthdate of “historian and biographer” John Cooper, , whose works included A Social History of Jewish Food  and The Life Cycle of the Baghdadi Jews of India that he wrote with his wife, psychoanalyst Judy Cooper.

1936: Thanks to the efforts of the “Arab Kings of Iraq, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia and the Emir of Transjordan, the general strike being conducted by the Arabs in Palestine which has been marked by death violence has been called off without resolving their attempts to put an end to Jewish immigration and land purchases.

1936: It was reported today that during the first six months of this year, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee had provided assistance to “2,047 Jews long resident in Germany but natives of other lands” including 700 from Poland who were forced to “return home” by the Nazi regime as well as assistance to “1,993 people to leave small towns and villages for larger German cities because residence in the smaller communities was no longer possible for them.”

1936: It was reported today that philosopher and historian Dr. William Durant said “I trust that before my days are end, I shall the Germany of Lessing, Kant, Goethe and Schiller restored to the moral fellowship of the nations; and the Jewish people living once more in peace and honor with Germans in Germany and with Arabs in Palestine.”

1939: The first Jewish deportees left Vienna and Bohemia.

1939: Hans Frank is appointed governor-general of Occupied Poland.

1940(10th of Tishrei, 5701): Yom Kippur; it is also Shabbat.


1940: Governor Lehman of New York missed the celebration of Columbus Day “for the first time in ten or twelve years because” today was “the holiest of the Jewish religion and he was attending to religious duties and abstaining from public appearances.

1940: All soldiers who had received a furlough starting yesterday at noon so they could observe Yom Kippur were required to return by the sounding of taps this evening.

1940: For the first time in 940 years, non-Christian religious services were held in Iceland. Approximately twenty five Jewish soldiers from England, Scotland and Canada gathered with eight Jewish refugees and Hendrik Ottósson, who had married a Jewish woman to observe Yom Kippur. Ottósson, served as their Shammash. The Icelandic authorities offered a chapel in Reykjavík's old cemetery. Ottósson found the suggestion insulting and rented a hall of the Good Templars' Lodge. They borrowed the only Torah scroll available in town.

1940: On this Jewish Day of Atonement, German loudspeakers in Warsaw, Poland, announce that all Jews in the city must move to the Jewish ghetto by the end of the month.

1940 (10th of Tishrei, 5701): In one of those calendar quirks, Yom Kippur, Shabbat and Columbus Day all fell on the same day.  As the Nazis swept across Europe, sermons provided different ways to respond to the challenge and observe the Day of Atonement. Rabbi Stephen Wise told congregants at the Free Synagogue that it was not enough for England to resist Hitler.  The resistance to Hitler must take the form of renewed and deepened loyal to morality which “in its origins is Judeo-Christian.” Rabbi Jonah Wise asked those at Central Synagogue “how much liberty can we lose and still retain from freedom” while Rabbi David de Sola Pool told those at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue “Our effective answer to the tyrannies of other lands is to build here a better society of free, unexploited happy men and women. It is within our power to reconstruct society and build it in the light of divine wisdom.”

1940(10th of Tishrei, 5701): The Nazis executed 3,400 Jews in Galicia.

1940: It was reported today that due to the start of Yom Kippur yesterday evening, “slaughters had reduced the kill of those classes generally dressed kosher.”

1941: In Stanislawow, Eastern Galicia, all of the Jews living in the district, were driven out of their homes into the center of the town where massive graves had been dug. SS troops and Ukrainian militia commence machine gunning of the gathered populace. Estimates of the number of Jews murdered range from a low of 6,000 to a high of 12,000. For the Jews, it was Hoshanah Rabbah, (the Great Prayer day.) The Ukrainian and German killers throw a "Bloody Sunday" victory celebration.

1940 Sixty-four year old William Henry Dieterich, the anti-Semitic and somewhat pro-German” Senator from Illinois who was opposed by his fellow Democrat Henry Horner, “the first Jewish governor of Illinois” passed away today.

1941: At Stanislawow, the Germans and “Local Ukrainian nationalist” murdered another 10,000 “intellectuals, professionals” and Jews two months before the Ghetto was established there.

1941: At Sabac, Yugoslavia, hundreds of Gypsies are murdered. Jews were the primary victims of genocide, but not the only victims.

1941: The head of the University of Louisville expresses his gratitude for a bequest by the late Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandies to the school’s Law Library.  About two decades ago, Justice. Brandies selected the Law School of the University of Louisville as beneficiary of specific current gifts from him because, in his judgment, this university is much less liable to political influence than institutions under complete public control.

1941(21stof Tishrei, 5702): Hoshanah Rabah

1942(1stof Cheshvan, 5703): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

1942(1stof Cheshvan, 5703): Sixty-year old Berthold Ullman, the Czech born son of Bertha and Hermann Ullman was murdered today at Auschwitz.

1942 : In Shavei Tzion, “Ruth and Reuben Lewinbuk (or Levenbuch)” gave birth to “Daliah Lewinbuk (or Levenbuch” who gained fames as “actress, singer and model” Daliah Levy, a protégé of Kirk Douglas and the wife of Charles Gans with whom she had four children – Kathy, Rouben, Alexander and Stephen.


1944: Gerda Baier was deported to Auschwitz where she was subsequently murdered.

1944(25thof Tishrei, 5705): The wife and young daughter of chess champion Salo Landau were gassed today at Auschwitz.

1945: Forty women rescued from Nazi concentration camps were the first to be sheltered in the new sixty-bed wing opened” today “at the Women’s League for Palestine home at Haifa.  In New York, “Mrs. David L. Isaacs, who head the Palestine committee of the league” described “the welcome given the group rescued from Bergen-Belsen, Buchwald and Auschwitz.”

1945: British authorities continued their search of a secret radio that was “attempting to rally Jewish resistance forces.”  Shortly before a secret radio station “that was attempting to rally Jewish resistance forces…broadcast the announcement ‘Listen to the voice of Israel!  This is not a terrorist station.  This is the station of Hebrew resistance. Never again will Jews be deported from their homeland.  Our patience is over.  No power in the world shall break our determination.”

1946: “Nobody Lives Forever” starring John Garfield (Jacob Julius Garfinkle) was released in the United States today.

1947: In Chicago Mike Wallace and Norma Kaphan gave birth FOX newsman Christopher “Christ” Wallace whose career choice begs the question of nature versus nurture since his father was the CBS news personality and his step-father was Bill Leonard, President of CBS News.

1947: Ninety-four year old General Sir Ian Hamilton the commander of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Forced during the Gallipoli Campaign which meant he commanded the first Jewish fighting unit since the days of Bar Kochba and who “carried out a spot inspection” of the newly formed Zion Mule Corps “and was delighted with the workman-like appearance of the Corps after so little training” passed away today.

1948(9thof Tishrei, 5709): Erev Yom Kippur; in the evening Kol Nidre is chanted for the first time in almost two thousand years in an independent Jewish state.

1948(9thof Tishrei, 5709): Eighty year old Alfred Kerr passed away today.



1948: Egypt, Syria and Lebanon recognize the All Palestine Government.  Jordan’s King Abdullah had already refused to grant this entity any power in territory seized by his Arab Legion.  In other words, there was to be no Palestinian control over what is now called the West Bank and the Old City section of Jerusalem.

1949: “Christopher Columbus” a biopic featuring Abraham Sofaer was released in the United Kingdom today.

1949: Casper Platt who had been “nominated by President Harry S. Truman to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Illinois” “was confirmed by the United States” today.

1950: CBS broadcast the first episode of “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show” which was a continuation of their vaudeville act that had been a hit on radio as well.

1951(12thof Tishrei, 5712): Sixty-five year old English born Australian war hero and diplomat Leonard Keysor who won the Victoria Cross lost his battle with cancer today.


1952(23rdof Tishrei, 5713): Simchat Torah is celebrated for the last time during the Presidency of Harry S. Truman, “the godfather of Israeli independence”

1953:  The “Caine Mutiny Court Martial” opened at the Plymouth Theatre in New York.  This Broadway dramatic hit was based on the novel The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk.  Wouk has had a successful writing career dealing with both non-Jewish and Jewish themes.  More to the point, he has been successful without compromising his very strong belief in traditional Judaism and the state of Israel.

1953(3rdof Cheshvan, 5714): “Suzanne Kinyas, and her two children (3 year old girl and a 1 and a half year old boy) were  killed today when a Palestinian Fedayeen squad infiltrated into Israel from Jordan” and “threw a grenade into a civilian house” at Yehud, a village eight mile east of Tel Aviv.  (Fedayeen was the 1950’s term for the Arab terrorists.  Over the decades, they change their names but not their murderous aims.)

1954(15thof Tishrei, 5715): Sukkoth

1954: In Philadelphia, PA, Congressman Joshua Eilberg and his wife Gladys gave birth to Amy Eilberg, the first female rabbi ordained by the Conservative movement.

1955(26th of Tishrei, 5716): Eighty-two year old Arthur Hammerstein, the son of Oscar Hammerstein I and uncle of Oscar Hammerstein II, who “was an opera producer and one of the writers of the song "Because of You," a major hit (#1 for 10 weeks) for Tony Bennett in 1951 passed away today. Hammerstein wrote the song in 1940. It was used in the film I Was an American Spy (1951). He was the producer of the musical comedies The Firefly (1912), and Rose Marie (1924), which he did along with his nephew. He also was the producer of the film The Lottery Bride (1930), and made an appearance as himself in an episode of the film series Popular Science in 1949. Arthur Hammerstein was born and educated in New York City. Arthur's daughter, Elaine Hammerstein was a well-known stage and film actress.”

1956: In response to a request from a very worried Jordanian King, the British government informed Israel that, in accordance with the treaties with Jordan and Iraq, Britain would go to the aid of both these countries if they were attacked by Israel.  The irony was that Israel was negotiating with France and Britain over plans to attack Egypt and seize the Suez Canal.

1957: Publication of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged which, in 2007, will be described as one of the most influential business books ever written.

1957: In Philadelphia, attorney and Maryland state legislator Joe Chasnoff and his wife, “psychologist Selina Sue Prosen” gave birth to “Oscar winning documentarian Debra Hill Chasnoff” whose death was announced to the public by “her wife, Nancy Otto.” (As reported by Sam Roberts)


1958: Fifty sticks of dynamite exploded in the entryway of Atlanta's Hebrew Benevolent Society -- the oldest and largest Reform congregation, commonly known as the Temple. Five men, all associated with white separatist groups like the National States' Rights Party, were tried and acquitted. No one was ever convicted for the crime. The bombing came as Rabbi Jacob Rothschild was becoming increasingly active in the Civil Rights movement.

1959(10thof Tishrei, 5720): Yom Kippur

1959: The Play of the Week televised David Susskind’s production of Media as its first broadcast.

1960(21stof Tishrei, 5721): Hoshanah Rabah

1960; U.S. premiere of “Inherit the Wind,” the cinematic adaptation of the play co-authored by Jerome Lawrence, directed and produced by Stanley Kramer.

1961: “Let It Ride” a musical with lyrics and music by co-authored by Jay Livingston and starring Sam Leven opened tonight at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre in New York.

1961: Today the West End production of “Do, Re Mi”  featuring the music of Jule Styne and the lyrics of Betty Comden and Adolph Green opened at the Prince of Wales Theatre where it “ran for 169 performances.

1963: Archaeological digs began at Masada, Israel.  Masada was the site of the famous “last stand” during the “War Against Rome” that ended with the destruction of the Second Temple.  The archaeological dig was important because it gave credence to Jewish history.  Of course the debate continues to this day as to who was right – the Jews of Masada or the Jews of Yavnah.

1963: “A virulent anti-Semitic book, Judaism Without Embellishment, by Trofim Kichko was published in the USSR today.”

1966: Today, The Sydney Morning Herald reported that seventy-eight year old cellist and composer Gadal Saleski had passed away way four days ago in Los Angeles.


1966(28thof Tishrei, 5727): Seventy three year old Russian born composer and convert to Catholicism  Arthur-Vincent Lourie who fled his homeland after the Communist came to power and fled Europe after the Nazis came to power passed away today in Princeton, NJ.

1967:  In discussing his latest archeological finds, Dr. Yigael Yadin, Israel's leading archeologist contends that King Solomon may have indulged a passion for building during his long reign from 960 to 922 B.C., but he did not build the stables at Megiddo

1969(30thof Tishrei, 5730): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

1969(30thof Tishrei 5730): Seventy-two year old Dr. Max Schur, the friend and confidant of Sigmund Freud passed away


1971(23rdof Tishrei, 5732): Simchat Torah

1972: “Lady Sings the Blues” a biopic featuring Sid Melton as “Jerry” was released in the United States today.

1972: “The King of Marvin Gardens” a drama directed by Bob Rafelson, the co-producer and co-author of the script and starring Ellen Burstyn was released in the United States today.

1973: Moshe Koren safely ejected from his F-4E Phantom Jet after it fell victim to Lebanese anti-aircraft fire and was recovered by IDF forces.

1973: Ran Goren and Micha Oren were safely recovered by IDF forces after their F-4E Phantom Jet was shot down by an Egyptian MiG-21.

1973: A week after the Yom Kippur War began; Avraham Lanir scored his third and last aerial kill, downing a Syrian MiG-17 in the vicinity of Kuneitra while flying Mirage 5

1973: As many as 15,000 Iraqi troops had reached the Syrian front and were prepared to attack Israeli forces. The Israelis lucked out and spotted a lead contingent of fifty Iraqi tanks. When the Iraqis reached to within three yards of the outnumbered Israelis, the IDF tanks opened fire destroying 17 tanks and halting the assault The Soviets completed a twenty-four hour air lift during which eighty large Soviet transport planes landed in Syria filled with a wide variety of arms that more than compensated for the Syrian losses during the first week of fighting. On the southern front, Egyptian tanks and troops continued to pour across the Suez Canal posing a new threat to the Israelis. 

1973:  In the midst of the perilous first week of the Yom Kippur War a dispute broke out between the Sephardic Chief Rabbi and his Ashkenazi counterpart.  October 12, 1973was a Friday.  As the sun was setting the Sephardic Rabbi announced that it was a sin to bake bread on Shabbat, even in war time.  The Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, Shlomo Goren, the man who had been chief rabbi of the IDF in the 1967 war said that it was perfectly permissible to break the rules of Shabbat and bake bread during war time.  Doesn’t this remind you of Jerusalem during the Roman Siege?

1974: Ten people participated in the second of two demonstrations that took place in Moscow today during which demands were made for the granting of exit visas.

1975: Birthdate of Aharon Mordechai Rokeach the only child and heir of the current Rebbe of Belz, Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach. Born in Jerusalem, Israel, he was named after his father's uncle, Rabbi Aharon Rokeach, the fourth Belzer Rebbe, and his father's father, Rabbi Mordechai of Bilgorai.

1977(30th of Tishrei, 5738): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

1977(30th of Tishrei, 5738): Seventy-seven year old CCNY and NYU Law School graduate Lewis E. Zorn, the former “president of the Brucks Division of the American Hospital Supply Company” and “a founder of the American Friends of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem” who was the husband of Lillian Zorn with whom he had one son, Richard, passed away today in Mount Vernon, NY.

https://www.nytimes.com/1977/10/13/archives/lewis-e-zorn-77-retired-president-of-uniform-manufacturing-concern.html

1978: Representatives of Israel and Egypt opened peace talks in Washington, D.C.

1978: First baseman and dh Ron Blomberg who began his career with the Yankees played his last major league game with the Chicago White Sox.

1976: Yorkshire Television broadcast the third episode of “Dickens of London” with music by Monty Norman

1981: Yuli Edelstein, Victor Fulmacht, Alexander Kholmianskii, Vladimir Kuravsky, Vladimir Magarik and   Boris Teplitsky were among the “more than a hundred Moscow Hebrew teachers and their students who wrote a letter of protest to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the systematic and continuous KGB persecution of refuseniks engaged in studying and teaching the Hebrew language.”

1982(25thof Tishrei, 5743): Eighty-two year old publisher Robert Paul Michel Calmann-Levy the son of Gaston Michel Calmann-Lévy and Hélène Koenigswarter  passed away today.

1984: It was reported today that memoirs of Jaroslav Seifert, the newly named Nobel Prize winner in Literature, contain a “selection, titled 'Russian Bliny,' is about Roman Jakobson, a Russian born Jewish scholar who emigrated to Czechoslovakia after World War I and came to the United States during World War II.”

1984: “Garbo Talks” a comedy directed by Sidney Lumet, produced by Elliot Kastner, with music by Cy Coleman and cos-starring Ron Silver, Steven Hill, Howard Da Silva and Harvey Fierstein was released in the United States by MGM/UA.

1984: A month after having been released in the United States “Blood Simple” a crime file “written, edited, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen which was the directorial debut of the Coens and the first major film of cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld” was screened today at the Toronto International Film Festival.

1985(27thof Tishrei, 5746): In Cincinnati, Ohio, ninety year old Betty Fabe, the daughter of Max and Sara Hexter and the wife of Isadore Fabe passed away today.

1987(20th of Tishrei, 5748): Sixth Day of Sukkoth

1987: The New Jewish Agenda (NJA) “organized a Jewish contingent and Havdallah service at today’s March on Washington for gay rights.”

1987(20th of Tishrei, 5748): Oliver Louis Zangwill an influential British neuropsychologist passed away today. Born in 1913, he was Professor of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, 1952-81, then Professor Emeritus. He was the son of Israel Zangwill and the grandson of William Edward Ayrton. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1977

1988: Israel and China signed a trade agreement and made plans for establishing diplomatic relations.

1989: “Last Exit to Brooklyn’ the movie version of the novel by the same name starring Stephan Lang and Jerry Orbach and with music by Mark Knoplfer was released in West Germany today.

1989: A Syrian Air Force major flying a Soviet-made fighter-bomber landed in Israel today, stunning Israeli officials who said the pilot had asked for political asylum.

1990(23rd of Tishrei, 5751): Simchat Torah

1990: “Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael” a comedy co-starring Winona Ryder, directed by Jim Abrahams and featuring Valerie Landsburg, Dinah Manoff and Stephen Tobolowsky was released in the United States today

1992(15th of Tishrei, 5753): Sukkoth

1994: In a letter written to Sir Martin Gilbert today, “Jack (Izrael) Unikoski” who had been one of only a thousand teenage boys liberated by the Americans at Buchenwald on April 11, said that on VE Day he felt “joy that Germany had lost the war” but he also realized that for him “the liberation had come too late and he too had lost the war, having lost his whole family” including his parents, sister and brothers including his “older brother Isser who had died of hunger in the Lodz Ghetto at the age of 19.”

1997: In “Neighborhood Report: Corona –New Worshipers Are Bane, Not Balm, for Old Synagogue,” Charlie Leduff describes the challenges faced at Tifereth Israel as an influx of  Bukharan Jews face the aging members of the nine decades old synagogue.


1997:The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of special interest to Jews including The Myth of Rescue: Why the Democracies Could Not Have Saved More Jews From the Nazisy by William D. Rubinstein, Shtetl: The Life and Death of a Small Town and the World of Polish Jewsby Eva Hoffman and God & The American Writer by AlfredKazin.

1998(22ndof Tishrei, 5759): Shmini Atzeret

2000: Ben Weider received the French Legion of Honor.  A successful body builder and businessman, Weider was a student of history who worked to prove that Napoleon had been poisoned.

2000(13thof Tishrei, 5761): Vadim Nurhitz and Yossi Avrahami, two Israeli reservists who entered Ramallah by mistake were arrested by the PA. While in the custody of the PA, a mob savagely murdered them and then mutilated their bodies.

2000: During the Infitada, “vandals…desecrated the building” housing the mosaic that had been part of the Shalom Al Yisrael Synagogue, Jewish house of worship that dates back “to the late 6th or early 7th century and was discovered in 1936 “by Dr. Baramki of the Antiquities Authority under the British Mandate.”

2001(25thof Tishrei, 5762): Ninety-three year old Philadelphia born playwright Ruth Goetz who collaborated with her husband Augustus Goetz on many of her efforts and was introduced to the theartre by her father, “theatrical producer Philip Goodman” passed away today.


2002: In Massachusetts, Boston College, a Catholic institution of higher learning, installed “a copy of the Torah in the worship center, where it is expected to be used” for future Friday and Saturday services.

2003: The New York Timesfeatured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of special interest to Jews including Madam Secretary by Madeleine Albright with Bill Woodward and Why America Slept: The Failure to Prevent 9/11 by Gerald Posner.

2005: New York Times reporter Judith Miller testified one last time before the federal grand jury before being “relieved of contempt charges” in matters related to the Scooter Libby leak case.

2005: Air Force veteran and businessman, Al Hoffman, Jr. the son of a Jewish father and “Scottish-American mother” began serving as U.S. Ambassador to Portugal.

2005(9th of Tishrei, 5766): Erev Yom Kippur: In the evening, Jews all over the world gather to hear Kol Nidre marking the start of Yom Kippur

2006(20th of Tishrei, 5767): Sixth Day of Sukkoth

2006(20thof Tishrei, 5767): Sixty-one year old Don Novick, loving husband of Denise Novick and father of Rochelle and Cassie Novick passed away. The son of Russian immigrant Jews, he was raised as an Orthodox Jew in Cheyenne, Wyoming.  A member of Temple Judah, he was a pillar of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa Jewish community who gave freely of his time and culinary skills to so many worthwhile events.  Among his many virtues, was the ability to cook anything you wanted to perfection, including the best falafel west of Tel Aviv.  A quite man, he touched many lives and will never be forgotten.

2006(20thof Tishrei, 5767): Eighty-six year old Gillo Pontecorvo an Italian movie director best known for making the award winning “Battle of Algiers” whose siblings included  Bruno Pontecorvo, an internationally acclaimed physicist, Guido Pontecorvo, a geneticist and Polì [Paul] Pontecorvo, an engineer who worked on radar after WWII passed away today.


2006: In New York, the Albany County District Attorney acknowledged that he was investigating the hiring of a chauffeur by the Comptroller of New York, Alan Hevesi.

2006: Judy Gold’s “her one-woman show ’25 Questions for a Jewish Mother…based on a series of interviews with more than Jewish mothers in the United States” “reopened today at St. Luke’s Theatre.

2007(30th of Tishrei, 5768): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

2007: The film “Jewish Life in Cracow” is screened at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City

2007: Yaakov Katz the military correspondent and defense analyst for The Jerusalem Post, the Middle East's leading English daily speaks at the Hillel House at the University of Iowa 

2007:Some of the world's best klezmer musicians gathered in a New York neighborhood that was once home to poor immigrant Jews for a 10-day festival of the music rooted in their Eastern European cultures.

2008: The New York Timesfeatured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of special interest to Jews including My Father’s Paradise: A Son’s Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq by Ariel Sabar and The Partnership: The Making of Goldman Sachsby Charles D. Ellis.

2008:The Washington Post featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of special interest to Jews including Hitler’s Empire:How the Nazis Ruled Europe by Mark Mazower and two paperback offering: A Little History of the World by E.H. Gombrich; Translated from the German by Caroline Mustill and Just Say Nu Yiddish for Every Occasion (When English Just Won't Do)by Michael Wex.

2008: In Atlanta, members of The Temple gathered to observe the 50thanniversary of the blast that shook the congregation, recalling its terrifying aftermath and the way it changed their congregation's mission to promote racial equality. The bombing of a prominent Atlanta synagogue in 1958 claimed no lives, but the community outrage that it prompted helped galvanize the city's nervous Jewish community to embrace the civil rights movement.

2008:A critically acclaimed fully staged off-Broadway production of Joseph Stein’s “Enter Laughing: The Musical” came to a close at The York Theatre. It was nominated for a 2009 Lucille Lortel Award for outstanding revival.”

2008: The curtain came down the Classic Stage Company’s revival of “The Tempest” starring Mandy Pantinkin as “Prospero.”

2009: Time magazine published an article entitled “How Moses Shaped America” by Bruce Feiler.


2009:Israel and the U.S. are scheduled to begin their biggest joint air-defense exercise today. Code named  "Juniper Cobra," the maneuvers will be overseen by Adm. Mark Fitzgerald, chief of the U.S. Navy's Sixth Fleet and are designed to test the missile interceptors that would serve as a strategic bulwark in any future showdown with Iran.

2009: As part of The New School's "Jewish Text" seminar series David Stromberg will be reading from and discussing his newest book, Baddies.

2009(24th of Tishrei, 5770): Ninety-six year old Mildred Cohn who overcame gender and religious discrimination to make major advances in biochemistry and who received the nation's most prestigious award in science passed away today. (As reported by Matt Schudel)


 2010:Joshua Sobol is scheduled talk about his novel Cut Throat Dog at program sponsored byWesleyan University Jewish and Israel Studies program in Middleton.

2010:YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to present “Protocols of Justice: Inside the Rabbinical Court of Metz, France (1771-1789).”

2010:After six years of construction, the American Consulate in Jerusalem is scheduled to open its new facility for consular services on Rehov David Flusser in the southern Arnona neighborhood today.

2010:British Jewish author Howard Jacobson was the surprise winner of the Man Booker Prize today for The Finkler Question, the first comedy to scoop one of the English-speaking world's most coveted literary awards.

2010(4th of Cheshvan, 5771):Ninety-five year old best-selling author Belva Plain passed away today (As reported Elsa Dixler)


2010: The Guardian published Shabtai Rosenne: Eminent International lawyer, teacher and Israeli diplomat” by Malcom Shaw.


2011(14th of Tishrei, 5772): Erev Sukkoth

2011: Israeli cellist Inbal Segev is scheduled to perform at the Bulgarian Concert Evening in Carnegie Hall.

2011: David Frum, who had been “a commentator for American Public Media’s ‘Marketplace’ since 2007” made his final appearance today.

2011: Galid Shalit's parents, Noam and Aviva, arrived this evening in their home in Mitzpe Hila in northern Israel, after leaving the protest site they had been encamped at in Jerusalem. They were welcomed by dozens activists and neighbors. Also today a delegation from the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement, led by Khaled Meshaal, the chief of its political bureau, arrived in Cairo evening to finalize the prisoners swap deal with Israel.

2012: NFTY/HUC/AJA Teen Study Weekend is scheduled to begin in Cincinnati, Ohio.

2012: The US State Department confirmed today that it had attempted to renew peace talks between Jerusalem and Damascus in 2010, before the outbreak of violence in Syria. The information partially confirmed an article in today’s Yedioth Ahronoth that stated that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed in principle to withdraw from the Golan Heights during indirect talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad in 2010. (As reported by Yoel Goldman and Ron Friedman)

2012:Palestinian terrorists from the Gaza Strip fired a Grad rocket towards Netivot today, causing one civilian to suffer shock symptoms, according to the Negev Police. The rocket fell in the backyard of a house, causing light damage to the building. Shrapnel from the rocket also punctured a number of rooms in the house, including one belonging to a child living.

2013: In Jerusalem, the Ensemble Millennium is scheduled to perform “Night Music,” a concert that will include works by Mozart, Schubert, Liszt and Schoenberg.

2013: Today, actor Ben Feldman married Michelle Mulitz in Gaithersburg, MD.

2013: The Hyman S & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival is scheduled to present “American Savage: Insights, Slights and Fights on Faith, Sex, Love and Politics” featuring Dan Savage.

2013: Iran said it arrested three Israelis suspected of spying and attempting to recruit Iranian citizens to gather intelligence for Israel, Iranian news agency Mehr reported today.

2013: "The State should act forcefully to send a message to these people," said Monique Ofer, wife of retired IDF Colonel Seraya Ofer, 61, who was murdered in a terror attack outside his home in the northern Jordan Valley early yesterday. "He was an amazing man, and two bastards took his life," she said.  In a conversation with journalists on Saturday, Monique avoided giving details about the night of the attack as per the request of security forces, so as not to damage the investigation. "The Jordan Valley is one of the safest places according to statistics, the fewest terror acts, definitely in comparison to places like Jerusalem and Tel Aviv." (As reported by Ahiya Raved)

2014: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution by Jonathan Eig



2014: “Race: Are We So Different?” is scheduled to open at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center.

2014: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to host a new walking tour “Downtown Synagogues and D.C.’s Urban Evolution.”



2014: The Jewish Museum of London is scheduled to host “Zangwill’s Ghetto: An East End Story” which is a walking tour of the author’s childhood neighborhood held to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Zangwill’s birth.



2014: “The commander of the Jewish Legion, Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson, who died in 1947, was exhumed and his ashes brought to Israel, in a fulfillment of the Christian Zionist’s final wish to be buried in the Holy Land, the Prime Minister’s Office announced today.” (As reported by Marissa Newman)

2014: Onno Hoes completed his service as Chairman of the Dutch Center for Information Documentation Israel.



2014: “Israel was set today to tighten border controls on travelers from Western African countries, as part of larger efforts to prevent the Ebola virus from spreading into Israel.” (As reported by Marissa Newman)

2014: “Thousands of Israelis and Jews from around the world gathered in the Western Wall (Kotel) plaza this morning, for the traditional Birkat Hacohanim (Priestly Blessing) ceremony held on Sukkot (the Feast of the Tabernacles).





2014: In honor of Sukkoth, the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to host “Pita in the Hut.”



2015: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present the 2nd Annual Concert for Daniel Pearl: "Building Bridges: From Bene Beraq to Baghdad."



2015: In Leeds, Dr. Lorna Waddington is scheduled to lecture on “The History of the Myth of International Jewish Conspiracy.”

2016: Today, Michael Dell’s “Dell Inc. announced its intent to acquire the enterprise software and storage company EMC Corporation” – an acquisition thought to be worth a record setting 67 billion dollars.

2015: Professor David Shneer’s “The Romance and Tragedy of Yiddish Culture” is scheduled to begin today.

http://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/events/15/10/online-course-romance-and-tragedy-soviet-yiddish-culture



2016: In Memphis, TN, a part of the afternoon Yom Kippur observance, Temple Israel’s own Daniel Kiel, a law professor, is scheduled to moderate a discussion on “Building A More Just Memphis.”

2016(10th of Tishrei, 5777): The somberness of Yom Kippur took an even darker turn with the passing of 91 year old Civil Rights champion Jack Green who among other things was the head of the NAACP Legal Defense fund for almost a quarter of a century.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/13/us/jack-greenberg-dead.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0



2016(10th of Tishrei, 5777): Yom Kippur

G'mar Hatima Tova”



2016: “Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump claimed today that the Islamic State group would ‘take over’ the US if Hillary Clinton is elected president

2017(22nd of Tishrei, 5778): Shemini Atzeret & Yizkor; In the evening Simchat Torah celebration begins

2017: “Hamas has signed a reconciliation agreement with the Fatah party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in order that all Palestinian forces can “work together against the Zionist enterprise,” Saleh al-Arouri, the Hamas deputy political leader, said in Cairo today.

2017: In the evening, the University of Iowa Hillel is scheduled to host Simchat Torah services followed by a festive dinner

2017: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a buffet meal before holding Simchat Torah Services

2018: In Jerusalem, as part of the Young Artists of the Future Generation Concert series, the Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host a Piano Recital by Alon Petrrilin.

2018: In a testament to the vitality of “small town Judaism” in Cedar Rapids Joseph Heeren, the son Amy and Michael Heeren, pillars of the Jewish community, is scheduled to begin celebrating his Bar Mitzvah weekend this evening. 

2019(13th of Tishrei, 5780): Parahsat Ha’azinu; for more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/

2019: In Cotati, CA, Congregation Ner Shalom is scheduled to host the Cotati Cabaret featuring “the multi-media show called ‘Daniel Cainer’s Weird and Wonderful Jewish Midlife Crisis.’”

2019: It was reported today that in the wake of this week’s Yom Kippur synagogue shooting, that the President of Germany had said this was a time of “shame and disgrace” and Chancellor Merkle said that “antisemitism has no place in our country” and “that the state needed to use all available means to take action against hatred.

2019: Israelis and her supporters digest the view that “the abrupt withdrawal of U.S. troops from northeastern Syria and subsequent Turkish attacks on Kurdish fighters have badly rattled Israel’s national security experts, who decried President Trump’s action as a betrayal of loyal allies and evidence that Israel’s most vital supporter is a fickle friend at best.”




This Day, October 13, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin

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OCTOBER 13


54: Roman Emperor Claudius passed away.  For Jews, Claudius has to rate as one of the best of the Roman rulers. Among other things, he took the side of the Jews when they were attacked in Alexandria; he maintained a genuine friendship with Agrippa and allowed the Jews to elect their own high Priest while refraining from tampering with the Temple treasury.

54: Nero ascends to the Roman throne. Nero would appoint four increasingly incompetent and venal governors whose misrule would play a key role in the outbreak of the Great Revolt.  When the Jews did rebel, Nero appointed Vespasian to put down the revolt.

1307: In France, Phillip IV ordered the arrest of hundreds of Knights Templar on charges of heresy.  What Phillip was really after was control of the wealth of the Templars.  A year earlier, he had expelled the Jews from France after stripping them of their wealth.  Philip’s behavior is just one more example of greed hiding behind a façade of religious belief.

1398:Richard Whittington was elected Lord Mayor of London. Whittington was one of those who defied the ban on Jews living in England when it suited his purposes. He brought a physician named Samson de Mirabeau into the realm for care for his wife in 1409.  Whittington was in good company when it came to ignoring the ban since King Henry IV brought Elias Ben Sabbetai from Bologna to serve as his physician in 1410.

1483: Isaac Ben Judah Abravanel (also spelled Abarbanel) started his exegesis on the Bible. Born in Portugal 1437, Abravanel was one of the most colorful and interesting characters of the final decades of during which Jews lived in Spain and Portugal. He was part of a distinguished family and he was well educated in Jewish and secular studies.  Abravanel was a financier, tax collector and advisor to the King Alfonso of Portugal.  When Alfonso died, Abravanel had falling out with his successor.  It was at this time that Abravanel decided to give up his political duties and devote himself to writing commentaries.  For reasons that are too complex for this brief entry, Abravanel was forced to flee to Spain where he returned to his tax collecting duties.  He left Spain in 1492 and ended up in Naples where he ended up as financier and tax collector again.  He passed away in 1503 leaving behind a body of commentaries on the Torah and the Prophets. According to some authorities, his work is solid, but not original.  He is, however seen as being the last in a long line of Jewish commentators and philosophers who were part of the Sephardic culture that flourished from the 8thto the 15th centuries.

1513: Today, German born Catholic scholar Johann Reuchlin “begged” “Bonet de Lattes, a Jewish physician and astrologer…known chiefly as the inventor an astronomical ring-dial” and the father of two sons – Joseph and Immanuel --  “to use his influence in order that the examination of the Augenspiegelshould not be given into the hands of a commission made up of strangers…”

1534: Papacy of Paul III began. In response to the threat of the Protestant Reformation, Paul “established a system of tribunals, administered by the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Universal Inquisition’, and staffed by cardinals and other Church officials. This system would later become known as the Roman Inquisition.”  Unfortunately for the Jews, this iteration of the Inquisition also dealt with the “crimes” relating to Judaism including the attempts by Jews who had been forced to convert to return to the faith of their ancestors.

1605: Eighty-six year old French Protestant theologian Theodore Beza, the successor to John Calvin at Geneva and like Luther was a believer “that Christian churches were largely responsible for the current unbelief among the Jews and “that there would a large-scale conversion of the Jews” while still acknowledging “the Justice of divine anger the Jewish people” passed away today.

1639(Tishrei, 5400): Simcha Heller Kahana, the son pf of Yaakov Yosef Heller Kahana and Raizel Segal Kahana passed away today.

1654: (2nd of Heshvan 5415): On this date Isaac Rodriguez Cunha, a citizen of Curacao, writes a letter which is addressed “to the illustrious Gentlemen, the Mahamad of the Holy Congregation Mikvah Israel, Curacao.” This is one of the first written pieces of evidence used in fixing the dates for the founding of the Jewish community and the synagogue in Curacao. Mahamad is a term used for the “board of directors of a Spanish-Portuguese Congregation

1676: “Compositor, Josel (Joseph) Witzenhausen” was warned “not to compete with ‘the alderman Wilhelm Blau and the jurist Laurens Ball, the Christian partners of Uri Phoebus when it came to printing “a Judaeo-German Bible” in the Netherlands.

1753(15thof Tishrei, 5514): Sukkoth and Shabbat

1753: In Philadelphia, Mathias and Tabitha Bush gave birth to Solomon Bush who will rise to the rank of Lt. Colonel during the American Revolution.

1755: In Arnheim, a resolution was adopted that assigned the Jews “a lot of forty feet by one hundred” which was to be fenced in by them” to be use used as a cemetery.

1757: In Georgetown, SC, Dinah Comgile and Moses Cohen gave birth to Solomon Cohen, the seventh of their eleven children.

1759(22ndof Tishrei, 5520): Shemini Atzeret

1773: It was reported today that “a gentleman” who has “returned from the interior parts of North America, beyond the Ohio,” claims to have discovered “a nation of Jews” living among the Indians, “who call themselves Naphthali.” (Naphtali was the second son born to Jacob the concubine Bilhah)

1788: In Kremenetz, Judah Levin, a grandson of Jekuthiel Solomon and his wife gave birth to Isaac Baer Levinsohn a leader of the Haskalah movement

1789(23rdof Tishrei, 5550): Simchat Torah

1791 :( 15th of Tishrei, 5552): Sukkoth

1797(23rdof Tishrei, 5558): Simchat Torah

1796: Censorship of Jewish books in Russia became official policy.

1801: Birthdate of Emil Roediger the German orientalist and Hebrew linguist who edited books on Hebrew grammar.


1808(22ndof Tishrei, 5569): Shmini Atzeret

1815: Eliza and Lewis Solomon, the parents of Henry, Louis and Esther Solomon, were married today at the New Synagogue.

1816: In New York, Michael and Elizabeth Daly gave birth to Judge Charles Patrick Daly author of The Settlement of the Jews in North America.


1818: In London, Samson Beck and his wife gave birth to Philip Beck.

1818: Birthdate for Regina Kohen, the wife of Angelo Vivante, both of whom were buried in Trieste Jewish Cemetery.

1820: Birthdate of Sir John William Dawson the Canadian geologist who “traveled extensively in Egypt and Syria” and whose works included “Archaia” Studies on the Cosmogony and Natural History of the Hebrew Scriptures.

1821: Birthdate of Rudolf Virchow, the German biologist and anthropologist whose family may have at one time been Jewish and who studied the biological characteristics of thousands of Jewish schoolchildren as part of his attempt to “provide a rational for the sense of Jewish acculturation” even though “he still assumed that Jews were a separate and distinct racial category.”

1823: Francis Ephriam Cohen who would change his name to Francis Palgrave married Elizabeth Turner following his conversion to Anglican Christianity, a move that no doubt advanced his career as an historian and archivist.

1829(16thof Tishrei, 5590): Second Day of Sukkoth.

1839: Isaias and Elisabeth Popper gave birth to the firs child Simon Popper

1843: B'nai Brithwas founded under the leadership of Henry Jones at Sinsheimer's cafe on Essex Street in New York. Its original mission was the maintenance of orphanages and homes for the elderly and widows. It extended its work to many spheres of American Jewish life, including combating anti-Semitism. (A.D.L.) and working with students on campus (Hillel).

1844: An election was scheduled to be held today to choose the Orthodox Chief Rabbi of the British Empire.  The election was won by Dr. Nathan Marcus Adler who held the position from 1845 until his death in 1890.

1845: In Richmond, VA, Larkin White Glazebrook and America Henley Bullington gave birth to VMI graduate and Episcopal Bishop Otis Allan Glazebrook who served as American Counsel in Jerusalem during WW I where distributed relief funds to the Jews of Palestine for three years which earned him a ceremonial dinner of thanks organized by Henry Morgenthau, Felix Warburg, Jacob Schiff and Felix Elkus who “presented him with a sliver tea service as a symoble of the affection and esteem of the Jewish People of the United States.”

1846(23rdof Tishrei, 5607): Simchat Torah

1846: Birthdate of Hebrew poet and Yiddish author Isaac Rabinowitz the native of Kovno many of whose works can be found in Zemirot Yisrael and who passed away in the New York City where he went to join his children.

1847(3rdof Cheshvan, 5608):Rabbi Jizchok Arye, (Isaac Loew Matthes Wormser) also called the Wonder Rabbi Michel city and Baal Shem of Michel City passed away today.


1851: Three days after he had passed away, 61 year old  Solomon Lucas, a native of Kent and the husband of Elizabeth Lucas was buried today at the “Chatham Jewish Cemetery.”

1853: “Hebrew Ceremonial” published today reported that the Jews were absent from their businesses on New York City’s Chatham Street yesterday because they were observing the “Day of Atonement, which the Hebrew still duly celebrates though three thousand years have elapsed Moses delivered his Levitical command” concerning this Fast Day.  It is the “same statute” the Jews have observed “by the rivers of Poland, in the streets of York, in the valleys of the Aragon” or now “by the banks of the Hudson” river.

1858: Birthdate of Pauline Ehrlich, the second wife of Biblical commentator and scholar Arnold Ehrlich whose daughter Olga was born in 1881.

1862: In Manchester, Rabbi Gustav Gottheil and his wife gave birth Birthdate of RabbiRichard James Horatio Gottheil


1864: Henry Berg who had begun his service with Company G of the 108th Regiment in 1862 was wounded at Richmond as the Union Army besieged the Confederates.

1864: In Keokuk, Iowa, “Mr. Falk handed in his resignation as schochet for the congregation” and he was replaced by “Mr. Berman” after he sharpened his ritual knife to remove “all of the rough edges making it sharp and smooth”

1865(23rd of Tishrei, 5626): Simchat Torah

1867: In Syracuse, NY, David Stoltz and Regina Straus gave birth to Benjamin Stoltz the graduate of Columbia University Law School and husband of Rose Landsberg who was the director of the Hebrew Free Loan Association and a trustee of the Jewish Orphan Asylum Association of Western New York.

1871(28th of Tishrei, 5632): Fifty-eight year old Moses Millaud, French banker, businessman and founder of Le Petit Journal passed away today.  He was a supporter of Louis Napoleon (Emperor Napoleon) and was involved in some of the more infamous financial scandals of his time.

1871: In Vienna, Salomon Federn, “an important Viennese doctor who did pioneering work in blood” and Ernestine Spitzer, a member of a prominent Jewish merchant family gave birth to Paul Federn, he psychologist who was one of the early supporters of Sigmund Freud.


1873(22ndof Tishrei, 5634): Shemini Atzeret

1873: Today, the Hebrew Society of St. Joseph, MO, sent five hundred dollars to aid people in Memphis, TN caught in the grips of a Yellow Fever Epidemic.

1875(14thof Tishrei, 5636): Erev Sukkoth

1875: Two days after he had passed away, 51 year old Hyman Davis, the husband of Isabella Davis, with whom he had eight children, was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1875(14thof Tishrei, 5636): Sixty-four year old Judah Leib "Leopold" Löw, the Hungarian Rabbi who incorporated elements of modernity in his Orthodox world passed away Szeged where he had been leading the community since 1850 despite many offers to lead large communities including Bucharest.

1875: It was reported today that a survey expedition composed of English officers and soldiers was attacked by marauders at their camp at Ain el Beida in Palestine. The group was conducting a triangulation exercise in western Palestine, specifically the Galilee and most important of all Safed “one of the ‘Holy Cities’ of the Jews’…” According to the report, Lieutenant Kitchener was of the English officers who was involved in this minor skirmish. [History would come to know him as Lord Kitchener, who was involved in all of those 19th British Imperial Campaigns from Egypt, to Sudan, to Khartoum to South Africa. He played a critical role in Britain’s early war effort in WWI before being drowned while on his way to Russia.  But all of that began here, in Palestine, when a 24 year old lieutenant faced an armed enemy for the first time.]

1876: In New York, Clara Koffman and Joseph B. Bloomingdale gave birth to Rosalie Stanton Bloomingdale.

1877: It was reported today that New York State Supreme Court Judge Barrett has turned down the application of Rabbi Ash of the Ludlow Street Synagogue to be given the $200 that had belonged to the late Abraham Weisberg so that he could send it to a rabbi the Polish village where the descendant’s children live.  Under the law, Barrett said that a guardian for the minor children would have to appointed before he could take action. (This is an example of the myriad conflicts that arose from the fact that fathers and husbands came to the U.S. ahead of their families with the intent to bring them to America once they had earned enough to pay for passage.)

1878(16thof Tishrei, 5639): Second Day of Sukkot

1878(16thof Tishrei, 5639): Twenty three days before his 71st birthday Seligman Baer Bamberger who was serving as the rabbi of Wurzburg passed away today.

1878: “Lord Beaconsfield’s Policy” published today, claimed that Great Britain has shifted her foreign policy for the first time in over 135 years to one of annexation and aggressive imperialism.  This change is the result of Beaconsfield’s ability to dissemble and confuse the English people which is due, in part, to the fact that he is a Jew.

1880: Birthdate of Sasha Cherny, the pen name of Russian poet and satirist Alexander Mikhailovich Glikberg

1881: Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and friends decided to speak Hebrew exclusively, marking the beginning of the revival of the language in modern times.  Born Eliezer Perlman in Lithuania, Ben- Yehuda is proof that one person can make a difference.  As a youngster, a rabbi gave Ben-Yeuda a Hebrew translation of Robinson Crusoe.  That experience convinced him that Hebrew should be a modern, spoken language as well as a language of prayer.  He devoted the rest of his life to the idea of living in the land of Israel where Hebrew would be the spoken language.  He arrived in Jaffa with his bride in 1881 and he became associate editor of a Hebrew Language journal.  His task of creating a modern Hebrew language was not an easy one.  He was attacked both in print and physically by those who thought he was desecrating the holy tongue.  At the same time, he had to keep inventing words since much had happened since Hebrew was last an active language.  Life was a real challenge for his children.  It was difficult for them to have playmates since they were the only people who spoke Hebrew.  Ben-Yehuda did not give up his dream.  He lived to see Hebrew become one of the three official languages of Palestine under the Mandate after World War I.  Such was his success that by the time he died in 1922, a majority of the Jews in Palestine listed Hebrew as their native tongue on the census forms.

1884: “Two Love-Sick Ducks” published today described an altercation between a Jew and a Gentile who were competing for the affections of Jewish widow living in St. Mark’s Place. The two became so violent that they ended up in front of a Judge who agreed to release them “with the hope that Providence will improve the quality of your brains.

1884: Funeral services were held today for Rabbi Adoph Huebsch at Ahavath Chesed in New York City.  The overflow crowd included numerous Jewish leaders from across the United States the most prominent of whom was Rabbi Wise of Cincinnati, the leader of the Reform Movement in the United States. Rabbi Theodore Guenzberg, Huebsch’s assistant, led the worship service.  Temple Emanu-El’s Rabbi Gottehiel delivered a sermon in German.  Rabbi Jacob delivered the English language sermon.  Following the funeral services the rabbi was interred in Linden Hill Cemetery on Long Island. 

1885: Harry Hershfield who has been described as “the Jewish Will Rogers” was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa

1885:  The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), home of the Yellow Jackets, is founded in Atlanta, Georgia. Today, Tech’s undergraduate and graduate population of 19,000 includes approximately 600 Jewish students.  There are several Jewish organizations on campus including AEPi Fraternity, Hillel and Jackets for Israel which co-sponsors the annual Israel-fest.

1888: In “Kensington, London,” Clotilde and Herman Schiff gave birth to Mortimer Edward Harold Schiff, graduate of Cambridge, “managing clerk with Stepheson, Harwood and Co” who “joined the Inns of Court OTC in 1915” after which joined the Suffolk Regiment where he rose to the rank of Captain before being killed on the Western Front on September 25, 1917.

1888: At the insistence of his future wife, Otto Pierre Siegelstein married Mary Bubis at City Hall; a fact that he would later contest in his attempt to have the marriage annulled.

1891: As the famine in Russia worsens, it was reported that “the destitute Jews who have expelled from Kiev, Moscow and Odessa are swelling the ranks of the famished” populated primarily by Christian peasants.

1891: Three days after she had pass away, thirty year old Annie Gertrude (nee Earle) Newmann, the husband Isaiah Alfred Newmann with whom she had two children – “Percy and Winnie” – was buried today Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.

1892(22ndof Tishrei, 5653): Shemini Atzeret

1892: Isaac Issacs, the deposed Secretary of the League of Republicans who is Jewish said that the Jews would not accept an apology from Mr. Blake, the campaign manager for Major Warner, the Republican candidate for governor of Missouri. “The only thing that will conciliate the Jewish vote will be the removal of Mr. Blake.

1892: “A Republican Insult To Jews” published today described the problems facing William Warner, the Republican candidate for Governor of Missouri, following the denouement of Isaac Isaacs, the Secretary of the League of Republican Clubs and the “roasting” of the Jews  by his personal manager John T. Blake.


1893: Edward Everett Hale delivered an address at the Lake Mohonk Conference of Friends of the Indians in which “he spoke of the great success of Massachusetts in assimilating the Hebrew immigrants by breaking up their clannishness and scattering them among the American populations and asked why the same principle should not apply to the Indian.”

1893: The Hebrew Journal express praise for the opposition of the New York Times to an upcoming prize fight between and American and an English man which is supported by powerful interest in New York and Brooklyn.

1893: Congressman Rayner of Maryland gave a speech in the House of Representatives expressing his views on the Geary Chinese Registration and Exclusion Act which “closed with a fervid appeal…to not commit a great national crime, as gross and wicked as the treatment accorded by Russia to the unfortunate Jews in her dominion and against which our own Government had protested.”

1893: “Curious Coincidences” published today described recently discovered connections between Columbus and the Jewish people including evidence that “Hebrews were among the sailors that composed crews of the three vessels,” the role of Luis de Toress and the evidence produced by Dr. Moses of Kayserling of Budapest that Columbus set sail on the 9th day of Av and made landfall in the New World on the “Seventh Day of the Jewish Feast of Tabernacle, the da of the great Hosanas.”

1893: Because it is erev Shabbat, there will be a pause in the festivities marking the Golden Anniversary of the B’nai B’rith.

1893(3rdof Cheshvan, 5654): Eighty-one year old Major Raphael J. Moses, CSA the Confederate officer who “pioneered the commercial growing of peaches in “the Peachtree State” passed away today in Belgium after which he was buried at the Esquiline Cemetery in Columbus, GA.


1894: “A Bully’s Career Ends in Death” published today described the demise of Otto Slimbach a Brooklyn bully who on the night he was mortally stabbed by an unknown party had beaten his mother and gone through the Jewish neighborhood indulging “in Jew-baiting for his further amusement.”

1894: In New York, Police Inspector Williams began an investigation into charges that the police had beaten the striking cloakmakers many of whom were Jewish including Israel Groman.

1894: Alfred Dreyfus is arrested by Commandant du Paty de Clam, an assistant to the Army Chief of Staff and charged with treason.  Dreyfus was left alone with a pistol, having been encouraged to do “the honorable thing.”  When Dreyfus refused he was marched off to prison where he would be kept in solitary confinement for the next five days.

1895(25thof Tishrei, 5656): Seventy-seven year old Jacob Reifrman the native of Opatow who wrote Hebrew poetry and was the son-in-law of Joseph Maimon passed away today.

1898:The Zionist Delegation including Joseph Seidener, Moses T. Schnirer, Theodor Herzl, David Wolffsohn and Max Bodenheimer takes the Orient Express to Constantinople as they pursue Herzl’s dream of top-down Zionism.

1899: Two days after he had passed away, 82 year old Abraham Hyams was buried today in the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery in London.”

1900: Birthdate of Gerald Marks, the Saginaw, Michigan native best known as the composer of the hit “All of Me.”



1900: Birthdate of New Yorker Ida Klein Clurman, the husband of Sam Clurman whom she married in 1921.

1903(22nd of Tishrei, 5664): Shemini Atzeret

1903: In Brooklyn, Abraham Isaac Shiplacoff and Yetta Ettel Itta Shiplacoff” gave birth to William Morris Shipley

1903(22nd of Tishrei, 5664): Dr. Marcus M. Jastrow a noted Hebrew scholar and educator who was  rabbi emeritus of Rodef Shalom, a synagogue in Philadelphia, PA, passed away today at his home in Germantown, PA.  Born in Pozen in 1829 he graduated from the University of Berlin.  He came to the United States in 1866 and became the Rabbi at Rodef Shalom, a position he held until his retirement in 1892.  His major literary work was “A Dictionary of the Targumim, Talmud Babli, Talmud Yerushalmi and Midrashic Literature.”


1904: Birthdate of Isidore Grünbaum one of the last Jewish inhabitants of Kleinsteinach who in 1942 was deported to either Izbica or Theresienstadt.

1904: Today, “a small group of men organized Emanu-El Congregation of Borough Park who members who included Max Baron, Simon Frank, Isaac Ipp, Max Perlman, Louis Levy and Philip Abrahams

1905(14th of Tishrei, 5666): Erev Sukkoth

1905: “According to the regulations in force among Orthodox Jews, marriages may not be solemnized” today, the “day preceding the Feast of Tabernacles.”

1905(14th of Tishrei, 5666): Sixty-seven year old Sir Henry Irving the British actor manager whose first great career success came with his portrayal of Mathias in “The Bells” (an adaptation of “Le Juif Polonais” and whose portrayal of Shylock provided him with a dignity not usually seen in other actors, passed away today.

1905: Birthdate of Alice Vantochová the residence of Prague was murder at Ujazdow in 1942

1909: In Chicago, Theresa Lupe Block and David Julian Block, a Jewish chemist and electrical engineer gave to Herbert Lawrence Block,  the Pulitzer Prize winning political cartoonist who gained fame as Herblock and set the standard by which all practice this genre are evaluated.



1910(10th of Tishrei, 5671): Yom Kippur

1910: As of this date, Joseph Shongut, the Coroner was shown to be

1911: Following the outbreak of war between Turkey and Italy, “fourth thousand Italian subjects, nearly all of whom were Jews” began leaving Salonica because they feared expulsion by the Ottomans

1911: Multiple telegrams were received in London from Malta, Gabes and Djerba, appealing for help for the many thousands of Jewish refugees from Tripoli.

1912: Birthdate of Hugo David Weisgall, the Moravian born American composer and conductor “who served as aid-de-camp to General Patton” during WW II.


1912: Ludwig Teller, the son of Isak and Anna Teller, who was married twice and was the father of three children, was buried today in his home town of Vienna.

1912: In Philadelphia, PA, Max and Olga Hirsh gave birth to “photographer and filmmaker” Hyman “Hy” Hirsch.


1912: Israel Abrahams, a Reader in Rabbinics at the University of Cambridge and a leader of the UK’s liberal Jewish movement addressed a meeting held in his honor at New York’s Astor Hotel.  Dr. Henry M. Leipziger, President of Judeans, presided over the meeting and introduced Mr. Abrahams.  Among the other speakers were Rabbi Joseph Silverman of Temple Emanu-El and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of the Free Synagogue.  Oscar S. Straus, Progressive Party candidate for Governor of New York, who was to have delivered an address, sent a message expressing his regrets at having been unavoidably detained. Abrahams spoke about a favorite topic of the time “The Jewish Problem.”  In a unique twist, Abrahams defined it as “The eternal question of living two lives harmoniously.”


1913: According to legend, German-Jewish philosopher Franz Rosenzwieg attended Yom Kippur services for what he thought would be his last visit to a Jewish house of worship before converting to Christianity.  “But that prayer service moved him so profoundly that he gave up the idea of converting and became a committed Jewish philosopher, who saw his religion as preferable to Christianity.

1913: One day after she had passed away, sixty-five year old Russian-born Annie Summ, the wife of Joseph Summ with whom she had three children – “Tilly, Alexander and Samuel” – was buried today in the “Belfast Jewish Cemetery in Northern Ireland.”

1914(23rd of Tishrei, 5675): Simchat Torah

1914(23rd of Tishrei 5675): 50 year old Mrs. Rose Baruch Streng, the wife of Bernard Streng, a native of Landau, Germany passed away at her home on West 143rd Street in New York.

1914(23rd of Tishrei, 5675): Abram Scholomir, the son of Jakob Scholmir passed away today.

1914: “Russian Treaty Approved” published today described the decision of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations to approve a peace treaty with Russia which might be a prelude to the signing of new treaty of commerce “to take the place of the treaty of 1832 abrogated by the United States because of Russia’s treatment of American Jews.”


1914: “Foreign Legion Of Jews published today provides Israel Zangwill’s view that Jews support the Allies over the cause of the Kaiser as can be seen by the number of Jews who have tried to enlist in the Jewish Territorial Organization which is a Zionist organization under the misconception that it is part of the British Army – proof that “it would be easy to form a foreign legion of Jews grateful for Britain’s sympathy” as can already be seen by the thousands of Jews already serving in the military.

1914: “15 Poisoned at Feast” published today described the unfortunate events at the Sukkoth Meal eaten by the large family of Samuel Horowitz where several of the attendees came down with ptomaine poisoning after having eaten some tainted fish.

1914: Judge Leon Sanders, the President of the Hebrew Shelter and Immigrant Aid Society, has organized “a special Relief Committee for the Jewish suffers in all of the nations at war, following an appeal sent to the Austro-Hungarian Legation in New York by Jews in Austria.

1915: A famous Russian Revolutionary who has recently returned to European Russia from Siberia was reported today to have said he regretted that the “abolition of restrictions endured by the Jews had not been removed a year ago” because “it might have save millions of Russian lives.”

1915: “A dispatch from Petrograd published today in The Daily Telegraph in London said that “Alexander Volzsin who “is credit with the initiator of the recently adopted statute extending residential rights to Jews” has been appointed “the new Procurator-General of the Holy Synod.”

1916: It was reported today that former New York State Assemblyman Aaron J. Levy had told a Columbus Day gathering that “he lived in expectation of the time when there be a more wholesome respect in the heart of every man for the religion of his fellow man.”

1916: “Dr. Magnes Reaches Warsaw” published today described the arrival of the Brooklyn born rabbi in the Polish capital city where he will be distributing money raised by American Jews to aid Jews suffering from the war.

1917: “In order to relieve the destitution of hundreds of Jews who are stranded in Yokohama, the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society announced” today that “it has forwarded to B.J. Fleisher, publisher of the Japan Advertiser of Yokohama , $3,000 with which to lease a suitable building for an immigrant station and that it will shortly send to the Far East a representative to superintend the caring for those in need” many of whom are Russian Jews who are trapped there because of the war.

1918: Today, “after being on duty continuously for thirty-six hours” Corporal Louis Sorrow with Company B, 307th Field Signal Battalion, “volunteered to repair telephone lines which had been cut by shell fire” and after working all night repairing breaks to the line made it possible for “constant communication” to be resumed with forward regiments.

1918: “Dies of Influenza” published today recounted the accomplishments of Reverend Madison Clinton Peters who in addition to his work as a minister, social reformer and advocate for defeating the Kaiser in the World War wrote several books including Justice to the Jews, The Wit and Wisdom of the Talmud, The Jews as a Patriot and The Jews Who Stood By Washington.

1920: In Berlin chess champion Mimi (née Heller) and psychiatrist Harry Marcuse gave birth to Albert Marcuse who was raised as a Lutheran because “his family considered their Jewish heritage a liability” and who gained fame as American composer and actor Albert Hague.

1920: The Bazaar and Fair sponsored by the Kane Street Temple in Brooklyn continued for a second day.

1921: “In San Salvador, Argentina, north of Buenos Aires”, Russian immigrant, small store owner and horse herder Mauricio Minuchin and “the former Clara Tolachier gave birth to Dr. Salvador Minuchin, a cutting-edge American psychotherapist. (As reported by Sam Roberts)


1922(21st of Tishrei, 5683): Hoshana Rabah

1922: “Sodom and Gomorrah” an “epic film” directed by Michael Curtiz who also wrote the script was released in Austria today.

1922: “According to a German police report written today: "The fact cannot be denied that the anti-Semitic idea has penetrated the widest levels of the middle class, even far into the working class. It is clear that this movement [the NSDAP]...is gaining increasing ground and that it has a future."

1924(15th of Tishrei, 5685): Sukkoth

1925: Birthdate of Leonard Alfred Schneider who gained fame as Lenny Bruch a controversial comedian and satirist.

1925: Birthdate of Brooklynite film editor Ralph Rosenblum.


1926: In Chicago, Russian-Jewish immigrants Louis Stein, “a jewelry designer” and Zelda (Sam) Stein gave birth to Solomon Stein the author and playwright who helped to fashion the essays of his boyhood friend James Baldwin into Notes of a Native Son. (As reported by Sam Roberts)


1927: “In Chicago, Illinois, Hungarian born Jewess Rosika Schwimmer, an internationally known feminist, author, and lecturer, is denied American citizenship by Federal Judge George Albert Carpenter because she is a pacifist.”


1927: Birthdate of Lee Konitz, the native of Chicago who became one of the leading “Jazz-men” of the 20th century.


1928(29thof Tishrei, 5689): Seventy year old German Jewish otolaryngologist Wilhelm Fliess passed away today


1929(9thof Tishrei, 5690): Erev Yom Kippur

1929: In Manhattan, Joseph and Sylvia Slifka gave birth to twins – Barabara and Alan Bruce Slifka, “a New York investment manager who used his fortune to promote harmony among Israeli Arabs and Jews and to give the Big Apple Circus its start.” (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)

1930: “Darling of the Gods” “a German music written by Robert Lieberman “premiered at the Gloria-Palast in Berlin” today.

1930: In New York City, Dorothy (Friedlander) and General Sessions Judge Abraham N. Geller gave birth to Yale trained television script writer and producer Bruce Geller best known for his work on the western series “Rawhide” and the longer running “Mission Impossible.”

1933(23rdof Tishrei, 5694): Simchat Torah observed for the first time during the Presidency of Franklin Roosevelt.

1935: “Barbary Coast” produced by Samuel Goldwyn, written by Ben Hecht, co-starring Edward G. Robinson and with music by Alfred Newman was released today in the United States by United Artists.

1936: Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau (FDR’s Jewish neighbor at Hyde Park)  pointed out that “the tripartite agreement between the United States, France and Great Britain published” today which was designed to promote the stabilizing of the three nations’ currencies and foreign exchanges” could “on twenty-four hours’ notice be revoked or altered” which an observer might have quickly deduced meant that problem of currency stability that had been a cause and result of the Great Depression has not been addressed.

1937: Birthdate of Parisian actor Samuel “Sami” Frei whose movie career began in 1960 with an appearance “The Truth.

1937:The Palestine Post reported that a slight earth tremor was felt in Jerusalem. It lasted about a second, and caused in some cases a definite sway of upper stories of buildings. There were sporadic Arab attacks, accompanied by heavy firing, at Hadera, Safed and on Kibbutz Gordonia. A curfew was imposed on Safed. Robbers operated in the no-man's-land between the Palestinian and Lebanese French border posts at Nakura. The attackers were protected by other well-armed men in surrounding area.

1938:Hans and Lotte Liebermann boarded a ship today and left Germany for the United States where their son Hans had found refuge in June of 1938.


1938: German mathematician Fritz Noether who had immigrated to the Soviet Union after the Nazis came to power and destroyed his career and had been convicted of being a Nazi spy in a trial where the charges were based on “trumped up evidence” was sentenced to twenty five years in prison today by the Soviets who had originally welcomed him with open arms.

1939: Chaim Kaplan, the director of a Hebrew School in Warsaw, described the Jewish reactions to the Soviet occupation of Poland with the following diary entry: “The Jews there looked upon the Bolsheviks as redeeming messiahs.  Even the wealthy, who would become poor under Bolshevism, preferred the Russians to the Germans.  There is plunder on the one hand and plunder on the other, but the Russians plunder one as a citizen and a man, while the Nazis plunder one as a Jew.  The former Polish government never spoiled us, but at the same time never overtly singled us out for torture.  The Nazi is a sadist, however.  His hatred of the Jews is psychosis.  He flogs and derives pleasure from it.  The torment of the victim is a balm to his soul, especially if the victim is a Jew.

1939: New York premiere of “Babes In Arms,” a musical produced by Arthur Freed with songs by Richard Rogers, Lorenz Hart, Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg.

1939: NBC radio made its first attempt to cancel The Guiding Light, a soap opera created by Irna Phillips.

1939: In “the Nazi Amtsleiter in Łódź appointed Chaim Rumkowski the Judenälteste ("Chief Elder of the Jews"), head of the Ältestenrat ("Council of Elders").

1940: Jews from Warsaw's suburbs were ordered into the Warsaw Ghetto.

1940: On his 55th birthday, humorist Harry Hershfield, the Cedar Rapids, IA native, in making a reference to the inclusive of American society  was quoted as saying, “The is the only country in the world where they would allow Columbus Day to fall on Yom Kippur.” 

1940: “In a plea for tolerance” the leader of the Knights of Columbus in New York was quoted as having taken notice of the fact that this year Columbus Day and Yom Kippur were celebrated on the same day this year.

1940: Having been snuck across the border between Nazi-occupied France and Spain by American diplomat Varian Fry, Franz Werfel and his wife, Anna Mahler, arrived in New York on ship that had sailed from Lisbon.

1941(22ndof Tishrei, 5702): Shemini Atzeret

1941: “Odilo Globocnik, SS and Police Leader of Lublin, is ordered by Heinrich Himmler to begin constructing the Belzec extermination camp and launch a program to Germanize the region.”

1942: In Newark, NJ, Louis Simon “a college professor, upright bass player, and dance bandleader who performed under the name "Lee Sims" and his wife Belle, “an elementary school teacher” gave birth to America’s troubadour, Paul Simon.


1942: It was reported today that “Len Levy, the former star for the University of Minnesota will be playing right guard when the Great Lakes Bluejackets” square off against the University of Wisconsin Badgers at Soldiers Field in Chicago.

1943: One hundredth anniversary of the founding of B’nai B’rith

1943: A revolt took place in Camp Number I at Sobibor.  Alexander Pechersky distributed knives and hatchets to other prisoners. Nine SS and two Ukrainians were killed in the fighting. Three hundred of the prisoners from Camp Number I' escaped. The other 300 would be killed. However, as a result of this revolt, Sobibor ended its operation.

1944: In San Francisco, “Edward and Dorian (Goldman) Goldstein, both of whom were jewelers” gave birth cultural “impresario” Sydney Goldstein. (As reported by Katharine Q. Seelye)




1944: Hans-Jürgen Graf von Blumenthal “a German aristocrat and army officer” who began working with the anti-Hitler resistance in 1942 was executed today for his part in the plot to assassinate Hitler.

1944: The Soviet Troops entered Riga. Only a handful of Jews had survived in city where there were 30,000 Jews just ten years earlier.

1944: “The special People’s Court sentenced “Hans Neumann, Leo Drabant, his wife along with eight other resistance members” “to death because they had ‘attempted to destroy the resistance of the German People…”

1945 (6th of Cheshvan, 5706):  On Shabbat, Leon Recanati, Sephardic leader of Palestine and formerly of Salonika passed away. Recanati was a "happy admixture of a learned Jew with his Biblical wisdom on the one hand and a man of affairs with a sense of reality on the other."

1945: “Star in the Night” which marked the directorial debut of Don Siegel, with a script by Saul Elkins and which “won an Academy Award in 1946 for Best Short Subject” was released in the United States today.

1946: “Three masked gunmen” believed to members of the Irgun “escaped with $12,000 after a daring daylight robbery in down town Tel Aviv.

1946: Members of Hashomir Hatzair (Young Guard), a left-wing Zionist organization, “distributed pamphlets in Tel Aviv calling on the Jewish community in Palestine to take ‘active measures’ against Jewish terrorist organizations.”

1948(10th of Tishrei, 5709) Yom Kippur

1948: An Israeli army unit held Yom Kippur services on Mt. Zion, right outside the [then] sealed Zion's Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem. There they blew the Shofar, the closest place to the Western Wall they could get.

1948: U.N. “observers reported that the Arabs had fired with automatic weapons ‘for several hours, from an area under UN supervision, and with any provocation by Jewish Forces.’”

1949: Birthdate of Marc Mandel, the son of a New York taxi driver who was nicknamed “Babaloo” by his “longer-time writing partner Lowell Ganz.”

1949: Having been confirmed by the United States Senate yesterday to serve as on Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Illinois, Casper Platt received his commission today.

1950: U.S. premiere of “All About Eve,” a drama written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz with music by Alfred Newman.

1950: Birthdate of Montreal native and Canadian Conservative Party Leader Hugh Segal who left politics to serve as “Master of Massey College in the University of Toronto.”

1950: “Harvey” a film version of the Broadway comedy directed by Henry Koster (Hermann Kosterlitz) was released in the United States today.

1952(24th of Tishrei, 5713):Samuel Bortzell, the native of Russia who moved to Sydney before World War I, enlisted with the ANZACs in 1915 and served at Gallipoli and on the Western Front before being discharged in September of 1918 passed away today leaving behind a his second wife Zena Ardon and his daughter Reva whose mother Eileen Harwood had passed away in 1931.

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the cabinet had appointed a seven-member Board of Directors of the German Reparations Purchasing Company. The board was responsible, through Foreign Minister Levi Eshkol, to a five-man ministerial committee which was aided by a 13-member Planning Committee and an Advisory Council of 25 members. You might recognize the name of Levi Eshkol.  He would be Prime Minister in June of 1967 when Israel defended itself against its Arab neighbors and reunited the city of Jerusalem

1953(4th of Cheshvan, 5714): “Arab terrorists called Fedayeen, infiltrate into the Israeli village of Yahud and kill Suzanne Kinyas and two of her children (the youngest of which was only 18 months old) in their sleep bringing the toll of Israeli civilian victims to 124.

1954(16thof Tishrei, 5715): Second Day of Sukkoth

1954(16thof Tishrei, 5715): Sixty-nine year old Viennese born soprano and music teacher Emily (Emilie) Heim who found ultimate refuge from European anti-Semitism in Canada passed away today in Toronto.


1954: “A 60-minute adaptation of “The Man Who Came to Dinner” by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart was aired today on the CBS Television series The Best of Broadway

1955: Premiere of “Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter” written by George Axelrod, whose father was Jewish.

1955: “The Pajama Game,” the Richard Adler and Jerry Ross musical opened in London, UK today for the first of 588 performances.

1957(18thof Tishrei, 5718): Sukkoth IV

1957: CBS television broadcast the final episode of “You Are There” a half-hour program of historical re-enactments created by Goodman Ace that included appearances by Paul Newman and Martin Gable.

1957(18thof Tishrei, 5718): Sixty-four year old literary critic and philologist Erich Auberbach passed away today.


1958(29thof Tishrei, 5719): Seventy-year old Lithuanian born Joseph Katz who in 1891 came to the United States where he served as the director of the Hebrew Home for the Aged in Baltimore, passed away to.

1959: CBS television broadcast a live version “The Jazz Singer” with Jerry Lewis starring the “Al Jolson” role and featuring Molly Picon and Alan Reed.

1960(22ndof Tishrei, 5721): Shemini Atzeret

1960: Birthdate of Ari Fleischer, former Press Secretary for President Bush

1960: In the seventh game of the World Series, as future hall of famer Bill Mazeroski rounded first base after having hit the series winning home run, he runs past first base coach, Lenny Levy, the Pittsburgh native who spent most of his life serving in some capacity with the Pirates organization.



1961(3rd of Cheshvan, 5722): Sixty-six year old Hungarian born “screenwriter, director and producer” Zoltan Korda  part of the trio of Korda brothers (the other two being Alexander and Vincent ) whose works include the anti-war “The Four Feathers” and the WW II classic “Sahara” passed away today. (Editor’s note – these three brothers are fascinating, worthy of at least one of those big biographies as well as one or more epic film like the ones they used to make.)

1961(3rd of Cheshvan, 5722): Sixty-nine year old Cincinnati, OH, native Carl J. Fechheimer, the Purdue trained engineer who settled in Milwaukee the husband of Carla Wilhemine Rich Fechheimer who left “a $150,000 bequest…to establish a chair in electrical engineering at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology” passed away today.

1962(15th of Tishrei, 5723): Sukkoth

1967(9th of Tishrei, 5728): Erev Yom Kippur

1968: B’nai B’rith celebrates its 125th anniversary

1968: “A Birthday Today For B’nai B’rith” published today traces the history and contributions of the Jewish fraternal organization from its inception during the Presidency of John Tyler to the middle of the twentieth century.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F10B1FF9355B14728FDDAA0994D8415B888AF1D3

1969: Episode 5 of My World…and Welcome to it created by Melville Shavelson and co-starring Harold J. Stone was broadcast today.

1971(24th of Tishrei, 5732): Fifty-seven Phoebe Ephron, part of a noted artistic family passed away today in New York City.

http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2012/06/28/nora-ephron%E2%80%99s-potato-chip-legacy/

http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/ephron-phoebe

1971: Birthdate Sacha Baron Cohen, the British born comedian who first gained fame portraying his highly successful comedy character Ali G.

1973: Jordan entered the Yom Kippur War.  Thinking that initial Arab victories would spell the demise of Israel, King Hussein thought he would get back the West Bank and east Jerusalem.  In the end he lost again and ended up having to surrender his claims to these lands to the PLO.

1973: During the Yom Kippur War, Egyptian reinforcements continued to cross the Suez Canal and began attacking Israeli forces. 

1973:  Israeli forces confronted large numbers of Iraqi tanks both on the road to Damascus and on the Golan Heights.  In both battles, Israeli forces destroyed considerable number of the Iraqi tanks while sustaining minimal losses.  Israeli aircraft refrained from shooting down the Soviet transports that were landing at Damascus.  However, Israeli forces did destroy at least two Soviet craft once they had landed sparking threats from Moscow. 

1973:  After much hesitation and despite opposition from America’s Western Allies, President Nixon ordered a massive airlift of supplies for the IDF.  The material helped offset the tons of modern weaponry being shipped into the region by the Russians.  Many Jews shifted their allegiance to Nixon and the Republicans based on the airlift.  However, they seemed to have forgotten that if the Nixon administration had not kept the Israelis from conducting a pre-emptive strike against the Egyptians before they crossed the Canal, none of this would have been necessary in the first place.

1973: Avraham Lanir was scrambled for a reconnaissance mission deep in Syrian territory. During his return to Israel, Lanir was caught in a missile ambush and his Mirage was hit in the rear, forcing him to eject. The wind carried the parachuting pilot back over the border into Syrian territory and he landed in the area of Mazra'at Beit Jinn. Israeli Armor Corps soldiers witnessed him land and attempted to rescue him, but he was captured by a Syrian jeep patrol that reached him first. Lt. Col.  Lanir was tortured to death by his Syrian captors. His body was finally returned by the Syrians in 1974. “Former Israel Air Force Commander Mordechai Hod noted that Lanir had information that would have placed the existence of Israel at risk had he revealed it to the Syrians.”

1973:Ady Bnaya and David Ya'ir made it back safely to Israeli lines after their F-4E Phantom Jet was shot down by Syrian anti-aircraft fire.

1973: Iftach Zemer and Itzhak Amitai returned safely to Israeli lines when they were forced to eject from their F-4E Phantom Jet after it suffered a technical malfunction.

1973: After his Phantom F-4E Jet fell victim to “friendly fire,” Uri Bakal safely ejected and made it back to Israeli lines.

1974(27thof Tishrei, 5735): Eighty-year old Romanian born Israeli artist Reuven Rubin who returned to his native land to serve as Israel’s first ambassador passed away today.


1974: Seventy-two year old Austrian conductor Josef Krips, whose father was Jewish which meant he had to leave his native land to pursue his career while the Nazis were in power, passed away today.

1976: In Livingston, NJ, “Mike and Sandi Friedman” gave birth to Duke University left guard “Leonard Lebrecht Friedman” whose pro career included stops with the Broncos, Redskins, Bears and Bears.





1977:The Jerusalem Postreported that US President Jimmy Carter welcomed the Israeli cabinet's approval of a "working paper" on procedures for reconvening of the Geneva Middle East peace conference.

1977: Four Palestinians hijacked a Lufthansa Airlines flight to Somalia and demand release of 11 members of the Red Army Faction. Yes, twenty-five years ago, terrorists were interconnected, often sharing resources, training facilities and killing assignments.

1975: As the Russians worked to increase their influence in the Middle East, Soviet President Zhivkov began a visit to Tunisia.

1979(22ndof Tishrei, 5740): Shemini Atzeret combines with Shabbat

1980: Eric Levin examined the reasons for the longevity of 67 year old Garson Kanin’s marriage.



1985(4thof Cheshvan, 5646): Eighty-four year old Sidney R. Rabb, the Boston born third generation philanthropist and grocery store chain executive passed away today.         







1986:Rita Levi-Montalcini’s pioneering work on nerve growth earned her the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Born in Turin, in northwestern Italy, on April 22, 1909, Levi-Montalcini had begun her research on nerve cells at the University of Turin. Banned from the university in a purge of Jews in 1938, and then forced to hide during the Nazi occupation of Italy, she immigrated to the United States and joined the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri in 1946. Levi-Montalcini went to St. Louis at the invitation of embryologist Viktor Hamburger; his support helped her to continue her work at a time when very few women worked in basic science research. It was at Washington University, in 1951, that Levi-Montalcini first hypothesized the existence of the nerve growth factor. Between 1953 and 1959, she worked with collaborator Stanley Cohen to identify nerve growth factor as a protein. For this work, Levi-Montalcini and Cohen shared the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Their work had significant effects on cancer research, and has also been important in work on Parkinson’s disease. Levi-Montalcini retired from Washington University in 1977. Beginning in the 1960s, she also held an appointment at the National Laboratory for Cell Biology in Rome. After the Nobel Prize, Levi-Montalcini won many other honors. In 1986, she and Cohen were awarded the Albert Lasker Medical Research Award. The following year, she received the National Medal of Science, America’s highest scientific award. She also became the first woman ever named to membership in the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in Rome. (As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archive)



1987(20th of Tishrei, 5748): Sixth day of Sukkoth



1987(20th of Tishrei, 5748): Ninety-seven year old Albert Lorch “Al” Loeb who played center from 1910 through 1913 for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets where he was known as the Yiddish Wildcat passed away today.



1988(2nd of Cheshvan, 5749): Seventy-five year old Melvin Frank who wrote the screenplay for one of my favorite movies “Mrs. Blandings Builds His Dream House” passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/15/obituaries/melvin-frank-producer-director-and-writer-of-movies-dies-at-75.html

1989: “Look Who’s Talking” a comedy-fantasy directed by Amy Heckerling and featuring George Segal and Abe Vigoda was released today in the United States by Tri-Star Pictures.

1989: Israeli soldiers killed an 18-year-old Palestinian in a West Bank village, Qalqilya, after they were attacked by masked youths.

1989: “Crimes and Misdemeanors” directed and written by Woody Allen co-starring Martin Landau as “Judah Rosenthal” and Claire Bloom as “Miriam Rosenthal” was released in the United States by  Orion Pictures.

1990: Syria invaded Lebanon killing over 500.  There was no noticeable protest from Arab states or the U.N.

1990(24thof Tishrei, 5751): Eighty-five year old German-born Dutch mathematician Hans Freudenthal who survived the Holocaust thanks to his wife who was a non-Jews passed away today.


1991: “At the Hewlett-East Rockaway Jewish Center in East Rockaway, LI” Rabbis Stanley Platek and Abraham Kelman officiated the marriage of Amy Beth Spector and Steven A. Adler.

1992: Charlotte “Pomerantz's story ‘The Piggy In The Puddle’ was featured today on Reading Rainbow, where it was retold using a claymation process

1993: 150thanniversary of the founding of B’nai B’rith.

1993: U.S. Premiere of the Notre Dame football film “Rudy” co-starring Jon Favreau with music by Jerry Goldsmith

1993: Anthony Paul Lester, the Baron Lester of Herne Hill began serving as a Lord Temporal.20

1994: Fifty thousand Jews gathered at the Wailing Wall to pray for the life of Nachshon Wachsman, a nineteen year old Israeli soldier who had been kidnapped by Hamas.

1995(19th of Tishrei, 5756): Fifth Day of Sukkoth

1995(19thof Tishrei, 5756): Eighty year old Rena Galibova who is buried in Mt. Carmel Cemetery passed away today.

1995(19th of Tishrei, 5756): Eighty-nine year old Henry Roth, author of Call It Sleeppassed away. Born in 1906, Roth was ignored for most of his career and was reduced to holding a variety of jobs since he could not support himself as a writer.  Later in life, he enjoyed a re-birth of interest which continued for at least a decade after his death. (As reported by Richard Nicholls)


1996: After 196 performances at the Shubert Theatre the curtain came down n “Big, the musical” which featured the music of David Shire.

1997:  Syria Invaded Lebanon again.  Actually, Syrian troops had occupied parts of Lebanon since 1977.  Lebanon is more like a satellite of Syria, than a truly independent nation.  The late President Assad had a vision of ruling Greater Syria – nation that would include Syria, parts of Jordan, Lebanon and Israel.

1997: In “A Shrine to Books Past Clings to Independence” Dinitia Smith described the history and status of The Argosy Book Store which is operated by Ruth Shevin Cohen, the 90 year old widow of the founder Louis Cohen and their three daughters – Judith Lowry, Naomi Hample and Adina Cohen.


1998(23rdof Tishrei, 5759): Simchat Torah

1999: U.S. premiere of “The Story of Us” directed, produced and written by Rob Reiner.

2002: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of special interest to Jews includingThe Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, by Steven Pinker, Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball by Scott Simon and Rereading Sex: Battle Over Sexual Knowledge and Suppression in Nineteenth-Century American by Helen Lefkowitz

2004(28th of Tishrei, 5765): In London, Bernice Rubens passed away at the age of 76.  The prolific British novelist drew on her Jewish upbringing to tell stories of vice and grimness with warmth and humor.  “She won Britain’s’ prestigious Booker Prize for fiction in 1970 for The Elected Member, the story of a Jewish family whose secrets drive one son insane.”

2005(10th of Tishrei, 5766): Yom Kippur is observed by Jews all over the world.

2006(21st of Tishrei, 5767): Hoshana Rabah

2006: “Stage Killing: Solving an Attempted Murder” published today provides Faith Jones account of the love triangle surrounding David Levinson, Morris Finkel and Yiddish theatre star Emma Thomashefsky Finkel.


2006(21st of Tishrei, 5767): Ninety-two year old Newburyport, MA native Hilda Terry, one of the first female cartoonist and creator of “Teena” which ran for over almost a quarter of a century starting in 1941 passed away,


2006: Six days after she had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held for portrait artist Rosalind Weinman the Portland, Maine born daughter of Ana and Nathan Weinamn who was also coauthor of the children's book Nate the Great and the Pillowcase, part of a series named for her father Nathan…” and then novel A Visit with Rosalind followed by burial at Mt. Sinai Cemetery.

2006: The End, Lemony Snicket’s final novel is scheduled to come out today.

2006: Daniel Handler, who wrote under the penname Lemony Snicket “appeared on the Today show today “as Lemony Snicket's representative.”

2007: Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan, 5768(Second Day) – First of Cheshvan

2007: Yaakov Katz the military correspondent and defense analyst for The Jerusalem Post, the Middle East's leading English daily speaks at Agudas Achim in Iowa City, IA.

2007:Haaretz reported that in Lakewood, New Jersey, a man wielding an aluminum baseball bat attacked an Orthodox Jewish rabbi walking to synagogue critically injuring the 53-year-old man and threatening to strain the already tense ethnic relations in a New Jersey city, officials and residents said. The beating of Mordechai Moskowitz, reportedly at the hands of am African-American man, has put residents on edge in Lakewood, a diverse city of 70,000 near the Jersey Shore that is home to a large Orthodox Jewish population, as well as black and Hispanic communities. An Orthodox Jewish middle school teacher was found not guilty this summer of assaulting a black teenager. And a few weeks ago, a group of Orthodox Jews was pelted with eggs by teenagers from another town, The New York Times reported Thursday. Authorities have arrested no one and have no motive in the beating of the rabbi, police Lt. Joseph Isnardi said.



2008: Paul Krugman, the Princeton University scholar and New York Times columnist, won the Nobel Prize in Economics for his analysis of how economies of scale can affect trade patterns and the location of economic activity



2008(14th of Tishrei, 5769): Erev Sukkoth



2008: As reports multiplied of Harvey Weinsten’s ruthless and aggressive behavior continued to multiply, today Newsweek magazine ran a story accusing him of “"hassling Sydney Pollack on his deathbed" about the release of the film The Reader.

2009(25th of Tishrei, 5770): Seventy-seven year old producer Daniel Melnick passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/17/movies/17melnick.html

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/oct/21/daniel-melnick-obituary

2009: Publication of “Chronic City,” a novel by Jonathan Lethem, was published today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)





2009: Assaf Ramon, the son of Colonel Ilan Ramon who died on the Columbia in 2003, was commemorated today during a military rememberance ceremony marking the 30-day anniversary of his death.

2009: Former Agriproccessor executive Shlomo Rubashkin is scheduled to go on trial in St. Louis, MO.

2009: Channel Two reported that Dalia Itzik spent NIS 75,000 of taxpayers' money on an unnecessary hotel upgrade during a 2006 4-night trip to Paris, France.

2009: The Library of Congress opens a new exhibition "Herblock!," highlighting the life and works of the great political cartoonist.

2009: A Massachusetts judge has denied a motion by Brandeis University to dismiss a lawsuit brought by three overseers of the school’s Rose Art Museum who are seeking to stop the university from closing the museum and selling its works. In January, as Brandeis’s finances worsened, its trustees voted to “transition” the museum into a teaching center and gallery, followed by “an orderly sale or other disposition” of work from its highly regarded collection. The decision was met with widespread criticism. After the vote the university backtracked, saying that no works were to be sold in the immediate future. In court today the university pledged not to sell any artwork that had been donated by the overseers, Meryl Rose, Jonathan Lee and Lois Foster, and said it would give the Massachusetts attorney general an opportunity for review if it decided to sell works donated by others.

2009(25thof Tishrei, 5770): Seventy-seven year old movie producer and studio executive Daniel Melnick passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/17/movies/17melnick.html

2010(5thof Cheshvan, 5771): Eighty year old lexicographer, author and tenured member of Olbom (On Language’s Board of Octogenarian Mentors) Sol Steinmetz passed away today.  (As reported by Margalit Fox)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/books/25steinmetz.html

2010: David Grossman and Nicole Krauss are scheduled to talk about their new novels, To the End of the Land and Great House at the New York Public Library.

2010: Among the 20 finalists for the National Book Awards that were announced today was Nicole Krauss for her third novel, Great House,  a sprawling story of memory and loss

2010: Ron Charles reviewed “The Finkler Question” the Howard Jacobson comic novel about anti-Semitism which just won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in London.

2011(15thof Tishrei, 5772): Sukkoth

2011(15thof Tishrei, 5722): Yahrzeit of William Schueller, husband of Eleanor Schueller and father of Deb Levin

2011: The National Basketball Association “formally approved” the purchase of the Philadelphia 76ers by an investment group that included David S. Blitzer, Art Wrubel, Adam Aron, Martin J. Geller and managing partner Joshua Harris.

2011: Milan's La Scala opera house said today that Israeli pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim would serve as its new music director from December for the next five years.

2011: IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz met with Noam and Aviv Schalit this evening, confirming that their son Gilad Schalit would be returning to Israel on October 18, Channel 2 reported.

Gantz told the Schalits at their home in Mitzpe Hila that on October 18 Gilad would be flown from a military base in Egypt to the Tel Nof Air Force Base near Rehovot. According to the report, Noam and Aviva Schalit will have their first meeting with Gilad at Tel Nof.

2011:  Hamas-affiliated media outlets began today publishing names of imprisoned terrorists who will reportedly be set free by Israel in exchange for captive soldier Gilad Schalit. The list, which has not been confirmed by Israel as of tonight, contains the names of terrorists behind painful images of death and destruction.

2012: Six13 “a six-man vocal band that brings an unprecedented style of Jewish music to the stage” is scheduled to appear in the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia Performing Art Series.

2012: Israeli films “Chasing A Star” and “One Day After Peace” are scheduled to be shown at the Syracuse Film Festival in Syracuse, NY.

2012: Tosha Skolnik, an 8th grader at Alice Deal, is scheduled to be called to the Torah as Bar Mitzvah at Adas Israel in Washington, DC.

2012: Seventy year old Barbra Streisand is scheduled to “return to her roots” with a concert at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY.

2012(27thof Tishrei, 5773): The cycle begins again as Jews all over the world read Bereshit.



2012: One man was reportedly killed and two others were injured tonight in an IAF attack in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip. The strike targeted Islamic Jihad members who had reportedly planned to carry out an attack against Israelis during the Sukkot holiday.

2012: Iran hinted today that it was responsible for a drone that flew deep into Israel on October 6, before being shot down by the Israeli Air Force.



2013: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Devil That Never Dies: The Rise and Threat of Global Anti-Semitism by Daniel Johnah Goldhagen and the Kraus Project: The Essays of Karl Kraus translated and annotated by Jonathan Franzen as well as an interview with Scott Turrow whose latest work is Identical.



2013: “Passages through the Fire: Jews and the Civil War” is scheduled to open today at the Maryland Museum of Jewish History



2013: “Her” starring Puerto Rican born Jewish actor Joaquin Phoenix is scheduled to debut at the New York Film Festival.



2013: The Hyman S & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival is scheduled to host a Local Author Fair featuring Melissa Ford, author of Measure of Loveand David Bruce Smith, author of American Hero: John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States



2013: After almost a year, “It’s a Thin Line: The Eruv and Jewish Community in New York and Beyond comes to an end at the Yeshiva University Museum



2013: “Skokie: Invaded, But Not Conquered” is scheduled to shown this afternoon at the Illinois Museum and Education Center.



2013: Led by Amy Barnum, Hadassah is scheduled to hold its annual dinner at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

2014(19thof Tishrei, 5775): Fifth Day of Sukkoth

2014(19thof Tishrei, 5775): Richard Larkin, “a longtime family friend” of Renee Ghert-Zand, was shot and stabbed by Palestinian terrorists while waiting for a bus in Jerusalem in attack that would lead to his death two weeks later. (As reported by Renee Ghert-Zand)

2014: In Scarsdale, NY, the funeral for Edward M. Davidowitz, retired Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York is scheduled to be held Westchester Reform Temple



2014: As part of its series on the Jewish Experience in the Trenches and at the Homefront” during WW I, the Center for Jewish History is scheduled to show La Grande Illusion (The Grand Illusion), a 1937 French war film directed by Jean Renoir

2014: “The principal photography” for “Get Ready For Ricki,” a cultural-wars comedy featuring Ben Platt and Charlotte Rae “began today in Rye, NY.



2014: The JCC of Northern Virginia is scheduled to host a presentation by Bill Schneider entitled 2014 Election – Viewpoint from the Nation’s Electionmeister.”



2014: British lawmakers voted today to recognize Palestine as a state in a debate unlikely to change government policy but laden with political symbolism. The ayes carried the vote with 274 votes, against only 12 nays. (As reported by Lazar Berman)

http://www.timesofisrael.com/british-mps-vote-overwhelmingly-to-recognize-palestine/



2014: “Dozens of Arab rioters, primarily young men, were holed up today in the Al-Aqsa Mosque atop the Temple Mount.”

http://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-rioters-holed-up-on-temple-mount/



2014: According to a report made public today one of the few remaining Jewish families in Syria “was secretly smuggled into Israel several months ago with the aid of a network of Israeli businesspeople and has begun a new life in the Jewish state.” (As reported by Gavriel Fiske)



2015(30thof Tishrei, 5775): Rosh Chodesh 1 Cheshvan

2015(30thof Tishrei, 5775): Eighty-eight year old commercial real estate mogul Julien Studley passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/19/realestate/commercial/julien-studley-real-estate-broker-who-began-career-in-a-bedroom-dies-at-88.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well





2015: Richard Larkin “an American educator who marched for civil rights in the 1960s and advocated coexistence between Muslims and Jews when he moved to Israel” was mortally wounded today “when two Palestinians boarded a bus in Jerusalem and began shooting and stabbing passengers.”



2015: The Center for Jewish History, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and Fordham University are scheduled to mark the 50th anniversary of the issuance of “Nostra Aetate” at the Second Vatican council with a screening of “Ida followed by discussion with Magda Teter, Fordham University; Jonathan Brent, Executive Director of YIVO, and Father Guy Massie, Chair, Catholic-Jewish Relations for the Diocese of Brooklyn.”



2015: LBNY Productions is scheduled to present a performance by “Ehud Banai who will perform inspiring songs that became Israeli rock n' roll anthems.”



2015: In the UK, Rabbi Jonathan Romain is scheduled to lecture on “Royal Jews – Jewish Life in Berkshire from the Readmission till Today.”



2015: Violinist Gil Shaham is scheduled to perform this evening with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

2016: The chief Sephardi rabbi of Israel, the President of the Sharia Court of the Palestinian Authority and two rabbis from a West Bank yeshiva’ were among the guests who attended a meeting this evening at the home of Israel’s president.

2016: “Bob Dylan was named the winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize in literature today, in a stunning announcement that for the first time bestowed the prestigious award to someone primarily seen as a musician.”



2016: As Jews transition from Yom Kippur to Sukkoth, The London Jewish Cultural Centre is scheduled to host “an interactive learning experience” in which Dina Brawer will present “the underlying theme behind each of the festivals.”

2016: At a meeting in Paris, a committee of UNESCO approved a “resolution sponsored by several Arab countries that referred to the Temple Mount and Western Wall…only by their Muslim names and condemned Israel as ‘the occupying power’.”

2016: “Mexico supported a resolution on Jerusalem at UNESCO’s executive board that Israeli and Jewish leaders decried as denying the Jewish people’s historic connection to the ancient city and to the Temple Mount, or Al-Haram Al-Sharif, as most Muslims refer to the site.”

2016(11thof Tishrei, 5777): Ninety-three year old socially conscious and documentary photography Louis

Stettner passed away today.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/15/arts/design/louis-stettner-dead.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

2016: “Wallflower” “a collaboration project between Inbal pinto and Avshalom Pollak is scheduled to open at the Kay Theatre in College Park, MD.

2016: Having defeated the Giants, the Chicago Cubs led by Theo Epstein the Jewish baseball executive who worked miracles for the Boston Red Sox, turn their eyes to the East and West coasts to see if they will be facing the Dodgers or the Nationals in the next leg of their quest to break the World Series jinx.

2016: The American Jewish Historical Society and Center for Jewish History are scheduled to sponsor a Fathers and Sons concert featuring the Phoenix Chamber Ensemble playing music by Rimsky-Korsakov, Shostakovich and Weinberg.

2017(23rd of Tishrei, 5778): Simchat Torah

2017: Once again the Children of Israel deal with the question of Jews and Friday the 13th.

https://www.thejewniverse.com/2017/why-friday-the-13th-is-a-lucky-day-for-jews/

http://joshuahammerman.blogspot.com/2009/11/why-friday-13th-is-lucky-day-for-jews.html

2017: “In a New York Times op-ed titled ‘Being a Feminist in Harvey Weinstein’s World’ published today, Jewish actress Mayim Bialik said she was shocked by the scope of Holly producer Harvey Weinstein’s predatory behavior toward women…but was not surprised by the fact he abused his position of power to do so.”

2017: The Irish Times reported today that “according to the 2016 census” the country’s “Jewish population rose by 573 people to 2,557 since 2011.”

2017: Dance Tel Aviv is scheduled to host the first performance by Compagnie Thor “directed by Belgian dancer Thierry Smits.” 

2017: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a Shabbat service followed an hour later by a Shabbat Dinner.

2018: At Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, IA, Joseph Heeren is scheduled to be called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah. (Editor’s note – this is a cool kid who is one of the most regular attendees of Shabbat services in the world)

2018: In Jerusalem, the Eden-Tamir Concert is scheduled to host “We Love Tchaikovsky,” the season’s opening concert.

2018(4thof Cheshvan, 5779): Parashat Noah

2019:

2019(14thof Tishrei, 5880): Erev Sukkoth

2019: “According to the regulations in force among Orthodox Jews, marriages may not be solemnized” today, the “day preceding the Feast of Tabernacles.”

2019: At the Chicago YIVO Society Sarah Lazarus Memorial Concert “Klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals and pianist/composer Donald Sosin are scheduled to perform the live original score from The Ancient Law, a recently restored 1923 Weimar silent cinema classic.”

2019: In Albany, CA, the Albany Community Center is scheduled to host “The Assault on Jews Today,” a “discussion of contemporary anti-Semitism on the political left and right. Facilitated by UC Berkeley Jewish history professor John M. Efron.”

2019: In New Orleans, Gates of Prayer, the last congregation in the city to have “a Judaica gift shop: is scheduled to “hold a clearance sale” under the leadership of Janet Krane.

2019: In Los Gatos, CA, the Addison-Penzak JCC is scheduled to host “Challah for Hunger,” a “charity baking even for families with children two to eight.”

2019: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors including The World That We Knew, Alice Hoffman’s “Holocaust novel,” Transaction Man by Nicholas Lemann whom I first met when I was his Sunday School teacher at Temple Sinai in New Orleans, The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution by Eric Foner, and We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins At Breakfast by Jonathan Safran Foer


This Day, October 14, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin

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OCTOBER 14

680:Wamba, the Visigoth King of Hispania, abdicated.  During his reign, he issued an order expelling the Jews from Spain.  This was part of an on-going policy of abuse, mistreatment and humiliation the Jews suffered under the Catholic Visigoth monarchs.

996: Beginning of the reign of the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim who ordered Christians to put on half-meter wooden crosses and Jews to wear wooden calves around their necks

1066: William and his Norman army were victorious at the Battle of Hastings.  The Jewish community in England dates from the Norman conquest of the British Isles. William brought a group of Jews from Rouen, part of his holdings in Normandy.  That decision probably did not sit well with the Pope.  William probably wanted the Jews to settle in England because of their commercial skills.  The Jews were limited in their activities.  For example, William conformed to the Pope’s decree that Jews were not allowed to keep Christian bondsman or to use Christians as nurses.

1165 (4th Marcheshvan): Maimonides and his family arrive in Jerusalem. When the Almohades, a group of Muslim fundamentalists, conquered Cordoba and threatened the Jewish community, Maimonides’ father decided it was time to leave Spain. The family settled for a while in Fez, Morocco where the Rambam wrote his commentary on the Mishnah and then moved on to Eretz Israel where they lived for a short period before finally settling in Egypt.

1270 (4 Cheshvan 5031): Moses Ben Nachman - known as Nachmanides or as the Ramban, passed away. Born in 1194, Gerona, Spain, Nachmanides was trained as a doctor and served King James of Aragon as court physician.  At the same time the Jews of Spain viewed him as their spiritual leader due to his prowess as a Talmudic scholar and sage The turning point came in his life came when he was forced by the King to defend Judaism in a debate with Pablo Christiani, a heretic Jew, in Aragon 1263.  Nachmanides was so successful that the debate was called off after four days without the usual claim of Christian victory.  Nachmanides was so bold that at one point, in discussing the concept of Jesus as the “peace of prince” that he declared, “from the time of Jesus until the present the world has been filled with violence and injustice and the Christians have shed more blood than all other peoples.:  To make a long story short, the Dominicans forced Nachmanides to flee.  He moved to Eretz Israel where he first settled in Jerusalem in 1267.  After working to refurbish the community there, he moved to Acre where he worked on his extensive Torah commentaries until his death in 1270. Nachmanides was one in long series of great Sephardic teachers, many of whom combined a secular career as physician with the role as scholars and sages.  Some people confuse the Ramban (Nachmanides) with the Rambam (Maimonides).

1494: Based on an edict issued by Grand Duke Alexander Jagellon, “it appears that the customs duties of Brest and its districts were farmed by Jews of Brest and Lutzk.”

1617: “On the death in infancy of his elder brother Henry Willoughby, 4th Lord Willoughby of Parham, Francis Willoughby, under whose leadership a group of Sephardic Jews migrated to Suriname in 1652 and “settled in the Jodensavanne area” succeeded to the title and became the 5th Baron Willoughby of Parham

1633: Birthdate of King James II of England and VII of Scotland.  James reigned during a period when the Jews were trying to gain re-admittance to England, a cause to which he showed some partiality. He ordered his Attorney General not to take any action against the Jews and see to it that they be allowed to practice their religion freely as long as they obeyed the laws of the realm.

1644: Birthdate of William Penn founder of Pennsylvania.  The Quaker leader founded a colony that adopted the Great Law, a humanitarian code which became the fundamental basis of Pennsylvania law and which guaranteed liberty of conscience.  This liberal fundamental law made Pennsylvania an early home to many non-conformists including Jewish settlers.

1663: An entry in the diary of Samuel Pepys describes his visit to a synagogue on Simchat Torah.“…after dinner my wife and I, by Mr. Rawlinson's conduct, to the Jewish Synagogue: where the men and boys in their vayles, and the women behind a lattice out of sight; and some things stand up, which I believe is their Law, in a press to which all coming in do bow; and at the putting on their vayles do say something, to which others that hear him do cry Amen, and the party do kiss his vayle. Their service all in a singing way, and in Hebrew. And anon their Laws that they take out of the press are carried by several men, four or five several burthens in all, and they do relieve one another; and whether it is that everyone desires to have the carrying of it, I cannot tell, thus they carried it round about the room while such a service is singing. And in the end they had a prayer for the King, which they pronounced his name in Portugall; but the prayer, like the rest, in Hebrew. But, Lord! to see the disorder, laughing, sporting, and no attention, but confusion in all their service, more like brutes than people knowing the true God, would make a man forswear ever seeing them more and indeed I never did see so much, or could have imagined there had been any religion in the whole world so absurdly performed as this.” (Editor’s note: I have not been able to find any explanation for the visit.)



1700: After leaving Moravia in 1697 with a group of his followers Judah he-Hasid Segal ha-Levi arrived in Jerusalem today where his 500 to 1000 followers may have more than double the city’s Jewish population.

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/111829/jewish/Rabbi-Judah-HaChassid.htm

1740(23rd of Tishrei, 5501): Forty-six year old Grace Mears, the native of Spanishtown, Jamaica and the husband of Moses Raphael Levy passed today in New York City

1740: In Savannah, GA, Abigail and Abraham Minis gave birth to Samuel Minis.

1753(916th of Tishrei, 5514): Second Day of Sukkoth



1759(23rd of Tishrei, 5520): Simchat Torah

1767: Dutch born Frances Hart and Savannah, GA native Mordecai Sheftall gave birth to Benjamin Sheftall.



1778(23rd of Tishrei, 5539): Simchat Torah



1780(15th of Tishrei, 5541): Sukkoth



1789: A deputation of six “German Jews from Lorraine” including Berr Isaac Err of Turique, a French financer and member of the city council of Nancy, appeared before the Assembly in Paris to defend the granting of citizenship to Jews of Lorraine.



1792: Birthdate of August Lewald, the Konigsberg native who in 1835 founded the periodical Europa which published the first novel written by his cousin Fanny Lewald.

1794: “Richea Gratz” and Samuel Hays gave birth to Fannie Hays.

1798: Pennsylvanians Maria and Moses Nathans gave birth to Nathan Nathans.

1799(15th of Tishrei, 5560): Sukkoth



1808(23rd of Tishrei, 5569): Simchat Torah

1808: The Republic of Ragusa including its major city of Dubrovnik, was annexed by France. “The Old Synagogue in Dubrovnik, is the oldest Sephardic synagogue still in use today in the world and the second oldest synagogue in Europe. It is said to have been established in 1352, but gained legal status in the city in 1408.” Jewish merchants living in Ragusa must have been successful since Christian merchants moved to have them expelled during the 16th century. There are records of Jewish merchants and physicians living in Ragusa as far back as the 16thcentury. The annexation by the French marked the first time that the Jews of the region enjoyed the rights of full citizenship.  The victory was short lived since when the French were defeated the Austrians took back what the French had given.

1812: Israel Isaacs married Rachel Andrade at the Great Synagogue today.

1809: Birthdate of London native Naphtali Hart, the husband of Elizabeth Solomon and the father of sar, Louisa, Jane and Benjamin Hart.

1814: Birthdate of Solomon Klein, the native of Bishcheim, who served as the “grand rabbi at Comare from 1850 to 1867.

1824(22nd of Tishrei, 5585): Shmini Atzeret

1824: Frances Cohen and Aaron Joseph gave birth to Samuel Aron Joseph the husband of Matilda Philippa Levien

1829: Birthdate of Eduard Lasker, the German Jewish political leader who supported the unification that led to the creation of the modern German state.

1837(15th of Tishrei, 5598): Sukkoth observed for the first time during the Presidency of Martin Van Buren.

1838: In Bendin, Poland, Dobrish Erlich and Rabbi Zev Nachum Bornsztain gave birth to their first child Avrohom Bornsztain, founder and first Rebbe of the Sochatchover Hasidic dynasty” who was “known as the Avnei Nezer ("Stones of the Crown") after the title of his posthumously-published set of Torah responsa, which is widely acknowledged as a halakhic classic” and whose “only son, Shmuel, author of Shem Mishmuel, succeeded him as Rebbe.”

1839: Caroline Davis and Levy Jacobs gave birth to Montague Jacobs.

1843: The Synagogue of Beracha Veshalom Vegmiluth Hasidim (Congregation of Blessing, Peace and Loving Deeds) in St. Thomas holds the first confirmation ceremony for Jewish youth ever in the Western Hemisphere. The St. Thomas synagogue has held a weekly service since it first opened its doors in 1833; reportedly, it's the oldest synagogue in continuous use under the American flag and the second oldest in the Western Hemisphere. Acclaimed Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro was a member.

1835(21st of Tishrei, 5596): Hoshanah Rabah

1840: Birthdate of Bavarian native Max Adler, the “manufacturer, banker, philanthropist” and partner in “the firm of Strouse, Adler and Company” who “was a liberal contributor to Hebrew philanthropies in New England.”

1849: Birthdate Budapest native and “Hungarian philologist” Solomon Schill , “a professor of Latin and Greek at the rabbinical seminary in Budapest” who authored a number of books on the Greek language and literature as well as translating several others.

1853: During their Friday meeting, the Assistant Board of Alderman voted to accept an invitation from the Directors of the Jews Hospital to attend the cornerstone laying ceremony scheduled to take place on Thanksgiving Day.

1856(15thof Tishrei, 5617): First Day of Sukkoth

1857: Henry Lewis Cohen married Priscilla Joseph at the Great Synagogue today.

1859: Birthdate of producer and author Alfred Bock, the son of a cigar manufacturer from Gieseen and the father of author Wener Bock.

1867(15th of Tishrei, 5628): Sukkoth



1869: In Amsterdam, Karel Abraham Wertheim, the son of Johannes Wertheim and Maria Rosenik and his wife Henriette van Heukelom gave birth to Charlotte Maria Werthiem

1869(9th of Cheshvan, 5630): Solomon Daniel Ghosalker a member of “the 25th regiment of the Bombay native light infantry” who “served in the Scinde campaign in 1843-45, the Indian mutiny, and the Abyssinian expedition of 1867-68” and “rose to the highest regimental rank, that of sirdar bahadur” while being honored with a first-class star of the Order of British India passed away today.



1869: Three days after he “was murdered,” Louis Kyezor was buried at the “Bancroft Road (Maiden Lane) Jewish Cemetery today.





1869: Birthdate of Sir Joseph Duveen, the London native who became one of the most influential art dealers of his time.



1871: During his sermon today, Rabbi J.J. Lyons called upon the members of the West 19th Street Portuguese Synagogue to contribute to aid the people of Chicago who are suffering from the effect of a great fire that consumed much of the city. Since money cannot be handled on Shabbat, a special meeting will be held tomorrow to deal with this.



1871: In Trieste, Italy Michele Levi and Emma Perguia gave birth to Professor Giusepp Levi “a pioneer of in vitro studies of cultured cells.”

1871: In Vienna, Alexander Von Zemlinsky, a Catholic and his wife who converted to Sephardic Judaism gave birth to composer and conductor Alexander von Zemlinsky



1873(23rd of Tishrei, 5634): Simchat Torah



1875(15th of Tishrei, 5636): Sukkoth



1879: In the on-going battle to have the Romanian government honor its promise to grant full rights to the Jews, it was reported today that 58 deputies in Bucharest are opposed to the government’s bill granting emancipation to the Jews.  This has increased fears that the bill will not get the two-thirds majority required for passage.

1881: John W. Carroll, the actor whose fame rested in part for his portray of Fagin, the Jew in ‘Oliver Twist,’” passed away today in New York City at the age of 44.

1881:”Russian Hebrew Exiles” published today described the activities of the committee formed in New York designed to help the newly arrived Jewish immigrants from the Czar’s anti-Semitic empire. The most recent group of arrivals number 120 and plans have already been to send 70 of them to “various sections of the country” since there is no way to find all of them employment in New York.  Committees have been formed in Houston, New Orleans, Louisville, St. Louis and Wilmington, NC to help with the re-settlement plans. (This marked the first year of what prove to be a tidal wave of immigration that would last until World War I.  These well-intentioned plans would soon be overwhelmed by the unprecedented number of immigrants)

1881: “An assignment for the benefit of creditors by Hirsch Levy to Isidore Hirsch with $600 preferences was filed in the County Clerk’s office” today.



1882: It was reported today that “Mordecai Lyons,” a new play Edward Harrigan that features an array of Jewish characters is scheduled to open at the Theatre Comique next week.



1882: It was reported today “there is a singular set of lunatics in England who are devoting all their energies to the rather hopeless tasks of proving that the so-called Anglo-Saxon race is not Anglo-Saxon but Jewish.  They believe that all Englishman belong to the tribe of Manasseh and all Americans to the tribe of Ephraim and that the Irish belong to the rest of the long-lost ten tribes.”

1882: Birthdate of Eamon De Valera, Irish prime minister and president.  As Prime Minister during the 1930’s De Valera modified the Irish Constitution so that it gave recognition to many non-Catholic religious groups including the Jewish community. “The behavior of de Valera's government towards Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust is also controversial. Ireland's Justice Minister Michael McDowell later described the Irish government's treatment of Jewish refugees as ‘antipathetic, hostile and unfeeling’. Dr Mervyn O'Driscoll of University College Cork reported on the unofficial and official barriers that prevented Jews from finding refuge in Ireland: ‘Although overt anti-Semitism was untypical, the Irish were indifferent to the Nazi persecution of the Jews and those fleeing the third Reich’.However, this attitude towards Jewish refugees differed little from other Western Governments - as exemplified by the abject failure of the Evian Conference-who were unwilling to admit Jews fleeing Nazism.”







1882: There was a “serious disturbance” among the Russian Jewish immigrants on Ward’s Island, the New York entry point for those arriving from Europe.

1884: “Funeral of Rabbi Huebsch” published today described the procession for Rabbi Huebsch which began at his home on Lexington Avenue, then moved to Ahavath Chesed, before finishing on Long Island where he was interred at Linden Hill Cemetery. 1886(15th of Tishrei, 5647): Sukkoth

1886: In Cincinnati, OH, “Adolph Aria Berman and Mary Agnes Jacobs” gave birth to Lillian Berman who was, for a while, married to Isidor Schifrin with whom she had to children, “Elaine and Stuart Schifrin.”

1866: A column styled “Law Reports: Business in the Surrogates Courts" published today reported that will  of the late Solomon D. Moses is among those that have been admitted for probate during this past week. Under the terms of Mr. Solomon's will payments of two hundred dollars are to be made to the Jews Hospital of New York and the Hebrew Orphan Asylum

1888: “Some Glances Backward” published today provided a retrospective on the fight in California to halt Chinese immigration and to ban them from living here including a speech by A.A. Haight the Democratic Governor of California in which he said that the “same argument” made “today in this country against the Chinese were used two centuries ago against the industrious Jews of Europe…. But it did not take” these bigots “a hundred years before they found out their mistake because the Jews too industry along with them and enriched the new countries in which they settled.  It will work with the same with the Chinese...if our laws permit us to drive them from the State.”

1888: “Old World News by Cable” published today described events surrounding the recent death of J.M. Levy whom many mistakenly thought was the founder of the Daily Telegraph. Actually Joseph Moses Levy bought it from the founder in 1855 three months after its opening for $4,000.  “He and his son” then “made it one of the half dozen great newspaper properties of the world.  “A very good man, charitable, just and simple manners and tastes, as was the last professing Jew of his fmily, all of whom now bear the name Lawson.”

1888: “Jews Leaving Russia” published today relied on dispatches from the London Daily News to describe the exodus of nearly 2,500 Jews from Odessa (Russia) during the law three months.  The Jews are leaving because of the Expulsion Law enacted last Spring.  The number of Jews leaving is being swollen by those who are taking advantage of the recent relaxation in the conscription laws which were designed to have just that effect.  Most of them are going to America or England but lack the capital to open business on their own.

1889: Birthdate of cardiologist Aaron Ephraim Parsonnet, the native of Balta Russia and U.S. resident since 1903 who graduated from Loyola Medical School in 1913 and eventually became the Medical Director for the Daughters of Israel Home for Aged in Newark, NJ,


1890:  Birthdate of General of the Army and U.S. President Dwight David Eisenhower. In a recently published history about three World War II generals entitled 15 Stars, Stanley Weintraub described a hither-to little known story about Ike and the Jewish people.  While serving in the Philippines in 1938 as a Lt. Colonel, “Eisenhower got to know some of the 1,200 emigres who had fled Hitler who could find no sanctuaries in the uncaring West, including his own country.” At this time “he was made a surprising and hugely remunerative offer.  Almost certainly it came from Alex Frieder, one of three brothers from Cincinnati who had opened a cigar factory in Manila, and who played bridge and poker with…Ike.  ‘I was asked to take a job seeking in China, Southeast Asia…and every country where they might be acceptable, a haven for Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany.  The proposed pay would be $60,000 a year with expenses…Te offer was, of course, appealing for several reasons.  But…I had become so committed to my profession that I declined.’” Given other facts of Ike’s life during this period and the revulsion he demonstrated when Allied troops liberated the Concentration Camps, no one should think Ike’s decision was tainted by antipathy toward Jews and that it was made for the reasons he stated. Given the political environment of the 1950’s as a Republican President, Ike was only going to have a limited amount of popularity among Jewish voters.  To his credit, he became the first President to participate in national television show sponsored by a Jewish organization.  In this case it was a program celebrating the 300th anniversary of the American Jewish Community. For many Jews living during the 1950’s Ike was the American President who sided with the Arabs against Israel.  During the Suez Crisis of 1956, the Eisenhower administration threatened Israel with economic ruin if it did not withdraw from the Sinai. This policy had four effects.  It left Gaza as a place from which terrorist could attack Israel.  It gave Nasser a new lease on life thus setting the stage for another decade of un-rest in the Middle East that reached its next crescendo in the Six Day War. During the crisis, the Americans actually sided with the Soviets who threatened the French and the British with nuclear attack if they did not remove their forces from Suez.  From the French point of view, the Americans had shown that the nuclear umbrella did not protect France when she did not agree with the United States, so the French started to build their own independent nuclear force.  This is one of those times where Jewish history is world history and world history is Jewish history.  As is so often the question, where does one begin and the other end?

1890: Chaie X. Hishovitz signed a release in the presence of Mortiz Tolk that stated in consideration of a payment of $8.00 she release Kopel Harris from their marriage, promises not to bring any further legal action against and gives him permission to marry any other person he may so desire.

1891: “The Indictment of Russia” published today speaks approvingly of Harold Fredric’s use of “cold, rigid, facts to present the date relating to the” harsh treatment of the Jews in Russia which some have “transformed into an indictment against the victims” to justify the acts of the Czar’s government.

1891: “The Local Tickets” published today analyzed the Republican and Tammany Candidates in the upcoming New York City elections including  Ferdinand Levy one of the Tammany candidates for Coroner and Meyer S. Isaacs

1892(23rdof Tishrei, 5653): Simchat Torah

1893: Because it is Shabbat, there will be a pause during the day in the festivities marking the Golden Anniversary of the B’Nai B’rith.

1893: This evening in New York five hundred people are scheduled to attend a banquet celebrating the Golden Anniversary of B’Nai B’rith where the guests of honor will include President Cleveland, Governor Flower and Mayor Gilroy.

1894(14thof Tishrei, 5655): Erev Sukkoth

1894: In Braddock, PA, founding of Congregation Agudath Achim which holds services at 7 pm on Friday and 8 am Saturday and owns a cemetery west of Braddoc,

1894: Officer Grier of the MacDougal Street Station arrested 15 year old John Shevlin after he saw him and a group of boys “chasing two old Hebrew men” whose beards they pulled and then kicked after throwing them to the ground.

1894: Marquis du Paty de Clam, a French General Staff officer is designated as Officer of Judiciary Police a position from which he masterminds enquiry against Dreyfus and invents the scenario of his hostile interrogation and handwriting test. His son will be appointed head of Jewish Bureau under Vichy government.

1895: “In Yekaterinoslav (Dnepropetrovsk), Ukraine, then part of the Russian empire,” Yitzhak Trachtenberg and his wife gave birth Beba Trachtenberg, the Zionist and organizer of relief work in Russia who gained fame as Beba Idelson after she married fellow Zionist Israel Idelson.


 1896: Birthdate of William Shemin, the native of Bayonne, NJ who “was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery in action in Vesle River, near Bazoches, France.”

1896: The University of Wisconsin football team led by first year head coach Philip King, a Jewish native of Washington, DC won its second straight game of the season to go 2 and 0.

1897: In New York City, Felix Mortiz Warburg and Frieda Schiff Warburg gave birth to Frederick Marcus Warburg

1897: One day after he had passed away, 52 year old Aaron Cohen was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery in London.”

1898: Jacob C. Rosenbluth, who had served as assistant surgeon aboard the USS Massachusetts during the Spanish-American War made “Passed Assistant Surgeon” today.

1903(23rdof Tishrei, 5664): Simchat Torah

1903: “Dr. Marcus Jastrow” published today reported that among the survivors of the recently deceased rabbi were his two sons, “Morris Jastrow, the widely-known philologist and Joseph Jastrow, the well-known psychologist.”


1905(16thof Tishrei, 5666): Second Day of Sukkot

1906: Today Dr. Bruno Alfred Döblin, the author of the novel Berlin Alexanderplats,“took up a position at the Berlin psychiatric clinic in Buch where he worked as an assistant doctor for nearly two years.

1906: Birthdate of anti-Nazi German historianPrince Hubertus zu Loewenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg, co-founder along with Otto Katz of Hollywood Anti-Nazi League which was unique in that it one of the first organization that at least, superficially, was not tied to the Jews

1906: Birthdate of author and commentator Hannah Arendt.  Many know her for her writings about the Nazis and the originator of the term “the banality of evil.”Living amidst the political turmoil of Europe greatly shaped Arendt's studies and interests. Initially a philosophy and theology student, Arendt shifted her focus to the rising anti-Semitism permeating the German polity in the 1930s. In addition to her writing, Arendt became involved in the German Zionist Organization in 1933 and worked to bring Nazi atrocities to global attention. Arendt was arrested for investigating anti-Semitic propaganda, but befriended a Berlin jailer who enabled her escape. Fleeing to Paris, Arendt worked with Youth Aliyah to help rescue Jewish children from the Third Reich by bringing them to Palestine. While in Paris, Arendt met her second husband and both were sent to internment camps in southern France. In 1941, both were able to reach America and reunite with Arendt's mother. In America, Arendt published numerous articles in Jewish studies journals, and was in charge of Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, a program created by historian Salo W. Baron to recover and restore lost and damaged Jewish archives and cultural markers. The publication of her book The Origins of Totalitarianism in 1951, made Arendt an intellectual celebrity as America, searching for answers to the horrors of World War II, careened into the Cold War. The Origins of Totalitarianism sought to explain the rise and appeal of both Hitler and Stalin. Arendt went on to publish several other books including her most controversial work, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil in 1963.Arendt taught at the University of Chicago and Wesleyan and was the first female full professor at Princeton. She continued to lecture and teach until her death in 1975.

http://www.nytimes.com/1975/12/05/archives/hannah-arendt-69-political-scientist-and-writer-is-dead.html

1909(29th of Tishrei, 5670): Eighty-one year old Amalie Grinberg, the daughter of Henrietta and Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalischer, and the wife of Moritz Grunberg passed away today.

1910: A Jew, David Effendi Molcho, First Interpreter of Imperial Divan of the Ottoman Empire is appointed member of the Senate. On this same day, Samuel Effendi of Salonica is appointed Chief of Police for the coast districts of Constantinople.

1910: Der unsterbliche Lumpg(The Immortal Blight), an operetta composed by Edmund Eysler “was performed for the first time” today” with great success at the Vienna Bürgertheater

1911: Dr. Alfred Döblin and his girlfriend Friede Kunke gave birth to their son Bodo.

1911: The New York Sun received a cablegram that read: “Fifteen thousand Turkish troops sent to Palestine” during the Turco-Italian War.

1911(22nd of Tishrei, 5672): Shabbat and Shmini Atzeret

1911(22nd of Tishrei, 5672): Holiday services, including Yizkor, began at 9:30 a.m. at the South Side Hebrew Congregation on Indiana Avenue.

1911: In an editorial published in the Outlook, former President Theodore Roosevelt proposed submitting the Treaty of 1832 which was an anathema to Jews to the Hague Tribunal for interpretation

1911: “As a result of the” Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire which claimed so many Jewish lives, “the American Society of Safety Engineers was founded in New York City” today.

1912: Constantin C. Arion, who as the Rumanian Minister of Foreign Affairs would say that his “Government would grant rights to the Jews in accordance with the peace treat” and that the Government “would completely abolish Article 7 of the Rumanian Constitution” which states that “Jews in Rumania are aliens and that naturalization is only possible for them individually” completed his service as Minister of Administration and Interior of Romania.

1912: It was reported that a veritable “who’s who” of American Jewry including Judge Julian W. Make, Justice Samuel Greenbaum, Henry Morgenthau, Cyrus Sulzberger, Louis Marshal and Professor Solomon Schechter, attended the lecture at the Astor Hotel delivered by Israel Abrahams.  The British academic is a firm believer in the need to maintain a strong Jewish identity as the Chosen People develop national identities in the various home-countries.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F50C13F6355A17738DDDAD0994D8415B828DF1D3

1914: Sir Alfred Knox, the British military attaché described the condition of the Jews on the Eastern front when he wrote today, “It is said that a Jew was caught carrying a German officer in a sack across the bridge at Ivangorod. Both were hung.  (Jewish misery would only increase as can be seen by the 20 Jews who were killed by Coassacks at pogrom in Lemberg during November or the 64 Jews in Warsaw were arrested and detained as alleged members of a conspiracy to raise prices through speculation.  As was all too common their property was confiscated by the authorities) p 393 Max Hastings.

1914: In Manila, Philippines, Leopold Kauffmann Kahn, French born Manila businessman, the “son of Julieta and Moise Wolf Kahn” and Anacoreta Cortes Villarosa gave birth to Raoul Evaristo (Raoul) Villarosa Kahn

1914: “To Aid Jewish Sufferers” published today described the work of Leon Sanders, the President of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Society to form a special committee that will provide assistance to the Jews trapped on the battlefields of eastern Europe whose members include Jacob H. Schiff, Chairman; Louis Marshal, Cyrus L. Sulzberger, Dr. J. L. Magnus, Samuel Dorp, Dr. Cyrus Adler of Philadelphia and Judge J.W. Mack of Chicago.

1914(24th of Tishrei, 5675): In New York, “Hyman Goldfarb, a manufacturer of women’s hats who had to the United States from Russia 30 years ago passed away today “in his 56th year.”

1914: Louis Marshall wrote a letter to Albert Lucas, the secretary of the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War (CRC) expressing his opposition to the formation of the CRC because it undercut the efforts of the American Jewish Committee to organize “a general committee, composed of Jewish national organizations for the purposed of dealing effectively with the tremendous problem which confronts the Jews of American in respect to granting relief to the sufferers from the European War. (Editor’s Note – With all due respect to Louis Marshall, there are those who would say this was really about a conflict between the old established Jewish community and the newcomers many of whom were immigrants or the children of immigrants

1915: The Kingdom of Bulgaria declared war on Serbia today meaning that it was now one of the Central Powers – a decisions that would lead to 211 Jewish soldiers being recorded as fatalities in WW I.

1915: According to the Maccabean, “a large number of Jewish privates as well as officers have been killed and wounded… at the Battle of Loos” – a three week long British offensive that failed to dislodge the Germans -- which ended today.

1915: In New York, at the 86th Street Temple, Rabbi Maurice Harris officiated at the marriage Charlotte Glendyle Harris whose only attendant was Mrs. Ruth Schram-Rosenfeld and Rabbi Goodman Lipkind whose best man was “Dr. Jacques Zipser and whose ushers were Joseph Kann, Abraham Tobias, and Samuel S. Kogan”

1916: “The Young Men’s Hebrew Association of Williamsburg announced its plans for the upcoming season today which will include a Jewish Congress to be held on the fourth Wednesday of the month, monthly dances, lectures, games and athletic exhibitions.

1916: Felix M. Warburg, the Chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee announced today that Nathan Straus has donated $50,000 to the “new fund for the relief of the thousands of Jewish sufferers in the war stricken countries of Europe.”

1916: According to the “military critic of the Overseas News Agency” “British and French divisions with a total of more than 1,000,000 men had been virtually annihilated in the Battle of the Somme while the Russians have lost “about 1,000,000 men from June 1 to October 2.”  (These losses, especially on the part of the French and British, help to explain the oft criticized reluctance of these two nations to fight a war 20 years later.)

1917 (28th of Tishrei, 5678): Over 250 people, including students, faculty and alumni attended exercises marking the formal opening of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.  Dr. Cyrus Adler, acting President of the Seminary gave the keynote address in which he urged everyone “to get behind the Government in the successful prosecution of the war.”  Additional addresses were given by two of the most prominent leaders of the Jewish community - Louis Marshall, Chairman of the Board and Professor Louis Ginzberg.

1917: In Vilna, Dr. Arthur Hantke, the president of the Zionist Federation of Germany addressed “a mass meeting of Zionist on the present state of the Jewish national movement

1917: In a sign of the divisions among the leaders of the American Jewish community, the Executive Committee of the American Jewish Congress held a meeting this afternoon in the Metropolitan Building where it was “decided by a vote of 73 to 31 to refrain from calling the Jewish Congress until peace negotiations were actually under way” saying “that nothing should be done to hold back the unification of the country during the war.”

1917: U.S. premiere of “Cleopatra” starring Theda Bara (Theodosia Burr Goodman) in the title role.

 1918:  “An ‘inter-communal’ Jewish congress was organized in Vienna.” As World War I was coming to an end, it became apparent that the Austro-Hungarian or Habsburg Empire would dissolve into a group of small nations based around national constituencies. “Arriving from the principal Habsburg cities, the delegates elected a Jewish National Council and issued a policy statement that was intended as a message to the Allied Powers.  Whatever the empire’s fate, they declared, the Jews expected to be awarded the identical civil and collective recognition, and the identical protection, extended to any other nationality.

1918: Accompanied by another officer, Major Julius O. Adler was supervising the work of clearing the enemy from St. Juvin where they suddenly came upon a party of the enemy numbering 150. Firing on the enemy with his pistol, Major Adler ran toward the party, calling on them to surrender. His bravery and good marksmanship resulted in the capture of 50 Germans, and the remainder fled (For this he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross)

1919(20th of Tishrei, 5680): Sixth Day of Sukkoth

1919: In Virginia, Governor Westmorland Davis urged “citizens, irrespective of race or creed, to contribute liberally” to the Jewish relief campaign beginning today.

1920: The Bazaar and Fair sponsored by the Kane Street Temple in Brooklyn continued for a third day.

1920: “A Munich dispatch today contradicts the recent report from Berlin of the death of Professor Magnus Hirschfeld, the noted German physiologist, who was said to have in a Munich hospital as the result of a beating given by some anti-Semites because he was a Jew” but who in fact “has sufficiently recovered to have left the hospital.”

1920: “Tributes to the philanthropic work of the late Jacob H. Schiff” were read today at “the first meeting of the Business Men’s Council and Women’s Division of the Federation for Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies” which took place at the “5th Avenue home of Adolph Lewisohn.”

1921: “The Black Panther,” a German silent moved staring Eugen Burg was released in Germany today.



1921: Birthdate of Manchester, UK native Joseph “Joe” Hyman.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-joe-hyman-1105921.html



1921: In Philadelphia, Morris Sokoloff, an immigrant tailor and his wife, “the former Goldie Levy” gave birth to Dr. Louis Sokoloff, “the Pioneer of Pet Scams.” (As reported by Sam Roberts)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/06/science/louis-sokoloff-pioneer-of-pet-scan-dies-at-93.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0



1922(22nd of Tishrei, 5683): Shmini Atzeret

1922: Those responsible for the assassination of Walther Rathenau, including Ernst WernerTechow, were sentenced today.

1922: Wake Forest, coached by George Levene, tied Davidson.

1923: The American Jewish Congress will meet today in New York.  The congress was originally to meet in Boston.  The meeting was moved to accommodate the schedule of Israel Zangwill whose schedule only had an opening for him to meet in New York.

1923:Tonight, at Carnegie Hall Israel Zangwill, Jewish scholar, author and publicist, in an address which he referred to earlier in the day as "the greatest labor of my life" declared that the Jews must forego their political hopes in Palestine "rather than kindle a conflagration which may ravage the whole world."

1923: Today, in Philadelphia, twenty-three year old Norma, NJ, native Helen Rovine married Benjamin Grossman with whom she had three children.

1924: Birthdate of Leipzig native Leo Sachs, the British educated, prize winning Israel “molecular and cancer researcher.

http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/67764.html

http://www.pnas.org/content/111/5/1664

1929(10th of Tishrei, 5690): Jews observe the first Yom Kippur of what would become the Great Depression

1929: The scheduling of “collectivization day” today in the Soviet Union is seen as a way for Jewish communists to compel “Jewish colonists to work in the fields on” the Day of Atonment.

1929: “Louis Fleisher, Harry Fleisher, and Henry Shorr, three members of the Purple Gang attended services at Orthodox Congregation B’nai David in Northwest Detroit.” (As reported by Robert Rockaway)

1930: “Girl Crazy” with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin opened at the Alvin Theatre.

1931: Publication today of “The Human Voice; Its Care and Development” by Leon Felderman.

1932: “The Big Broadcast,” a comedy produced by Benjamin Glazer and featuring George Burns playing himself was released today in the United States.

1933(24thof Tishrei, 5694) Parashat Bereshit

1933: Led by team captain Sid Gillman Ohio State defeated Vanderbilt today.

1933: Germany withdrew from the League of Nations. This was the first of Hitler’s moves to overturn the Treaty of Versailles, which was in turn part of his plan to create his Jew free Third Reich.

1933: Formation of the 6th Airlift Squadron in which author James Salter would serve following WW II.

1935: ' Barbary Coast,' a Thumping Melodrama of the Gold Rush Days -- 'Charlie Chan in Shanghai’ published today provides a positive review of the Ben Hecht written melodrama produced by Samuel Goldwyn.


1936: “For the second time this week the Montreal riot squad was called out” tonight “to disperse mobs of French-Canadian youths were breaking the windows of Jewish businessmen”

1936: Today, “two years after becoming the rabbi of the Jewish community at St. Anne’s where he was also the shochet, Rabbi Leslie Henry Hardman who in 1945 would be the first Jewish chaplain to enter Bergen-Belsen married his wife Josi today.


1936: Sir Oswald Mosely the British fascist leader who supports Hitler and Mussolini addressed “immense crowds from the top of a loud-speaker truck at Bethnal Green and Lime-house without interruption.

1937:The Palestine Post reported from Warsaw that a new Polish Labor Party resolved to oppose totalitarianism, but to stimulate Jewish emigration.

1937: Seventy-two year old  German banker, liberal politician and Vice Chancellor Bernhard Dernburg, the son of Friedrich and Luise Dernberg who had converted to Christianity and husband of Emma Dernberg passed away today in Berlin

1937: The Palestine Post reported that court proceedings were taken in Romania against Jews guilty of having Jewish National Fund blue boxes in their houses.  Yes, the little blue box that we use to this day was part of a criminal activity in Romania.  Anti-Jewish measures like this provide further proof that the Holocaust was possible, in part, because of pre-existing conditions throughout Europe.

1938: The Jewish-Americans living in Palestine of which there are eight to nine thousand made “plans today for a conference” for all of their number who have made investments in Eretz Israel to let the British and American governments know about their opposition to any move to restrict Jewish immigration into Palestine.  The Jewish-Americans intend to use the conference as a way to remind the British that their investments had been predicated on the pledges made in the Balfour Declaration which were incorporated in the League of Nations Mandate that provides the basis for British rule over Palestine.  These investments have totaled more than forty million dollars.

1938: “A Man to Remember,” a dramatic film direct by Garson Kanin was released today by RKO Pictures.

1938: “L'Osservatore Romano, official newspaper of the Vatican, publishes a story accusing the Nazi Party of being behind the attacks on the Vienna palace of Cardinal Theodor Innitzer, Archbishop of Vienna.”


1938: Herman Goering, Hitler’s second in command, announced plans for ghettoizing Jews in all big cities.

1938: “There Goes My Heart,” produced by Milton Bren and Hal Roach and featuring Irving Pichel was released today in the United States.

1939: Led by team captain Sidney “Spike” Alter Penn St. University played and won its second game defeating Leigh University at New Beaver Field.

1939:  Birthdate of Ralph Lauren. Born Ralph Lifschitz in the Bronx, the famous fashion designer began by working with Brooks Brothers before striking out on his and riding his “polo pony” to fame and fortune.

1939: Dr. Ludwig Halberstädter of Tel Aviv, a Professor of Medicine at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem left the United States today aboard the American export liner Excalibur after having attended the International Cancer Congress at Atlantic City, New Jersey.Ludwig Halberstädter obtained his doctorate in 1901 in Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland). From 1901 to 1907 he worked at the surgical clinic in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia) under Carl Garré (1857-1928) and then dermatology with Albert Neisser (1855-1916) in Breslau. He was habilitated for dermatology and radiation therapy in Berlin in 1922 and in 1926 became "nicht beamtlicher ausserordentlicher Professor". His interest in irradiation resulted in studies on its effects on lower forms of life and on tissues and cells. He became director of the Radiation Department at the Institute for Cancer Research, Berlin-Dahlem and used thorium in an effort to treat cancer. Halberstädter demonstrated sensitivity of the ovary to irradiation in 1904. In 1907 he was a member of the research expedition on syphilis which went to Java under Albert Neisser’s direction. After 1933 he was one of 276 Jewish dermatologists who were able to leave Nazi Germany. He settled in Palestine that year and became director of radiation therapy at the Hadassah Hospital, Jerusalem. He brought with him a tiny amount of radium and opened the first radium and X-ray institute in the Middle East. Working together with cytologist Dr. Leonid Doljansky, he was able to provide the first treatment for cancer in the country.

1939: “L'Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper, insists that Pope Pius XII really is sorry that the Polish people have lost their country and that they are experiencing such horrible things such as persecution and mass murder” but has nothing to say about the fate of the Jews of Poland.

1940: “Charles Lindbergh delivers his second radio address to promote neutrality and urge America not to enter the European war.” (Lindbergh will join forces with America First which believes that the British and the Jews are among those conspiring to get the United States to enter the war.  Lindbergh will cling to his beliefs until he is embarrassed by having a speech scheduled for December 7, 1941.)

1940: "Four months after they had bicycled out of Paris" Margret and Hans Rey arrived in New York, their new home and the new home for Curious George.

1940: The Nazis move non-Jews out of a designated section of Warsaw, Poland, and import Jews to replace them.

1940: “The Reverend William C. Kernan, chairman of the refugee committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, NJ, is scheduled to make the address at the exercises opening the 19th academic year at the Jewish Institute of Religion” which was founded by Rabbi Stephen S. Wise who is the president of the institute and who will welcome the new students.

1941(23rdof Tishrei, 5702): Simchat Torah

1941: Birthdate of Arthur Louis “Art” Shamsky who played major league ball for seven years and managed the Modi'in Miracle of the Israel Baseball League in 2007.

1941: Karl Bishoff approved the plan of the POW camp at Birkenau today

1941: At the intervention of the Union of Jewish Communities in Romania, an order was given today to stop the deportations of Jews from Bessarabia, Bukovina, and the Dorohoi district

1942: One thousand Jews living in Piotrkow, Poland are dragged from their homes in the middle of the night. Those too ill or old to move were shot on the spot. This was first of eight straight days of terror resulting in the deportation of 20,000 Jews. All of them were sent to Treblinka to be killed. The Shtetel of Piotrkow had had a Jewish population since at least the start of the fifteenth century.  At the start of World War II, the Jews made up a third of the town’s population.  After the Holocaust there were so few Jews left that they were less than one percent of the population.

1942: 3rdof Cheshvan, 5703): Twenty year old Charles Abelson of Montreal, a Private serving with the Canadian Army Dental Corps, “was presumed to have died” today “according to an official announcement” when the SS Carbou, aboard which he was traveling was torpedoed and sank. (Canadian Jewish Congress records)

1943(15th of Tishrei, 5704): Sukkoth I

1943(15th of Tishrei, 5704): Led by Alexander Pecherski and a few other Jewish members of the Red Army, a revolt broke out in the Sobibor death camp when a number of SS guards were killed. Prevented from fleeing through the gates, 130 Jews died trying to escape through the mine fields. Thirty found their way to freedom. The remaining 140 were captured and shot. The camp itself was closed immediately. Yes, you did read a description of the same event on October 13.  Apparently different sources disagree on the date of this heroic act.  If there can be such a lack of agreement on the date of so recent an event, we should not be surprised when we have difficulty providing exact dates for ancient events.

                                                     Or, a different version

1943(15th of Tishrei, 5704): Leon Feldhendler and Jewish Soviet officer Aleksandr Pechersky, interned at the Sobibór death camp since September, instigate an inmate revolt and escape, during which 11 German SS guards and two or three Ukrainian SS guards are killed. Two hundred of 600 Jews in the camp are killed by gunfire and exploding mines; among them is 33-year-old Dutch painter Max Van Dam. Of the 300 who escape, only 100 are recaptured; many of the remaining 200 escapees join Soviet partisan forces. Of these, only 50 to 70, including Pechersky, will survive the war.


1943: Sixteen year old Tomasz Toivi Blatt, a native of Isbica, as Jewish shtetl in Poland whose “parents and younger brother had been gassed six months earlier” took part in the revolt at Sobibor today after which he was “shot in the jaw by a Polish farmer” but was able to survive and eventually settled in the United States where as Thomas Blatt he became a successful businessman and wrote From the Ashes of Sobibor: A Story of Survival with Christopher R. Browning and a memoir Sobibor: The Forgotten Revolt — A Survivor’s Report.

1943(15th of Tishrei, 5704): Dr. Saul Tchernichovsky, the physician-poet who translated Macbeth and The Odyssey into Hebrew died today the age of 68 after settling in Eretz Israel ten years ago after fleeing from Nazi Germany.  According to the New York Times, he was born in the Ukraine, practiced medicine in St. Petersburg and Berlin. “In My Dream,” his first Hebrew poem was published in the United States in a magazine called Hagispah (Summit).  “His original verse and translations made him a leading figure in the world of modern Hebrew literature.  The government of Finland decorated him for translating the Finnish national epic, “Kalevala: and during his later years he won the Bialik Prize for his poetry.”  He also served as one of the governors of Hebrew University.  During the First World War, he “served as a Russian Army doctor on the Eastern Front.  He practiced medicine for a year in Palestine during the middle 1920’s before settling in Berlin where he was a successful physician until the Nazis came to power.

1943: Angelo Donati, an Italian banker and diplomat who has risked his to save Jews in southern France found refuge in Switzerland today after evading the Gestapo which had been ordered to arrest him.

1944:  Soviet Troops entered Riga. Only a handful of Jews survived where there were 30,000 just ten years earlier.

1944: ‘Hans Günther Adler, who wrote under pseudonym H. G. Adler” his wife and his mother-in-law arrived at Auschwitz.

1944: In Hungary, the Horthy government promises to release imprisoned Jewish-Palestinian paratroopers.

1944: As he attempts to negotiate for the safety of Hungarian Jews, Dr. Rudolf Kastner “travelled for the second time to St Margathen.”

1945: Birthdate of Alan Blinder a Professor of Economics at Princeton who served as Vice Chairperon of the Federal Reserve System during the Clinton Administration.

1947: The Palestine Supreme Court ruled that “the government must give Gershon Friedmann of Tel Aviv and his wife Erna, legal status because years ago two certificates had been deducted for them from the official immigration court.”  The decision is “a test case that may provide legal status for more than 2000 Jews who migrated to Palestine without proper certificates.”

1948: Bob Hope and the Clark Sisters recorded “Buttons and Bows” with music by Jay Livingston and lyrics by Ray Evans.” (Evans and Livingston were Jewish; Hope was not.)

1948:Brandeis University opened its doors to its first undergraduate class of 120 first-years.

1948: Birthdate of Minnesota native Dr. Norman J. Ornstein, the political scientist affiliated with the American Enterprise Institute who is a friend of liberal Senator Al Franken, the husband of attorney Judith L. Harris and co-author of One Nation After Trump.


1948: During the War for Independence major fighting between Egypt and Israel resumed.  The Egyptians found out that the Israelis would not be any easier to defeat in “round two” of the fighting.

1949: In the U.K. premiere of “Give Us This Day” with a score by Benjamin Frankel.

1949: In Brooklyn, Basil Pollitt, a Protestant and  a lawyer who championed liberal causes, and her mother, Leonora Levine, a Jewish  real estate agent gave birth to poet, essayist and critic Katha Pollit whose works include Reasonable Creatures: Essays on Women and Feminism a collection of nineteen essays published in 1949.

1950: In New York City, “Two Flags West” starring Jeff Chandler premiered today at the Rivoli Theatre.

1951: Southpaw Morris "Moe" Savransky was traded by the Buffalo Bisons of the International League to Cincinnati of the National League.


1952: Birthdate of Steve Rothman, who was first elected to Congress from the 9thDistrict of New Jersey in 1997.

1952: “Justine Wise Polier” gave a passionate “speech on justice at Christ Church” today.


1952: Having been trader by the Dodgers to the Cincinnati Reds, outfielder Cal Abrams was traded by the Reds to the Pittsburg Pirates, which at that time meant he had gone from the best in the NL to the worst in the NL in one short year.

1953: Unit 101, together with a unit of regular paratroopers, all under the command of Ariel Sharon carried out a reprisal raid on the Arab village of Kibya on the night after an Israeli woman and her two infant children were murdered by Arab terrorists from Jordan.

1956: After winning their season opener, Sid Gillman’s Los Angeles Rams lost their second game of the season as the Detroit Lions prevailed at home.

1958: Foundation stone of the Knesset laid in Jerusalem.  The Knesset is the Israeli parliament.  Knesset is a Hebrew word that means “meeting.”

1959: Alexander "Alex" Bittelman’s planned memoir was condemned by Gus Hall and other leaders of the Communist Party in the United States.  This was part of Bittleman’s shift in views in the wake of the exposure of Stalin’s crimes and the Hungarian uprising in 1956.

1960(23rdof Tishrei, 5721): Simchat Torah

1961: The National tour of Flower Drum Song, the eighth musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II which had opened in May of 1960 came to a close today in Cleveland, “a month before the film version of the musical opened.”

1961: Birthdate of fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi


1962: NBC broadcast the first show of the final season The Dinah Shore Chevy Shoe starring Dinah Shore.

1964(8th of Cheshvan, 5725): Sixty-nine year old Nathan Parnes who had been a co-producer at the Second Avenue Theatre with Molly Picon and been the house manager for the Biltmore Theatre passed away today.


1964: The Episcopal Church cleared Jews of the charge of killing Jesus.  The Roman Catholic Church reached a similar conclusion during this period.  While this action was a cause for optimism about the future of relations between Christians and Jews, recent comments and actions by the Episcopal Church concerning the state of Israel have clouded some of this optimism.

1965(18thof Tishrei, 5726): Fourth day of Sukkoth

1965(18thof Tishrei, 5726): Forty-three year old producer and director Burt Balaban, the Chicago born son of Tillie Urkov, the stepson of Barney Balaban who became a combat photographer during WW II after graduating from Roanoke College passed away.


1965:  Sandy Koufax hurled his 2nd shutout of the World Series beating Twins 2-0.  Koufax is still regarded by the greatest southpaw and the leading Jewish athlete of his time.

1967(10thof Tirshrei, 5728): Yom Kippur is observed in a united Jerusalem.

1969: On his 28th birthday, Art Shamsky started in Game 3 of the World Series.

1970: “C.C. and Company” a biker movie brought to the silver screen by executive producer Joseph E. Levine was released today in the United States.

1971(25thof Tishrei, 5732): Seventy-two year old Samuel Spewack, the husband and writing partner of Bella Spewack passed away today.

1971: “The Samuel Freeman House” was added to the National Register of Historic Places today.

1971: “Blood from the Mummy's Tomb” starring Valerie Leon was released today in the United Kingdom.

1972:Lo chiameremo Andrea (We’ll Call Him Andrew) produced by Arthur Cohn was released today in Italy.

1973:David Zeit and Eli Tovel ejected from their F-4E Phantom Jet after it was shot down by either a MiG or a SAM.  Both were recovered by Israeli forces.

1973: During the Yom Kippur War, Egyptian tanks mount a major attack against Israeli forces.  Their goal is to seize the Mitla and Gidi Passes in the Central Sinai which will then open the road to eastern Sinai Peninsula and the Negev.  Two thousand tanks were involved in the battle.  This is more tanks than were used in any single battle of World War II except for the great battle of Kursk.  In other words, this was one heck of big fight over a very limited front.  At the end of the day, the Israelis held the line.  That evening, despite the opposition of Moshe Dayan, the Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army ordered Israeli forces to prepare to cross the canal on the following night and begin a major assault on the Egyptian bridgeheads.  He correctly believed that the heavy Egyptian losses had weakened the Arab army.  He also had already been convinced that the only way to end the war was to cut the supply line to the Egyptian forces attacking east of the Suez Canal. Despite the battlefield successes of the last forty-eight hours, moral on the homefront was low as the Israeli casualty lists lengthened and the war moved into its second full week.  To make matters even worse, The Soviets continued to rush tons of supplies by sea and air to both Cairo and Damascus. 

1973: In one of the largest tank-to-tank battles ever fought, Israel is estimated to have lost 10 tanks, the Egyptians anywhere from 250 to 300. Iraq and Jordan send troops to the Golan, in response to appeals for assistance from Syria. (As reported by JTA)

1975: The President of the Soviet Union continued his visit to Tunisia which was part of Russia’s attempt to increase in the Middle East which was detrimental to the survival of Israel.

1976(20thof Tishrei, 5737): Sixth Day of Sukkoth

1976(20thof Tishrei, 5737): Eighty-six year old long time Zionist activist who counted among his many friends Chaim Weizmann passed away today.


1977: “Equus” the film version of Peter Shaffer’s play directed by Sidney Lumet was released in the United Kingdom today.

1979(23rdof Tishrei, 5740): Simchat Torah

1980: The Albert Kahn Building, the Detroit office building designed by architect Albert Kahn, the son or Rabbi Joseph Kahn, was placed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places today.


1980: In something that is unique to Israeli government, MK Yitzhak Yitzhaky left Likud and formed “a one man party called One Israel.”

1981(16thof Tishrei, 5742): Second Day of Sukkoth

1981(16thof Tishrei, 5742): David Nations, “the British water skiing champion in 1955 and 1956 who helped to found the British Water Ski Federation in 1955 passed away today.


1982: “A Kind of Alaska” “a one-act play written by Harold Pinter” premiered in the Cottesloe Theatre in London.

1982: In Manhattan, Mary Amanda Dargan and Steven Joel Zietlen, founder of City Lore gave birth to Benjamin Harold "Benh" Zeitlin “the 2012 recipient of Smithsonian magazine's American Ingenuity Award in the Visual Arts category.”

1983: In the Soviet Union refusnik Iosif Begun went on trial for a third time.

1985(29thof Tishrei, 5746): Ninety-six year old Russian born Pinchas Cruso who came to the United States in 1909, served in WW I and was chairman of the Labor Zionist Movement passed away today.

1986: VHS release of “The Cage” which was supposed to have been the first pilot episode of Star Trek, featuring Leonard Nimoy as “Mr. Spock” and Malachi Thorne as “The Keeper.”

1986: Holocaust survivor and human rights advocate Elie Wiesel was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize


1988: “Madame Sousatzka” the movie version of the novel of the same name by Bernice Rubens directed by John same name by Bernice Rubens.Schlesinger was released in the United States today.

1989: Sixty-three year old German historian and war crimes expert Martin Broszat passed away. (As reported by Eric Pace)

http://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/02/obituaries/martin-broszat-german-historian-and-war-crimes-expert-63-dies.html





1989:The Syrian fighter pilot who defected to Israel in a Soviet jet fighter on Wednesday said today that his flight was ''a very difficult mission'' since he flew at about 800 miles an hour and was only about 100 to 150 feet off the ground. In a meeting with journalists, the pilot, Maj. Mohammed Bassem Adel, said that the monitors on his Soviet-made MIG-23 showed that Israeli air-defense radar tracked him all along the way, and that he was worried because he knew that ''the section I was crossing is spread all over with missiles.'' But the major said he believed that he was not shot down before he landed because ''a country that has confidence in itself cannot be afraid of one single plane and would take the time to evaluate what was going on before taking action.'' Major Adel, whom the Israelis had initially identified as Maj. Adel Bassem, is balding and has a mustache, and he looks far older than his 34 years. The Israeli military allowed journalists to interview him this afternoon at a military base just north of Tel Aviv. He still wore his deep green Syrian flight jumpsuit. Two dozen Israeli military officers sat in the room as he talked. He said he fled Syria, leaving a family and fiancee behind, because ''I wanted to change my life - I wanted to live in a democratic country where people are free to express their views.'' He would not elaborate. He decided to leave three months ago but did not make his ''operational plans'' until Wednesday morning, he said. He was influenced by what he read of Israel and saw on television. ''I was not in contact with anyone here before I came; no one was expecting me,'' he added. ''I've no connection whatsoever with anyone in Israel before now.'' Before leaving, Major Adel said, he told no one what he intended to do. Once he lifted off from his base in Syria, he said he was in the air 20 minutes, and over Israeli airspace only between three and four minutes, before he landed near the town of Megiddo. On Thursday the military opened an investigation to determine how Major Adel flew into Israel in a potentially hostile fighter plan without interference. He appeared to give much of the explanation today. He said all his active electronic systems were off. Without any of his target radars armed - conditions easily monitored from the ground - air defense officers could probably see he had no immediate hostile intent. He said he did not know where he would land. ''I didn't know if there would be a facility I could land at and thought I might have to land on a highway,'' he said. ''I thought I might be intercepted by Israeli planes. But I kept flying, looking for a place to land.'' After he landed, he waited 20 minutes for security officials to arrive, and in that time he told a ground technician at the airfield that police in Syria had beaten him up after he had asked for better housing several months ago. Today, he declined to discuss his life in Syria. He said his treatment here so far has been ''gentle.'' West Bank and Gaza Killings

1990(25th of Tishrei, 5751): Composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein passed away.  During his 72 years, Bernstein drew on a variety of themes from traditional Judaism to Shakespeare and racial conflicts that divided the teenage gangs of New York. There is no way that this blog can do justice to this musical genius and social icon.  The man who gave the world West Side Story was an ardent supporter in its darkest days. He came to Israel during the War for Independence to perform and his concert on Mt. Scopus after the June War is a treasure in more than one way.

1991(6thof Cheshvan, 5752): Fifty-five year old Brooklyn born Alan Goldstein, “an All-America and All-ACC end at the University of North Carolina who also played one season with the Oakland Raiders passed away today.

1993: The Wldodawa Museum which erected the first monument to Sobibór victims in 1965 “established a separate Sobibór branch today.

1993: In “This Jewish Mom Dominates TV, Too” John J. O’Connor examines this comedic staple in the closing decade of the 20th century.


1993: A revival of “Conversations With My Father,” a play that “presents the saga of a first generation of American Jews who came of age in the Depression and were assimilated at a high price during and after World War II” opened today “at the James Doolittle Theatre in Hollywood, CA.”



1994 (9th of Cheshvan, 5755): Nachsho Wachsman, a nineteen year old Israeli soldier who had been kidnapped by Hamas, was killed when Israeli forces attempted to rescue him.  “His father Yehuda was an advocated of improved Jewish-Arab relations, and a supporter of the peace process.’”

1994:  Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

1994: A month after premiering at the Venice Film Festival, the Woody Allen Comedy “Bullets Over Broadway” co-starring Harvey Fiertsein  and featuring Rob Reiner was released today in the United States.

1994: NBC broadcast the first episode of season three of “Homicide: Life on the Street” starring Yaphet Frederik Kotto as “Lieutenant Al Giardello” and Richard Belzer as “John Munch.”

1997(13th of Tishrei, 5758): American novelist Harold Robbins passed away.


1997: First broadcast of “The Dream Team” a British television series with scripts by Noam Friedlander.

1998(24thof Tishrei, 5759): Ninety-three year old New York native Leo S. Palitz the CCNY basketball player and physician who was married to “Lillian Nassau, the doyenne of New York antique dealers” passed away today.

2000(15thof Tishrei, 5761): As Israelis cope with the violence of yet another round of Arab terrorism, the first day of Sukkoth is observed.

2000: Broadcast of the third episode of “A History of Britain” a documentary series “written and presented by Simon Schama.

2001:The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish author or of special interest to Jewish readers including  Will the Circle Be Unbroken?:Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a Faith by Studs Terkel.

2001: Delta Flight 458 from Atlanta, Georgia to Newark, New Jersey, is diverted to Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, and passengers are taken off the flight while officials investigate a report of two "Middle Eastern men" making threats in a foreign tongue -- two Orthodox Jews peacefully praying.

2003: Following today’s celebration of the 60th anniversary of the revolt at Sobibór “the grounds of the former death camp received a grant largely funded by the Dutch government to improve the exhibits.”

2004: "FDR's Auschwitz Secret," by Michael Beschloss appears in Newsweek Magazine. The article is an excerpt from Beschloss’ latest book and reveals the fact that it was FDR himself who made the decision not to bomb the Nazi death camp.’

2004: Today, Alfred Freiherr von Oppenheim, whose father,Friedrich Carl von Oppenheim had been posthumously recognized  as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1996, “was awarded the North Rhine-Westphalia Decoration of Honour.”

2005:  As part of an interview with the Israeli Interior Minister, the Jerusalem Post reported that Jewish extremists were continuing with plots against the life of Prime Minister Sharon.  While the capabilities of the Israeli security forces had improved since the murder of Prime Minister Rabin ten years ago, the Jews who are willing to murder other Jews still posed a major threat.  The Interior Minister called for the same kind of Administrative Detention be used in dealing with Jews plotting to kill government officials or blow up the Temple Mount as was used against Arab terrorists.

2006: International Haifa Film Festival comes to a close.

2006: A show featuring the works of Lazar (El) Markovich Lissitzky opens at the Phillips Collection in Washington.   According to an article in the Forwards, the “prints in the Phillips show are from his “Victory Over the Sun” drawings for an opera set.”  Lissitzky was a contemporary of Chagall with whom he was often confused.  The paintings from this period represent Lissitzky’s attempt to break from “Chagall Shadow.”

2006(22nd of Tishrei, 5767): Shemini Atzeret, 5767.

2007:The New York Times cited U.S. and Israeli military intelligence sources saying that the target of the attack in Syria had been a nuclear reactor under construction by North Korean technicians, with a number of the technicians having been killed in the strike.”

2007: The Sunday Washington Post book section featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including  Lost Genius: The Curious and Tragic Story of An Extraordinary Musical Prodigy by Kevin Bazzan which is a biography of pianist Ervin Nyiregyhazi -- pronounced, "air-veen nyeer-edge-hah-zee"– “who was born in Budapest of Jewish ancestry.” 



2007: The Sunday New York Times book section featured a slew of reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or that featured Jewish topics including, The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World by Alan Greenspan, The Bulldozer and The Big Tent by Jewish author Todd Gitlin,The Year of Living Biblicallyby A.J. Jacobs, Lords of the Land: The War Over Israel’s Settlements in the Occupied Territories,1967-2007 by Idith Zertal and Akiva Eldar; translated by Vivian Eden and The Castle on Hester Street by Linda Heller, a book for children that is a zestful tale of Russian-Jewish immigration at the turn of the last century.



2007: As a sign of the vitality and growth of the Jewish Community, The Washington Post reported that Charles County, Maryland, is getting its first synagogue. Congregation Sha'are Shalom, which has been holding services for the last sixteen years at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Waldorf, has located an acceptable site after a five year search.  Speaking about the benefits of building a permanent home, congregation treasurer Lee Weinberger said, “With the construction of the synagogue, we will be able to expand our educational and social activities and be able to offer all our activities and services at one location."



2007: The New York Times Magazine featured an article entitled “The SY Empire” describing the growth of the Syrian Jewish Community.



2007:Rabbi Shais Taub of the Chabad Lubavitch of Wisconsin led a group of 10 Orthodox Jewish football fans on a pilgrimage from Milwaukee deep into Green Bay Packerland. They tailgated across the street from Lambeau Field, in a grass-covered parking lot, next door to Kroll's West, where butter burgers - definitely not kosher - are a specialty. They prayed, with some of the men and their sons donning a prayer shawl called a tallit and phylacteries, two small leather boxes containing verses of Scripture. They stood out amid the familiar green-and-gold sea. And they showed that people can find or express their faith at a house of worship or a house of sports. You recite morning prayers in Hebrew, even if a rock band is on a nearby stage blaring "Brown Sugar.""What's the point?" Rabbi Taub said. "Number one, Judaism is not relegated to the synagogue or the study hall. When you're a Jew, you're a Jew everywhere. If a group of Jews want to go to a Packer game, we do it like Jews.""Number two, Jewish pride," he added. "Some Jews should see this and say, 'You know what, there is nothing to hide.' I can be openly and boldly Jewish and do that anywhere on earth and go where I want to go."

2007: Rafael Armament Development Authority Ltd. Changed its name to  to Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd.

2008(15th of Tishrei, 5769): First Day Sukkoth

2008: In Canada today, a “Battle of the Booths”; Canada’s Conservative Party chooses to hold elections on the first Day of Sukkoth giving Jews the choice between the voting booths or the Festivals of Booths.  Jews can vote ahead of time, but many Jewish leaders object because holding the election on a Jewish holiday limits Jewish participation in the electoral process.  Others express no objection.

2008:Canter's Deli, a famous Jewish style delicatessen in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles, California, near the border of West Hollywood, celebrated its 60th anniversary today. To mark the occasion, the deli reduced the price of their "famous" corned beef sandwich to its 1948 price of 60 cents, limited to one per customer, for a period of 12 hours.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canter%27s



2008(15th of Tishrei, 5769): Seventy-six year old Irish author and feminist June Levine author of Sisters passed away today.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/my-extraordinary-contradictory-beautiful-friend-june-levine-26485638.html

http://www.irishwriters-online.com/levine-june/

2009: The Jewish Agency is scheduled to hold citizenship ceremonies for new immigrants on the roof of a Yeshiva overlooking the Western Wall.  Up until today the ceremonies had been held at the Western Wall plaza.  The agency changed the location for the ceremony because the rabbi responsible for the site “had demanded gender separation at the ceremonies.” 

2009: The UN Security Council is expected to meet today instead of October 20 and is expected to discuss the Goldstone Report which reported on Israeli actions during the anti-terrorist incursion into Gaza known as Cast Lead.

2009(26th of Tishrei, 5770): Sixty one year old investment banker Bruce Wasserstein passed away today.





2009:The Center for Jewish History and Leo Baeck Institute present: Music in the Age of the Wittgensteins, Part 1. The Wittgenstein Century began in the early 19th century and ended after WWI. During this period the dynasty rose from humble origins to become the wealthiest family in Austria-Hungary and produced one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century, Ludwig Wittgenstein.  Great music accompanied this remarkable family all along its historical trajectory. The Wittgensteins included performers, like Paul Wittgenstein, who became known for his ability to play piano with just his left hand, after losing his right arm in World War I.  The household was frequently visited by prominent cultural figures, among them the composers Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, Josef Labor and Richard Strauss, with whom the young Paul played duets. They studied under great composers, hosted the greatest musicians of the time at their Musikaals, and commissioned masterpieces. This four-concert music series will present music from the gestalt of Wittgenstein family.

2010:Two Thousand Years of Jewish Life in Morocco” an exhibition sponsored by American Sephardi Federation that tells the story of one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world is scheduled to open in New York.

2010:“Surveying Judy Chicago: 1970-2010,” a one-woman exhibit, opens at the AC Galleries, in New York.

2010: Rabbi Joseph Ehrenkranz, was presented with CCJU's prestigious Nostra Aetate Award for "his outstanding contributions to a world at peace."

2010:In an article entitledVague, Opaque and Ambiguous: Israel’s Hush-Hush Nuclear Policy, Ethan Bronner reviewed The Worst-Kept Secret: Israel’s Bargain With the Bombby Avner Cohen

2010:According to reports published today,”The world's youngest billionaire, Dustin Moskovitz, is 26, born just eight days after his former Harvard roommate and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg. While Zuckerberg is no longer the youngest member of the Forbes 400, he is this year's biggest percentage gainer: His net worth has jumped to $6.9 billion from $2 billion. The third Facebook billionaire, 28-year-old Eduardo Saverin, left the company in a legal dispute, settled with Saverin reportedly getting a 5% stake in the company.”  All three are Jewish.

2010: The Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, the city’s second Holocaust museum was dedicated today at Pan Pacific Park in the city’s heavily newish Beverly-Fairfax neighborhood.

2010(6th of Cheshvan, 5771):Eighty-five year old “maverick mathematician” Benoît B. Mandelbrot passed away today. (As reported by Jascha Hoffman) http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/us/17mandelbrot.html

2010(6th of Cheshvan, 5771): Ninety-two year old legal scholar Louis Henkin passed away today. (As reported by William Grimes) http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/us/17henkin.html

2011(16th of Tishrei, 5772):  Second Day of Sukkoth      

2011(16th of Tishrei, 5772):  Eighty-seven year old Morris Chaftez, the first director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism passed away today. (As reported by William Grimes)


 2011: “The Big Year” a comedy directed by David Frankel and co-starring Jack Black was released today by

2011: Following Friday night services at Auguda Achim in Iowa City, IA, congregants are scheduled to view “Ushpezin,” a comedy in which an impoverished Jerusalem couple is visited by a pair of escaped convicts “become their guests (ushpezin) in the Sukkah”

2011:The disagreements and tensions within Hamas over the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap are reportedly pitting group detainees against each other in Israel's prisons. A website affiliated with Fatah reported today that great tensions emerged between Hamas prisoners from the West Bank and their counterparts from the Gaza Strip as result of the swap's characteristics.As it turned out, most released prisoners who will not be allowed to return to their homes and instead be expelled to various countries abroad are West Bank residents, while most Gaza detainees would be allowed to go home. Moreover, the report said, as opposed to Hamas' declarations that any swap would be brought up for the prisoners' approval, no such vote was held. As result of the above developments, the Fatah website said, great tensions currently persist between the different groups of prisoners held in Israeli jails. Meanwhile, senior Hamas figure Ismail Radwan attempted to allay the tensions, claiming that the Palestinian prisoners who would be expelled abroad would return to Gaza later.

2011:Bereaved families filed a petition with the High Court of Justice today, the first against the Gilad Shalit deal which will see 1,027 Palestinian prisoners being released in exchange for the Hamas-held soldier.



2012: The Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to sponsor a walking tour of Downtown Jewish Washington that will include a look at “the historic 7th Street, NW neighborhood from 1850 to 1950.”



2012: “Outsiders in Israel” and “Who Shot My Father” are scheduled to shown at the Syracuse (NY) Film Festival.



2012: History of Jewish Giving: Jews and Charity, a “symposium organized by Debra Kaplan, Yeshiva University and Judah Galinsky, Bar-Ilan University” is scheduled to take place in New York City.



2012: Today,the cabinet approved a resolution calling for new elections to be held in 101 days, on January 22, 2013.

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=287750





2012:The Hezbollah drone that infiltrated the Negev last week beamed back live images of secret Israeli military bases, the Sunday Times reported today. According to the report, the drone was airborne for three hours before being intercepted by an F-16I jet. It is believed to have transmitted pictures of preparations for Israel's joint military exercise with the US, as well as ballistic missile sites, airfields and, perhaps, the nuclear reactor in Dimona, the Sunday Times reported.

http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=287724



2012(28th of Tishrei, 5773): Eighty-two year old Arlen Spector, long-term senator from Pennsylvania passed away today.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/former-pennsylvania-senator-arlen-specter-dies-at-82/





2012(28th of Tishrei, 5773): Eighty-seven year old broadcast magnate and philanthropist Joseph Rosenmiller passed away today. (As reported by Leslie Kaufman)

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/18/us/joseph-rosenmiller-nontraditional-philanthropist-dies-at-87.html?_r=1&hpw





2012: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen by Sylvie Simmons, The Machine That Kills Secrets:How WikiLeakers, Cypherpunks, and Hacktivists Aim to Free the World’s Information by Andy Greenberg and the recently released paperback edition of The Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern World by Pulitzer Prize winner Daniel Yergin.



2013: In Manhattan, the Israel Real Estate Exhibition is scheduled to come to a close.



2013: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host “Creating Identity: Yiddish across a Spectrum of Jewish Communities Today” featuring Isabelle Barrière and Sarah Benor



2013: Maj.-Gen. (res.) Eli Marom, who served as the commander of the Israeli Navy during Operation Cast Lead and during the raid on the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara vessel, was held for questioning at around noon today at London's Heathrow Airport upon his arrival in Britain (As reported by YNet)



2013: Ten Jewish men were detained by police after they were accused of praying and bowing inside the Temple Mount enclosure on Monday morning (As reported by Stuart Winer)

2014: It was announced today that Tulane University graduate Andrew Friedman “had left the Rays to become the President of Baseball Operations for the Los Angeles Dodgers.”



2014: The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center of Holocaust Education is scheduled to host “Ray of Hope Concert” with Alika Hope and Ray Morant.



2014: Tziporela, the award winning Israeli theatre is scheduled to perform its latest production, “Odd Birdz.”



2014: The Wiener Library is scheduled to host Hitler’s First War: Adolf Hitler and the First World War during which author Thomas Weber will present a picture of the German dictator’s military service which is at odds with the myth he created.



2014: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present “The Haunted Sukkah.”



2014: “From Moses to Moses,” a three week course taught be Dr. Maurice Mirahi is scheduled to begin tonight at the JCC of Northern Virginia.



2014: Tel Aviv Noir, an anthology of Gadi Taub’s short stories published by Akashic Books is scheduled to go on sale today.



2014: In the first move to rebuild Gaza fifteen trucks of cement (600 tons), ten of steel (400 tons), and 50 of gravel  along with trucks from the West Bank filled with dates and bananas entered the coastal enclave today from Israel.(As reported by Avi Issacharoff and Marissa Newman)



2014: Sixty-two year old Berry Freundel the long-time rabbi at Kesher Israel Congregation in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. was arrested this morning and charged with voyeurism; a charge stemming from reports that he had placed a camera in the women’s mikvah.



2014: “A letter purportedly penned by slain journalist Steven Sotloff days before his murder was published in an Islamic State publication today, as the jihadists addressed the hostage’s Jewish identity for the first time connecting his death with his religious beliefs. (As reported by Marissa Newman)

http://www.timesofisrael.com/islamic-state-slain-hostage-was-no-innocent-he-was-a-jew/



2015(1stof Cheshvan, 5776): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan



2015(1stof Cheshvan, 5776: Ninety-four year old publisher Gerald Gross, the Jewish WW II veteran who is best known for his connection with Nazi leader Albert Speer passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/22/books/gerald-gross-who-published-memoirs-of-a-hitler-associate-is-dead-at-94.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=1





2015: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host “the first official event of Hilary, Toast the Term.”



2015: As part of the Tulane University Jewish Studies Speaker Series, Professor Ilan Tojerow is scheduled to speak in New Orleans.



2015: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present a Book Talk featuring Seth M. Siegel, author of Let There Be Water: Israel’s Solution For A Water-Starved World



2015: This date is “a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA)” honoring Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky the Lithuanian born Jew who became “Anglican Bishop of Shanghai.”





2015: The Museum of Jewish Heritage is scheduled to host “The Picture – A Cinematic Concert.”



2016: In a testament to the vitality of small town Judaism in Iowa, at Agudas Achim, Boaz Abramoff is scheduled to participate in Erev Shabbat services as part of his “Bar Mitzvah weekend” while at Temple Judah Leah Dillon is scheduled to participate in Erev Shabbat services as part of her “Bat Mitzvah weekend.”

2016: “Carmel Shama HaCohen, Ambassador of Israel to International Organization wrote to Andres Roemer, Mexico’s ambassador to UNESCO, expressing appreciation for his opposition to the resolution denying the Jewish connection to Israel and his willingness to walk out rather than vote for the resolution.

2016: Trumpeter Avishai Cohen is one of the musicians scheduled to perform the works of Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Mongo Santamaría, and Thelonious Monk at Lincoln Center.

2016: Four days after premiering at Gruman’s Chinese Theatre, “The Accountant” a crime thriller with a twist co-starring Jeffrey Tambor and Jon Bernthal premiered was released in the United States

2016: The “US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation,” a national coalition of anti-Israel organizations, whose co-founder Anna Baltzer who “has declared that she is not opposed merely to any supposed Israeli occupation but to the very existence of Israel itself” is scheduled to begin it annual conference in Arlington, VA.

2016: Michael Worbs, “the chair of UNESCO’s Executive Board said” today that “he was sorry about the resolution passed by UNESCO” yesterday “ignoring Jewish ties to Jerusalem’s sites.”

2017(24th of Tishrei, 5778): Bereshit – The cycle begins again

2017: In the UK, The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host Shacharit Services followed by a Shabbat luncheon.

2017: Dance Tel Aviv is scheduled to host the second performance by Compagnie Thor “directed by Belgian dancer Thierry Smits.”

2017: Theo Epstein’s Chicago Cubs take on the Dodgers in their quest to get to the World Series where they will hope to prove that last year’s victory was not a fluke.

2018: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center and the Chicago YIVO Society are scheduled to host “Grand Tango Duo: From Tango to Klezmer,” a “special concert honoring the memory of Chicago music teacher, Sarah Lazarus, featuring a performance by Carl Algermissen, piano, and Ethan Lazarus, cello.”

2018: The Breman Museum is scheduled to a preview reception for its newest exhibition, “Vedem Underground: The Secret Magazine of the Terezin Ghetto (1942-1944)”.

2018: In Portland, ME, “the Cantor Kurt Messerschmidt Memorial Fund and the Jewish Community Alliance” are scheduled to “present DIVAS ON THE BIMA Live in concert.”

2018: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Your Duck Is My Duck by Deborah Eisenberg and Deviationby Luce D’Eramo

2019: In Florida, sentencing is scheduled to begin today for the man convicted of first degree murder in the brutal, murder-for-hire shooting of Canadian born FSU law professor Dan Markel.

2019: Having been benched yesterday, quarterback Josh Rosen will be contemplating his future with the Miami Dolphins

2019(15thof Tishrei, 5780):  First Day of Sukkoth; for more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/




This Day, October 15, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin

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OCTOBER 15



586 BCE (16th of Cheshvan, 3176): King Zedekiah was blinded and taken into captivity. He was the last king of Judea. Zedekiah’s ("Tzidkiyahu") original name was Matanya. He was torn between the two great powers of Egypt and Babylon. Unfortunately, Egypt under Hopra was no match for Nebuchadnezzar who pushed out the Egyptians and laid siege to Jerusalem. Zedekiah tried to flee from Jerusalem but was captured along with his sons in Jericho. He ended his life in a Babylonian prison.

412: Theophilius passed away clearing the way for Cyril an anti-Semite who had incited a Greek mob to kill Jew to become Patriarch of Alexandria.

912: Abdullah ibn Muhammad, Emir of Córdoba passed away. Abdullah passed away just when Cordoba was on the brink of becoming a major center of Jewish culture and learning.  Menahem ben Sharuk, the great grammarian was two years old when the Emir passed away and Hasdai Ibn Shaprut would not be born until three years after his birth.  The rise of Cordoba as a Jewish center coincided with its reemergence as a power on the Iberian Peninsula.

1218: Birthdate of Hulagu Khan, the Mongol rule who conquered Palestine in 1260 who showed toleration to all three major religions – Jews, Christians and Moslems – and whose invasion of Persia in 1255 led to the creation of the Ilkhanate, a portion of the Mongol Empire where much to the relief of the Jews “the rulers abolished the inequality of dhimmis, and all religions were deemed equal.”

1485: At Soncino, Italy, Joshua Solomon Soncino printed “The Former Prophets” with a commentary by Kimhi.  [Kimihi probably refers to David Kimihi, the 13th century rabbi known as RaDak.  But it cannot be said with certitude that it does not refer to his father Rabbi Joserph Kimhi and his brother Rabbi Moses Kimhi.] The Soncinos were a family of Sephardic Jews who had begun operating printing presses in the town of Soncino, Italy in 1483.  Yes the town was the inspiration for the last name.

1582: Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian calendar. In Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain, October 4 of this year was followed directly by October 15. The change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar helps to explain the challenge in matching dates on the Hebrew calendar with the dates on the civil calendar.

1585: Birthdate of Louis Cappel, the French Huguenot Scholar “accepted the chair of Hebrew at Samur” at the age of 28 who “made a special study of the history of the Hebrew text, which led him to the conclusion that the vowel points and accents are not an original part of the Hebrew language, but had been inserted by the Massorete Jews of Tiberias, no earlier than the 5th century.”

1655(Tishrei, 5416): The Jews of Lublin, Poland were massacred

1733: Birthdate of Raphael Hayyim Isaac Carregal the native of Hebron who is reported to have been the first rabbi to visit the colonies that would become the United States of America.

1737: After a slave denounced them to the Holy Office, Portuguese dramatist António José da Silva and his wife “were both imprisoned on the charge of ‘judaizing’”



1739(13th of Tishrei, 5500): António José da Silva “was garroted and burnt at a Lisbon auto-da-fe.” Born in 1705, he “was a Portuguese-Brazilian dramatist, known as "the Jew" (O Judeu)”

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/da_Silva.html



1742: Lea Eleonora Oppenheimer, the wife of Wolf Wertheimer ben Simon passed away today in Vienna.



1764: Edward Gibbon observes a group of friars singing in the ruined Temple of Jupiter in Rome, which inspires him to begin work on The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. In his classic history of the Roman Empire, Gibbon had the following to say about the Jewish people. (Editor’s Note: This long entry has been included to help readers decide if Gibbon was an anti-Semite in the sense that we understand that term.  Also, by reading Gibbon you may gain a greater understanding of the variety of views held by English men women when it comes to the Jewish people.  After all, this is designed as a learning experience, not just a collection of dates.

In Chapter XVI, Gibbon wrote:

“Rebellious Spirit of the Jews: Without repeating what has been already mentioned of the reverence of the Roman princes and governors for the temple of Jerusalem, we shall only observe that the destruction of the temple and city was accompanied and followed by every circumstance that could exasperate the minds of the conquerors, and authorize religious persecutions by the most specious arguments of political justice and the public safety. From the reign of Nero to that of Antonius Pius, the Jews discovered a fierce impatience of the dominion of Rome, which repeatedly broke out in the most furious massacres and insurrections. Humanity is shocked at the recital of the horrid cruelties which they committed in the cities of Egypt, of Cyprus, and of Cyrene, where they dwelt in treacherous friendship with the unsuspecting natives;(1) and we are tempted to applaud the severe retaliation which was exercised by the arms of the legions against a race of fanatics whose dire and credulous superstition seemed to render them the implacable enemies not only of the Roman government, but of human kind. The enthusiasm of the Jews was supported by the opinion that it was unlawful for them to pay taxes to an idolatrous master, and by the flattering promise which they derived from their ancient oracles, that a conquering Messiah would soon arise, destined to break their fetters, and to invest the favorites of heaven with the empire of the earth. It was by announcing himself as their long-expected deliverer, and by calling on all the descendants of Abraham to assert the hope of Israel, that the famous Barchochebas collected a formidable army, with which he resisted during two years the power of the emperor Hadrian

Toleration of the Jewish Religion: Notwithstanding these repeated provocations, the resentment of the Roman princes expired after the victory, nor were their apprehensions continued beyond the period of war and danger. By the general indulgence of Polytheism, and by the mild temper of Antonius Pius, the Jews were restored to their ancient privileges, and once more obtained the permission of circumcising their children, with the easy restraint that they should never confer on any foreign proselyte that distinguishing mark of the Hebrew race.(4) The numerous remains of that people, though they were still excluded from the precincts of Jerusalem, were permitted to form and to maintain considerable establishments both in Italy and in the provinces, to acquire the freedom of Rome, to enjoy municipal honors, and to obtain at the same time an exemption from the burdensome and expensive offices of society. The moderation or the contempt of the Romans gave a legal sanction to the form of ecclesiastical policy which was instituted by the vanquished sect. The patriarch, who had fixed his residence at Tiberias, was empowered to appoint his subordinate ministers and apostles, to exercise a domestic jurisdiction, and to receive from his dispersed brethren an annual contribution. New synagogues were frequently erected in the principal cities of the empire; and the Sabbaths, the fasts, and the festivals, which were either commanded by the Mosaic law or enjoined by the traditions of the Rabbis, were celebrated in the most solemn and public manner. Such gentle treatment insensibly assuaged the stern temper of the Jews. Awakened from their dream of prophecy and conquest, they assumed the behavior of peaceable and industrious subjects. Their irreconcilable hatred of mankind, instead of flaming out in acts of blood and violence, evaporated in less dangerous gratifications. They embraced every opportunity of over-reaching the idolaters in trade, and they pronounced secret and ambiguous imprecations against the haughty kingdom of Edom.

The Jews Were A People Which Followed The Christians, a Sect Which Deserted the Religion of Their Fathers: Since the Jews, who rejected with abhorrence the deities adored by their sovereign and by their fellow-subjects, enjoyed, however, the free exercise of their unsocial religion, there must have existed some other cause which exposed the disciples of Christ to those severities from which the posterity of Abraham was exempt. The difference between them is simple and obvious, but, according to the sentiments of antiquity, it was of the highest importance. The Jews were a nation, the Christians were a sect: and if it was natural for every community to respect the sacred institutions of their neighbors, it was incumbent on them to persevere in those of their ancestors. The voice of oracles, the precepts of philosophers, and the authority of the laws, unanimously enforced this national obligation. By their lofty claim of superior sanctity the Jews might provoke the Polytheists to consider them as an odious and impure race. By disdaining the intercourse of other nations they might deserve their contempt. The laws of Moses might be for the most part frivolous or absurd yet, since they had been received during many ages by a large society, his followers were justified by the example of mankind, and it was universally acknowledged that they had a right to practice what it would have been criminal in them to neglect. But this principle, which protected the Jewish synagogue, afforded not any favor or security to the primitive church. By embracing the faith of the Gospel the Christians incurred the supposed guilt of an unnatural and unpardonable offence. They dissolved the sacred ties of custom and education, violated the religious institutions of their country, and presumptuously despised whatever their fathers had believed as true or had reverenced as sacred. Nor was this apostasy (if we may use the expression) merely of a partial or local kind; since the pious deserter who withdrew himself from the temples of Egypt or Syria would equally disdain to seek an asylum in those of Athens or Carthage. Every Christian rejected with contempt the superstitions of his family, his city, and his province. The whole body of Christians unanimously refused to hold any communion with the gods of Rome, of the empire, and of mankind. It was in vain that the oppressed believer asserted the inalienable rights of conscience and private judgment. Though his situation might excite the pity, his arguments could never reach the understanding, either of the philosophic or of the believing part of the Pagan world. To their apprehensions it was no less a matter of surprise that any individuals should entertain scruples against complying with the established mode of worship than if they had conceived a sudden abhorrence to the manners, the dress, or the language of their native country.



1780: Birthdate of Eva Meijer, the sister of Abraham David Meijer and Jonas Daniel Meijer, the first Jewish lawyer in the Netherlands and a leader in the fight to gain full rights for all Dutch Jews.



1786(23rdof Tishrei, 5547): Simchat Torah



1787: In the Netherlands, the Jews of Amersfort including Benjamin Cohen celebrated today as a holiday because the Orange forces liberated the town.

1790: In Germany “Frommet Weil” and David Hirsch Lindauer gave birth to Bessie Lindauer. The wife of Isaac Frank and the mother of Asher and Gitel Frank.



1794(21st of Tishrei, 5555):Hoshanah Rabah



1809: In Mecklenburg, Jacob H. Marcus and his wife Judy Levi gave birth German lawyer and political leader Lewis Jacob Marcus.



1809: Birthdate of Friedrich A. Philippi, the son of a wealth Jewish banker who converted to Christianity following a pattern similar to that of the Mendelssohn family with which he was friends.



1818(15thof Tishrei, 5579): Sukkoth

1819(30thof Tishrei, 5580) Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

1819(30thof Tishrei, 5580): Seventy-seven year old Alexander Zunz “a Hessian Jew who came to the Thirteen Colonies as part of the British Army that occupied New York and who served as Chazan for Shearith Israel while deciding to stay in the newly created United States where he was a leading member of the New York business and Jewish community passed away today.

1821: Birthdate of German poet Moritz Hartmann.  Hartmann was as well known for his political activities as for his poetry.  He was a liberal and took part in the revolutions that rocked Europe in the 1840’s.  “Hartmann's poems are often lacking in genuine poetical feeling, but the love of liberty which inspired them, and the fervor, ease and clearness of their style compensated for these shortcomings and gained for him a wide circle of admirers.”

1824(23rdof Tishrei, 5585): Simchat Torah

1824: In Mt. Pleasant, NY, Charity and Jacob da Silva Solis gave birth toSarah Miriam Carvalho, the wife of Solomon Nunes Carvalho.

1828: Five days after he had passed away, Joseph Moses, the son Mordecai Moses, was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”

1829(18thof Tishrei, 5590): Chol HaMoed Sukkoth

1829(18thof Tishrei, 5590): Twenty year old Hindel Henriette Warburg passed away today.

1830: In London, Rachel and Aaron Cohen gave birth to Samuel Cohen, the husband of Rosetta Menser, who migrated to New South Wales in 1853 after which he established a successful business at Ulmarra where he also served as Mayor before returning to Sydney where he served on the Board of Management of the Great Synagogue, the Jewish Board of Education and as President of the Sir Moses Montefiore Jewish Home.

1831: In Alsace-Lorraine, Rabbi Mayer L. Eppstein and his wife gave birth to Elias Eppstein, the Bonn trained student of Rabbi Mertzig and author of “Confirmant’s Guide” and “Bible Evens” who served as rabbi at congregations “in Jackson, Michigan, Detroit, Michigan, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Kansas City, Missouri and Philadelphia, before settling in at Congregation B’nai Shalom in Quincy, Illinois.

1833: In Wurttemberg, Germany, Bernhard Frankfurter, the son of Mirjam Landauer and Moses Levi Frankfurter and Esther Frank gave birth to Wilhelmina Frankfurter

1834: Birthdate of Stuttgart, Germany native Leopold Adler, the husband of Rose Adler, who settled in Chicago, Illinois.

1835(22nd of Tishrei, 5596): Shemini Atzeret

1840: In “Chorlton,” Fredericka and Henry MIcholls gave birth to Annette Micholls.

1843(21st of Tishrei, 5604): Hoshana Rabah

1843: Three days after he had passed away, Solomon Rees, the son of Nathan Rees and the husband of Elizabeth Rees with whom he had three children – Abraham, Philip and Maria – was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”

1844: Birthdate of Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher. According to some Nietzsche was an anti-Semite.  In reality, his big complaint against Judaism was that it gave rise to Christianity.  Nietzsche’s sister and brother-in-law were anti-Semites.  Nietzsche did not approve of them or their politics.  However, the Nazis misrepresented his beliefs.  After Nietzsche’s death, his sister became the keeper of his literary estate and she was only too glad to bend it to fit Hitler’s will.

1849: Three days after he had passed away, Bohemian born Nathan Altman, the husband of “Brina” Altman with whom he had two children – Sampson and Michael – was buried today in the “PlymouthHoe Burial Ground.”

1851: In New founding of Shaare Brocho whose members included Rabbi Gabriel Hirsh, Nathan Weill, Emil Boris, Herbert Dahlman, and Jacob Dankel.

1852: Seventy-four year old Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, one of the “fathers modern gymnastics” who gained infamy in English-speaking countries through the publication of Peter Viereck's Metapolitics: The Roots of the Nazi Mind  in which he claimed Jahn was the spiritual founder of Nazism” – a claim that was disputed by  “Jacques Barzun who  observed that Viereck's portrait of cultural trends supposedly leading to Nazism was "a caricature without resemblance" relying on "misleading shortcuts.”

1854(23rdof Tishrei, 5615): Simchat Torah

1855:  The New York Times reported that Mlle. Rachel has returned from performing in Boston and is scheduled at the Academy of Music on nights when the opera is not being performed. Mademoiselle Rachel is Elizabeth-Rachel Félix, the daughter of Alsatian Jews who was prominent actress as well as the mistress to prominent Europeans including at least one member of Napoleon I’s family.

1856(16thof Tishrei, 5617): Second Day of Sukkoth

1859: Birthdate of “Austrian physician, medical author and dramatist” Alois Pick.

1861: At their regular meeting which was held today, the Board of Councilmen (of New York City) examined a report from the Board Alderman that favored donating thirty thousand dollars to the Hebrew Benevolent Association “, for the erection of a building for the poor and orphans of that persuasion.” It was opposed by Mr. Lent who contended that the city had already done its share by donating the land on which the building was to be erected. The donation was supported by Mr. Barney, who proposed that the money should be paid in installments based on the progress of construction without more than 25 per cent to be paid at any one time. Following further discussion, the whole subject was referred to the Finance Committee.

1861: Philadelphian Samuel Goodman began serving as a 2nd Lieutenant in Company P of the 28th Regiment.

1861: Jacob Hassler, who rose to the rank of First Sergeant, began a four year hitch with Company D of the 92nd Regiment of the Ninth Cavalry.

1862(21st of Tishrei, 5623): Hoshana Rabah

1862: Birthdate of Odessa native Benjamin Calechman, the husband of the former Miriam Markman and father of Samuel Calechman.

1863: Michael Simeon married August Phillips today.

1863: The Board of Alderman met today and adopted the Report of Committee on Donations and Charities that appropriate steps be taken to ensure that a lot adjacent to the Orphan Asylum of the Hebrew Benevolent Society would become the property of the Hebrew Benevolent Society.

1863: Three days after she had passed away, Lydia Bauman, a toddler who was the daughter of David and Sarah Bauman was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1864(15th of Tishrei, 5625): Sukkoth

1866: In Merkine (Meretz), Hinde Bernstein and Isaac Margolis gave birth to Max Leopold Margolis the Lithuanian-born American philologist whose accomplishments included serving as “editor-in-chief of the Jewish Publication Society's translation of the Bible into English, the finished product being published in 1917.”

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0013_0_13280.html

1867(16thof Tishrei, 5628): Second Day of Sukkoth

1867(16thof Tishrei, 5628):

1869: Ralph Peixotto and his wife gave birth to American painter Ernest Peixotto. who “studied at the Académie Julien in Paris for five years under Benjamin Constant and Jules Lefèbvre.” After which his was exhibited in the Paris Salon and the 1893 Columbian Exposition.

1871(30th of Tishrei, 5632) Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

1871: “English Jews” published today reported that the Jews of the United Kingdom are “divided into two sects- orthodox and reformers.” The Orthodox are led by Dr. Nathan Marcus Adler, the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom who delivered a sermon declaring “that the oral law and written law are equally Divine.  The Reform or Liberal Jews are led by Professor David Woolf Marx.  A smaller group, they use a synagogue in Upper Berkeley Street, Portman Square.  Their numbers are described as “very small” and “the services lifeless.”  According to four speeches given by Professor Marx, the Reform believe in the “sufficiency of the law of Moses as the guide of Israel.”  The article goes on to describe, in some detail, the Jewish dietary laws and Sabbath, which it finds a joyful in event. In the end, among English Jews, their ritual is “little better than an empty shell.” For example Jews pray for next year in Jerusalem but would not move if given a chance to down and Jews pray for blessings on the Royal Family while ignoring the Parliament yet most Jews are Liberals.

1871: Following yesterday’s Shabbat sermon in which Rabbi J.J. Lyons made an appeal for financial aid for those who have suffered during the Great Chicago Fire, a committee is scheduled to meet today at the West Nineteenth Street Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue to discuss how to disperse the expected large number of contributions.

1872: Birthdate of Mrs. John D. Levy the St. Louis native who for two decades was a leading comic opera star performing under the name of Della Fox.

1873: At today’s meeting of the Free Religious Association, Jewish author and editor Moritz Ellinger said that it was “eminently proper that the Jewish religion” should be a part of the association since “it was found upon reason, had not priests, but only teachers.  It had no creed, but simply belief in a creator, and did not point men to a future rewsard, but to a reward on earth.  He argued…that the Jewish religion was not based on miracles.”  Finally like other members of the association, “Jews did not look toward the past for their Savior, but kept their face toward the future.” [The Free Religious Association was formed two years after the Civil War.  Its leaders sought to “emancipate religion from dogmatic traditions” and supernaturalism.  Non-Orthodox Jews were drawn to the organization which included Quakers, Unitarians agnostics and theists.]

1874: Birthdate of Galicia native Selma Kurz, the Austrian soprano who debuted at a concert at Vienna in 1895.

1875(16th of Tishrei, 5636): Second Day of Sukkoth

1875: School Board member Fritz A. Meyer introduced a resolution at tonight’s meeting of the Board of Education in Union Hill, NJ, to abolish the mandatory reading of the Bible at the start of each school day.  Besides raising constitutional issues, the resolution points out the fact that the Bible being used is not the text of the Catholics or the Jews and this makes the activity a matter of sectarian religious practice.



1876: In New York City, Leopold Weil and Martha Tanzer gave birth to Columbia trained physician and cancer researcher Richard Weil, the husband of Minnie Straus, the son-in-law of Isidor and Ida Straus and the father of a future president of Macy’s Department Store.

1877: “Fine Arts In America,” an article published today comments on the works of several 19th century artists including Washington Allston’s “Jeremiah” which is owned by Yale University.  The work has many fine points, but the artist has failed “to express the exaltation of an inspired prophet.” You may judge for yourself at

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jeremiah_Dictating_His_Prophecy_by_Washington_Allston_1820.jpeg



1878: In New York City, Sarah Weiler or Wheeler, the widow of a rabbi, was tried on charges that she had abducted a 16 year old girl named Mary O’Connor for immoral purposes and had compelled her “to commit an act of self-abasement.”  She was sentenced to two years in the state prison after having been found guilty of one of the two counts of the indictment.

1878: Birthdate of Robert Bloom who made his way from Lithuania to Ireland to Alaska where he “was a founder of Congregation Bikkur Cholim in Fairbanks” and “chairman of Alaska’s Jewish Welfare Board.”

https://www.alaska.edu/uajourney/regents/1921-1925-robert-bloom/



1880: “Whipped With Cat-O’-Nine-Tails” published today described the decision rendered by Justice Kilbreth in the case of Mrs. Lizzie Wenke who was accused of horse-whipping Isaac Stern a fellow Jew living in the tenement at 192 Broome Street.



1881: The London Telegraph reported that the Turkish governor of Jerusalem has received orders from the Sultan to resume work on the restoration of the Temple of Solomon which had stopped five years ago after having been begun by Sultan Abdul Aziz.

1881: “Work of the Young Hebrews” published today provided a summary the annual report issued by the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.  The Association has about a thousand members, sponsored 8 lectures and has accumulated a library of 2,016 volumes.  The executive committee called for a fair to raise funds for a new building and “grand Chanukah ball” to be held at the Academy of Music.



1881: It was reported today that in New York, “an assignment for the benefit of creditors, by Hirsch Levy to Isidore Hirsch, with $600 preferences” has been filed in the County Clerk’s office.





1882: “Plays and Actors” published today included a dispute over the portrayal of the Jewish characters in Edward Harrigan’s new play, “Mordecai Lyons.”  A Jewish correspondent disparaged it as “another Jew play” which is coarse at best while others contend that “the Jewish part of this drama” is thought to be “serious and valuable.”



1882: “Varied Old World Topics” published today described conditions in Germany. Surprise was expressed that the “anti-Semitic agitation is gaining ground.”  Some of the support may be coming indirectly from Chancellor Bismarck would be using to it intimidate the Jews “who have been opposing his program on financial matters.”



1882: “Religious Ideas” published today described the anomaly that “Christianity was founded by Jews, preached by Jews and died for by Jews, yet Jews are the only people living directly and always within its influence upon whom, in 1,800 years, that creed has made no impression at all.”

F



1882: “A Riot Among the Russian Jews” describe events surrounding an outbreak of violence among the 400 Jewish immigrants temporarily housed on Ward’s Island.  The violence broke out during mealtime when Jacob Rabota, a native of Warsaw protested the way they were being fled.  The attack was in reaction to ill-will between the Jews and the staff brought on by mistreatment sanction by the Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent. Rebbec Bochtel told those investigating the matter “a pitiful story of maltreatment” that “was corroborated by other women.”



1882:”Suit About A Play” published today described litigation surrounding “Siberia,” a drama about “the persecution of the Jews of Russia” written by Barley Campbell.  Plaintiffs Imrl and Bolossi Kiralfy claim they provide Campbell with the idea for the play and he agreed to write it so that they could perform it.

1883: Three days after she had passed away, Elizabeth Levy, “the youngest daughter of Joseph Levy and the former Hannah Isaacs” was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”



1884: It was reported today that Smyrna, which is second only to Constantinople “as an eastern centre of commerce” has population of 250,000, 30,000 of whom are Jews.



1885: Birthdate of Russian native and Columbia trained physician Isaac Chassin, the husband of “the former Esther Kantro and the father of Maurice and Jameson Chassin both of whom became doctors.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1974/03/18/99164275.pdf



1885: Birthdate of Ukraine native Dovid Ignatosky who gained fame Yiddish author and HIAS staff member David Ignatoff, the husband of Minnie Radnitz Ignatoff with whom he had two children https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1954/02/27/84109362.pdf



1886: In Lithuania, Isaac Margolis and Hinde Bernstein gave birth to Max Leopold Margolis who served as Professor of Biblical Philology at Dropsie Colliege from 1909 until his death in 1932.

1886: In New York City, “Max Ellenstein and the former Libby Bzuroff” gave birth Meyer C. Ellenstein, the 31st Mayor of Newark, NJ and “the father of actor Robert Ellenstein.

https://newarksattic.blog/2017/12/28/meyer-c-ellenstein-mayor-of-newark-1933-1941/



1887: Russian native Solomon Altfeld and his wife Eva Levin Alffeld gave birth to Joshua Hensel Altfeld, the husband Goldie Altfeld and older brother of to Emanuel Milton Altfeld, a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from 1914 to 1916 and a member of the Maryland State Senate from 1930 to 1934 who was the author The Jew’s Struggle for Religious and Civil Liberty in Maryland



1887: It was reported today that another 100 Jewish families have been expelled from Kiev.

1888: Democrat Martin Foran’s victory in the election for the 21st Congressional District from Ohio was reportedly due in part to his Republican opponent having lost the support of Jewish voters in the district.



1889: In Great Britain the press has reported that Baron Hirsch is negotiating with Lord Cholmondeley for the purchase of Houghton Hall estate.  The purchase will probably cost the Baron 300,000 English pounds.  Baron Hirsch's desire to purchase the estate in England may have been stimulated by "the snub he recently received from the French Jockey Club."

1889: Birthdate of Warsaw native Yitskhok (Isaac) Unterman the Yiddish author and editor who in 1911 came to the United States, earned a law degree and worked for such publications as the Jewish Morning Star and the Jewish DailyPress in Chicago.

http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2014/05/yitskhok-isaac-unterman.html

1890: Ferdinand Forzinetti was named commandant of military prisons in Paris, a position he held when Captain Dreyfus was imprisoned.  Later Dreyfus would credit him as one of the people who dissuaded him from taking his own life and "who knew how to combine the strict duty of a soldier with the highest feelings of humanity."

1890: Birthdate of Leib Kvitko, the Ukrainian born Yiddish poet who was a member of the Jewish Ant-Fascist Committee, an organization Stalin supported as a vehicle to gain foreign support for the Soviets during WW II.  Stalin repaid him for his efforts by making him one of the victims of the “Night of the Murdered Poets.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leib_Kvitko#/media/File:Akh,_az_ikh_%E1%B9%BFel_oys%E1%B9%BFa%E1%B8%B3sn!,_L._%E1%B8%B2vi%E1%B9%AD%E1%B8%B3o_;_gemeln_fun_%E1%B8%B3ins%E1%B9%ADler_Y._Dayts.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leib_Kvitko#/media/File:In_vald_L_Kvitko_tseykhenungen_Y_Ribak.jpg

1890: In Teleneşti, Bessarabia Governorate, then a part of the Russian Empire, Simcha Alter and Rivka Gutman gave birth to their fourth child Israeli painter, sculptor, and author Nachum Gutman who moved to Palestine in 1903, attended the Herzilya Gymnasium in 1908 and began studying at the Bezalel School in 1912.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nachum_Gutman#/media/File:HHGM_20121230_153928.jpg



1892: The Sisters of Israel Benevolent Society which meets on the last Sunday of the month was founded today in Portland, OR.



1892: Kinloch Cooke is named editor of the Pall Mall Gazette following its purchase by the Lowenfield syndicate, which according to unsubstantiated rumors is backed by Baron Hirsch.  Furthermore, other rumors include reports of a desire of members of the Jewish community to gain control of this or some other major English publication.



1893: The Jubilee Celebration of B’nai B’rith is scheduled to end this evening with services at Temple Beth-El followed by a business meeting.

1893(5thof Cheshvan, 5664): In Philadelphia, Horace Moses, the nephew of Hyman Gratz passed away today “leaving no issue” which mean that “the entire estate…came into the possession of Congreagatin Mickveh Israel for the establishment and maintenance, under its direction of ‘a college for the education of Jews residing in the City and County of Philadelphia.’”

1893: Colonel J.E. Bloom, the manager of the Baron de Hirsch Trade School defended his decision to “turn out” five students from their boarding house without warning because they had refused to follow the school’s rules and the school felt no obligation to support young men undermining the school.

1893: A review of “The Woollen Stocking published today described the addition of a “the Jewish politician who ‘pulls together’ with the Irish” as the newest character added to this comedy.



1894(15th of Tishrei, 5655): Sukkoth



1894: “Literary Notes” published today described the publication by A.C. Armstrong & Son of The Historical Geography of the Holy Land  by George Adams which provides an outline of Palestine that includes six maps prepared by John George Bartholomew.



1894: Col. Alfred Dreyfus was first arrested.  This marked the start of what would become known as the Dreyfus Affair.



1894: Birthdate of Moshe Sharett, second Prime Minister of Israel. Born Moshe Shertok in the Ukraine, Moshe Sharett emigrated to Palestine in 1908 where  his family was one of the founders of Tel Aviv  Sharett was the first Foreign Minister of Israel.  He was a key figure in establishing the Armistice Agreements that ended with a Jewish victory in the War for Independence.  When Ben Gurion resigned as Israel’s fist Prime Minister in 1953, Sharett was the logical choice to succeed him.  He was ousted by Ben Gurion in 1956 and he returned to the Foreign Ministry.  He passed away in 1965.



1894: Justice McMahon dismissed that assault case brought by Nathan Hirsch in Yorkville.



1894: John Shevlin who had been arrested by Officer Grier after he saw him lead a crowd chasing and beating two old Jews was released from custody when the victims could not be found to appear at the Jefferson Market Police Court.



1894: Louis Rothschild was elected treasurer of the newly formed Cloak and Suit Manufacturers Association whose 85 members met tonight and voted not to “entertain any communications from any of the trade unions.”



1895(27thof Tishrei, 5656): Nineteen year old William Nelken, the son of Sam and Sarah Nelken passed away today.

1895: In Ukraine, Jacob and Rose Maidman gave birth to Irving Maidman the husband Byrdie Maidman who settled in the United States and who should not be confused with the real estate mogul of the same name who passed away in 1979.



1895: At a meeting held at Tammany Hall this afternoon, it was agreed that Jacob A. Cantor would be the Democratic Party’s nominee in the Twentieth Senate District.  Before entering politics, Cantor, the son of two Jews from London, was a newspaper man and lawyer.  He would go on to a successful political career that would include serving in the U.S. House of Representatives.

1896: Birthdate of Newark, NJ native, Minna Wright who gained fame as “painter and printmaker” Minna Citron, the wife of businessman Henry Citrion

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/24/arts/minna-citron-95-artist-whose-work-spanned-2-schools.html

1897(19thof Tishrei, 5658): Fifth Day of Sukkoth

1897: In Warsaw, Adolph and Natalia Lieberman gave birth American literary agent and accused Soviet espionage agent Maxim Lieber.

1897: Herzl publishes his article "Mauschel" in Die Welt. Die Welt was the name of a weekly publication founded in 1897 by Theodor Herzl in Vienna as organ of the Zionist movement. In the article entitled “Mauschel” Herzl did not deny that the anti-Semitic stereotype of the Jew had a basis in reality.  Rather he identified the stereotype with the Jewish opponents of Zionism and used it against them.

1897: It was reported today that all of the anti-Semitic candidates have prevailed in the “municipal elections in the province of Constantine, Algeria.”

1897: It was reported today that Jewish leaders have “published a formal protest” against a proposed made by the vice mayor of Vienna denying Jewish judges the right to “administer the oath to Christians” because “the Jews were unable to comprehend the moral and religious opinions of the Christian community.”

1898: Birthdate of Boris Aronson, the native of Kiev who became a Tony Award winning scenic designer.

http://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/11/magazine/he-made-the-stage-come-alive.html?pagewanted=all

1898: Theodor Herzl was invited to a private audience with Kaiser Wilhelm today when the Kaiser stopped in Constantinople for a State visit. The Kaiser asked Herzl what he wished him to ask of the Sultan:’ “A Chartered Company – under German protection,” was Herzl’s request.

1898: “The new home of the Hebrew Infant Asylum of the city of New York” is scheduled to “be fully furnished and ready for occupancy” today.

1900: Birthdate of Fritz Feilchenfeld, the native of Berlin who gained film as actor Fritz Feld whose career began in Germany and ended in Hollywood.

1900: Birthdate of New York dermatologist Samuel Peck.

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/04/nyregion/samuel-m-peck-91-dermatologist-and-professor.html

1900: In San Francisco, Edna (née Armer) and Harry LeRoy gave birth to director and producer Mervyn LeRoy whose career began in 1923 with a silent film version of “The Ten Commandments” and including directing one of the best films ever made “Mr. Roberts.”

1901: Birthdate of Kiev native Louis “Kid” Kaplan the Connecticut resident who won the World Featherweight Championship in 1925 but was never able to become Lightweight Champion because both of the titleholders refused to fight him.

1903: Alabama born, New York lawyer and judge, Joseph M. Proskauer married Alice Naumberg today after which they had three children – Frances, Ruth and Richard.

1903: The Newark Young Ladies Zion Society met today and elected new officers including “President, Mrs. A.B. Pilpoul; Treasurer Miss Ida Stein; and Recording Secretary Miss Dora Varitz.”

1905(16thof Tishrei, 5666): Second Day of Sukkoth

1905: Funeral services are scheduled to be held today at Temple Beth-El for Lyman G. Bloomingdale the New York born founder, with his brother Joseph, of Bloomingdales Department Store.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1905/10/14/101760324.pdf

1906; Major Alfred Dreyfus took command of the artillery unit at St. Denis, a northern suburb of Paris.

1906: The Anglican Bishop of Shangai, a convert from Judaism named Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky passed away today.

1906: Bruno Alfred Döblin, a German-Jewish author and doctor best known for his novel Berlin Alexanderplatz took up a position at the Berlin psychiatric clinic in Buch where he worked as an assistant doctor for nearly two years.

1906: The Executive Committee of the Central Conference of American Rabbis held its second meeting “since the closing of the Indianapolis Convention.”

1907: Birthdate of Varian Fry, known as the American Schindler for his gallant rescue of those fleeing Hitler and the Nazis. . Some of those he saved were Marc Chagall, Hannah Arendt and Alma Mahler. In 1995 Varian Fry became the first United States citizen to be listed in the Righteous Among the Nations at Israel's national Holocaust Memorial, Yad Vashem (in 2006, fellow Americans Waitstill Sharp and Martha Sharp were added to the list). He was awarded the additional honor of "Commemorative Citizenship of the State of Israel" on 1 January 1998. The film Varian’s War provides a cinematic treatment of Fry’s wartime activities

https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005740





1907(7thof Cheshvan, 5668): Seventy-four year old award winning French astronomer Maurice (Mortiz) Loewy passed away today.



1909(30thof Tishrei, 5670): Mrs. Hinde First passed away today.



1909: Birthdate of American astronomer Jesse Leonard Greenstein.



1909: Birthdate of German-born British-Australian mathematician Bernhard Hermann Neumann.

1910: In their third game of the season, Georgia Tech scored its third straight vicotyr with Albert Lorch “Al” Loe, known as “the Yiddish Wildcat” at “Center.”



1909(30thof Tishrei, 5670): Mrs. Hinde Solomon First passed away today.



1911(23rd of Tishrei, 5672): Simchat Torah

1911: At Chicago’s Sinai Congregation, Dr. Emil G. Hirsch is scheduled to the first in a series of talks on “the Bible as Literature” at services tis morning.

1911: Dr. Joseph Stoltz is scheduled to deliver at services this morning at Isaiah Temple.

1911: At the request of David Levontin, Director of the Anglo-Palestine Bank, Jews assemble to pray for the welfare of the Sultan and for victory of the Turkish Army. 



1912(3rdof Cheshvan, 5673): Mrs. Elke Jakobsohn passed away.

1912(3rdof Cheshvan, 5673): Max Kohn, “a communal worker from Pueblo, CO” passed away today at Chicago, Illinois.

1912(3rdof Cheshvan, 5673): Fifty-four year old Prussian born “German American organist, conductor and composer” Max Spicker, the choir director for Temple Emanu-El and “an honorary member of the Society of American Cantors” passed away today.

https://www.milkenarchive.org/artists/view/max-spicker/



1914: As the Germans and Allies continued their respective “races to the sea” which could have ended the war in weeks instead of years, the BEF clashed with the German 4th Army during the Battle of Amentieres.



1915: Birthdate of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir.



1915: It was announced today that “the Jewish conference called for by the American Jewish Committee to consider…what American Jews may do when the war ends to” ensure the rights of their co-religionists in Europe which was to be held in Washington later this month has been canceled.



1915: “It was announced today that thirty or more ministers” including several rabbis “will visit Public School 45 to examine experimental work under the Gary plan.



1915: In New York, “the New Synagogue” the newest “of the liberal congregations” found in the city is scheduled to hold its first services tonight, erev Shabbat, led by Rabbi Ephraim Frisch.



1915: In Portsmouth, VA, Reb Yisroel Gifter and his wife gave birth to Mordechai Gifter, the future rosh yeshiva of the Telz Yeshiva in Cleveland, Ohio.



1915: Louis D. Brandies of Boston is identified as the attorney leading the opposition to the increase in freight rate charges that the railroads are presenting to the Interstate Commerce Commission.



1916: As of today, “The Joint Distribution Committee of which Felix M. Warburg is Chairman…has to date received more than $5,942,000.



1916: In Boston, “resolutions advocating the establishment of a permanent American Jewish Congress at Washing and demanding that Jewish rights be guaranteed in the peace parliament at the close of the European War were adopted at today’s session of the annual convention of Poalei Zion Association of America.”



1916: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis was re-elected today President of the Zion Association of Greater Boston” following which the organization pledged a $10,000 fund “for the relief of Jews in Palestine and the maintenance of Jewish institutions in that country.



1916: “The Women’s Proclamation Committee, the national women’s organization for Jewish Relief” which is chaired by Mrs. Samuel Elkes” reported today “that there have been many responses” several of which have been “generous” “to the appeal recently issued throughout the United States.”



1916: “Recent efforts by political supporters of President Wilson to line up the Jewish vote for his re-election” by calling for the creation of a Ten Thousand Club to which each Jew would contribute a dollar for the Wilson campaign have resulted in 26 prominent Jewish leaders, some of whom support Wilson to issue, today, “a protest against such mixing of religion or race and politics.”

1917: In Columbus, Ohio, Arthur M. Schlesinger, the historian who was Jewish and his wife the former Elizabeth Harriet Bancroft who was not Jewish gave birth to historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/01/washington/01schlesinger.html



1917: Kaiser Wilhelm whose earlier trips to the Middle East had led to Herzl’s hopes of having him back his Zionist project made his third and final trip to Constantinople.



1917: Rabbi Samuel Schulman, argued against the calling of an American Jewish Congress that would be seeking to protect the rights of Jews at a peace conference ending the World War saying that “America’s victory in the war…will mean a great and friendly help for procuring the rights of Jews all over the world and I consider it the duty of every American who loves his country to follow the counsel of those who intimate that it would be best if the congress were postponed.”

1918: While serving the Headquarters Company, 307th Infantry, Sergeant Max Goldstone overcame the darkness of night, heavy artillery fire and intense machine gun fire, ran a telephone line to Grand Pre making it possible for the units to remain in contact with one another.

1919(21stof Tishrei, 5680): Hoshana Raba

1919(21stof Tishrei, 5680): Ray Perlman, the daughter of Abraham A. Perlman “one of the founders and directors of the New York Uptown Talmud Torah Association and the brother of Jess Perlman the “former Resident Director of the Jewish Educational Alliance in Baltimore” and the current Executive Director of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies in Montreal, passed away today.

1920: “Pogrom Protest” published today described plans for a group of prominent Jewish rabbis and business men to lead a delegation on “pilgrimage to Washington to persuade President Wilson to take effective steps to pogroms in Poland.”

1922(23rd of Tishrei, 5683): Simchat Torah

1922: In Newark, NH, “a homemaker and a businessman” gave birth Lorraine Gordon who gained fame as Lorraine Gordon, jazz aficionado and owner of the Village Vanguard. (As reported by Tim Weiner)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/09/arts/music/lorraine-gordon-dies.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

1923: Birthdate of Walter Zacharius, the Brooklyn native, “who rode the passion-swollen wave of romance fiction in the early 1980s to build the Kensington Publishing Corporation into a leading purveyor of bodice-rippers and other romance genres…” (As reported by William Grimes)

1924: William Zev Spiegelman began serving as editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

1925: In Atlanta, GA, Leon Leo Solomon Hexter, the son of Max and Sarah Hexter and his wife Rachel Schwartz gave birth to Robert Maurice Hexter.

1925: Having blown a three to one lead, the Senators led by infielder Buddy Myer lost the seventh and final game of the World Series.  (The hapless Nats would make it back to the series one more time before drifting into the mediocrity and futility that showed my brother in me when we to games in the 1950’s on Briggs Kids Days)

1926: Birthdate of French philosopher Michel Foucault who would eventually quit the French Communist Party for “its prejudices against Jews and homosexuals.”



1927: Jacob “Little Augie” Orgen was mortally wounded while standing on a street corner during a turf war with Jacob Shapiro and Louis “Lepke” Buchalter.

1928: “The Republic of Flappers” a silent movie directed by David Constantin and filmed by cinematographer Mutz Greenbaum was released today in Jerusalem.

1929: In Terre Haute, Indiana, wholesale poultry dealer Stanley Dreyfus and his wife, the former Irene Lederer gave birth to Hubert Lederer “Bert” Dreyfus, the University of California philosophy professor who wrote What Computers Can’t Do.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/02/us/hubert-dreyfus-dead-philosopher-of-artificial-intelligence.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

1930(23rd of Tishrei, 5691): Simchat Torah

1930(23rdof Tishrei, 5691): Seventy-eight year old Sir Hermann Gollancz, the German born “British rabbi and Hebrew Scholar’ who “was the first Jew to earn a doctor of literature degree from London University” and “the first British rabbi granted a knighthood” passed away today.

1930: Dr. Drummond Shiels, Under-Secretary for the Colonies left Palestine today with “a long memorial” from the Society of Young Christians “in which they protested against Moslem demands for the abolition of the British mandate in Palestine. 

1930: Birthdate of Heiko Augstinus Oberman author of Luther: Man Between God and the Devil who noted that Rabbi Josel of Rosheim’s attempt to get relief from John Frederick’s anti-Jewish decree “as being significant in Luther's attitude toward the Jews: "Even today this refusal is often judged to be the decisive turning point in Luther's career from friendliness to hostility toward the Jews;"yet, Oberman contends that Luther would have denied any such "turning point." Rather he felt that Jews were to be treated in a "friendly way" in order to avoid placing unnecessary obstacles in their path to Christian conversion, a genuine concern of Luther.”



1930: The High Commissioner put an end to the proceedings against six Jews who had been arrested at Tel Aviv for protesting against Dr. Drummond Shiels when he arrived in Palestine last week.  The prisoners were released to a joyful crowd who had been angered by reports that Shiels supported creation of Parliament in Palestine that would guarantee Moslem rule and put an end to the creation of a Jewish homeland as promised by the Balfour Declaration.

1931: Saloonkeeper Heinrich Bowe was shot and killed and three Nazi Storm Troopers were wounded in clash with a group of Communists that would lead to their trial when Hitler came to power and was looking for examples of the threat posed by “Jewish-Marxists.”



1931:In the Bronx, NY, Alfred Epstein, a pharmacist from Poland and Eva Epstein, a former modern dancer from Russia, gave birth to Edmund Lloyd Epstein, “a literary scholar who, as a book editor in the late 1950s, was so taken by a well-reviewed but not especially popular first novel by a largely unknown British writer that he decided to reprint it in paperback, thus enabling the extravagant American success of “Lord of the Flies” and its author, the future Nobel Prize winner William Golding…” (As reported by Bruce Weber)

1932(15thof Tishrei, 5693): Sukkoth is observed for the last time during the Presidency of Herbert Hoover.



1935: Former U. of Michigan star football player Harry Newman, “announced today that he had changed his mind and signed a new contract so he could continue playing for the New York Giants.”



1935: Wilhelm Frick, Minister of the Interior called for codifying laws that would impose legal restrictions on Jews taking part in trade and industry.  The Nazi rise to power and the early days of the final solution were all couched in terms of the German legal code.  The Nazis hid their evil behind a façade of laws.



1936: “Great indignation has been aroused” in Bucharest “by the ordinance issued by the anti-Semitic, pro-Fascist Vice Premier Ion Inculetz forbidding any instruction in the Jewish faith in the Rumanian schools.”



1936: As demand for his work dwindled and the Nazis rose to power Hungarian photographer André Kertész arrived in New York today with his wife Elizabeth having decided to accept an offer to work at the Keystone Agency.



1936: Today, “at a luncheon at the St. Moritz Hotel, Israel Silverman, the national chairman of the United Synagogue’s newly organized Committee to Combat Religious Indifference in America” presented “a plan to reawaken religious interest through a national adult and educational program” which will attract more people “will be attacked to the synagogues of America.”

1936: “Armistice in Palestine” published today described a truce that had been reached in Palestine ending “the general strike of Arabs against the British authorities intended to force the discontinuance of Jewish immigration” thanks to the efforts of the “Arab Kings of Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the Emir of Trans-Jordan.”



1937: In Portland, Maine, “opera singer” Lucille (née Potter) Lavin and “businessman” David J. Lavin gave birth to comedic actress Linda Lavin who played the wisecracking waitress on the television hit “Alice.”



1937: “Double Wedding” a comedy produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, with a screenplay by Jo Swerling was released in the United States today by MGM.



1937: David Feuerwerker, French born rabbi and resistance leader began his service in the French Army which would earn him the Croix de Guerre with a bronze star.



1937: “Fit for a King” a comedy produced by David L. Loew was released in the United States today by RKO.



1937: The Palestine Post reported on the end of the temporary cease-fire, and an intense revival of the Arab anti-Jewish and anti-British terror activities throughout the country. Bullets and bombs hit Jewish transport, buses in particular. The Iraqi Petroleum Company pipeline was damaged and the oil flowing from Iraq set on fire near Beit She’an. A passenger train from Haifa and a goods train were derailed. The settlements of Ginegar, Afula, Rosh Pina, and Migdal Tzedek were exposed to persistent firing and 12 Jews were injured. Telephone lines were cut. The authorities closed the Syrian border and imposed a curfew in Jerusalem.



1937: The Palestine Post reported that Jewish students in Warsaw went on strike to protest against the

Introduction of the so-called "ghetto benches" on the left side of the lecture halls at Polish universities.

1938: The Pulitzer Prize winning play, “Abe Lincoln in Illinois” directed by Elmer Rice opened on Broadway today at the Plymouth Theatre.



1940: The Great Dictator, a satiric social commentary film by and starring Charlie Chaplin, was released. The film was a satiric attack on Hitler, Mussolini and fascism.  Chaplin felt so strongly about the need to expose the threat posed by the Nazis and their allies, that he was willing to break his film silence.  The Great Dictator was his first “talkie.”



1940: A memorial dedicated today by Henrietta Szold established a clinic at the Children’s Village in hone of Allice Lillie Seligsberg who had passed away in August of 1940.



1941: The Nazis began the first mass deportation of German Jews to Eastern European ghettos.



1941: As of today, “the Nazis had murdered up to 30,000 of the approximately 60,000 Jews that had not been able to flee Latvia before the German occupation.”

1941: Today, Rabbi Hyman Judah Schachtel, the London born son of Bernard and Janie (Spector) Schachtel married Barbara Levin, the mother of their two children and as Barbara Schactel earned her Ph.D. in Behavioral Science at the University of Texas School of Public Health and became director of Quality Assurance for the Institute for Preventive Medicine, Methodist Hospital, chairman of the board of managers of the Harris County Hospital District, a member of the board of the Texas Medical Center, and a trustee of the Institute of Religion.”

1941: According to a proclamation, Jews caught outside the Polish Ghetto walls could be put to death.  I am not sure what this entry really means considering the plight of the Jews of Poland at this time.



1942: An SS Aktion is undertaken against Jews of Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland that would last until October 21.  During this time untold numbers of Jews are shot in their homes and 22,000 are deported to the Treblinka death camp.



1942: The Nazis murdered 2,000 Jews living in the second ghetto at Bar in the Ukraine.



1942: The Nazis murder 25,000 Jews from Brest-Litovsk, Belorussia. Jewish resistance, led by Hana Ginsberg, attempts to fight back.



1943: Birthdate of Stanley “Stan” Fischer, the native of the British colony of Northern Rhodesia who became a leading economist and vice chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve System.



1944: Birthdate of Haim Saban, the native of Alexandria, Egypt whose family moved to Israel in 1956 who became a successful businessman there and the United States.

1944: Today, Adolph “Eichman was sent back to Budapest to finish his mission” i.e. deporting all the Jews of Hungary to Auschwitz/

1944: Joseph Bau, who had been at Gross Rossen, was sent to Brunnitz where he went to work in the Schindler factory which made him one of those on “Schindler’s List.”



1944: Truce talks between the Hungarians and the Allies collapsed.  The Arrow Cross, a Hungarian fascist organization regained power through a coup. A Hungarian Nazi, Ferenc Szálasi, is installed as regent. There are 170,000 Jews still alive in Hungary out of a half million that had been alive at the beginning of the year.  After a three month period without deportations to the death camps, this remnant was once again vulnerable as potential fodder for the Nazi killing machine.

1944: Adolph Eichmann who had been called back to Germany when there was a halt in the deportations of Hungarian Jews, “was back to Budapest” today to finish his original mission.



1944: The Germans emptied Plaszow Camp at Cracow.  Included in the evacuation were 700 of the Jews protected by Oscar Schindler. They were sent to the concentration camp at Gross Rosen. Schindler managed to retrieve these Jews, claiming the essential nature of their contribution to his factory and the war effort. Schindler also fought for release of 300 other of "his" Jews who were sent to Auschwitz.



1945:  Execution of Pierre Laval former premier of Vichy France.  Laval was one of history’s more vile characters.  At the same time, he was the fall guy for Vichy.  Marshall Petain, the famous French Marshall who was the head of the Nazi puppet state was spared.  The French could not bring themselves to punish the hero from World War I.



1945: The Alsos Mission, part of the Manhattan Project, of which Samuel Goudsmit served as the scientific leader came to an end today.



1945: In a press conference at Tel Aviv, David Ben Gurion, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, declared that “Judah will arise anew as an independent state and the Jews will return freely to their own land.” In a statement that was construed to mean that the Yishuv was developing a shadow government that would assume official authority when the British left Palestine, Ben-Gurion said “Palestine’s Jews will have ‘to constitute a kind of state before the final and orderly state machinery comes into being.’”



1945: As part of the movement to bring Jewish refugees to Palestine, despite the British blockade, two ships capable of carrying more than 13,000, were in the Black Sea preparing to load Jews from Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary.



1946: Hermann Goering Nazi Reich marshal who had been found guilty at Nuremberg beat his scheduled date with the hangman.  He poisoned himself.



1946: “Child of Divorce,” the first film directed by Richard Fleisher was released in the United States today by RKO.



1946: The Paris Peace Conference came to an end during which the Allies – U.S., U.K., U.S.S.R. and France – “negotiated peace treaties with Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland” but not Germany.



1947(1st of Cheshvan, 5708): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan



1947(1st of Cheshvan, 5708): Eighty year old Abram I Elkus, a distinguished New York attorney and former ambassador to Turkey passed away tonight. 

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F30E13F9395E17738DDDAF0994D8415B8788F1D3



1948: Following numerous violations of the UN Truce by Egypt, the Israel Army and Air force took the offensive and launched Operation 'Yoav. Since the UN would not act the Israelis felt compelled.  In addition to the immediate tactical considerations, the strategic goal of Operation 'Yoav' was to open a corridor to the Negev, cut the Egyptian lines of communications along the coast and on the Beersheba-Hebron-Jerusalem road, isolate and defeat the Egyptian forces, and ultimately to drive them out of the country.

1948: “Hostilities began today, when Israeli troops assigned to Operation Yoav took the offensive to the south, opposite Egyptian army positions in the northern Negev.



1948: Yigal “Alon led a flight of three S-199s from Herzliya (four had been planned but one went unserviceable) over the Mediterranean, where they met up with two C-46 bombers and two C-47 bombers (three were planned, but only two had been armed in time). The fighters took up station ahead of and below the bombers as the formation continued out to sea until the shore disappeared from sight. The planes turned south, then back east to approach the the target, Gaza, from out of the sun. The attack run was co-ordinated with two other groups: 103 Squadron's two Beaufighters and an escort of three 101 Squadron Spitfires attacked the Egyptian airfield at Al Arish and 69 Squadron's three B-17s bombed Majdal.”



1948: Gaza, Majdal and Beith Hanun were bombed, and part of the Air Force at El-Arish was put out of action. This action kept most of the Egyptian frontline fighters out of the skies and gave the IDF air superiority for the first time.



1949(22nd of Tishrei, 5710): Shemini Atzeret

1949: “Reign of Terror” with music by Sol Kaplan was released today in the United States.

1950: David Ben Gurion resigned as Prime Minister of Israel forcing the formation of a new government.

1951(15th of Tishrei, 5712): Sukkoth

1951: Eight months after premiering in the United Kingdom, “Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, directed and co-produced by Albert Lewin who also wrote the screenplay and featuring Abraham Sofaer was released in the United States today.

1951: During the 1951 general election, Herbert Samuel became the first British politician to deliver a party political broadcast on television when he appeared before the cameras today.



1952: Arthur Laurents’ “The Time of the Cuckoo” directed by Harold Cluman opened on Broadway at the Empire Theater.

1953: Birthdate of actor Larry Miller, the native of New York and husband of Eileen Conn who attended the bat mitzvah of Gail Barnum, the daughter of Joel Barnum and Amy Barnum of blessed memory while he was in Cedar Rapids filming “The Final Season.” (As reported by Joel Barnum)

1953: “The Teahouse of the August Moon” which Daniel Mann would turn into a successful film three years later, opened on Broadway today.

1954: “Sabrina” a chic comedy produced, directed and co-authored by Ernest Lehman Billy Wilder was released for general showing to theatres across the country.



1956: On the day in which Iraqi troops entered Jordan in what Israel saw as a menacing move, Ben Gurion ordered a partial mobilization of Israeli forces and told the Knesset that “Israel reserves to herself freedom of action.



1958(1stof Cheshvan, 5719): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan



1958(1stof Cheshvan, 5719): Samuel Bass, the husband of Rena Bass passed away today after which he is buried at the Ahavas Sholom Congregation Cemetery.

1959: Filming of “The Lost World,” the movie version of the novel by the same name, directed and co-produced by Irwin Allen who co-authored the script was scheduled to begin today

1960: Ninety-year old German movie star Henny Porten, who refused to divorce her Wilhelm von Kaufmann her Jewish husband when the Nazis came to power which all but put an end to her career and any chance they had of getting out of the country passed away today.



1962: Louis Katz, who would be known as “Mr. Katz” went to work for the Forward



1964: Sir Gerald David Nunes Nabarro completed his services as an MP for Kidderminster.



1965(19th of Tishrei, 5726): Fifth day of Sukkoth



1965(19th of Tishrei, 5726): Sixty-four year old Israeli mathematician Abraham Frankel, the first Dean of Mathematics at Hebrew University passed away today.

http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Fraenkel.html



1965: The Dodgers and Sandy Koufax won the 7th game of the World Series.



1965: Stevie Wonder recorded “For Once in My Life” written by Ron Miller, a Jew who had the unlikely claim to fame of having gotten his big break writing songs for Motown.



1966: Broadway composer Moose Charlap and singer Sandy Stewart gave birth to jazz pianist William Morrison Charlap.



1968(23rd of Tishrei, 5729): Simchat Torah

1968(23rdof Tishrei, 5729): Seventy-one year old Rebecca Mack, the Ohio born daughter of Theresa and Henry William Mack passed away today.



1968: The most popular recording of Ron Miller’s “For Once in My Life” was released today.



1969: Birthdate of game show host Paige Davis.



1970(15th of Tishrei, 5731): Sukkoth



1970: Final day of publication for The American Examiner which traces its origins back to the American Hebrew, which first appeared in 1879.



1971: Premiere of “A Safe Place” directed and written by Henry Jaglom and produced by Bert Schnieider.



1973: During the Yom Kippur War, start of the Battle of the Chinese Farm which “was fought in the Sinai, north of the Great Bitter Lake and just east of the Suez Canal near an agricultural research station” which the Israeli soldiers incorrectly thought was the home to equipment from China.



1973:  During the Yom Kippur War, General Arik Sharon led an attack on the Egyptian side of the Suez Canal. Joined by Generals Adan and Magen, within a week the IDF cut off the main road from Cairo to Suez and surrounded Egypt’s 3rd Army. The hold on the West Bank greatly improved Israel's negotiating position with the Egyptians and the morale of the country.  Regardless of how one may feel about Sharon’s politics, he was a bold general.  His successful cross canal attack completely changed the military equation of the Suez War.



1973: Binyamin Livne and Rahamim Sofer were taken prisoner after their F-4E Phantom Jet was shot down by either a MiG or Egyptian anti-aircraft fire.  Tragically, Sofer would die while being held prisoner.



1973: For the valor he displayed in destroying an enemy position today in the Sinai, Sergeant Moshe Levi was awarded Israel’s Medal of Valor.

1975: The President of the Soviet continued his visit to Tunisia as part of the Russian plan to increase their influence with the Arab governments dedicated to the destruction of Israel.

1975: “Whiffs,” a comedy directed by Ted Post, co-starring Elliott Gould and music by Sammy Cahn was released today in the United States.

1976(21stof Tishrei, 5737): Hoshana Raba

1976:Harlan County, USA, a 1976 Oscar-winning documentary film covering the "Brookside Strike", an effort of 180 coal miners and their wives against the Duke Power Company-owned Eastover Coal Company's Brookside Mine and Prep Plant in Harlan County, southeast Kentucky in 1973 directed and produced by Barbara Kopple” was released in the United States today.



1977: Two people were injured in two bombings today in Jerusalem.

1980(5thof Cheshvan, 5741): Seventy-four year old Hungarian-American historian Ladislas Farago whose books provide a better insight into his skills than anything that could appear in this blog passed away today (Start reading)

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ladislas-Farago



https://www.amazon.com/Ladislas-Farago/e/B001HOY0EK%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share



1980: It was reported today that “1,030 Soviet Jews had emigrated from the U.S.S.R during September of 1980: Sixty-two year old Cecil Aonowitz, the son of Morris and Ethel Aronowitz was buried today.



1980: Seventy-eight year old Alexander Mach the pro-Nazi Slovak leader “who was sentenced to thirty years for his collaboration” passed away today. (As reported by Sam Goldpaper)



1981: “The KGB and police conducted searches in the homes of Pavel Abramovich, Natalia Khasina, Yulii Kosharovskii, and Leonid Tesmenitskii, activists involved in teaching and spreading knowledge of the Hebrew language.”



1981: “Forty Moscow Jews appealed to President Leonid Brezhnev demanding the release of all those detained for attempting to pay their respects to Nazi victims at Babi Yar

1981: After premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, “The Evil Dead” a horror film directed by Sam Raimi who co-authored the script was released today in the United States.

1982(28thof Tishrei, 5743): Sixty-eight year old auctioneer Nathan B. Sweedler passed away today after which he was buried at the Beth El Temple Cemetery in Avon, CT.

1985(30thof Tishrei, 5764): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan



1985(30thof Tishrei, 5764): Fifty-nine year old basketball guard Max Zaslofsky who starred for St. John’s and the professional New York Knicks lost his battle with leukemia today.

http://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/17/sports/max-zaslofsky-is-dead-at-59-star-in-early-days-of-knicks.html

1986(12thof Tishrei, 5747): Seventy-seven year old Marcus Samuel, 3rd Viscount Bearsted, the son of Dorothy Montefiore (Micholls) and Walter Samuel, 2nd Viscount Bearsted who succeeded to his father’s titles after going up to Oxford and earning the rank of Major while serving with the Warwickshire Yeomanry during WW II, passed away today.



1987: In Ottawa Canada, former Penn State tennis player Nathan Levine and his wife gave birth to Canadian-American professional tennis player Jesse Levine



1988: The Summer Olympics in which Hagai Zamir competed on the Volleyball Team, opened in Seoul, Korea today.



1989: Having finally been granted an exit visa by the Soviets, refusenik Ida Nudel arrived at Ben Gurion International Airport where she was met by “Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres as well as her sister, Elena Illana Fridman, and thousands of Israelis.”



1989: In Justice v Justice, Bernard Schwartz reviewed The Antagonists: Hugo Black, Felix Frankfurter and Civil Liberties in Modern America.

http://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/15/books/justice-vs-justice.html



1990: Michael Douglas Bell began serving as Canadian Ambassador to Israel.



1992: Title to Temple Israel in Leadville, CO passed from the William H. Copper Family Trust



1995(21st of Tishrei, 5756): Hoshana Rabah



1999: After premiering two days ago, Rob Reiner’s “The Story of Us” was released to the rest of the United States.



1999:  Marquette University Law School Dean Howard Eisenberg delivers a speech entitled “What's a Nice Jewish Boy Like Me Doing in a Place Like This? Some Thoughts on Spirituality, the Legal Profession and Religious Diversity” at a Law School retreat.



2000(16th of Tishrei); Second Day of Sukkoth; first day for blessing the Lulav & Etrog



2000: The New York Times featured reviews of Bellow: A Biography by James Atlas, Off Camera Private Thoughts Made Public by Ted Koppel and Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach by Martha C. Nussbaum



2000(16th of Tishrei, 5761): Second Day of Sukkoth



2000(16th of Tishrei, 5761): Nobel Prize Winner Dr. Konrad Emil Bloch passed away.  Born in Germany in 1912, Bloch fled Nazi Germany in 1934.  He arrived in where he furthered his education while serving on the faculties of Yale Medical School, Columbia, the University of Chicago and Harvard.  He shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1964 with Feodor Lynen for their discoveries related to the regulation of cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism.



2003(19thof Tishrei, 5764): Chol Hamoed Sukkoth



2003(19thof Tishrei, 5764): Fifty-eight year old French Jewish philosopher Benny Lévy, the last personal secretary of Jean-Paul Sartre passed away today.

http://www.haaretz.com/life/arts-leisure/obituary-jean-paul-sartre-s-secretary-benny-levy-1945-2003-1.103190



2003: Academy Awarded nominated “Mystic River,” featuring Emmy Rossum, Ari Graynor and Eli Wallach was released today in the United States.

2003: Golda's Balcony, starring Tovah Feldshuh, opened at Broadway's Helen Hayes Theatre In this one-woman show, Feldshuh plays the role of former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. Golda's Balcony is set during 1973's Yom Kippur War. It splits between those events and reflections upon Meir's life, from her childhood in Milwaukee to her role in founding the Jewish state. Golda Meir is certainly not the only dramatic Jewish woman that Feldshuh has played during her illustrious Broadway career. Feldshuh has earned three Tony nominations for best actress, including the title role in Yentl (1975). She has also won four Drama Desk Awards, including one for Golda's Balcony. Her roles on television have included a Czech freedom fighter in Holocaust (1978), a role for which Feldshuh was nominated for an Emmy. She has appeared in a number of movies, including Kissing Jessica Stein (2001) and A Walk on the Moon (1999). Feldshuh is also a supporter of Seeds of Peace, a non-profit organization that helps teenagers from regions of conflict. She is a recipient of the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitas Award, the Israel Peace Medal, and the National Foundation for Jewish Culture's Jewish Image Award.  



2003: Three Americans were killed and one wounded at the Beit Hanoun junction in the Gaza Strip when a massive bomb demolished an armor-plated jeep in a convoy carrying U.S. diplomats and CIA personnel. Both the militant Islamic Jihad and Hamas movements denied responsibility for the attack.



2004: Susan "Susie" Essman “performed at the Friars Club roast of Donald Trump, in which she lampooned the tycoon.”



2004: “Being Julia” directed by István Szabó was released in the United States today by Sony Pictures.



2005:  Haaretz reported that dozens of Jewish worshippers attacked the head of the Israel Defense Forces Manpower Branch Major General Elazar Stern at the Western Wall plaza in Jerusalem on Friday night. Stern was in civilian dress when he came to pray at the Western Wall, accompanied by his family. Worshippers surrounded him, yelling insults, and attempted to prevent him from reaching the wall..

2006(23rdof Tishrei, 5767): Simchat Torah

2006(23rdof Tishrei, 5767): Eighty-four year Denver jurist, attorney and decorated WW II Army veternin Marshall Quiat, the son of Ira and Esther Quiat and the husband of Ruth Quiat passed away today after which he was buried in the Fort Logan National Cemetery under tombstone marked with a Star of David.

2006: Police said that complaints that five women had filed against Moshe Katsav “would not be pursued because the statute of limitations had run out.



2006: Ten years after his death Sam Ash, who 1924 founded what became Sam Ash Music Corp. “the larges family-owned chain of musical instrument stores in the United States” “was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame” today.



2006: The Los Angeles Times book section features a review of The Wicked Son: Anti-Semitism, Self-Hatred, and the Jews by David Mamet.



2006: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Through The Children’s Gate: A Home in New York by Adam Gopnik and Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War by Michael Isikoff and David Corn



2006: “Pelech,” a unique progressive Torah/Talmud based educational opportunity for women in Israel, marks its 40th anniversary.



2006: Professor Robert (Yisrael) Aumann, the Israeli-American scholar who won the Nobel Prize for economics last year, said this week that Israel may not be capable of continuing to exist in the long-term. "Too many Jews don't understand why they are here," said Aumann, who moved from the United States to Israel in the 1950s and helped found the Center for Rationality at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, an interdisciplinary research body that focuses on game theory. "If we don't understand why we are here, and that we are not America or just a place in which to live, we will not survive," he said in a speech at the College of Judea and Samaria in Ariel on Sunday. "The desire to live like all the nations will sustain us maybe another 50 years, if we are still here."

2007: In Washington D.C., Nextbook Presents: Shalom Auslander, Foreskin's Lament: A Memoir, as part of the Hyman S. and Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival.

2007: The Nobel Prize in economics was awarded to three Americans Leonid Hurwicz, Eric S. Maskin, a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., and Roger B. Myerson, a professor at the University of Chicago.



2007: Time magazine reviewed Foreskin’s Lament by Sahlom Auslander.  “Behind the worst title of the year lurks one its best memoirs.…”



2008(16th of Tishrei, 5769): Second Day Sukkoth 



2008: An “article in today’s Washington Postanalyzing the origins of the economic crisis claims that AlanGreenspan vehemently opposed any regulation of derivatives, and actively sought to undermine the office of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission when the Commission sought to initiate regulation of derivatives.



2008: In “Seeking Have on Earth” Mike Boehm previews the performance of The Disappearance by Ilan Stavans.

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/15/entertainment/et-double15



2008: Today, GMAC, of which Bernard Madoff’s buddy J. Ezra Merkin served as Non-Executive Chairman, “had $173 billion of debt against $140 billion of income-producing assets (loans and leases), some which are almost worthless, in addition to GMAC Bank’s $17 billion in deposits (a liability) which meant that even if GMAC liquidated the loans and leases, it couldn’t pay back all of its debt.”



2009(27th of Tishrei, 5770): Seventy-nine year old toy collector Donald Kaufman passed away.

(As reported by Dennis Hevesi)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/nyregion/18kaufman.html



2009: The Counter-Terrorism Bureau at the National Security council issued a new, more sever warning today against traveling in India.  The warning comes a month before the anniversary of the November, 2008 Mumbai attacks which an attack on the Chabad House.



2009: The Library of Congress hosts a discussion of the illustrated volume "Herblock: The Life and Works of the Great Political Cartoonist," published to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of syndicated cartoonist Herbert Block, with its editors Haynes Johnson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and Harry Katz, curator of the Herb Block Foundation Collection and the editor of "Cartoon America: Comic Art at the Library of Congress. The retrospective, published in cooperation with the Library of Congress, coincides with the library's new exhibition, "Herblock!,"



2009: Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett’s “The Diary of Anne Frank” is performed at Kimmel Theatre on the campus of Cornell College in Mt. Vernon Iowa. The production is based on Wendy Kesselman’s acclaimed new adaptation of the play that makes thoughtful use of recently recovered segments of Anne’s diary to deepen our understanding both of the cultural context of the events and to present a much more complex (and less sentimental) Anne.



2009: Israeli poet Efrat Mishor reads at The Mill in Iowa City, IA.



2010: Holocaust historian leads a noon time discussion at the University of Iowa Hillel in Iowa City.



2010: Mort Fertell is scheduled to speak at the Friday night dinner following the MesorahDC traditional Shabbat service at the Historic Sixth & I Synagogue in Washington, DC.



2010: A major Berlin museum is launching an exhibition that seeks to explore how Adolf Hitler won and held mass support among Germans for his destructive regime."Hitler and the Germans — Nation and Crime," which opens today at the German Historical Museum, 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.



2010: It took seven years to write and just a few days to sew together, but today the first Torah scroll written entirely by a group of women was attached to its wooden poles and declared complete. The ceremony was held at Seattle’s Kadima Reconstructionist Community, which sponsored the project. “We had the idea 10 years ago, but when we looked around for women scribes, we realized there weren’t any,” said Kadima member Wendy Graff, one of the volunteers who shepherded the project from its inception. To remedy the dilemma, Kadima supported two women as they trained to be scribes. Four others trained on their own. Ultimately the six female scribes, or sofrot, worked on the scroll in four countries: two in Israel, two in the United States, and one each in Brazil and Canada. The panels were checked by experts in Jerusalem and New York, who made the minor tikkunim, or corrections, permitted by Jewish law. Major errors require a complete redo of the page.  Last week the panels were flown to Seattle, where another group of women sewed them together. The Torah mantle, including wooden poles, or atzei chayim, and other traditional accoutrements were created by seven local artists. The scribes were paid, but the others who worked on the project donated their time. According to Orthodox tradition, women are not permitted to be Torah scribes. Over the last decade, however, a handful of women have trained as scribes. It’s an exacting process. Torahs must be written by hand on parchment made from the skins of kosher animals, and scribes must state their intentions out loud each time they prepare to write God’s name. In September 2007, Jen Taylor Friedman of New York completed the first Torah scroll known to have been written by a woman, for the United Hebrew Congregation of St. Louis, Mo. Friedman advised the Women’s Torah Project and was one of the experts who checked for small errors. She is among a number of women at work on other Torah scrolls, including Julie Seltzer of San Francisco, one of the six scribes on the Seattle project. Seltzer wrote four of the Seattle Torah’s 62 panels in the summer of 2009, when she was living in New York. Since October 2009, she has been writing a Torah scroll at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco as part of the yearlong exhibition, “As it is Written: Project 304,805.” Seltzer began the year doing all her writing in public at the museum, so visitors could watch and ask questions. She soon realized, however, that she would never complete the scroll by her December 2010 deadline, so Seltzer writes mainly at home now and spends several days a week at the museum talking to the public. “Jewish learning and text was my entryway to Jewish practice and spirituality, and continues to be one of the primary ways I connect,” Seltzer told JTA, saying she feels honored to be able to write a Torah scroll. “To be this close to the text, on the elemental level of the letters, is extraordinary.” Seltzer says she doesn’t feel that her experience writing a Torah is any different from a male scribe. But the fact that her Torah, and the one completed by the Women’s Torah Project, were written by women means they will not be accepted for use in Orthodox congregations. On her website, Hasoferet.com, Friedman tells female scribes they need to be upfront about that when they are commissioned to work on a Torah. “Why is a soferet like a swordfish?” she writes. Swordfish, she says, is not considered kosher by most Orthodox Jews, although Conservative Jews will eat it. “If I repair a Torah and then let Orthodox congregations use it,” she wrote, it’s “an appalling desecration of trust. If we want respect, as Jews or as human beings, we have to give respect, and part of that is accepting that other Jews' rule systems are valid despite being different from ours.”



2010: Tomer Chelouche reviewed The Arab Jew From Algeria by Joanna Paraszczuk



2011(17th of Tishrei, 5772): Shabbat Chol Hamoed Sukkoth



2011(17th of Tishrei, 5772): Batsheva Esther Kanievsky, the wife of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, oldest daughter of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv and granddaughter of Rabbi Aryeh Levin, passed away today.



2011(17th of Tishrei, 5772): Seventy-nine year old super-agent Sue Mengers passed away today (As reported by Michael Cieply)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/movies/sue-mengers-hollywood-agent-dies-at-79.html



2011: The Season’s Opening Concert, featuring the “Four Seasons” 1s scheduled to take place at the Eden Tamir Music Center. What better way to celebrate the joys of Sukkoth than to listen to Vivaldi in Jerusalem!?



2011: Israeli gymnast Alexander Shatilov won a bronze medal at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Tokyo this morning, securing a place at the London Olympics in 2012. Shatilov, Israel's leading male gymnast, tied third in floor exercise to Diego Hypolito of Brazil, with a score of 15.466. Japan's Kohei Uchimura, who on Friday night became the first man in history to win three all-around titles, took the floor exercises title with 15.633 points. This was his second gold medal in about 18 hours. Zou Kai, the Beijing Olympic and 2009 world floor champion, won the silver medal with 15.500 points. Shatilov, who won Israel's first-ever World Championship medal in 2009, will be Israel's great Olympic hope, when he sets out for London in 2012.



2011: Hundreds of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and Kiryat Shmona today, in solidarity with economic demonstrations being held around the world.



2011: The Justice Ministry this evening gave President Shimon Peres' office the list of Palestinian prisoners expected to be pardoned and released as part of the Gilad Shalit exchange deal, with the recommendation of Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman



2012: The ARZA Board and Leadership Council Annual Meeting is scheduled to come to an end.



2012: As Hadassah members gather to celebrate its 100th anniversary the Keepers of the Gate Reception is scheduled to take place in Jerusalem



2012: The YIVO institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to present  a lecture by Victoria Sake Woeste entitled  ” Henry Ford's War on Jews and the Legal Battle against Hate Speech.”



2012: Alvin E. Roth was awakened at the three o’clock this morning by a phone call that told him he was a co-winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/16/business/economy/alvin-roth-and-lloyd-shapley-win-nobel-in-economic-science.html?hp





2012: Defense Minister Ehud Barak said today that he is currently refraining from drafting into the IDF yeshiva students, who have until now been receiving military service deferrals, until after elections, despite the current lack of any legal framework for them to avoid national service following the expiration of the Tal Law in August.

http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=287899





2013: As part of the Hyman S & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival, Judy Blume is scheduled to participate in a discussion of Tiger Eyes, the first of her books to be turned into a movie.



2013: A dynamic ensemble comprising strings, winds, harp and piano which is part of the Israeli Chamber Project is scheduled to perform at the Merkin Concert Hall



2013: Glenn Greenwald announced and The Guardian confirmed that he was leaving to pursue a "once-in-a-career dream journalistic opportunity that no journalist could possibly decline.”



2013: Members of the Netzah Yehuda, (Nahal Hareidi) Brigade captured Arab terrorists who had infiltrated the community of Eina.  Troops have been extra vigiliant since the shooting of 9 year old Noam Glick and and the murder of retired IDF Colonel Seraya Opher – events that have taken place within the last ten days.



2013: Bob Filner, the former Mayor of San Diego who was forced to resign because of his outrageous sexual antics pleaded guilty today “to a felony and two misdemeanors for unwanted physical contact with three women at public events.”



2014(21stof Tishrei, 5775): Hoshana Rabbah



2014: “Fury” a WW II epic co-starring Shia LaBeouf, Jon Bernthal and Jason Isaacs was shown for the first time at the Newseum.



2014: The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide is scheduled to present a lecture by Yvette Walczak, “a Polish child survivor who will speak about her experiences growing up in Poland, the Soviet invasion and later her escape with reference to her autobiography ‘Let Her Go!’,





2014: “The Kehilla Residential Programme will hold its fourth annual “Sukkahville” international design competition at Nathan Phillips Square in downtown Toronto today to draw attention to the issue of affordable housing in the Toronto area.”



2014: “Bitain’s official Jewish leadership condemned Sir Alan Duncan MP, a former vice chairman of the governing Conservative Party for recent comments in which it said he “likened those expressing any support for settlements to anti-Semites, sexists and homophobes.”

2014: “Thousands of Jews were undeterred by the early pre-dawn hour and cold today as they made their way through the Old City of Jerusalem to the Kotel (Western Wall), for vatikin prayers at dawn on the seventh and final day of Sukkot, Hoshana Raba.”

2015: In Alexandria, VA, Congregation Agudas Achim is scheduled to host a screening of “Above and Beyond” the story how a gusty group of American volunteers helped to found the IAF and provide the IDF with air-cover in the War for Independence.



2015: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to host a presentation by Former Treasury Secretary and Harvard University President Lawrence Summers on Academic Freedom and Anti-Semitism.



2015:Hundreds of Palestinians entered the Joseph's Tomb compound in the West Bank town of Nablus late today and set it on fire, severely damaging the Jewish holy site in what Israel called a "despicable" act.



2015: Historian Simon Michael Schama appeared on the British “debate program Question Time.”



2015: “Transforms, a five-part event on fashion, design and art is scheduled to open at the Jaffa Port.”



2015: The Jerusalem Music Center is scheduled to present a Tribute Concert honoring Marcel Goldmann.



2015: As part of B'nai B'rith UK's European Jewish Heritage Days, the Jewish Museum of London is scheduled to host a screening of “David/Daoud.”



2015: In New Orleans, a week-long screening of “Rosenwald” is scheduled to come to an end today.



2016(13th of Tishrei, 5777): Parashat Ha’azinu



2016: In Cedar Rapids, IA seventh grader Leah Dillon is scheduled to be called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah.

2016: In “Check War Victims’ Names Before They Are Set In Stone” published today “in the Volkskrant daily,” Jim Terlingen urged authorities in the Netherlands “which lost approximately 75 percent of its Jews during the Holocaust – the highest percentage in Nazi-occupied Western Europe” to make sure that they had all of the names as the country began creating memorials honoring the dead.



2016: In Jerusalem, the Eden Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host its “Season’s Opening Concert”



2016: As part of the “Bridge to Beethoven” program, pianist Shai Wosner, is scheduled to perform at Washington Irving High School.



2016: The West End Synagogue is scheduled to host “a musical celebration of Shabbat” for children featuring Cantor Ayelet Piatigorsky, Rabbi Nadia Gold and a revolving crew of Jewish educators and musicians

2017: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jews and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Grant, a biography about the great Civil War general by Ron Chernow and the recently released paperback edition of ADHA Nation:Children, Doctors, Big Pharma, and the Making of an American Epidemic by Alan Schwarz

2017: Agudas Achim is scheduled to host a housewarming party for Rabbi Hugenholtz is has just completed here first holiday season of services in Iowa and her family.

2017: Miriam Fishkin whose family was deported to Siberia by the Soviet Secret Police during WW II is scheduled to describe her childhood ordeal at the Breman Museum in Atlanta.

2017: The Holocaust Museum and Education Center is schedule to commemorate the 76th anniversary of the Babiy Yar Massacre, with a program featuring music by Fifth House Ensemble, and readings and signings by Survivors featured in Never Heard Never Forget, a new, joint publication of Holocaust Community Services, Illinois Holocaust Museum, and Reklama Media Group.

2017:In the 59th Leo Baeck Memorial Lecture New York Times columnist Roger Cohen is scheduled to discuss “German-Jewish History in the 21st Century.”

2018: In Jerusalem, the Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled the “Concert Lecture Series – Musiversity” featuring pianists Ariel Halevy and Dr. Dror Semmel.

2018: As part of the 25th anniversary celebrations, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s “community in Chicago is scheduled to host a luncheon featuring an address by “Benjamin Ferencz, Nurember prosecutor” while honoring “Peter Hayes and Father John Pawlikowski with the National Leadership Award for their commitment to Holocaust memory and education.”

2018: The Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines, IA, is scheduled to host “an evening with Ambassador Daniel Shapiro” who “was named Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Tel Aviv University’s Institute of National Security Studies in March of 2017.”

2018: The Jewish Book Council is scheduled to host “a discussion between Margalit Fox, author and former NY Times obituary writer and Ruth Franklin. (Editor’s note – this is must-attend event!  Fox’s obits are literary gems and are truly the “first draft of history.”  On top of this, she is a very patient, kind person who takes the time to answer a reader’s question.)

2019(16thof Tishrei, 5780): Second Day Sukkoth; for more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/

2019: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host its “third annual Friends, Fun and Games”

2019: In New Orleans the steering committee coordinating Limmudfest 2020 is scheduled to meet this evening.

2019: In Corte Madera, CA, “Book Passage Marin” is scheduled to host an evening with Rabbi Lee Bycel discussing his new book Refugees In America.

https://www.bookpassage.com/event/lee-bycel-refugees-america-corte-madera-store

2019: The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host “The Perils and Purpose of Photojournalism: An Evening with Greg Constantine.”





This Day, October 16, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin

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OCTOBER 16

521 BCE (10th of Tishrei): Darius, the Persian monarch under whose rule the Second Temple was completed, and six companions killed another claimant to throne and cemented his position as ruling monarch.

912: Abd-ar-Rahman III began his reign as Emir of Cordoba. The Emir appointed Hasdai ibn Shaprut to serve as his physician.  Their relationship developed to the extent that the Jewish physician became the confidant and advisor to the Muslim ruler.

976: Sixty-one year old Al-Hakam II the second Caliph of Córdoba, whose subjects included Enoch Ben Moses, who followed his father as Rabbi of Cordoba and whose students included Samuel ha-Nagid passed away today.

996: Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim who “ordered…Jews to wear wooden calves around their necks” began his reign today.

1384: Jadwiga, the youngest daughter of Louis I of Hungary is crowned King of Poland. In 1385, she married Wladislaus II which meant that Lithuania was united with the kingdom of Poland. Now the rights enjoyed by Polish Jews would be extended to Lithuanian Jews.

1529: Suleiman the Magnificent gives up on the siege of Vienna which means that a large section of central Europe and all of Western Europe will remain under Christian domination as opposed to becoming part of Muslim Empire.

1590(27th of Tishrei, 5351, OS): Roman born “physician and Talmudic authority” Eliezer Isaac Cohen ben Abraham, the brother-in-law of David de Pomis both of whom were “distinguished in medicine and rabbinical literature” passed away today.

1649: The American colony of Maine passed legislation granting religious freedom to all its citizens, on condition that those of contrary religious persuasions behave acceptably.  This early evidence of religious tolerance demonstrates why Jews would flourish in the land that would become the United States.

1655(Tishrei, 5416): Joseph Solomon Delmedigo a rabbi, author, physician, mathematician, and music theorist passed away. Born in Candia, Crete in 1591 he moved to Padua, Italy, throughout most Europe and North Africa, and finally died in Prague. Yet in his lifetime wherever he sojourned he earned his living as a physician and or teacher. His only known works are Elim (Palms), dealing with mathematics, astronomy, the natural sciences, and metaphysics, as well as some letters and essays. He followed the lectures by Galileo Galilei, during the academic year 1609-1610. Elim (1629, published by Menasseh ben Israel, Amsterdam) is written in Hebrew, in response to 12 general and 70 specific religious and scientific questions sent to Delmedigo by a Karaite Jew, Zerach ben Natan from Troki (Lithuania). The format of the book is taken from the number of fountains and palm trees at Elim in the Sinai Peninsula, as given in Numbers, xxxiii, 9: since there are 12 fountains and 70 palm trees at Elim, Delmedigo divided his book into twelve major problems and seventy minor problems. The subjects discussed include astronomy, physics, mathematics, medicine, and music theory. In the area of music, Delmedigo discusses the physics of music including string resonance, intervals and their proportions, consonance and dissonance.





1655(15thof Tishrei, 5416): Sukkoth

1656: Thomas Burton, who recorded Oliver Cromwell’s assurance to Antonio Fernandez Carvajal that Jews could return to England in his famous diary appeared before parliament where he successfully defended himself against “a charge of disaffection towards the existing government.

1660: Sixty-two year old English preacher and political leader Hugh Peters who supported the ideas of Roger Williams which included “writing on behalf of the toleration of Jews” was hanged, drawn and quartered today.

1753: Birthdate of Johann G. Eichhorn, the German Old Testament scholar who was a pioneer in "higher criticism," which evaluated Scripture through literary analysis and historical evidence, rather than by the unquestioned authority of systematized religious tradition as can be seen in his seminal work Introduction to the Old Testament.

1769: Birthdate of Sara Binswanger, who had four children with her first husband David Wolf Bernheim and two children with her second husband Abraham Dreifus.

1773: In Braunschweig, Rabbi Meyer Hall and his wife Hale gave birth to their third son Samuel Meyer Ehrenberg the director of the Jewish Samson School in Wolfenbuttel.

1777(15thof Tishrei, 5538): Sukkoth

1779: In Charleston, SC, Sarah De La Motta and Levi Sheftall, a member of one of the leading southern Jewish families gave birth to Isaac Sheftall who died the following summer.

1783: Birthdate of Jeanette Wohl, the native of Frankurt am Main who “was a longtime friend and correspondent of Ludwig Börne.”

1793: Judah Moses married Polly Levy at the Great Synagogue.

1794(22ndof Tishrei, 5555): Shemini Atzeret

1794: In London, Mosseh and Judith de Castro gave birth to Hananeel de Castro, the husband of Deborah de Jacob Mendes da Costa and President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews who was “among the first to urge Sir Moses Montefiore to journey to the East” to intervene during the blood libels at Damascus in 1840

1805(23rdof Tishrei, 5566): Simchat Torah

1810(18th of Tishrei, 5571): Fourth Day of Sukkoth

1810: (18th Tishrei), 5571  Nachman of Breslov also known as Reb Nachman of Bratslav, Nachman from Uman, or simply as Rebbe Nachman (in local Yiddish reb Nokhmen Broslever) passed away. “Born in 1772, he was the founder of the Breslov Hasidic dynasty.Born at a time when the influence of his great-grandfather, the Baal Shem Tov, was waning, Rebbe Nachman breathed new life into the Chasidic movement by combining the esoteric secrets of Judaism (the Kabbalah) with in-depth Torah scholarship. He attracted thousands of followers during his lifetime, and after his death, his followers continued to regard him as their Rebbe and did not appoint any successor. Rebbe Nachman's teachings continue to attract and inspire Jews the world over.”  Some of his most famous quotes are:

·         "It is a great mitzvah to be happy always."

·         "If you believe that it is possible to break, believe it is also possible to fix."

·         "And know that a person needs to traverse a very, very narrow bridge, but the fundamental and most important principle is to have no hesitation or fear at all…" (This saying has been set to music in Hebrew as the song Kol Ha-Olam Kulo

 For more information about Rebbe Nachman see the attached or go to http://www.breslov.org/

1812: Birthdate of Lazarus W. Powell, the Kentucky Senator who sought to have Congress condemn General Grant for issuing General Order No.11.  Powell was animated more by his anti-war views than he was by affection for the Jews.

1814: Simon Davis married Sarah Martin at the Great Synagogue today.

1821: Hannah and Moses Collis gave birth to Harriet Collis.

1826(15thof Tishrei, 5587): Sukkoth

1833: Benjamin Phillips married Rachel Faudel at the Great Synagogue today.

1835(23rdof Tishrei, 5596): Four-month Ada Isaacs Menken, can celebrate her first Simchat Torah

1836: Joseph Jones married Sarah Simmons at the Great Synagogue today.

1839(8thof Cheshvan, 5600: Gittel Rinkel Friedlander, native of Bohemia who had married Joseph Friedlander of Saxony through which she gained permission to become a resident of that Kingdom passed away today.

1840: In Philadelphia, Myer David Cohen and Judith Simha Sols gave birth to author, attorney and Civil War veteran Leon da Silva Solis-Cohen “the brother of Jacob da Silva Solis-Cohen and Solomon Solis-Cohen, and a grandson of Jacob da Silva Solis and the husband of Lucia Manness Ritterband, with whom he had two daughters (Jessie Myra and Gertrude) and one son (Leon Manness).”

1841: Founding of Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.  Today Queen’s University offersJewish Studies courses that may be taken as electives by any student, or as part of a Minor in Jewish Studies. The Minor can be the main focus of a three-year BA or a secondary focus in a 4-year Honours BA.” The University is also home to Queen's University Hillel, the Jewish Student Union.

1841(1st of Cheshvan, 5602): Rosh Chodesh

1841: In Germany, on a Shabbat that was also Rosh Chodesh Chesvan, Issac Bernays, the Chief Rabbi of Hamburg condemned the newly issued Prayerbook for the Israelites and the rabbis who had authored it.  This was part of dispute that had been taking place at The Hamburg Temple among the orthodox members and the reformers who were led by Gabriel Riessler.  It was part of larger dispute that was rocking German Jewry as it dealt with issues of Reform, Orthodoxy, and coping with modernity. (If this sounds familiar, it is since we continue to deal with these issues in the 21st century.  Considering the rancor and ill will that was created, some would say that the German experience in the 19th century is primer for how not to deal with these issues.)

1841: In Vilna, Feiwe Zunser and Ita Glasstein gave birth to poet and printer Eliakum Zunser, the husband of Feige Katzewitz who came to America in 1889 where he printed books of Hebrew poetry the most famous of which was Shirim Hadoshim.

1843(22nd of Tishrei, 5604): Jews observe Shemini Atzeret on the same day that Fear and Trembling by Søren Kierkegaard was published.

1844: Saul Samuel married Catherine Levy at the Great Synagogue today.

1845(15th of Tishrei, 5606): Jews in Texas observe Sukkoth for the first time as citizens of the United States since the citizens of what had been the Lone Star Republic approved the new constitution and the statute of annexation three days before.  Today, Houston, Dallas and Austin are home to three of the most vibrant Jewish communities in the United States.

1846: One day after he had passed away, 24 year old Israel Sampson, the son of Dutch born Levi Sampson and Sarah Sampson was buried today in the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”

1847: District Rabbi Jonas Wiesner and Estra (Therese) Wiesner Schur gave birth to their daughter Fanny Abeles Wiesner.

1848: Sara Wolf and Benjamin Spiers gave birth to Emely Ann Spiers.

1849: In South Carolina, Lizar and Perla Sheftall Solomons gave birth to Cecilia Solomons and became Cecilia Solomons Abrahams when she married Edmund H. Abrahams with whom she had a son Edmund H. Abrahams, “a collateral descendant of Benjamin Sheftall.”

1851: “The News by the Mails” column published today reported that “The New York correspondent of The Republic replies to the animadversions of certain parties here, in relation to his former statement that there were no Jews on Wall Street.   The letter-writer substantiates his assertion by citing names, etc; and states that the fact was mentioned in order to prove that the Jewish people have no natural aptitude for the brokerage business, and are only driven into the money-dealing business by the disabilitities which shut them out of other honorable employment.

1854: Birthdate of Oscar Wilde, the Anglo-Irish author who is remembered as much for his sexual orientation as for his literary works.  In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde presents us with a Jewish theatre manager named Isaacs.  The depiction of the character can only be described as anti-Semitic.  One critic attributes Wilde’s creation of the character to a dispute he was having with the author George Eliot.  Since Eliot had created a sympathetic Jewish figure in one of her works, Wilde felt compelled to do just the opposite. 

1855(4th of Cheshvan, 5616): Seventy-seven year old Jeremiah Heinemann, the son of Rabbi Joachim Heinemann and the brother of Moses Heinemann who had published a translation of “Kohelet” passed away today.


1858: In Greenwich, Kent, Rebecca Meyers and Israel Marks gave birth to Isabella Marks.

1859: Abolitionist John Brown, whose followers included August Bondi, Jacob Benjamin and Theodore Weiner, led the raid on the arsenal at Harpers Ferry.

1860:“Rarely has the ‘opening lecture of the season’ been attended by so large and fashionable an audience as that which assembled at Clinton Hall this evening to greet R.J. De Cordova the popular humorist, and to listen to his new poem entitled a ‘Photograph of Broadway.’ The poem was one of Mr. De Cordova’s best efforts, and can hardly fail of having what the theatrical men term a successful run. All the salient points of the great New-York thoroughfare, -- its crowd of vehicles, and pedestrians, its churches, its theatres, its hotels, its mock-auction shops, its marble stores, its policemen, its dandies, its gamblers and its beggars, -- were hit off in a style at once humorous and sarcastic, that kept the audience in a constant roar of laughter.” Mr. De Cordova was a well-known Sephardic humorist, speaker and sometime investor who was quite popular with New York audiences – Jewish and non-Jewish alike.

1861:A. Eger, the Secretary of Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco wrote to I.J. Benjamin that the congregation has “set aside the sum of $250 in order to assist you in your…journey to the Orient. (“I. J. Benjamin was a nineteenth-century Moldavian Jewish world traveler. His primary goal, his mission, was to be a "living link" between all the Jews in the world, "a maggid [traveling preacher] on a worldwide circuit." He wrote Three Years in America, in German, for readers in Europe, most of whom had never been to the New World and would be very curious about it. He wrote it largely to raise money to fund his travels. (As reported by Gabriel Steinfeld)


1861: During the Civil War, Henry Jacobs who would reach the rank of Lieutenant, began his service with Company F of the 51stRegiment.

1862(22nd of Tishrei, 5623): Shmini Atzeret

1862(22nd of Tishrei, 5623): As Jews observe Shemini Atzeret, Major General Ulysses S. Grant is given command of the Department of Tennessee.

1862(22nd of Tishrei, 5623): Seventy-eight year old Alexander Haindorf the physician, philanthropist and advocate for Jewish emancipation who was the first Jewish lecturer at Heidelberg passed away today.

1862(22nd of Tishrei, 5623): Seventy-eight year old Alexander Gove Village a physician who championed Jewish emancipation and co-founded the Westphalian Art Association in 1831 passed away today.

1867(17th of Tishrei, 5628): Sukkoth Chol Hamoed

1867(17th of Tishrei, 5628): Solomon Judah Löb Rapoport passed away.  Born in 1790, at Lemberg, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria, “he was a Galician rabbi and Jewish scholar.” “After various experiences in business, Rapoport became successively rabbi of Tarnopol (1837) and of Prague (1840). He was one of the founders of the new Wissenschaft des Judentums movement. His chief work was the first part of an (unfinished) encyclopaedia (Ereklz Millin, 1852). Equally notable were his biographies of Saadia Gaon, Nathan (author of the Arukh), Hai Gaon, Eleazar Kalir and others.Thrown upon his own resources about 1817, Rapoport became cashier of the meat-tax farmers. He had already given evidence of marked critical ability, though his writings previously published were of a light character—poems and translations. His critical talent, however, soon revealed itself. In 1824 he wrote an article for Bikkure ha-'Ittim on the independent Jewish tribes of Arabia and Abyssinia. Though this article gained him some recognition, a more permanent impression was made by his work on Saadia Gaon and his times (published in the same journal in 1829), the first of a series of biographical works on the medieval Jewish sages. Because of this work he received recognition in the scholarly world and gained many enthusiastic friends, especially S. D. Luzzatto. After the fashion in rabbinic circles, Rapoport was known by an acronym "Shir", formed by the initial letters of his Hebrew name Shelomo Yehuda Rapoport. Solomon Judah Löb Rapoport notes that according to the Masoretes there are ten vowel sounds. He suggests that the passage in the Sefer Yetzirah, which discusses the manipulation of letters in the creation of the world, can be better understood if the Sefirot refer to vowel sounds. He posits that the word sefirah in this case is related to the Hebrew word sippur ("to retell"). His position is based on his belief that most Kabbalistic works written after Sefer Yetzirah (including the Zohar) are forgeries.”

1869: Solomon Bibo arrived in New York from his native Prussia.  This was the first leg of a journey that would take him to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he would join his brothers Nathan and Simon.  Yes, Jews played an active role in life of what we now call “the Old West.”

1869: Girton College, Cambridge is founded, becoming England's first residential college for women. Gertrude Himmelfarb, the wife of Irving Kristol and mother of Bill Kristol, may have been one of the most famous Jews to have studied Girton College which she attended on a fellowship after World War II.   Today, Griton is home to one of the UK’s Judaica collections and its Theology and Religious Studies program includes course work on the Old Testament; World Religions including a separate paper on Judaism  (separate papers on Indian religions, Islam and Judaism) and Jewish and Christian Responses to the Holocaust.

1869: The President of Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco, CA, sent a letter to Israel J. Benjamin, also known as “Benjamin the Traveler" who was spending time in the city that informing him that the congregation had voted to give him $250 to help defray the costs of his travels.

1870: Charles August Lauff, an early settler of Marin County and his wife Maria J. Sebran, the daughter of Gregorio and Ramono Briones gave birth their son Marcius today.

1870:”The New Jewish Ritual” published today described the changes being instituted by Raphael Lewin, the rabbi at Temple Israel in Brooklyn.

1871(1st of Cheshvan, 5632): Six days after the Great Chicago Fire came to an end Jews in the Windy City observed Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

1872(15th of Tishrei, 5633): Sukkoth

1872: Birthdate of Buffalo native Julius Ullman who practiced medicine in his home town for more than sixty years.


1872:“Succoth- The Jewish Feast of Tabernacles” published today reported that “last evening witnessed the commencement of the Jewish feast of Succoth, or Tabernacles, which continues for eight days.” The article goes on to report that the first two and last two days are full holidays while the intermediate days are called Chol Hamoed and “are of no special import. The article continues with a description of the Thanksgiving aspect of the festival as well as the “extemporized booth” in which “the pious Israelite, surrounded by his family, takes his meals” in this “season of joy and thankfulness…”

1874: It was reported from Vienna today that the Italian Consul at Bucharest has refused to open negotiations for commercial treaty between Italy and Romania as long as the Jews of that country are not fully emancipated.

1874(5th of Cheshvan, 5635): Seventy-nine year old German rabbi and early supporter of Zionism Zvi Hirsch Kalischer, passed away.


1874: It was reported today that Mr. Peixotto, the American Consul at Bucharest has refused to enter into negotiations with the government of Romania as long as the Jews of that country are denied their civil rights.

1874 (5th of Cheshvan, 5605): Rabbi Zevi Hersh Kalisher passed away.  Born in 1795 in the Polish town of Lissa that had just become part of Germany, Kalisher was unique because he was an Orthodox Rabbi who believed that Jews develop a practical program for returning to Eretz Israel instead of just waiting for the coming of the Messiah.  In 1860, he published Derishat Tziyyon, his blueprint for the return to the Holy Land.  Almost forty years before the advent of Herzl and Zionism he called for a systematic purchase of land, the development of agriculture, the development of a self-defense force and the need to develop viable businesses to replace the charitable institutions that traditionally supported the Jews in Palestine.  The Reform opposed Kalisher because of the nationalist content of the proposal.  The Orthodox saw it as a form of blasphemy.  One of the practical results of his work was the establishment of Mikveh Israel, a school located near Jaffa, designed to teach the new generation of pioneers the scientific agricultural skills that would enable them to reclaim the land.


1878: In Charleston, SC, at Beth Elohim, Rabbi Levy officiated at the wedding of Georg W. Markens of Jacksonville, FL and Ann Weiskopf of Charleston, SC.

1879: In Paris, TX, “Henry and Clara (Marx) Levy” gave birth to Edward Dailey Levy, the President of Pierce Petroleum Corporation and the husband of Katye Levy Lewis.

1880: Birthdate of Lodz native Louis DeWitt Gibbs, the 1906 graduate of New York University Law and state legislator who led the battle to make the Bronx into a separate country before going to serve as “a member of the New York State Supreme Court and who was the husband of Anna White Gibbs with whom he had three children – Howard, Harriet and Isadora.

1880: In New York, Maurice and Eliza Brooks Rapf gave birth to “motion picture and studio executive” Harry Rapf, the husband of Christina Uhfelder Rodin and father of Matthew and  Maurice Harry Rapf whose film career spanned 30 years – 1917 to 1949.

1881(23rd of Tishrei, 5642): Three days after Eliezer Ben-Yehuda had what is believed to be the first modern conversation in Hebrew, Jews observed Simchat Torah

1882: Birthdate of New York movie producer Harry Rapf who began a 20 year career with MGM in 1917 and was “one of the founding members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

1883(15th of Tishrei, 5644): Sukkoth

1883: “In Uman province of Kiev, Russia, David Coralnik and Gittle Coralnik birth to Dr. Abraham Coralnik the American journalist and Zionist.



1884: Four days after she had passed away, 66 year old Harriette (nee Moses) Nathan, the daughter of Henry and Esther Moses and husband of Louis Nathan whom she had married in 1837 was buried today at the “Willesden Jewish Cemetery.”

1886(17thof Tishrei, 5647): Shabbat Cho HaMoed Sukkoth

1886(17thof Tishrei, 5647): Sixty-year old German banker Mayer Carl von Rothschild, the nephew Amschel Mayer Rothschild passed away today

1886: In Plonsk, Scheindel (Broitman) Grun and Avigdor Grun, “a lawyer and a leader in the Hoevei Zion movement gave birth to David Grun who gained fame as David Ben-Gurion..  To describe him as one of the earliest Zionist leaders, founding father of Israel, and its first Prime Minister would not even begin to do justice to this gigantic figure. Ben-Gurion was no saint and it is easy to criticize him.  But he was a committed socialist.  He truly believed in the brotherhood of man.  At the same time, he was committed to the Zionist movement and worked to create a “new” Jew in a Jewish homeland.   Ben-Gurion was a realist and a gambler.  Despite a great deal of criticism, he was willing to accept the 1947 Partition Plan even though it meant a Jewish state without Jerusalem.  At the same time, he was bold enough to declare the independence of the Jewish state in May of 1948 when most of the “smart” leaders of the world told him to wait.  The modern state of Israel might have come into existence without Ben-Gurion, but it is hard to imagine how it would have happened.  I urge you to read more about the truly remarkable, complex leader.  He passed away on December 1, 1973.


1887: “Where Has The American Merchant Gone” published today bemoans the passing of the country’s mercantile activities into the hands of recent immigrants including Jews who usually “own the largest and best stocked store in town.”  “The American importer of dry goods” have been replaced by “firms composed of well-dressed and highly intelligent Jews,” Germans or even Scandinavians. Americans shrug their shoulders, say “it could not be helped “and then curse the foreigners as they drink a cocktail to their speedy downfall.”

1887: It was reported today that the property belonging to the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews in New York City is valued at $75,000 for tax purposes.  But the building is tax exempt because it owned by a non-profit religious organization.

1888: The decision was made tonight “to depose” Professor Horowitz as manager of the fund raising theatrical productions being sponsored by the Jewish Order of the Harp of David appearing at Poole’s Theatre because “he has been running things in a high-handed manner.”

1888: Birthdate of Robert A. Hess “a lawyer who was a leader in the Milwaukee Zionist District and who in the early 1930s, attended an American Jewish Congress meeting in New York City.

1888: Sixty-year old Horatio Gates Spafford, one of the founders of the “American Colony,” whose members “engaged in philanthropic work amongst the people of Jerusalem regardless of their religious affiliation and without proselytizing motives” lost his battle with malaria and passed away today following which he was buried in Mount Zion Cemetery.

1889: Birthdate of Philadelphia native and John Marshall Law School trained Chicago attorney Archie H. Cohen.

1890: Joseph Jacobs, a Jewish glazier who was attacked by a gang in Jersey City is lying unconscious in City Hospital after having had his skull fractured by a paving stone.

1890: “City and Suburban News” published today described the upcoming social events which will be sponsored the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.

1891: The Chicago Symphony debuted today at the Auditorium Building designed by Dankmar Adler which they continued as their musical home until 1904.

1891: Birthdate of Philadelphia native Louis Samter Potsdamer the author who earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

1892: “A Jewish Historical Society” published today described the organization of the American Jewish Historical Society under the presidency of Oscar S. Straus which has already gained the interest of European historians who are sending materials about “the Jews who first crossed the Atlantic with Columbus

1892: Saul Solomon passed away in Cape Town. A native of St. Helena, he settled in South Africa where he became a leader of the Liberal Party.  He was known as the “Cape Disraeli” because, like his English predecessor, he converted but retained a public affection for his former co-religionists.

1892: Missouri Republican Party leader Isaac Isaacs said that unless Major Warner, the party’s nominee for governor fired his campaigner manager after he made anti-Semitic remarks, he would not even get 8 of the 1,200 Jewish votes in Kansas City and would lose most, if not all, of the 25,000 Jewish voters in the state.

1892(25thof Tishrei, 5653): Seventy-four year old Saul Isaac Kaempf a native of Posen and a disciple of Akiba Eger who became an assistant professor of Oriental languages at the University of Prague passed away today.

1892: “Did Harris Get Files from the Hallman” published today described the escape of Henry Harris from the Hudson County, NJ, Jail despite the fact the a Jewish prisoner, Benjamin Greyer, had warned authorities that prisoner Paul Zimmerman who was serving as a “hallman” had supplied Harris with two files for sawing through the bars.

1893: Birthdate of Port Chester, NY native Joseph Ralph Palkin, the graduate of George Washington University, Northwestern and the Naval Dental School who worked as a dental surgeon in Washington, DC while serving on the faculty of George Washington.


1894: Birthdate of New York City native Frank J. Cohen, the dentist who served as director of the “Lavenburg-Corner Youth House” and a “Consultant on Community Relations” with NYU.

1894: In New York, founding of Congregation Agudath Jesharim on East 86thStreet with services, which on Friday begin at sundown and on Saturday at 9:30  led by Rabbi Calman and Cantor L.H. Martin that is supported by a Sisterhood and Young Folk’s League.

1894: “They Will Not Deal With Strikers” published today described the organization of the Cloak and Suit Manufacturers’ Association  whose officers included Frank and Louis Rothschild and which is the manufacturer’s to the strike of  cloakmakers.  (Editor’s Note: There are Jews on both sides of this fight)

1894: “Business Men and Tammany” published today provides a cross section of responses to the nomination of Nathan Strauss for Mayor.  Most of it was negative as the respondents were “reformers” supporting William L. Strong and would have opposed any Tammany candidate. (None of the responses made any references to Strauss’ ethnicity)

1895: The will of Babet Karl which was prepared by her nephew Abraham Stern, “a wealthy real estate lawyer”  “is on the Surrogate’s calendar for probate today even though a second will which was written after this name Rabbi Wise and his son as primary beneficiary has just been found.

1895: Birthdate of Chicago native Dr. Isadore Pilot, M.D., the husband of Anna B. Pilot and the father of Sarah and Martin Pilot.

1897(20thof Tishrei, 5658): Shabbat Shel Sukkoth

1897(20thof Tishrei, 5658): Fifty-eight year old Elizabeth Solomon, the widow of the late Edward Solomon passed away today in the United Kingdom.

1897: The Beni Zion Association is scheduled to host a lecture at King’s Hall on Commercial Road in London.

1897: The East London Jewish Communal League is scheduled to host a “social gathering” at the Stepney Jewish Schools.”

1898: Birthdate of Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas who in 1949 “revealed that he was ‘converted to Zionism’ by the late Justice Louis D. Brandeis” and pledged to continue his sympathies for Israel and to do whatever” he could do “for its welfare.” (As reported by JTA)



1898: In Norfolk, VA, Arther and Sadie (Spagat) Morris gave birth to Virginia Leigh Morris who gained famed as sculptor Virginia Morris Pollak.


1899: Israel Zangwill's play "Children of the Ghetto," premiers at the Herald Square Theatre in New York. The play was based on a novel of the same name published in 1892 that describes the life of a Jewish family living in London in the last decade of the 19th century.

1900(23rdof Tishrei, 5661): Simchat Torah celebrated for the first time in the 20thcentury.

1901:Forty-five year old Clarence Isaac de Sola, the “third son of Abraham de Sola and Esther Joseph married Belle Maud Goldsmith of Cleveland, Ohio with whom he had two sons and two daughters.

1902(15thof Tishrei, 5663): On the same day that the first “Youthful Offenders Institution” opened in Borstal, Kent, UK, Jews observed Sukkoth

1902(15thof Tishrei, 5663): Rebecca Saltzstein passed away today after which she was buried at the Greenwood Cemetery in Milwaukee.

1906: Birthdate of León Klimovsky the Argentine dentist who gained fame as a film director.

1906: Birthdate of Los Angeles native “producer, direct and actor” Sam White, the brother of Jack, Jules and Ben White and husband of Claretta Ellis whose career including everything from making musical comedies to WW II armed forces training films.

1908: Two days after she had passed away, Adelaide Decker, the wife of Louis Decker, was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery in London.”

1909: The University of Tennessee Volunteers coached by George Levene lost to Kentucky State College in Lexington.

1909: The University of Michigan led by halfback Joseph “Joe” Magidsohn, “the first Jewish athlete to win a varsity ‘M’” who was the “first athlete known to have refused to compete on the Jewish High Holy Days” defeated Ohio State today.

1911: According to The Reform Advocate, Henry W. Savage’s “Every Woman” is scheduled to open today at the “Auditorium” in Chicago.

1910: Birthdate of Sir MIsha Black, Russian-born British architect and designer.

1912: Birthdate of Elizabeth H. Friedman who when she passes away in 1959 will be buried in the Jewish Cemetery at Natchitoches, LA.

1913(15thof Tishrei, 5674): Sukkoth

1913: In New York, Governor William Sulzer, who had been defended by William Marshall, was convicted on three articles of impeachment. Sulzer was replaced by his Lieutenant Governor, Martin Glynn, the author of the 1919 article “The Crucifixion of the Jews Must Stop!”

1914: During WW I, British forces recaptured Givenchy during the Battle of La Bassee, one of those inconclusive actions that would set the stage for the four year stalemate and slaughter on the Western Front.

1915: It was reported today that of the 831,000 children in New York public schools, 41,000 of the m attend “Jewish religious schools of the Jewish Educational Bureau.”

1915: “Drop Jewish Conference” published today described how the opposition led by Louis D. Brandeis had thwarted Louis Marshall’s call for a national meeting of Jewish leaders to discuss what American Jews could do to improve the conditions of their European and Palestinian co-religionists after the war.

1915: It was reported today that three of the Jewish members of the Interdenominational Committee are Rabb J.L. Magnes, Rabbi H.P. Mendes and Rabbi M.H. Harris 

1915: “How great the debt which modern Judaism and the land of his adoption owe to Rabbi Max Lillienthal, a leader in Israel and an American citizen un-hyphenated was the theme of the services held this morning at Temple Emanu-EL in commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of his birth.”

1916: Felix M. Warburg a co-founder and Chairman of the Jewish Philanthropic Societies gave a dinner for his “co-workers” at Sherry’s tonight where the prospects of success of the newly formed umbrella agency were discussed and among the evidence presented the fact that so far “1,200 person have contributed $800,000” which is “$240,000 more than the same persons gave last year” to the various societies and institutions that are now part of the new umbrella group.

1916: “Replying today to the charge made by a committee of Jews that the Democratic campaign managers had been attempting to inject religion into the present Presidential Campaign, Henry Morgenthau, the Treasurer of of the Democratic National Committee and Herman Bernstein issued a statement say ‘We deprecate as much and perhaps more than the signers of the protest – all of whom are supporting the Republican Committee – the bring or religion or religious issues into this campaign” and “to avoid the possibility of this we shall refrain at this time from any comment.’”

1916: A letter was published today “from Henry Sliozberg, a Jewish lawyer, who writing from Petrograd, said that the Russian Jews were hoping for an allied victory, in which they foresaw reforms affecting their own conditions” and who expressed the view “that the Jews of Russia saw in an victory of the Allies in their emancipation.”

1917: President Woodrow Wilson sent word to Lloyd George that he approved of the issuance of the Balfour Declaration.

1917: Today, a list of 159 emigres, including 99 Jews, who had arrived in Russia in sealed trains from Germany was published today.

1917: “According to a report” that today is in the possession of the Commander of the Second Field Artillery at Camp Wadsworth in South Carolina, Captain Howard Sullivan of Battery D of the Bronx who was charged earlier with trying to bar Jews from serving in the unit “directed four non-commissioned officers to take Private Otto Gottschalk from his tent, strip him, force him to drink filthy water and beat him with sticks until welts are raised.”

1917: Birthdate of Nathan “Fred” Asher, the New York native and 1939 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy who at the age of 24 was the highest ranking officer on the U.S. Blue when he was attacked at Pearl Harbor where he acted to move the ship out of harm while responding to the arial onslaught.

1918: Birthdate of Abraham Nemeth, who developed the Nemeth Code, a form of Braille that greatly improved the ability of visually impaired people to study complex mathematics (As reported by William Yardley)

1918: The advance in the Argonne Forest that had begun on September 25 during which Sergeant Harvey H. Blum of the 307th Infantry “was continually with the advance line despite the fact that several section of his platoon periodically relieved one another and during which he displayed “great bravery and coolness under fire” came to an end today.

1919(22ndof Tishrei, 5680): Shmini Atzeret

1920: In a speech today, Judge Otto Rosalsky delivered a speech at the Lincoln League Republican Club in New York where he “assailed the articles in Henry Ford’s The Dearborn Independent as the work of of a madman who is a menace to American institutions.”

1921: Birthdate Krakow native Andrzej Munk, the movie director and screenwriter who took part in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, became a leading Polish filmmaker in the post-Stalinist era and in a moment of cosmic irony died “in car accident while on his way home from Auschwitz’ where he was shooting a film called “Passenger.”

1923: Birthdate of “Walter Zacharius, who rode the passion-swollen wave of romance fiction in the early 1980s to build the Kensington Publishing Corporation into a leading purveyor of bodice-rippers and other romance genres.” (As reported by William Grimes)

1923: Tonight at the Hotel Commodore the American Jewish Congress adopted a resolution prepared by the Committee On Palestine, assisted by Israel Zangwill, carrying out Mr. Zangwill's suggestion for a resolution insisting that the British Government fulfill its mandate under the League of Nations for the “upbuilding “of a Jewish national home in Palestine.

1924: In New York City Jennie (née Friedman) and Jacob J. Scherick gave birth to Edgar J. Scherick the ABC television producer who helped create “ABC’s Wide World of Sports.”

1925: In Manhattan, schoolteacher “Rose (Landa) Heller” and William Heller, the founder of “Heller Jersey, a small but successful textile manufacturing company” gave birth to their youngest child, Benjamin Theodore Heller the influential “art collector and dealer.” (As reported by Roberta Smith)




1927(20thof Tishrei, 5688): Sukkoth Chol HaMoed

1927: Birthdate of Lee Montague, “a tailor’s son born with the surname Goldberg in London’s East End whose long acting career including being voted “Best TV Actor of the Year in 1960.

1927: Birthdate Danzig native Günter Grass, the Nobel Prize winning author.




1927(20thof Tishrei, 5688): Thirty-four year old bootlegger and labor racketeer Jacob “Little Augie” Orgen died after having been shot by rivals while walking on the Lower East Side.

1930: Birthdate of Dan Pagis, holocaust survivor and poet whose most famous work may be:

written in pencil in the sealed railway car

Here in this carload
I, Eve,
with my son Abel.
if you see my older boy,
Cain, the son of man
tell him that I


1932(16thof Tishrei, 5693): Second Day of Sukkoth

1932: British flyweight Moe Mizler fought his last bout today.

1933: The Associated Press reported that the German citizen who had assaulted a New Yorker named Dr. Daniel Mulvhill “because he had failed to ‘salute a Nazi detachment’” was being held at an unnamed concentration camp. (This seemingly harsh punishment may have been an attempt to ingratiate the new Nazi regime with the West while it went about its various nefarious activities including re-armament in violation of the Versailles Treaty)

1935: When the Belgian steamship Leopold II was unloading 97 tons of cement at Jaffa, “a tin case of cartridges concealed in a barrel” was discovered.  According to “unconfirmed reports from Arab sources…800 rifles and 400,000 cartridges” were also found among the 537 barrels of cement.  Officials have not been able to determine who was supposed to be getting the weaponry.

1936: “Dimples” a musical with a script Arthur Sheekman was released today in the United States.

1936: In response to the violent “excesses of Sir Oswald Mosley’s Black Shirts, Sir Samuel Hoare, the First Lord of the Admiralty delivered a speech in which he said “no extremists…would allowed to threaten the liberties of British Citizens” and “Sir John Simon, the Minister of Home Affairs…declared tonight that he would be willing to receive a deputation from the East End of London and hear their grievances growing out of persecution of Jews in that part of the city by Sir Oswald’s followers.”

1937: Hans Achim Litten, a lawyer whose father had converted to Christianity before and who represented several of the opponents of the Nazis in court, arrived at Dachau where he was placed in the same barracks as the Jewish prisoners and after being tortured unmercifully would finally take his own life.

1938: “Winston Churchill, in a broadcast address to the United States, condemned the Munich Agreement as a defeat and called upon America and Western Europe to prepare for armed resistance against Hitler.”

1939(3rdof Cheshvan 5700):  Morris Rosenthal, the husband of Mary Rosenthal passed away today after which he was buried at Ahavas Sholom Congregation Cemetery in Baltimore County, MD.

1939: Kraków, one of the most important Jewish communities since the 1300s, is designated the capital of the Generalgouvernement.

1939: “The Man Who Came to Dinner,” a three act comedy created by those Jewish stalwarts of the Broadway Theatre, George S. Kaufman, premiered at the Music Box in New York

1939: Mary Menk and Samuel Weisstein gave birth to Phi Beta Kappa member and Harvard Ph.D Naomi Weisstein the psychologist and neuroscientist who “formed the Chicago Women’s Liberation Rock Band in order to fight back against the prominent and accepted sexist themes in rock music.”



1940: “Arise My Life” a comedy with a script co-authored by Billy Wilder based on a story by Benjamin Glazer was released in the United States today by Paramount Pictures.

1940: Warsaw Ghetto established. (In note of historic irony, six years later to the day, those convicted at the first Nuremberg Trial were hung)

1941: “After Leon Blum had been in prison for a year, Marshal Pétain announced in a radio speech that a special Political Justice Council had decided that Blum along with other leaders of the Third Republic would be transferred to a fortified installation (Fort de Portalet, a castle in Urdos in the Pyrenees) for trial – the outcome of which he assured them would not be disappointing.

1941: The Germans murdered 4,500 Jews outside of Lubny, Urkaine (USSR). Unknown Nazi photographers left a photo of a mother and her children just before the atrocity and a photo of a group of Jews awaiting their fate.


1941: In response to Hitler's plea that all Jews must leave Germany, the first of twenty trains left Germany for the East. Jews from Luxemburg and Vienna were part of the deportation. Within the next month 19,827 Jews from the Reich would be sent to Lodz.

1941: The German Army advanced to within 60 miles (96 K) of Moscow. One not need romanticize life in Stalin’s Russia to recognize the courage of the Soviet Army. Stalin decided to remain in Moscow and take personal command of the battle. As bad as the Holocaust was, it would have been even worse if the Soviets had not held on.  At the same time many revered the Soviet Army because it liberated so many of the camps as it later moved west towards Berlin.

1941(25th of Tishrei, 5702): Three days after the German murder of 15,000 Jewish residents of Dnepropetrtovsk, Ukraine, an additional 5000 Jews are executed in the town.

1941: The first SS deportation train of Western Jews travels to ghettos at Lódz, Lublin, and Warsaw, Poland.

1941(25th of Tishrei, 5702): Twenty trains carrying nearly 20,000 Jews travel from Germany, Luxembourg, Czechoslovakia, and Austria to the Lódz (Poland) Ghetto. The shipments will come to an end in the first week of November.

1942: Final liquidation of the Ghetto at Zamosc, Poland


1942: The Nazis arrest more than 1000 Jews in Rome and deport them to Auschwitz.

1942: “Eyes in the Night” a crime film directed by Polish born American Oscar winning director Fred Zinnemann was released today in the United States.

1943: German Ambassador to the Vatican Ernst von Weizsäcker compliments the Holy See for its "perfect even-handedness" in treating Germany and the Allies. When Weizsäcker asks what Pope Pius XII will do if the German government persists in its present Jewish policy in Italy, Vatican Secretary of State Maglione replies that "the Holy See would not want to be put in the position of having to utter a word of disapproval." The Pope is being "cautious so as not to give the German people the impression that [he] has done or has wished to do even the smallest thing against Germany during this terrible time.”

1943: Germans looking for Jews in Rome conduct house-to-house searches. About 1000 Jews are briefly held at Rome's Collegio Militare and then deported to Auschwitz. 477 Jews are sheltered in the Vatican, and another 4238 find sanctuary in convents and monasteries throughout Rome. Nevertheless, by this date more than 8300 Italian Jews have been deported to Auschwitz.

1943: In Rome, Germans searched through streets and homes for Jews.  Of the 1,015 Jews taken on that morning only 16 would survive the war.  Within two months, another 7,345 Jews would be found and deported from Northern Italy

1943: Two days after a violent Jewish revolt at the Sobibór death camp, SS chief Heinrich Himmler orders the camp destroyed.

1943: Today, “45 year-old Settimio Calo left his wife Clelia and their nine children in their apartment so he could buy a pack of cigarettes and “when he got home he found the place in Via del Portico D’Ottavia, the heart the Jewish Ghetto completely empty” because “the Nazis had raided the neighborhood and round over 1,000 Jews” only sixteen of whom survived Auschwitz, none of which part of his family.

1943 Samuel Fuller and the rest of  “The Big Red One” left Liverpool for Dorchester today where they began 7 months of training for what would be the Normandy Invasion.

1944: Birthdate of Joseph Sitruk the native of Tunisia who as Joseph Haim Sitruk served as Chief Rabbi of France from June, 1987 to June, 2008.

1944: Following the coup led by the Arrow Cross, the Germans and their Hungarian allies resume resumed their attacks on the Jews of Budapest. Jews were again dragged from their homes and into the streets. Then for the next 10 days, all Jews are forbidden to leave their homes.

1944: Germans and members of the Fascist Nyilas group prohibit Jews in Budapest, Hungary, from leaving their homes. Many Jewish slave laborers are killed by Nyilas members on a bridge linking Buda with Pest.

1944: In Rome, the roundup of the Jewish population began.  “SS troops surrounded the Lungotevere, the former ghetto area, where some 4,000 of the city’s 12,000 Jews still lived.”  The SS selected 1,000 men, women and children for immediate shipment to Auschwitz.  This was only the beginning of a march to the Death Camps that took place in the city of the Pope.

1944: Composer, conductor, pianist and music critic Viktor Ullmann was sent to Auschwitz today.

1945: David Lubin’s dream for the creation of an “international organization for food and agriculture” came to fruition today with the founding of The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

1945: During the presentation of the Army-Navy “E” Award (a commendation for outstanding production during WW II) at Los Alamos, NM, Robert Oppenheimer delivered his “farewell speech” as director of the project that led to the development of the Atomic Bomb.

1945(9th of Cheshvan, 5706): Eighty-year old Berta Zuckerland, the daughter of Mortiz Szeps and the wife of Dr. Emil Zuckerkandl who was famous for her Salon in Vienna passed away today in Paris after having spent much of the war in Algeria.

1946: Ten Nazi leaders were hanged as war criminals after the Nuremberg trials.  This chart shows the fate of those tried at Nuremberg.



Name  
--Count--
Sentence    
Notes

1    
2    
3    
4    



Martin Bormann
I
º
G
G
Death
In absentia

Karl Dönitz
I
G
G
º
10 years
Initiator of the U-boat campaign and Hitler's designated successor

Hans Frank
I
º
G
G
Death
Expressed repentance

Wilhelm Frick
I
G
G
G
Death


Hans Fritzsche
I
I
I
º
Acquitted
Tried in place of Joseph Goebbels

Walter Funk
I
G
G
G
Life Imprisonment
Released due to ill health on May 16, 1957

Hermann Göring
G
G
G
G
Death
Commander of Luftwaffe. Committed suicide the night before his execution.

Rudolf Hess
G
G
I
I
Life Imprisonment
Hitler's deputy, flew to England in 1941

Alfred Jodl
G
G
G
G
Death
Posthumously acquitted of all charges in 1953

Ernst Kaltenbrunner
I
º
G
G
Death
Highest surviving SS-leader

Wilhelm Keitel
G
G
G
G
Death


Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach
I
I
I
I
----
Medically unfit for trial

Robert Ley
I
I
I
I
----
Suicide on October 25, 1945, before verdict

Konstantin von Neurath
G
G
G
G
15 years
Released (ill health) November 6, 1954

Franz von Papen
I
I
º
º
Acquitted


Erich Raeder
I
G
I
º
Life Imprisonment
Released (ill health) September 26, 1955

Joachim von Ribbentrop
G
G
G
G
Death
Nazi Minister of Foreign Affairs

Alfred Rosenberg
G
G
G
G
Death
Racial theory ideologist

Fritz Sauckel
I
I
G
G
Death


Hjalmar Schacht
I
I
º
º
Acquitted


Baldur von Schirach
G
º
º
G
20 years
Head of the Hitlerjugend, expressed repentance

Arthur Seyss-Inquart
I
G
G
G
Death


Albert Speer
º
º
G
G
20 Years
Responsible for several aspects of industry and a central figure in leadership, expressed repentance.

Julius Streicher
I
º
º
G
Death





"I"indicted        "G" indicted and found guilty    

1947: In Milwaukee, WI, Charlotte A. (Lefstein) and Burton C. Zucker, who was a real estate developer gave birth to producer, director and screenwriter David S. Zuker.

1947(2nd of Cheshvan, 5708): Theatrical manager Gus Kahn, the Huntington, Indiana born son of Marx and Barbara Newberger Kahn passed this evening “at the St. Joseph Hospital in Fort Wayne” after which he was buried in the Rodef Sholem Cemetery in Wabash, Indiana.

1948: During Operation Yoav, Israeli forces were repulsed after heavy fighting as they tried to open the road to Jewish settlements in the Negev and Beersheba.

1948: “Arab Legion forces at the Arab-held Zion Gate attacked the Jewish positions on Mount Zion, but were driven off after fierce fighting.”

1948(13th of Tishrei, 5709): Twenty-seven year old Mordechai “Modi” Alon died today when his plane crashed after returning from an attack on Egyptian forces. A native of Safed, Alon trained with the RAF during World War II and flew in the first combat mission undertaken by the Israeli Air Force in May of 1948.  He scored infant air forces’ first kills when he shoot down to Royal Egyptian Air Force C-47’s over Tel Aviv. These air victories were more than just numbers.  They gave heart to the beleaguered Yishuv who had had no protection from the air forces of their Arab attackers.

1948: Leonard Bernstein, who had come to Israel specifically to do this, conducted a concert of the newly created Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at Jerusalem’s Edison Theatre. “He did so amid the persistent background noise of rifle and machine-gun fire from the direction of the Old City.  The climax of the evening was Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.”  According to eye witness Tom Tugend, “’Towards the end of the first movement machine-gun fire burst out in the Old City, held by Jordanian forces.  The gunfire continued unabated throughout the performance.  Lenny and the orchestra never missed a beat.’”

1948: Birthdate of Bruce Fleisher, the Union City, TN native who became a successful professional golfer.

1949(23rd of Tishrei, 5710): On the same day that the Greek Civil War came to an end marking a victory for the West in what was called the “Cold War,” Jews observed Simchat Torah

1950: Birthdate of Lowell, Massachusetts author Elinor Lipman, whose “1998 novel The Inn at Lake Devine explores anti-Semitism and Jewish intermarriage.”


1952: The Jerusalem Post reported from New York that hundreds of Jewish congregations throughout the US joined in a unique nationwide effort on behalf of the Israel Independence Bonds sales drive, to mark the recent holiday period. Tens of thousands of bonds were sold in scores of cities in which leading American personalities visited synagogues to present the facts about the importance of such action. In New York the actor Edward G. Robinson canceled his important personal plans to substitute for his colleague, Eddie Cantor, who became ill, and to participate in a series of special, festive Bond dinners.

1955: Esther Lederer, writing as Ann Landers, had her first advice column published in the Chicago Sun Times.  By the end of Lederer's life, Ann Landers had become the world's most widely syndicated column, published in more than 1,200 publications and with more than 90 million readers around the world. When Esther Lederer and her husband moved to Chicago in the 1950s, she contacted a family friend at the Chicago Sun Times to see whether the columnist Ann Landers needed any help in writing her column. The Sun Times was in the process of finding a replacement writer for the column, and Lederer took over as the new Landers, a name that would remain with her for the rest of her life. Because Lederer had been involved in politics and had volunteered extensively, she was very well connected, and her column reflected these connections. Lederer was able to solicit advice from experts in many different fields. From her column, Landers openly opposed racism and anti-Semitism, and devoted much space to fighting injustice. Lederer continued to write as Ann Landers for 46 years, until her death in 2002.

1955: The Los Angeles coached by Sid Gillman lost to the Green Bay Backers by a score of 30 to 28 suggesting the notion that he might have been better off in the synagogue than in the stadium

1956: “Attack” a WW II “anti—war” movie co-starring Robert Strauss was released today in the United States.

1957: The German Pharmacological Society is scheduled to present a medal at 4 o’clock this afternoon to Dr. Otto Lowei, Research Professor of Pharmacology at the College of Medicine of NYU and the winner of the 1936 Noble Prize in Medicine.


1960: Rabbi Meshulam Zusia Heschel, the son of Rabbi Abraham Joseph Heshel, and his wife gave birth to Shoshana Bluma Reizel Heschel, the wife of “Nachum Dov Brayer, the Rebbe of the Boyan Hasidic dynasty.”

1960: “Israel Gives Aid to New Nations,” published today described the visit to the United States of Dr. Benjamin Mazar, the noted archaeologist and President of Hebrew University. During his visit, Dr. Mazar described the aid that Israel is providing to the newly emerging nations of Africa and Asia including the enrollment of 100 students from nations in these two continents in courses at Hebrew University and the sponsorship by the government of Ethiopia of several medical students at the university’s medical school. The university has also sent teams to various developing countries to aid in the development of educational and health programs.

1960: Birthdate of “Franco-British lawyer” Philippe Sands the author of sixteen books including the award winning East West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity,


1961: “Let It Ride,” a musical version of “3 Men on a Horse” opened today at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre with a cast that included Sam Levene who had appeared in a “1936 film adaptation of the play.”

1961(6thof Cheshvan, 5722): Sixty-two year old Russian born U.S. Army WW I veteran Joseph Kaplow, “the national treasurer of the Israel Histadrut Campaign, President of  the Jackson Furniture Company and husband of “the former Rhoda Yevelson” with whom he had two daughters passed away today in New York.


1961: Birthdate of French-Jewish novelist Marc Levy.

1962:”Requiem for a Heavyweight” the movie version of the Playhouse 90 play produced by David Susskind was released in the United States today.

1964: ABC broadcast the “The Addams Family Tree” part of the Addams Family series created by David Levy,

1966:”Eh?” by Henry Livings,  premiered at the Circle in the Square Downtown under the direction of Alan Arkin and featured Dustin Hoffman in “his first critical success.”

1966: “A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to the Forum” based on the play co-authored by Larry Gelbart, produced by Melvin Frank who also co-authored the screenplay, with music by Stephen Sondheim and starring Zero Mostel, Jack Gilford and Phil Silvers was released today in the United Sates.

1967(10thof Av, 5727): Seventy-five year old Ralph E. Samuel, the husband of Florence Samuel with who he had three children – Ralph, Donald and Howard – “who played a central role in the founding of Commentary” passed away today in Israel.

1968: “Far From the Madding” the film version of the novel by the same name directed by John Schlesinger, with a script by Fredrick Raphael was released in the United Kingdom today.

1968: “The Boston Strangler” directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Tony Curtis in the title role was released in the United States today.

1969: A revival of “3 Men on a Horse” co-starring Jack Gilford, Sam Levne and Hal Linden opened at the Lyceum Theatre.

1970: Anwar Sadat was elected president of Egypt, succeeding Gamal Abdel Nasser.  Sadat was responsible for the Yom Kippur War.  But his claim to fame was the courage to risk all with his famous trip to Jerusalem and the peace treaty with Israel.  His motives are of less importance than the deeds he performed.

1970: Andersonville, the notorious Confederate prison, was designated as a National Historic Site.  Among those who were imprisoned in the camp was George Geiger who would go on to win the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

1972: Thirty-eight year old Wael Zwaiter, a member of Black September was killed today for his role in the Munich Massacre.

1973: Just after mid-night, a small force of Israeli tanks crossed to the western bank of the Suez Canal.  This daring success was a closely held secret.  The first task of this force was to find and destroy the SAM-6 Missiles that were negating Israel’s air superiority.  The Israelis were dismayed to find that the French were supplying weapons to the Arabs.  Israeli pilots shot down a French Mirage that belonged to the Libyans. On the diplomatic front, President Sadat asked Soviet Prime Minister Kosygin who was in Cairo to get the UN to call for an immediate cease fire.  The Israeli Foreign Ministry exploded with indignation when Kosygin complied.  The Israelis recounted the massive buildup of Soviet military equipment that had been sent to the Arabs.  The war could not have started it the Russians had not provided the weapons.  To the Israelis, it was lie the man who supplied an arsonist with gasoline calling on the fire department to protect the arsonist.

1973: Events on the northern front dispelled any doubt as to how broad support was in the Arab world for this war aimed at destroying Israel.  Israeli forces were forced to fight two major tank battles on the Syrian front and neither of them was with the Syrians.  In the first battle a Jordanian brigade including twenty-eight tanks was beaten back.  In the second fight, the Israelis faced a larger number of Iraqi tanks.  Exactly how many Iraqi tanks were involved is unknown; all the Israelis know is that the Iraqis left the hulks of sixty tanks behind when they retreated.

1973:  Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho jointly awarded Nobel peace prize. Kissinger is Jewish.  Le Duc Tho is not Jewish.  Kissinger was a refugee from Nazi Germany. In the 1950”s when others in academia were converting to advance their careers, Kissinger did not choose to follow that path. 

1973: American Sephardi Federation and the Sephardic community at large collected $4,000,000 for Israel by week two of the Yom Kippur war.

1974: “Felix Kamov Kandel and Mikhail Suslov, leading film workers, began a hunger strike in Moscow to obtain permission for emigration.

1974: The KGB prevents “a weekly Moscow refusenik-scientist seminar from taking place.”

1974: “Soviet Jewish activist Victor Polsky was found guilty in Moscow of dangerous driving and fined 100 rubles.”

1975: “A letter of Anatoly Malkin, where he appeals to Russian Jews not to serve in the Soviet army, is publicized in the West; the authorities are using the draft as a deterrent for those who want to emigrate to Israel.”

1976(22ndof Tishrei, 5737): Shmini Atzeret and Shabbat

1976: “Enid Wurtman, co-chairman of the Union of Council for Soviet Jewry, and Connie Smukler arrived on a visit to Moscow.”

1977: Birthdate of John Meyers, creator of Blues for Peace which was set up in Israel to honor the roots of blues music and promote peace and the understanding that ALL peoples have had their share of the blues. Blues for Peace is dedicated to the unsung heroes, local blues musicians that love the blues and pass it on to the next generation

1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that three people were slightly injured, two of them tourists, by two bombs thrown at them by Arab terrorists in the Old City of Jerusalem.  There was no security barrier, no trip to the Temple Mount by Sharon, etc.  In other words, each of these current excuses for terror are just that excuses for continuing behavior of longstanding.

1977: “Equus” a film version of the play by Peter Schaffer who wrote the screenplay and directed by Sidney Lumet was released today in the United States.

1978(15th of Tishrei, 5739): Sukkoth

1980: A boycott of cooperation with the USSR is announced by Scientists for Sakharov, Orlov and Shcharansky (SOS) Committee simultaneously in London, Paris, Washington and Geneva as part of a world-wide protest against the jailing of Orlov and Shcharansky and the banishment of Sakharov. About 7,900 scientists and engineers in 44 countries will participate in the boycott. 150 scientists from the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) announce on the same day that they will take part in the boycott.

1980: In Syosset, NY, Herschel and Nancy Bird gave birth to Suzanne Brigit “Sue” Bird, who won the Wade Trophy and Naismith Award as she led the U Conn Women’s Basketball team to an undefeated season in 2002, before going on to a successful career with the Seattle Storm of the WNBA before becoming an executive with the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association.  (and that is just the tip of the iceberg)

1981 (8th of Tishrei, 5742): Moshe Dayan passed away.  The much acclaimed Israeli general with the eye-patch was born in 1915.  He was one of the first children born at Deganya Alef, “the mother of all kibbutzim.”  Dayan joined the Haganah at the age of 14, learning military tactics from the fabled British Captain, Orde Wingate.  He lost his left eye fighting the Vichy French in Lebanon during World War II.  Dayan held a variety of important positions during Israel’s fight for independence.  During the 1950’s he helped mold the IDF and led it to a lightening victory over Egypt in 1956.  Dayan left the Army to purse a role in politics, but returned to serve as Minister for Defense during both the Six Day and Yom Kippur Wars.  In a an unexpected switch, Dayan joined the right wing government Begin government and served as the Foreign Minister who negotiated the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.  Dayan died at the age of 66, a victim of colon cancer.




1981(8thof Tishrei, 5742): Sixty five year old Haim Landau who made Aliyah in 1935, joined both Betar and Irgun before serving as an MK and government minister passed away today.

1981: “Moscow Hebrew teachers Boris Terlitzky, Yuli Edelstein, Victor Fulmacht, and Vladimir Kuravsky were warned to cease their activities.”

1981:”Writer of Central Europe Wins Nobel Prize” published today provides John Vincour’s description of the triumph scored by Sephardic Jew Elias Canetti.


1982: GeorgeShultz warns that the United States will withdraw from the UN if they vote to exclude Israel.

1983 (9th of Cheshvan, 5744): Dr. Leonardo De Benedetti, friend and companion of Primo Levi, passed away at the age of 85 in the Jewish Rest Home where he had lived for years.

1986: “The Name of the Rose” a medieval movie co-starring Ron Perlman was released today in Germany.

1986: “The Color of Money” starring Paul Newman in his Oscar winning role of “Fast Eddie Felson: was released in the United States today.

1986: Ron Arad, Israeli Weapons System Officer, was captured by Lebanese Shi'ite militia Amal.


1986:Armand Hammer returns to the United States with Jewish refusenik David Goldfarb.

1986: The Jonathan Netanyahu Memorial by Buky Schwartz, was dedicated outside the entrance to the National Museum of American Jewish History, along the walkway between 4th and 5th Streets north of Market Street today.The sculpture, donated by Muriel and Philip Berman, consists of four white marble monolithic vertical blocks, roughly 7' high by 2' deep and wide, standing in a square formation. The four blocks originated from one block of stone.Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu or Jonathan Netanyahu was a member of the Israel Defense Forces elite Sayeret Matkal unit. Yoni was awarded the Medal of Distinguished Service for his conduct in the Yom Kippur War. He was killed in action during Operation Entebbe at Entebbe airport in 1976, by Ugandan soldiers, when the Israeli military rescued hostages after an aircraft hijacking. He was the leader of the assault, and the only Israeli military casualty of the raid. His younger brother Benjamin Netanyahu was Prime Minister of Israel from 1996-1999. The National Museum of American Jewish History, founded in 1976, contains a large collection on the role and the everyday life of Jews in America. In 2010 the museum will open the doors to a new state-of-art facility



1987(23rd of Tishrei, 5748): Simchat Torah

1992: “Night and the City” a movie version of the 1938 novel by Gerald Karsh, directed by Irwin Winkler who coproduced the film with Jane Rosenthal  and co-starring Alan King was released today in the United States.

1993: Anti-Nazi riot breaks out in Welling in Kent, after police stop protesters approaching the British National Party headquarters.

1994: Rabbi Richard Rehins is scheduled to officiate at the wedding of Valerie Ann Wasserman and David Michael Rheins, “the associate publisher of Spin magazine.”

1995(22ndof Tishrei, 5756): Shemini Atzeret

1996: Dustin Hoffman’s “first critical success was in the play ‘Eh?,’which had its US premiere at the Circle in the Square Downtown” today.

1997(15thof Tishrei, 5758): Sukkoth

1997(15thof Tishrei, 5758): Ninety-two British philatelist Marcus Samuel who served in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve during WW II and “was also a founder member of the Society of Postal Historians” passed away today.

1997:  Prolific American Author James Michener passed away at the age of 90 in Austin, Texas. .   A non-Jew, Michener’s specialty was historic fiction in the tradition of the grand saga.   One of Michener’s most famous books was The Source.   In it he traced the history of the Jews from earliest times to modern days using the artifacts discovered at an fictional archeological dig as the literary springboard.  It is one of the easiest ways to enter into the world of Jewish history.

1997:  Sir Isaiah Berlin, who had been gravely ill since late July, made what turned out to be a final statement on the subject of the Israeli–Palestinian situation. "Since both sides begin with a claim of total possession of Palestine as their historical right; and since neither claim can be accepted within the realms of realism or without grave injustice: it is plain that compromise, i.e. partition, is the only correct solution, along Oslo lines – for supporting which Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish bigot. Ideally, what we are calling for is a relationship of good neighbors, but given the number of bigoted, terrorist chauvinists on both sides, this is impracticable. The solution must lie somewhat along the lines of reluctant toleration, for fear of far worse – i.e. a savage war which could inflict irreparable damage on both sides. As for Jerusalem, it must remain the capital of Israel, with the Muslim holy places being extra-territorial to a Muslim authority, and an Arab quarter, with a guarantee from the United Nations of preserving that position, by force if necessary."  To make a statement of this kind was unusual for him, since he rarely if ever made public statements on political topics, though, in the case of Israel, he was ready to be known as a supporter of Peace Now. On this occasion, however, he decided to take what might be his last opportunity to set out his strongly held views, which he sent in the form of a brief statement (dictated to his secretary) entitled ‘Israel and the Palestinians’ to his close friend Professor Avishai Margalit in Jerusalem.



1998: “Practical Magic,” a romantic comedy with a script co-authored by Akiva Goldsman and featuring Mark Fuerstein was released in the United States today.

2000(17th of Tishrei, 5761): Sukkoth Chol Hamoed

2000: It was reported today that Geoffrey Robinson, a millionaire Labour MP had "accused Peter Mandelson,” the scion of distinguished Anglo-Jewish family “of lying to the Commons about the home loan affair that cost both of them their government jobs."



2002: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Miles Lerman Center for the Study of Jewish Resistance posthumously awarded the Museum’s Medal of Resistance to Heshek Bauminger and Aharon Liebeskind, founders of the Jewish Fighting Organization (JFO) in the Cracow Ghetto. Hela Schupper-Raufaizen, who fought with the JFO in Cracow, accepted the medal during the summer on their behalf. U.S. Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer made the presentation at the U.S. Embassy in Israel on behalf of the Museum.

2005: The New York Times book section featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or that featured Jewish topics including Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 by Tony Judt, In Case We’re Separated: Connected Stories by Alice Mattison, The Other Shulman by Alan Zweibel and The Tiger In the Attic:  Memories of the Kindertransport and Growing Up English by Edith Milton

2005(24th of Tishrei, 5767): Palestinian gunmen killed three Israelis and wounded as least 5 others in two separate drive-by shootings in the West Bank. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for both attacks.

2005: Even in disaster, hope can be found.  In a move that would have been unthinkable only months ago, Pakistan has expressed a willingness to accept aide from Israel as the Moslem nation deals with the aftermath of a major earthquake..

2005: “My Four Hours Testifying in the Federal Jury Room,” published today provided Judith Miller’s account of her time spent before the federal grand jury.

2007: Sasha Cooke, a mezzo-soprano, saved Stephen Sondheim’s “Take Me to the World” for the second encore of her New York recital debut tonight at Zankel Hall. (As reported by Steve Smith)


2007: At the Jewish Museum of Florida an exhibition styled “Zap Pow Bam - Super Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics” opens. “Look! Up in the Sky! It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane! It’s Zap Pow Bam, a colorful dynamic exhibit that immerses visitors in an interactive world of Super Heroes, highlighting the Jewish creators of comic books from 1938 – 1950. These are America’s timeless icons like Superman, Batman, Captain America and Wonder Woman – including the phone booth where Superman changed his clothes and a Batmobile. Zap Pow Bam features 1940s serials, video interviews, a drawing studio and costumes. The exhibit offers a unique perspective on the way pop culture portrays issues and how identity and culture can shape popular opinion.”

2008: Proposed date on which Italy’s Holocaust Museum will open in Rome on the 65thanniversary of the German capture of more than 1,000 Jews from Rome’s ghetto, a major Holocaust episode in Italy.

2008: At SUNY New Paltz as part of the Israel @ 60 celebration the Resnick Institute for the Study of Modern Jewish Life hosts a lecture by Dr. Len Lyons, author and member of the Ethiopian Jewry Committee of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Boston, entitled "The Ethiopian Jews of Israel." 

2008: One thousand Jews traveled in and out of Nablus on buses from midnight to 5 a.m. on Thursday, in a brief pilgrimage to the burned-out shell of the building that covers Joseph's Tomb.

2008: A play by Ilan Stavans based on “The Disappearance” “premiered at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles today.

2009: Scottish actress Ronni Ancona appeared for the second time this year on “The One Show.”

2009: The joint Israeli-US Navy military exercise code named “Juniper Cobra” comes to an end.

2009: Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett’s “The Diary of Anne Frank” is performed at Kimmel Theatre on the campus of Cornell College in Mt. Vernon Iowa. The production is based on Wendy Kesselman’s acclaimed new adaptation of the play that makes thoughtful use of recently recovered segments of Anne’s diary to deepen our understanding both of the cultural context of the events and to present a much more complex (and less sentimental) Anne.

2009: Acclaimed Israeli choreographer Hofesh Shechter makes his West Coast debut at UCLA Live with his UK-based company performing “Uprising,” inspired by the Paris protests of 2006 and “In Your Rooms,” which traces Shechter’s traumatic time in the Israeli military. The 33-year-old is one of Britain’s most sought-after choreographers.

2009: In an article entitled “Book on March Rich Detials His Iran Oil Deals,” Jad Mouawad examines the life this rogue businessman who profited from the oil industry while working with a host of governmental agencies including the U.S. State Department and Mossad as he reviews The King of Oil by Daniel Ammann.

2009: The Irish tenor Ronan Tynan, a fixture at Yankee Stadium for years with his stirring rendition of “God Bless America,” was scheduled to belt out the song again during Game 1 of the American League Championship Series today. Instead, he was disinvited by the Yankees after he admitted making an anti-Semitic remark at his Manhattan apartment building a day earlier. Howard Rubenstein, a spokesman for the Yankees, said the team took action as soon as Tynan acknowledged making the comment. “He acknowledged that he used the slur and the Yankees stepped right in,” Rubenstein said tonight. The Yankees indicated today that Tynan would not be invited to sing at Yankee Stadium for the rest of the 2009 postseason but might be invited back in the future. Rubenstein said the Yankees were notified about 5 p.m. Thursday by a New York University physician, Gabrielle Gold-Von Simson, who was present when Tynan made the remark. Rubenstein said the incident occurred when a real estate agent was showing an apartment in Tynan’s building to Gold-Von Simson and jokingly said to Tynan, “Don’t worry, they’re not Red Sox fans.” Tynan reportedly replied, “I don’t care about that, as long as they are not Jewish.” Rubenstein said that after admitting his remarks to the Yankees, Tynan, 49, called Ms. Gold-Von Simson to apologize. “She said that if he gave a sincere apology she would forgive him,” Rubenstein said. “He did that to her satisfaction. He was very apologetic.” Tynan has been singing “God Bless America” at Yankee Stadium for years. A former member of the Irish Tenors, he did not embark on his music career until he was 33 and had already earned a medical degree. Tynan had both legs amputated below the knees after a car accident at age 20. But within a year he had entered the Paralympics, and in the 1984 and 1988 games won gold medals in the discus, the shot put and the long jump. Ronan sang at the Sept. 28, 2001, memorial for victims of Sept. 11. He first sang at the old Yankee Stadium in the 2000 season. When he will sing again at the new one is now unclear.

2010: Avishai Cohen, singing in in Hebrew, English, Spanish and Ladino, is scheduled to perform at the Winter Garden in New York City.

2010: The new Natalie G. Heineman Smart Love Preschool was dedicated to the memory of her life and her love and understanding of children.

2011: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is among the partners supporting Ford’s Theatre scheduled  matinee and evening productions of “Parade,” a Tony-award winning musical drama about the story of Leo Frank, who was lynched by a Georgia mob after having been wrongfully convicted of the murder of a Christian girl working in his factory.

2011: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “The Puppy Diaries: Raising a Dog Named Scout” by Jill Abramson and “Until The Dawn’s Light” by Aharon Appelfeld; translated by Jeffery Green.

2011: The Los Angeles Times features a review of “MetaMaus” by Art Spiegelman which is “a lavish deconstruction of his magnum opus” known to one and all as “Maus.”


2011:The Shalit family requested today be present at a High Court of Justice hearing, scheduled to discuss petitions issued geared at thwarting a prisoner exchange deal that would secure the release of their son, Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, warning that any delay in the agreement's execution could lead to its failure. The court is expected to discuss the petitions of individual families of terror victims against the Shalit deal at noon tomorrow, as well as they of the Almagor Terror Victims Association.

2011:Palestinian terrorists due to be deported overseas as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap deal will no doubt find their way back to Palestinian land, a top Hamas official said in an interview today

2011: Two Palestinians who participated in the 2000 lynching of two Israel Defense Forces soldiers in Ramallah will be released as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap deal, an official prisoners list indicated today.

2012: The Raw Men Empire, “an Israeli indie folk band” formed in 2009, is scheduled to perform at CMJ Music Marathon in New York.

2012: In Herndon, VA, Congregation Beth Emeth’s Hazak Chapter is scheduled to present a lecture by Dr. Mark Lowenthal, President and CEO of the Intelligence & Security Academy.

2012: Delegates to the Hadassah Convention are scheduled to “march, sing, dance and cheer” their way “through the streets in downtown Jerusalem” as they mark the opening of their convention.

2012: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and the Consulate General of Lithuania in NY are scheduled to present “Reclaiming the Jewish Narrative in Lithuania Today,” a lecture  by Markas Zingeris, Lithuanian Jewish author and Director of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum.

2012:Israel will weigh military action if it suspects Syria’s chemical weapons might fall into the hands of terrorist organizations, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said today.

2012: Vandals desecrated the grave of former defense minister and IDF chief of staff Moshe Dayan tonight (As reported by Ben Hartman)

2012: A rocket fired from Gaza hit close to a house in the Hof Ashkelon area tonight. Two people were treated for shock and minor damage was inflicted on the building, Channel 10 reported.

2012:The Contemporary Jewish Museum's “California Dreaming: Jewish life in the Bay Area from the Gold Rush to Present” is scheduled to come to an end. (For more about  American Jewry in the American West see Harriet Rochlin & Western Jewish History http://www.rochlin-roots-west.com/

2012: Recommended Reading is scheduled the 7th and final of Alex Epstein's stories from the collection “For My Next Illusion I Will Use.”


2012(30th of Tishrei, 5773): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

2013: The Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival is scheduled to present an evening with Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz author of For the Next Generation: A Wake-Up Call to Solving Our Nation's Problems

2013: In New York, The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present “Transcending Tradition: Jewish Mathematicians in German-Speaking Academic Culture”

2013: The Lawrence Family JCC is scheduled to present “Middle East Updated” with Professor Sandy Lakoff

2013: The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he is scheduled to meet with Pope Francis next week.

2013: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum will be able to reopen following the vote by Congress to approve legislation that will federal agencies to resume operation and raise the debt limit.

2014(22nd of Tishrei, 5775): Shemini Atsert

2014: In the evening, Agudas Achim in Coralville, Iowa led by Rabbi Jeff Portman is scheduled to host a Simchat Torah celebration complete with “pizza and treats.”

2014: At noon today, the Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host a Festive Concert featuring the Philomusica Piano Quartet.

2014: The Oxford University Jewish Society chaplains are scheduled to host a Simchat Torah dinner this evening.

2014: While “Senior Hamas members said today that indirect ceasefire talks with Israel in Cairo are set to resume at the end of this month”  “the political leader of Hamas, Khaled Mashal, called today for Muslims to defend the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, saying Israel was trying to seize the site, which is revered in both Islam and Judaism. (As reported by Stuart Winer)

2014: In a Congressional hearing today, Tom Frieden, the Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CD) was questioned for his handling of the Ebola crisis following the spread of the disease to two nurses from the original patient in the US.”

2014: Publication of “The Beggars of Lakewood.”


2014: “In a brief reported released” today “the medical examiner said the cause of Joan Rivers’s death was brain damaged caused by low blood oxygen or ‘anoxic encephalopathy due to hypoxic arrest.’”

2014: Lewis Black is scheduled to appear at the Palace Theatre in Albany, NY.

2015: “Dozens of Palestinians set fire at dawn today to a holy site known as Joseph’s Tomb, in the Palestinian Authority-controlled city of Nablus in the West Bank, damaging the tiny stone compound that many Jews believe is the burial place of the son of the biblical patriarch Jacob.”

2015:  The Catinca Tabacaru Gallery is scheduled to host a reception marking the opening of Israeli artist’s Addam Yekutieli first solo exhibition.

2015: The American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to host an “exhibition of selected works by JDOCU, who document activities of Tikkun Olam ('Repair the World') with special emphasis on Israeli and Jewish culture.”

2016(14th of Tishrei, 5777): Erev Sukooth

2016: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Hitler: Ascent 1889-1939 by Volker Ullrich, Murder, Inc. and the Moral Life: Gangsters and Gangbusters in La Guardia’s New York by Robert Weldon Whalen and A Gambler’s Anatomy by Jonathan Lethem

2016: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to re-launch “Make A Difference” – the Harvey Miller Family Youth Exhibition.

2016: The 92nd Street Y is scheduled to host a Sukkah Decorating Party

2016: In a cultural combination that could only take place in the United States, the Bay Ridge Jewish Community is scheduled to host a Sukkah Pizza Party.

2017: “Israeli Air Force jets attacked an anti-aircraft battery well inside Syria this morning, after the surface-to-air system launched a missile at a different plane over the skies of Lebanon,

2017: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to provide a variety burgers – Beef, Chicken and Veggie – for hungry students.

2017: “Cousins Muhammad and Khalid Muhamra and Younis Ayash Musa Zayn “were convicted today” of murder because of their role “in a deadly terror attack in Tel Aviv’s Sarona Market in June 2016 in which four people were killed.”

2017: “Filmmaker and Director Aviva Kempner” is scheduled to present “the D.C. premiere of her barnd new 2-disc DVD packaged of ‘Rosenwald’” which examines the life of Chicago philanthropist and business man Julius Rosenwald.

2017: The Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to a host a walking tour of the exhibition “The Arch of Titus – from Jerusalem to Rome and Back.”

2017: “Actor-pianist Hershey Fedler is” scheduled to host a “concert in New York, leading guests at Temple Emanu-El in a sing-along concert of tunes by great 20th century Jewish American songwriters.”


2018: In Cedar Rapids, IA, Barnes and Noble is scheduled to host a book signing for Barbara Feller, the Hebrew teacher par excellence, author of the newly released Road to Waubeek: Discovering Jay G. Sigmund.

2018: Jane Leavy’s The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created “which was named one of the top ten biographies/memoirs for the fall of 2018 by Publishers Weekly, was published today.

2018: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host an evening with former Secretary of State Madeline Albright who told Ed Bradley in 1997 “that both her Jewish origins” and the death of her grandparents in concentration camps “had been totally unknown to her” and former Vice President of Dick Cheney who may discuss his role in the one of the greatest, if not the greatest foreign policy debacle in American history.

2019(17thof Tishrei, 5780): Third Day of Sukkoth; for more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/

2019: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host Jeff Zucker as he discusses The Enemy of the People with the author and CNN newsman Jim Acosta.

2019: In New Orleans, the JCC is scheduled to host “Nursery School Parents’ Night.”

2019: In Oakland, CA, Temple Sinai is scheduled to host “Parent and Me Jewish Music” the first class in a six week workshop led by Isaac Zones.

2019: The Jewish Community Center of San Francisco is scheduled to host Raphael Bob-Waksberg, the creator of “BoJack Horseman” as he “discusses his debut short-fiction collection Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory.

2019: In Glencoe, IL, the North Shore Congregation is scheduled to host author Michael Dobbsas he discusses The Unwanted: America, Auschwitz, and a Village Caught in Between,


This Day, October 17, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin

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OCTOBER 17


832 BCE (7 Cheshvan 2928): This is considered the traditional date of the inauguration of the first Temple in Jerusalem by King Solomon.  As far as many Jews are concerned, the dedication is tied to the holiday of Sukkoth and dating schemes such as these are of minimal value. In one of those oddities of the calendar, in 2005, Sukkoth began on the evening of October 17.

539 BCE:  King Cyrus, The Great, of Persia marches into the city of Babylon. This will lead to the return of the Jews to Jerusalem after 70 years of exile.

415: Emperors Honorius and Thedosius II issued an edict deposing Rabin Gamliel IV as the Nasi “because he had disregarded an earlier decree by Honorius, which had curtailed his privileges and the ban on the building of new synagogues and had adjudicated disputes between Jews and Christians.”

1448: Second Battle of Kosovo, where the mainly Hungarian army led by John Hunyadi is defeated by an Ottoman army led by Sultan Murad II. Murad is remembered favorably by the Jews since he allowed German Jews who were fleeing persecution and death to settle in Salonica.  He also employed Jews as his court physicians. On the other hand, John Hunyadi enjoyed the support of the Italian Monk Jean de Capistrano who had previously convinced King Ludwig of Bavaria to expel his Jewish subjects. These two leaders would meet again a decade later during the siege of Belgrade with a different outcome. [Editor’s note – As you can see, conflicts between Moslems and Christians is not an invention of the 21st century]

1469: Ferdinand II of Aragon married Isabella of Castile. Their marriage led to the unification of Aragon and Castile into a single country, Spain.  This rapacious duo would expel the Jews in 1492.  While cloaking themselves in the Cross, they filled their pockets with stolen Jewish wealth.


1483: Pope Sixtus IV launched the Spanish Inquisition, placing it under joint direction of the Church and state. Despite his previous protest, Pope Sixtus III gave into Ferdinand's pressure and extended the authority of the Inquisition to Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia. This consolidated the Inquisition under one central body under Torquemada. Tomas de Torquemada, 63, was the Grand Inquisitor in charge of removing Jews and Muslims from Spain. For those who are studying history in Cedar Rapids you will find out that one of the oddities of all this is that all of the major players – Ferdinand, Isabella and Torquemada – descended from Conversos which means that those who led the Spanish Inquisition had Jewish ancestors.


1532: Pope Clement VII issued an apostolical brief halting the Portuguese Inquisition “until further notice. 


1700(4th of Cheshvan, 5461): Judah he-Hasid, an Ashkenazi rabbi who had made good on his call for Aliyah by leading 1,500 of his followers from Europe to Jerusalem passed away three days after they arrived at their destination.


1756: Birthdate of Isaac Abraham Euchel, the native of Copenhagen and nephew of Rabbi Masos Rintel who was one of the founders of the Haskalah movement.


1762(30th of Tishrei, 5523): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan


1762(30th of Tishrei, 5523): Sixty-three year old Samson Gideon, "one of the outstanding members of the London Jewish Community” and "a leader in the Parliamentary struggle to pass the Jews' Naturalization Act of 1753" passed away today after having contracted dropsy leaving   £1000 of his £350,000 fortune to the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish congregation in London on condition he was buried with honor as a married man in their cemetery in Mile End.


1768: Birthdate of Israel Jacobson, the native of Halberstadt Germany who was a successful businessman, philanthropist and one of the founders of the Reform Movement


http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0011_0_09920.html


1769: Birthdate of Curacao native Joshua Naar whose wife Sarah gave birth to Abraham, David and Benjamin Naar.


1775(23rd of Tishrei, 5536): Simchat Torah is celebrated for the first time since the Americans rebelled against the British.


1779: In Philadelphia, Rachel Franks and Haym Salomon, the merchant who bankrupted himself helping to finance the American Revolution gave birth to Sallie Salomon, the wife Joseph Andrews with whom she had twelve children.


1781: The Americans, with a lot of help from the French, defeated Cornwallis at Yorktown.  This victory ensured the creation of the United States.  For the most part, the small Jewish population supported the patriot cause.  Of course the victory meant that the “last best hope of man” would become a haven for the Jews of Europe.


1781: Abraham Benjamin Cohen, the Dutch born son of Eva Jacob Cohen and Benjamin Jonas Cohen, and Elisabeth Gompertz gave birth to Anne Jean Philippe Louis Cohen.


1787: In New York City, Leah Nathan and Jacob Naphtali Hart gave birth to Ella Hart, who with her husband Hyam Moses Salomon had ten children


1793: Birthdate of Isaac Noah Mannheimer, the Copenhagen Talmudist and Rabbi who held a variety of posts in Denmark, Germany and Austria.  A leader in the Reform Movement, he served as a representative in the Austrian Reichstag.


1794(23rd of Tishrei, 5555): Simchat Torah


1796(15th of Tishrei, 5557): Sukkoth


1801: In Paris Antoine-Isaac Silvestre de Sacy and his wife gave birth to French journalist Samuel Ustazade Silvestre de Sacy.


1803(21st of Tishrei,


1808: With Napoleon's arrival at the Duchy of Warsaw, the new State parliament called for equal rights. Unfortunately this did not include the Jews whose rights “would be postponed for 10 years in the hope of eradicating all their distinctions which set them apart."

1810: On the day after his death, Reb Nachman of Bratslav was buried at Uman making it the destination for an annual pilgrimage for thousands of Chassidim.

1812: In the Netherlands, Branca and Hirschel Eliazer Kann gave birth to Jacob Kahn

1813(12rid of Tishrei, 5574): As the war between Great Britain and the United States drags into its second year, Jews on both side of the Atlantic celebrate Simchat Torah.

1814(3rd of Cheshvan, 5575): Fifty-seven year old Mantua native Samuel Romanelli who combined the skills of a Hebrew poet with that of a traveler able to provide readable descriptions of his visits to a variety of Jewish communities passed away today.



1819: One day after he had passed away, Joseph Wolfe was buried today at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”

1830: Birthdate of Mortiz Ellinger, who emigrated to the United States from Bavaria in 1854 where he held several city government jobs while being active in the B’nai B’rith and editing The Menorah and The Jewish Times.

1831: Birthdate of Bernhardine Wetzlar.

1832(23rd of Tishrei, 5593): Simchat Torah

1832: In Philadelphia, Sarah Mocatta and Frederick Samuel gave birth to Lionel Jacob Samuel

1832(23rd of Tishrei, 5593): Forty-six year old Moses Lemans, the Dutch born Jewish educator and author whose works including The Spirit of the Talmudic Lord and a biography of Maimonides, passed away today.

1835: Birthdate of Abraham Harkavy (Avraham Eliyahu ben Yaakov Harkavy), the Russian born Jewish historian and author who was one of the first to write in Hebrew in modern times.

1835: In “Canterbury, Kent, “Mary Lazarus and David Nathan gave birth to Rosa Nathan, the wife of Henry Hart with whom she had ten children.

1841: In Charleston, SC, Mr. S. Frankford married Harriet Cohen, “the second daughter of A.N. Cohen.”

1843(23rd of Tishrei, 5604): Simchat Torah

1843: In Halberstadt, Prussia, Sara and Abraham Hildesheimer gave birth to Albert HIldesheimer, the resident of Manchester, England whose wife Emilie bore him three children –Abraham, Alice and Henry.

1843: Birthdate of Hebrew teacher, author and commentator Abraham Baer Dobsewitch, the native of Pinks who moved to the United States in 1891 where he continued his work until his death in 1900.

1846:On Sabbath Bereshit a Beth-din was established, composed of the following gentlemen: Chief Rabbi Lilienthal, Moreno [Isaac M.] Wise, Rabbi of Albany and Syracuse; Moreno Doctor Felsenheldt, and Moreno Doctor Kohlmayer. Dr. Lilienthal, elected Rosh Beth Din, presented the Dayanim to his congregations, and in a sermon, delivered on that occasion, declared, on behalf of the Beth-din, that their services were ready to be given to every Jewish congregation in America, without claiming any clerical rights or dues.

1850:  Anti-Christian rioters pillage Christian neighborhoods in Aleppo, Syria.  Several Christians die during the riot.  This serves as a reminder that sectarian violence in the Middle East was a fact of life before the birth of the Zionist movement and that this long-standing pattern of violence had nothing to do with the Jews.

1851(21st of Tishrei, 5612): Hoshanah Rabah

1851: A letter was sent to Samuel J. Rubinstein thanking him for his two years of “excellent service” as the treasurer of the synagogue in Dublin, Ireland.

1852: Today, in St. Louis, “a document was ratified that created B’nai El which resulted from a merger of B’nai B’rith, Emanu-El and United Hebrew” after Rabbi Lesser had convinced the Jewish population of the absurdity of such a small community trying to support three congregations.

1853(15th of Tishrei, 5614): Sukkoth

1854:Ernestine Rose, a leading early American advocate for women's rights, presided over the Fifth National Woman's Rights Convention in Philadelphia which opened on this date. At the Philadelphia meeting, Rose declared, "[I]s woman not included in that phrase, 'all men are created … equal'? ... Tell us, ye men of the nation … whether woman is not included in that great Declaration of Independence?"

1857: In Louisville, KY, Isaac Sale and Henrietta Dinkelspiel gave birth to Moses N. Sale, the husband of Florence D. Rider, who became a Circuit Court Judge in St. Louis, MO.


1858: Birthdate of David Samuel Margoliouth, The son of Ezekiel Margoliouth and the nephew Moses Margoliouth, both of whom were Anglican converts, he was a noted Orientalist and Oxford Don. Among other accomplishments, “He identified a business letter written in the Judeo-Persian language, found in Danfan Uiliq, northwest China, in 1901, as dating from 718 C.E. (the earliest evidence showing the presence of Jews in China).” He passed away in 1940.

1862(23rd of Tishrei, 5623): Simchat Torah

1862: As the Jewish “holiday season” comes to an end with the celebration of Simchat Torah, General U.S. Grant returns to active field service as he takes command of the Department of Tennessee.  In that capacity he will issue the infamous General Order Number Eleven that expelled Jews, “as a class” from the district under his command.  This regrettable episode would be used by some to unfairly brand Grant as an anti-Semite.

1863(21st of Tishrei, 5764): Hoshana Rabah

1864(17th of Tishrei, 5625): As the Jewish soldiers serving with the Army of Northern Virginia observe Sukkoth Chol Hamoed, General James “Pete” Longstreet, Lee’s good right arm resumes command of troops after having been seriously wounded during the Battle of Wilderness.

1866(8th of Cheshvan, 5627): Hungarian journalist Sigmund Saphir, who “edited several German papers including the Pesther Tageblatt and who was the nephew of “humorist Mortiz G. Saphir” passed away today.

1872(15th of Tishrei, 5633): Sukkoth

1875: It was reported today The Hebrew Charity Fair is to take placed in December at New York’s 22nd Regiment Armory.  All proceeds from the event will go to support Mount Sinai Hospital.  Women from all of the city’s synagogues are actively working to prepare for the event.

1875: According to an article entitled “The Wandering Jew” published today, the first document mentioning this mythic figure are about 650 years old, dating back to the reign of Henry III. The next references to him do not appear until the 16th century when he supposedly revealed himself to a weaver in Bohemia.  Contrary to the name, the Wandering Jew has nothing to do with Judaism.  Rather he is a Christological Character tied to one of the stories relating to the Crucifixion

1875: “The Bible in the Public Schools” published today described the conflict going on at the Board of Education of Union Hill, NJ concerning mandatory Bible readings at the start of each school day.

1877: Herman C. Bush wrote a letter from Cincinnati today addressed to his friend Christopher J. Bush of New York confessing that he had stolen seven piece of cassimere from his employer in New York City. He claimed that he had sold five of the pieces to a Jew on the corner of Baxter and Leonard Streets.  Further investigation would establish that this was the address of a second-hand clothing store owned by Louis Lazarus, who had been arrested previously on charges of receiving stolen goods. Lazarus claimed the items in question had been bought by his son who had no idea that they were stolen. Lazarus would later be arrested.  There is no word as to the fate or religion of either of the men named Bush.

1877: Dr. F. De Sola Mendez is scheduled to deliver a lecture at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association in New York City, starting at 8 p.m.

1879: Birthdate of German historian Eugen Täubler who  worked as a lecturer at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums (Higher Institute for Jewish Studies) in Berlin from 1910 to 1914 and again from 1933 to 1941 after which he and his fled Nazi Germany for the United States where he became a professor at HUC in Cincinnati.

1880: James John Woolley married Hannah Cohen today in London

1881: “Minor Affairs Abroad” published today provides a statistical snapshot of births in Russia including the fact that Jews accounted for 3 percent of the 8,119 out-of-wedlock births

1881: One hundred thirty two more Jewish immigrants from Russia are expected to arrive in New York City today.

1882: Leo Pinkser published his famous pamphlet"Autoemancipation; A Warning of a Russian Jew to his Brethren."He published it as a result of the Russian pogroms of the previous year. Pinsker advocated establishing a homeland as a cure for anti-Semitism. He thought that a Jewish congress should decide if that homeland should be in Eretz-Israel, the United States or some third choice.  Only later did he join with the “Lovers of Zion Movement” and acknowledge that Eretz-Israel was the only place for a Jewish homeland.  Pinkser died in 1891, six years before the First Zionist Congress.  His writings and efforts laid the groundwork for Herzl and others.  In 1934, his remains were re-interred on Mt. Scopus.

1882: Mr. and Mrs. Julius W. Kaskel buried their three week old son Asher in the Hebrew Cemetery in Leadville, CO.

1882: It was reported today that the Young Men’s Hebrew Association will be sponsoring a concert at Chckering Hall later this week.

1882: It was reported today that Israel Ettler has been arraigned in the Harlem Police Court for his alleged role in the recent riot at Ward’s Island.

1884: It was reported today that Young Men’s Hebrew Association will be hosting a celebration marking the 100th birthday of Sir Moses Montefiore tomorrow night. (The overwhelming number of centennial celebrations marking the birth of Montefiore attests to his importance to Jews throughout the world and the affection in which he was held.  But how many people know who is today/)

1885: The first American Rabbinical Conference was held in Cleveland, Ohio

1885: In New York, Leon Tanenbaum and his wife gave birth to 1907 Harvard graduate and real estate broker Jerome Tenanbaum, a business partner of B.M. Straus, treasurer and director of the Hebrew Technical School for Girls and the husband of Helen Tanenbaum with whom he had one child – Charles.

1885: “Statistics of the Jews” published today used figures provided by The Bulletin of the Geographical Society of Marseilles to present a demographic picture of world Jewry. There are 6,377,601 Jews in the world, 5,407, 602 of whom live in Europe, 245,000 in Asia, 413,000 in Africa, 300,000 in American and 12,000 in Oceania.  Of the European countries, Russia has the largest population at over 2,000,000 followed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire with 1,600,000.  With a combined Jewish population of 3,000 Norway and Sweden have the fewest.

1885:A law enacted on this date made religious instruction for Jewish children living in Lübeck who were attending public schools compulsory. The city paid an annual subsidy to the synagogue in Lubeck for providing this instruction.

1886(18th of Tishrei, 5647): Fourth Day of Sukkoth

1886(18th of Tishrei, 5647): Seventy-one year old Michael Cashmore, the London born son of Alice and Joseph Cashmore and the Sydney, Australia businessman who “was the first Jewish settler of Melbourne where he  owned a haberdashery business and raised a family with his wife “Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Solomon” passed away today.

1886: “Moses and Henry George” published today provided George’s praise for the system “Moses tried to found in which there was an absence of poverty and the idea of the brotherhood of man was paramount. To that end, “Moses proved not only for a fair division of the land among the people but for a redistribution every 50 years making monopoly impossible.”

1887: In Richmond, VA, Gustavus and Pauline Lonnersteadter Thalhimer gave birth to Wharton graduate Morton Gustavus Thalhimer, the husband of Ruth Wallerstein Thalhimer.

1888: “A Jewish Wedding” published today described the wedding ceremony that joined  New Yorker Louis H. Rascover to Miss Carrie Thalheimer in Reading, PA which was one of the social highlights of the year. The ceremony was followed by a reception attended by five hundred people from New York and most of the major cities in eastern Pennsylvania.  Before her marriage, Miss Thalheimrt “was the acknowledged belle in Hebrew society circles in Reading.”

1888:  The leaders of the Jewish Order of the Harp of David who were sponsoring a series of “grand operas, tragedies and high comedies at Poole’s Theatre for the benefit of its charitable and mutual benefit funds” clashed with Professor Horowitz, the man it had retained to manage the events during which the latter ceased the proceeds from the ticket offices and only agreed to pay the actors after they threatened not to perform this evening.

1890: A citizen’s committee met with Mayor Grant today and urged him to appoint Coroner Ferdinand Levy to serve as a Police Justice.

1890: Three days after she had passed away today, 86 year old Hester Meyers, the daughter of Isaac and Sarah Levy and the widow of Daniel Meyers was buried today in the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1891(15th of Tishrei, 5652): Sukkoth

1891: In Jerusalem, “Rabbi Bernard and Miriam (Charlap) Abramowitz gave birth Abraham Elijah Abramowitz the graduate of Yishivah Meah Shearim who served as Rabbi at Agudath Achim in Shreveport, Ahavath Sholom in Ft. Worth, Texas and B’nai Bazalel in Chicago.

1891: Birthdate of Henry Torres, the attorney who defended Samuel Schwartbard, the Jewish poet and anarchist who was accused of assassinating Simon Petlioura for his role in the Ukrainian Pogroms  in which thousands of Jews including his parents were murdered.

1892 In Chester, PA, founding of “Congregation Bena Israel Ansa” led by Rabbi Berman and whose members included S.D. Levy.

1893: In Berlin, “dental surgeon and businessman Dr. Hugo Ascher and Minna Luise (Schneider) Ascher gave birth to painter Fritz Ascher.


1893: In response to an allegation published in The Evening Post that Otto Irving Wise is a “hack politician” one of his friends said today “that Mr. Wise had been connected with Tammany Hall for short time only and then resigned and affiliated himself with the Republicans.”

1894: As reported today, the average age of the 163 people living at the Aged and Infirm Hebrews is seventy-two.

1894: The Lexow Committee (named for its chairman Clarence Lexow), the New York State Senate Committee investigating charges of corruption in the New York City Police Department heard more testimony including charges of police intimidation and payoffs in the operation of soda water stands on the Lower East Side by Samuel Ebert, Wolf Lipman, Samuel Cohen and Amelia Levine.

1896: The University of Wisconsin football team led by first year head coach Philip King, a Jewish native of Washington, DC won its third straight game this afternoon.

1897(21st of Tishrei, 5658): Hoshana Raba observed for the first time during the President of William McKinley.

1897: Letters were written today to a large number of charitable from Messrs. Barnato Brothers explain that the enclosed checks were part of bequests from that late B.I. Barnato.

1898: A.C. Wheeler writes a letter to the New York Times in which he takes issue with the surprise expressed by the paper’s London correspondent at the positive and warm reception received by Israel Zangwill during his highly successful lecture tour.

1898: One day after she had passed away, 56 year old Nellie Monk, “the widow of Israel Monk,” was buried at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery on Buckingham Road.”

1898: In Monmouth Country, NJ, two “Russian immigrants gave birth to Sayra Fischer, the Syracuse University trained attorney who became Sayra Fischer Lebenthal when in 1925 she married Louis Lebenthal with whom she formed the Wall Street brokerage firm of Lebenthal and Company.


1899: In Chelsea, MA, Celia and Morris Marget gave birth to Harvard educated economist  Arthur William Marget, a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, faculty member of the University of Minnesota and  the husband of Edith Marget,



1900: Birthdate of molecular biologist Alfred Ezra Mirsky, the husband of children’s author Reba Paeff and the father of Reba Goodman and Jonathan Mirsky.

1900: Herzl meets with the Ernest von Koerber, Austrian Prime Minister.

1901: In Vitebsk, Russia, “Barnett (Dov) Freedman, a tailor, and his wife Beila Henah” gave birth to Harry Freedman the holder of two degrees from the University of London and recipient of “semicha from Jews College who was the husband of “Rebecca (Bea) Ginsberg” who served congregations in Melbourne and New York.


1903(26th of Tishrei, 5664): Lewis Abraham Tallerman, the brother of Australian merchant Daniel Tallerman passed away today.

1903: Birthdate of author Nathanael West best known for Miss Lonelyhearts and Day of the Locusts.

1905(18th of Tishrei, 5666): Sixth Day of Sukkoth

1905(18th of Tishrei, 5666): Forty-six year old South African stockbroker Charles Ansell who moved to London in 1888 and was the uncle of Albert Hyamson passed away today in leaving an estate valued at £346,000.

1905: Birthdate of Lev Nussimbaum, the native of Kiev “who wrote under the pen names Essad Bey and Kurban Said. 

1909(2nd of Cheshvan, 5670): Six year old “Feiwe Licht” passed away today.

1910(14th of Tishrei, 5671): Erev Sukkoth

1910: The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that “local Hebrews are preparing for the celebration of the feast of which begins tonight at the Sons of Israel Synagogue” where “they have three sprays of the lulav or bulrushes from Palestine which will be used in the declaration of the altar.”

1911: Today twenty-eight year old Abraham Falick the Rumanian born son of “Nathan and Mollie (Greenberg) Falick who came to the United States in 1903 as political refugee and began working in the furniture business where he formed and led two of his own companies – Bauman and Falick, Inc. and Windsor Furniture Company while becoming a leader in the Jewish community “married Frieda Schulman, the daughter of Getzel Schulman.”

1911: Henry Turner Bailey, the editor of National Art, is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Our Architectural Inheritance” this afternoon at a meeting of the Chicago Woman’s Aid being held in the Temple Sinai vestry rooms.

1911: In New York Dr. Morris Loeb said today that it was his understanding that his brother, James Loeb, the retired banker, was going to underwrite the expense of translating 200 hundred volumes of the classics into English. The volumes in question were originally written in Latin and Greek.

1914: Birthdate of Jerry Siegel, co-creator of Superman.

1915: Birthdate of Arthur Miller.  Two of this American playwright’s noted works were “Death of a Salesman” and “The Crucible.”  His other claim to fame was his marriage to Marilyn Monroe.  Monroe conversion to Judaism was tied to her relationship with Miller.


1915: “The Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society of American announced” today “the Isidore Hershfield, a New York lawyer” would be sailing for Europe “charged with the mission of locating the families and relatives of American citizens various war zones of Europe.”


1915: “The Jewish Congress Organization Committee, meeting” today “in the Broadway Central Hotel decided to hold” next month “a preliminary conference of representatives from Jewish organizations to decide on methods of election and other technical details of convening the congress which is to deal with the whole of the Jewish problem with special reference to the situation in Europe created by the war.”


1915: “Dr. Samuel Betttelheim, editor and proprietor of the Hungarian Jewish News of Budapest arrived in New York” today “with the intention of attending the American Jewish Conference which was scheduled to be held in Washington…but which has been called off” and which will be replaced by another national meeting whose attendees will be more representative of the Jewish community.


1915: “In his farewell sermon at St. Philip’s Episcopal Cathedral this morning” in Atlanta, GA, “Dean John R. Atkinson” said, “the most Christian people I have found in Atlanta are the Jews” because “they have more true charity.”


1915: “In an address this evening at public meeting” in Baltimore, MD, “held to celebrate the found of the Order of B’nai B’rith, Simon Wolf of Washington said that on the eve of his departure for California to attend the Peace Conference, President Wilson entrusted him” with “a letter in which the President wrote that when the hour of peace should arrive he, as the representative of a people firm in advocacy of civil and political rights, would use his best efforts to secure the rights of the Jews in Russia and Rumania.”


1915: Rabbi Stephen S. Wise was among the speakers who addressed the meeting at the Century Theatre where resolutions were adopted condemning the treatment of the Armenians by the Ottomans.


1916: It was reported today “a committee of women” whose members include Mrs. William Einstein, Mrs. Sidney Borg, Mrs. Henry Goldman, Mrs. Henry Zuckerman, Mrs. Israel Unterberg, Mrs. Samuel Elkeles and Mrs. Alexander Kohut has been formed to make a special appeal to those of their for contributions to the Jewish Philanthropic Societies of New York City.


1916: Eighteen year old Mischa Levitz, famed Russian born concert pianist made his American debut in New York, at Aeolian Hall


1916: Cartoonist Rube Goldberg married Irma Seeman after which they set up housekeep at 98 Central Park West in New York City where they gave birth to two sons, Thomas and George.


1917:  Birthdate of Herschel Schater, the Brownsville native who was youngest son of a 7th generation shochet and a real estate manager and as chaplain serving with the Third Army was the first rabbi “to enter and participate in the liberation of Buchenwald.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)


1917: Birthdate of Alfred Edward “Fred” Kahn “a leading regulatory scholar who wielded his influence in both government and academia, helped spur a broad movement beginning in the mid-1970s toward freer markets in rail and automotive transportation, telecommunications, utilities and the securities markets.”


1917: “Felix M. Warburg, Chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee of the American Funds for Jewish War Sufferers announced tonight that the Special Assembly of the Jews of America to plan the continuation of the Jewish war relief and completion of the $10,000,000 1917 fund which is to bring together about a thousand of the most prominent Jews from all parts of the United States will be held at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue on October 28th.


1917: In Ohio, Alexander A. Landesco, the Romanian born son of Abraham and Vera Landesco and Olga Landesco gave birth to Frederick S. Landesco


1918: Four days after he was killed, “Rifleman Israel Davis” was buried today in the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery in London.”


1919(23rd of Tishrei, 5680): Simchat Torah


1919: Radio Corporation of America (RCA) created.  RCA and NBC were inextricably linked with David Sarnoff. 


1919: Birthdate of Russian physicist Isaak Markovich Khalatnikov


1920: Today South Jersey's first Conservative congregation was officially "organized" and elected Morris Handle as Beth El's first President.


1920: Birthdate of Montreal native and McGill University graduate Elie Abel, who worked for the New York Times and NBC News before becoming “Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University.”


https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/24/us/elie-abel-newsman-and-teacher-dies-at-83.html


https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf1n39n4q2/entire_text/


1920: In Brussels, Sadi Kirschen and his wife gave birth to Claude-Anne Kirschen who gained fame as Claude-Anne Lopez one of the most, if not the most formidable, expert on Benjamin Franklin.  “Her father was a defense lawyer for Edith Cavell, the British nurse who was executed by the Germans after she helped scores of Allied soldiers escape German-occupied Belgium during World War I.” (As reported by William Yardley)


1920: Birthdate of Grangeville, Idaho native and USC graduate Betty Brown who gained fame as Betty Sarah Wouk, when she married Herman Wouk, the great American Jewish novelist whose service on the USS Zane gave him two great gifts, Mrs. Wouk and the material for the “Caine Mutiny.”


1921(15th of Tishrei, 5682): Sukkoth


1921(15th of Tishrei, 5682): Sixty-four year old Jacob Brenner who had passed the bar exam in 1879 and eventually became a Brooklyn magistrate married Louise Blumenau, “the daughter of prominent Brooklyn real estate developer Levi Blumenau” with whom head six children -- Arthur and Mortimer both of whom became lawyers and “Republican party leaders,” Rose who was President of the National council of Jewish Women, Rica, Selma and Caroline” passed away today “while giving a speech at Temple Beth-Elohim.”


https://brooklynhistory.org/library/wp/jacob-brenner-papers-1884-1921/


1922: In Manhattan, Jacob Brody, who made “a fortune in the hat business” and his wife gave birth to high end restaurateur Ira Jerome Brody. (As reported by Douglas Martin)


https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/18/nyregion/jerome-brody-78-is-dead-guided-elegant-restaurants.html


1922: Birthdate of “Bulgarian movie director and author” Angel Raymond Wagenstein who was raised in France and has raised two sons, Raymond and Plamen with his wife Zora which may be some of the material covered in Andrea Simon’s documentary “Angel Wagenstein: Art is a Weapon.


1923(7th of Cheshvan, 5684): Albert Osterman, the “Director of the Washington Park Zoological Society” passed away today.


1923: Birthdate of Isaac Saba Raffoul, “a Mexican businessman.”


1924: The Ku Klux Klan staged its second march in less than six months in Las Vagas, Nevada but found little support for its message of hating Catholics and Jews.


1925: Birthdate of Irwin Silber, “a founder and the longtime editor of the folk-music magazine Sing Out!, who was one of the prime movers behind the folk-music revival of the 1950s and 1960s.” (As reported by William Grimes)


1927(21st of Tishrei, 5688): Hoshanah Rabah


1927: Birthdate of guitarist Barney Kessel.


1929: “The Informer,” a film version of the novel with the same name with a script by Benn W. Levy was released in the United Kingdom today.


1930: In Biddeford, ME, Samuel and Leah Osher gave birth to Marion Osher, the future wife of Hebert Sandler her partner in creating Golden West Financial.


https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/06/04/marion-o-sandler-former-golden-west-co-chief-is-dead-at-81/


1931: After a month, filming of “The Trunks of Mr. O.F.” starring Peter Lorre and Hedy Lamarr came to an end today


1933: Albert Einstein arrived in the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany. Strangely enough, the New York Times story referred to him as a German scientist.  I guess the guys at the Times had not figured out that for all of his greatness, he was just another Jew fleeing Hitler’s Germany.  When is a Jew in Germany a German and not a Jew?  When he wins the Nobel Prize.

1935: When the Belgian steamship Leopold II was unloading 97 tons of cement at Jaffa, “a tin case of cartridges concealed in a barrel” was discovered.  According to “unconfirmed reports…from Arab sources…800 rifles and 400,000 cartridges” were also found among the 537 barrels of cement.

1935: “The party of Haj Amin el Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem asserted” today that the arms discovered yesterday when the SS Leopold II was being unloaded in Jaffa yesterday, “were part of a Jewish plot” and gave rise to the threat of a general Arab work stoppage.

1936(1st of Cheshvan, 5697): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan and Shabbat

1936: At Temple Emanu-El, Rabbi Samuel H. Goldenson is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Making a Name.”

1936: At West End Synagogue, Rabbi Hyman Judah Schachtel is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The Neglected Teacher – Experience.”

1936: New York University, with Harry Shorten playing end lost to the University of North Carolina today.

1936: At Temple Israel, Rabbi William F. Rosenblum is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Another Flood – The Only Way Out.”

1936: Marvin Lowenthal is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Jews at the Crossroads” this after afternoon at the Central Synagogue on East 62ndStreet.

1937: As the Arab Reign of Terror designed to drive the Jews from Eretz Israel continued, The Palestine Postreported that the Mandatory Administration at last admitted that the renewed Arab terror and sabotage causes extensive damage. One of the main buildings at Lydda Airport was destroyed by arson and the authorities decided that severe measures would be taken against the town. British women and children living in Hebron were evacuated to Jerusalem and were accommodated at the YMCA. A Cook’s cruise was temporarily suspended and tourist agents reported cancellations. Railway service suffered from frequent interruptions. Jewish buses were shot at and a number of passengers were wounded. One Arab attacker was killed. The Mandatory Government decided to exert a stricter control over the activities of the Wakf (Moslem religious endowment fund).

1937 (12th of Cheshvan, 5698): A band of Arab terrorists shot and killed a ten-year old Jewish boy from Yemeni at Tirath Shalom which is located near Ness Zionah in southern Palestine.

1937 (12th of Cheshvan, 5698): In the wake of renewed Arab terrorism, “Samuel Gutman, a young Jewish theological student studying his Talmud lesson in the shade of a tree in the Schneller quarter of Jerusalem was attacked by an Arab, who stabbed him six times.”

1937 (12th of Cheshvan, 5698): In the wake of renewed Arab terrorism, two buses filled with Jewish workers returning to Jerusalem from the quarry near Motzah were fired on by Arabs.  The gunmen escaped having failed to wound or kill any of their targets.

1937: A movement “led by Max Seligman” a lawyer from Cardiff, Wales, now living in Tel Aviv, that is seeking to convert Palestine into a British Crown Colony as a way of ending the fighting between Arabs and Jews files an application with the Palestine Attorney General’s office in attempt o register an organization called “The Palestine Crown Colony Association.”

1937: Late tonight Arab terrorists attempted to blow up a ridge on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho.  The bridge was partially damaged but the road remained opened to traffic.

1938(22nd of Tishrei, 5699): On the 45th birthday of her son, painter Frtiz Ascher, 71 year old Minna Luise Ascher passed away today.

1939: The Nazis deported over one thousand Jews from Moravska Ostrava, of the former Czechoslovakia, and sent them to Lublin region of Poland. There, they were forced to build themselves a labor camp. Adolph Eichmann, now in charge of “Jewish resettlement”, greeted the train

1939: With the cessation of hostilities the Nazis finally fixed the Polish-German frontier. At a meeting, Hitler made clear that the policy would be to cleanse Poland’s towns of Jews, Poles and intelligentsia from all lands falling within the Gerneralgouvernement. Implementation was put in the hands of Henreich Himmler and his SS.

1939: Hitler lectures General Wilhelm Keitel and other top Wehrmacht generals on the need for “Jews, Poles, and similar trash” to be cleared from old and new territories of the Reich.

1940(15th of Tishrei, 5701): Sukkoth

1941: “The Devil and Daniel Webster,” co-starring Simone Simon with music by Bernhard Herrmann who won an Oscar for his work on this picture was released in the United States today.       

1942: According to reports published in the New York Times, Palestine is filling a dual role in the British war effort.  It is home to a key military headquarters called the “Palestine Base and Lines of Communications Headquarters.”  It has also become an industrial center that fills many needs of the British military in the Middle East including the manufacture of mines and hand grenades and the repair of British and American tanks and other military vehicles damaged during combat action.  Many of the workers are refugees from central and Eastern Europe which has given them the capability of producing goods that used to be supplied by “Czechoslovakia, Austria, Germany and other industrialized European nations.”

1942: Austrian librettist, lyricist and writer Fritz Löhner-Beda was deported to the Monowitz concentration camp near Auschwitz.

1942: Over 10,000 Jews were transferred from Buchenwald Concentration camp to Auschwitz.

1942: The Nazis murdered 1600 Jews from Buczacz, Ukraineat the Belzec death camp.

1942: Four hundred and five Jews held in the Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen, Germany, concentration camps are deported to Auschwitz. Austrian-Jewish opera librettist Fritz Beda is among those deported from Buchenwald.

1942: Birthdate of Yosef Lahav (Joe Sikorel), the native of Alexandria, Egypt who died when the Dakar was lost at sea in 1968.

1943(18th of Tishrei, 5704): Sukkoth Chol Hamoed

1943(18th of Tishrei, 5704): Seventy-five year old Montgomery, AL native and founder of the Manufacturers Trust Company Nathan Jonas, the philanthropist and son of Jacob and Bella Jonas whose wife Jennie Straus Jonas pre-deceased him passed away today “in the Jewish Hospital of Brooklyn which he founded.”


1943: A Jewish partisan unit commanded by Abba Kovner destroys two rail engines and two bridges near Vilna, Lithuania.

1943: German Ambassador to the Vatican Ernst von Weizsäcker writes to the German Foreign Ministry that the College of Cardinals has been “particularly dismayed” since the roundup of Jews in Rome is occurring “below the very windows of the Pope.” He notes that the Pope continues to do everything he can “not to burden relations with the German government and German agencies in Rome.”

1944:  Adolf Eichmann returned to Budapest. He demanded that 50,000 Jews be assembled to be used as forced laborers in Germany.  He further ordered that they should march there on foot.

1944: At Birkenau, Dr. Mengele began another selection of children to be sent to the gas chambers. Only his small selected group of about 200 twins were continued to be spared his wretched wrath.

1945: Premiere of “Week-End At The Waldorf” based on Vicki Baum’s novel Grand Hotel with a script co-written by Bella Spewack

1946: King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia sent a letter to President Truman charging that the American leader’s “call for opening the gates of Palestine to more Jews was in ‘complete contradiction’” to what the King said were “presidential assurances to the Arabs.”  The King described the Jews as “aggressors from the start” when it came to matters regarding Palestine. 

1946: In Warsaw, “Ozjasz Szechter, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Western Ukraine, and Helena Michnik, a historian, communist activist, and children's-book author” gave birth to Adam Michnik, the author and historian who was imprisoned by the Polish Communist regime and worked to bring it down.



1946: A production of “Lysistrata” written by Gilbert Seldes opened at the Belasco Theatre.

1947: Following a six day trial, Yossef Vavriel and Abraham Katalan, two members of the Irgun, “were convicted of carrying arms in a room of the house at Kiryat Sahul where two British policemen” who had been kidnapped from a swimming pool in June were being held prisoner. The two British policemen had not been harmed by their captors.

1947: David Ben-Gurion called on members of the Irgun and the Stern Gang to disband their organizations and join the Haganah as the Jewish community moved to protect itself from attacks from the Arabs.  Ben-Gurion denied that negotiations were being held with the leaders of these organizations since his goal is to have only one military force that will answer to the civilian leaders of the Yishuv.

1947: Mr. Moshe Shertok the head of Political Department of the Jewish Agency, addressed the United Nations, making the case for the creation of a Jewish state as part of the Two State Solution. Moshe Shertok would become Moshe Sharett after the creation of the state of Israel, serving as it first Foreign Minister and second Prime Minister.

1947: U.S premiere of “The Exile” directed by Max Ophüls and filmed by cinematographer Franz Planer.

1948(14th of Tishrei, 5709): Erev Sukkoth;

1948: Israeli naval vessels shelled Majdal which had been occupied by invading Egyptian troops.

1948(14th of Tishrei) Yosef Tzvi Dushinsky, also known as the Maharitz, passed away. Born in 1865 he moved to Jerusalem in 1930. He was the first Rebbe of Dushinsky and Chief Rabbi (Govad) of the Edah HaChareidis of Jerusalem.

1948: The 52nd and 54thBattalions of the Givati Brigade began a three day action aimed at taking control of “the internal Negev road from Julis to Bror Hayial through Kawkaba and Huleiqat.”

1948: During Operation Yoav, Egyptian forces begin withdrawing from the Negev after suffering heavy attacks by the Israelis.  The Egyptians were retreating from land to which they had no legal or moral claim. Operation Yoav was conducted during the Israeli War for Independence.  It took place following numerous violations of the UN brokered cease fire about which the international organization did nothing. 

1949: Premiere of “The Reckless Moment” a “film noir directed by Max Ophüls and produced by Walter Wanger.”

1950: David Ben-Gurion made an attempt to form a minority government consisting of Mapai and Sephardim and Oriental Communities today, but it was not approved by the Knesset.

1950: In New York, Edith (née Leibovitch)Tolkin, “a studio executive and film industry lawyer” and “the late comedy writer Mel Tolkin” gave birth to Middlebury College graduate Michael L. Tolkin, the novelist and film writer who won an Edgar Award for the screenplay for “The Player”

1952:The Jerusalem Post reported that the Joint Distribution Committee agreed to defray half the cost of the upkeep and medical treatment of the North African immigration. The forced migration of Jews living in Moslem lands to Israel is one of the untold “refugee” stories.  Following the creation of the state of Israel Jews from such places as Morocco came to Israel, in part, because the local Arab population had turned against.  This happened despite the fact that Jews had lived there for centuries.  It is interesting to compare the efforts of the Israelis to integrate immigrants into their society as opposed to the Arab treatment of their Moslem brethren who had left what would become the state of Israel for whatever reasons. 

1956: U.S. premiere of “What Happened to Julie on Her Honeymoon?” produced by Martin Melcher.

1956: “Attack” a WW II “anti—war” movie co-starring Robert Strauss was released today in the United States.

1957(22nd of Tishrei, 5718): Shemini Atzert

1958: NBC broadcast “An Evening with Fred Astaire,” the Emmy winning special directed and co-produced by Bud Yorkin (Alan David Yorkin)

1959(15th of Tishrei, 5720): Sukkoth

1959: In the UK, Julie Brett and Eric Selig Phllip Cowell, Sr. who is Jewish gave birth to television personality Simon Cowell.

1963(29th of Tishrei, 5724): Mathematician Jacques-Salomon Hadamard passed away at the age of 98. Although Hadamard claimed to be an atheist when it came to religion he became an active in support of Jewish causes following the Dreyfus Affair.  Part of this may have stemmed from the fact that his wife was related to the wrongly accused French Colonel.


1963: “All the Way” the movie version of the 1960 play produced by David Susskind was released today in the United States.


1963: “Jennie,” “a musical with a book by Arnold Schulman, music by Arthur Schwartz and lyrics by Howard Dietz “opened on Broadway at the Majestic Theatre.”


1966: During a discussion of the construction of the new chapel at Congregation Shaar Hashomayim of Montreal Jack Breslow expressed his concerns about the arrangement of the seating and positioning of the bimah which he feared would be “a departure from the tradition of Conservative Judaism” and impractical while Rabbi Shuchat took the view that “the location of the bimah had no bearing on the tradition of Conservative Judaism.”


1967: Barbra Streisand starred in “Belle of 14th Street” a special on CBS television.


1967(13th of Tishrei, 5728): Seventy-one year old Eugene Otterbourg, the son American “envoy to Mexico, Marcus Otterbourg,” a 1904 graduate of CCNY and the third generation attorney who “was a founder and senior partner of Otterbourg, Steindler, Houston and Rosen” where he was “a specialist in bankruptcy and reorganization law” passed away today.


https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/10/18/83636558.pdf


 


1967:  Memorial service for Brian Epstein was held at New London Synagogue – The Jewish Connection to the lads from Liverpool.


1968: “Far From the Madding Crowd,” a film adaptation of the 19th century novel directed by John Schlesinger with a script by Frederic Raphael was released in the United States by MGM today.


1972: ABC broadcast the first episode of “Goodnight My Love” written and directed by Peter Hyams and co-starring Barbara Bain.


1973: The “Battle of the Chinese Farms” comes to an end when an Egyptian counter-attack fails to dislodge Israeli troops leaving the bridgehead across the Suez Canal intact. The battle, which began on October 15th was one of the bloodiest and costliest of the war.


1973: During the Yom Kippur War, the Soviets were landing 70 planes per day crammed with modern supplies at Egyptian and Syrian airports. Egyptian forces failed in their attempts to dislodge Israeli forces from their new positions on the west bank of the Suez Canal.  At the same time, the Egyptians were not making any progress with the attacks on Israeli positions east of the Canal.  As the fortunes of war began to turn against the attacking Arab Armies, the Soviets increased the pressure for a cease fire.  The Israelis were unwilling to consider any action that would reward Arab Aggression.

1973:  OPEC started an oil embargo against a number of western countries.  Supposedly OPEC was using the Oil Weapon to reverse the Arab defeat during the Yom Kippur War.  In point of fact, OPEC succeeded in raising the price of petroleum which enriched OPEC, shifted the economic balance and along the way impoverished millions of people living in Third World Nations – untold numbers of Arabs and other followers of Islam living in non-OPEC nations.


1974: Birthdate of Larchmont, NY native and Wesleyan University graduate Ariel Levy, the author who is also a staff writer for the New Yorker.


https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/ariel-levy


1975:  The United Nations declared that “Zionism is racism.”  This came in the same period when the U.N. General greeted the pistol packing Yasser Arafat with a standing ovation. Arafat was still in the full flush of his victory; having been responsible for the terrorist attack on the Munich Olympics and the slaughter of the Israeli athletes.

1975: U.S. premiere of “Rooster Cogburn” produced by Hal Wallis.

1976(23rd of Tishrei, 5737): Simchat Torah

1977(5th of Cheshvan, 5738): Eighty-one year old English film producer Sir Michael Elias Balcon, the grandfather of Daniel Day-Lewis and Tasmin Day-Lewis passed away today.


1977(5th of Cheshvan, 5738): Seventy-five year old David “Dave” Ziff who played “end at Syracuse University in the early 1920’s” and then played two seasons for the nascent National Football League passed away today.

1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that a prominent, unnamed, West Bank figure, whom the local Arab politicians expected to become a central member of any Palestinian delegation at the renewed Geneva Peace Conference, was seeking an urgent meeting with Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan, to check whether Israel would be prepared to negotiate an eventual self-determination for the Palestine Arabs at the conference table.

1978: “Goin’ Coconuts” a musical comedy directed by Howard Morris was released in the United States by Columbia pictures and proved to be box office flopped that was panned by ciritics.

1979(26th of Tishrei, 5740):  Seventy-five year old Sidney Joseph Perelman, known as S.J. Perelman, who was born in Brooklyn in 1904, raised in Providence, where he graduated from Brown University passed away today. For almost forty years, Perelman was a true man of letters gaining fame as a cartoonist, author, screenwriter, and satirist.  A city boy by birth, Perelman chose to live in rural Bucks County for forty years.  During that time he wrote, “A farm is an irregular patch of nettles bounded by short-term notes, containing a fool and his wife who didn’t know enough to stay in the city.”


https://www.nytimes.com/1979/10/18/archives/sj-perelman-humorist-is-dead-sj-perelman-humorist-dead-at-75.html


1983(9th of Cheshvan, 5744): Seventy-eight year old Raymond Aron passed away. Born in Paris, the famed author and social commentator, served in the French Air Force and then fought with the Free French during WW II. While his name may not be a household word, he was a life-long friend and worthy intellectual opponent of Jean-Paul Sartre.


http://www.egs.edu/library/raymond-aron/biography/


1984(21st of Tishrei, 5745): Hoshanah Rabah


1984(21st of Tishrei, 5745): Seventy-one year old “retired New Jersey Superior Court Judge and graduate of what is now Rutgers Law School  Morris Malech” the decorated WW II veteran and husband of “the former Freda Lipowitz” with he had two sons – Harry and Edward – passed away today.


https://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/20/obituaries/morris-malech-71-former-jersey-judge-dies.html


1984(21st of Tishrei, 5745): Eighty-one year old Rabbi Levi Arthur Olan passed away. Born in 1903 at Cherkasy, Ukraine, he was Rabbi of Temple Emanuel in Worcester, Massachusetts from 1929 to 1948. From 1949 to 1970 he was Rabbi of Temple Emanu-El of Dallas, Texas.


http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0181/ms0181.html


1984: The Light Opera of Manhattan unveiled its new production of Sigmund Romberg’s 1928 Broadway hit “New Moon.”


https://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/19/arts/opera-new-moon-offered.html


1985(2nd of Cheshvan, 5746): Ninety-year old conductor and opera manager Joseph Rosenstock passed away today. (As reported by Dena Kleiman)


http://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/18/arts/joseph-rosenstock-90-conductor-of-operas.html


1985: Funeral services are scheduled to be held this afternoon at Hempstead, Long Island, for former New York Knicks basketball star Max Zaslofsky.


1988:Today’s announcement that chemist Gertrude Elion had won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine represented the culmination of an unlikely career. The young Elion had known what she wanted to do—but nobody seemed ready to let her do it. New York’s Hunter College provided her with a free education during the Depression, but when she graduated at age 19, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, not one graduate school would provide her with needed financial aid. Unable to find a laboratory job, she started secretarial school. Supporting herself as a doctor’s receptionist and a substitute high school science teacher, Elion earned a master’s degree in chemistry from New York University in 1941 (she was the only woman in her classes). With more lab opportunities open to women during World War II, Elion found a job at Burroughs Welcome, a pharmaceutical company, in 1944.Elion’s research with her mentor and partner George Hitchings led to the first effective treatment for childhood leukemia and to immunosuppressants that made organ transplants possible. Her anti-viral research led to treatments for many ailments including AIDS. Elion, whose doctorates were all honorary, received the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, together with Hitchings and British scientist James Black. Elion thus joined an impressive list of American Jewish female Nobel Prize winners in science that also includes American-born Rosalyn Yalow (1977), and Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori (1947) and Rita Levi-Montalcii (1986) who were born and educated abroad. (As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archive.


1989: An army inquiry completed today found that a Syrian MIG-23 fighter-bomber was able to penetrate Israeli airspace unchallenged last week because of an error by the air defense officer on duty at the time.


1989: “Closer Than Ever” a revue featuring the music of David Shire “opened in previews” today at the Cherry Lane Theatre.


1990: Publication of William Steig’s Shrek!  a picture book for children about a young ogre whose name is derived from the Yiddish work for “fear” or “fright.”


1990: “Reversal of Fortune” film adaption of Alan Dershowitz’s book produced by Edward R. Pressman and co-starring Ron Silver was screened in Los Angeles for the first time.

1994: The draft of a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan was finalized.  This would prove to be one of the tangible positive by-products of the Oslo Peace Process.


1995(23rd of Tishrei, 5756): Simchat Torah


1995: “The Babysitter” starring Alicia Silverstone was released in the United States by Paramount Pictures.


1997(16th of Tishrei, 5758): Second day of Sukkoth


1997: “Shooting Fish,” a British comedy starring Dan Futterman as “Dylan” was released today in the United Kingdom by Entertainment Film Distributors.


1997(16th of Tishrei, 5758): Ninety-six year old character actor Ben Welden passed away today.


1998: A Palestinian conducted a grenade assault on the Beersheba bus terminal, wounding 67 Israelis, including 24 soldiers.


1999: The New York Times book section features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jews including Bad Jews And Other Stories by Gerald Shapiro and Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love by Dava Sobel.


2000: At the Library of Congress opening of an exhibition entitledHerblock’s History: Political Cartoons from the Crash to the Millennium that presents works by cartoonist Herb Block, who chronicled the nation’s political history and caricatured twelve American presidents from Herbert Hoover to Bill Clinton.


2001 (30th of Tishrei, 5762): Israel's tourism minister, Rehavam Zeevi was shot to death in the first assassination of a serving Cabinet minister by Palestinians.  Born in Jerusalem in 1926, Zeevi served in the Palmach.  He enjoyed a very successful thirty year career in the IDF.  After retiring with the rank of Major General, he pursued a career in politics. A general in the Israel Army, Zeevi had a distinguished military career before pursuing a political career. 

2001(30th of Tishrei, 5762): Eighty-six year old Oscar winning composer and lyricist Jay Livingston passed away today. (As reported by Richard Severo)




2003(21st of Tishrei, 5764): Hoshana Rabah

2003: U.S. premiere of “Runaway Jury,” co-starring Dustin Hoffman and Rachel Weisz

2004: The body of Sam Kellerman the brother of Max Kellerman an American boxing commentator and sports talk radio host based in Los Angeles was found in a Hollywood (CA) apartment” which led to the arrest of “former boxer James Butler” who “ later confessed to the murder and was given a 29 year sentence.”

2004(2nd of Cheshvan, 5765): Uzi Hitman “an Israeli singer, songwriter, composer and television personality” passed away. His career began in 1976 and he became a popular Israeli artist during the 1980s and 1990s. He has famously composed a popular melody for Adon Olam in 1976. His most famous songs include Noladati Lashalom (I Was Born for Peace), Ratziti Sheteda (I Wanted You to Know), Todah (Thank you) and Kan (Here), which reached 3rd place during the 1991 Eurovision Song Contest. Hitman also appeared on the 1980s children's programmes Parpar Nehmad and Hopa Hei. He died after a heart attack at the age of 52. He was buried at the Yarkon Cemetery near Tel Aviv. The City of Ramat Gan renamed Kikar Hashoshanim (Roses Square) in his neighborhood of residence to Kikar Hitman (Hitman Square).

2005: Haaretz reported that Kinneret Mendel and Matat Rosenfeld-Adler, 21-year-old cousins from the settlement of Carmel, and Oz Ben Meir, 15, from the settlement of Ma'on were murdered by terrorist on Sunday and buried today.

2005(14th of Tishrei, 5766): Erev Sukkoth

2006: Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni called on President Moshe Katsav to resign in response to the police's recommendation to indict him on a number of charges including rape. "In the current situation, almost without connection to the criminal question, I believe that it would not be right for President Katsav to continue to serve as president," said Livni. Livni made the comments at a ceremony marking the opening of "Kadima House" in Hadera

2007(5th of Cheshvan, 5768): Ninety eight year old WW II Australian hero General Paul Cullen passed away today.



2007(5thof Cheshvan, 5768): Eighty-eight year old Hempstead, NY, native Milton “Mickey” Rutner the third baseman who played in 12 games for the 1947 Philadelphia Athletics passed away today in Georgetown, TX.


2007: “Bernard and Doris” a ‘semi-fictionalized” biopic directed and produced by Bob Balaban “premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival” today.

2007:Virtuoso Pianist Vladimir Feltsman plays “Music from Poland and Russia” at the Museum of Jewish Heritage-A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. Since his arrival in the U.S. from the Soviet Union in 1987, world-class pianist Vladimir Feltsman has graced every major concert hall in the country. Feltsman performs music from Poland's keyboard master, Chopin, and one of Russia's most dramatic piano pieces: Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition."

2007: As an example of the secular power 21st century Jews have attained, a photo is taken at 10:13 a.m. of Michael Mukasey, President Bush’s nominee for attorney general chatting with Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman prior to the start of confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee.  The two Orthodox Jews were classmates at Yale Law School. 

2007: The New York Times features a review of Just Say Nu: Yiddish for Every Occasion (When English Just Won’t Do) by Michael Wex.

2007:A London-based Jewish radio station, Shalom FM, founded by Mike Menoza as a way of providing, "some balanced reporting about the community and Israel" ceased broadcasting at midnight.

2008: In a reversal of cultural roles. The Jerusalem Cinematheque features an American film about an Israeli. The film is “You Don’t Mess with Zohan” an American made film about an Israeli

2008: Jerusalem mayoral candidate Nir Barkat toured Jewish and state owned lands in an area between the French Hill and the Arab neighborhood of Anata, promising that “In Anata, a new Jewish neighborhood will be established and this will provide a solution to the housing needs of students and the city’s younger generation.

2008 (18th of Tishrei, 5769): Eighty five year old Montreal native Ben Weider who was a founder and longtime president of the International Federation of Body Builders” passed away today. (As reported by William Grimes)


2009: Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett’s “The Diary of Anne Frank” is performed at Kimmel Theatre on the campus of Cornell College in Mt. Vernon Iowa. The production is based on Wendy Kesselman’s acclaimed new adaptation of the play that makes thoughtful use of recently recovered segments of Anne’s diary to deepen our understanding both of the cultural context of the events and to present a much more complex (and less sentimental) Anne.

2009:  At Agudas Achim in Iowa City, Sam Stalkfleet is called to the Torah as a the Bar Mitzvah

2009: PBS broadcast the first episode of “Gourmet’s Adventures With Ruth” featuring Ruth Reichel, “the last editor-in-chief of Gourmet Magazine.”

2009: At the 14th St Y in Manhattan opening of the LABALMA Exhibition followed by the Y Dance party.

2009(29th of Tishrei, 5770): Sheldon Jerome Segal “an American embryologist and biochemist who spent his entire career working on contraception and made major innovations in the field of long-lasting alternatives, including in the creation of Norplant, the first major development advance in birth control since the birth control pill” passed away.

2009(29th of Tishrei, 5770): Seventy-eight year old novelist Norma Fox Mazer, passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox) http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/arts/25mazer.html

2009: “A Believer in Heroism, to Jews’ Lasting Gratitude” published today told the tale of Dr. Tina Strobos who hid more than 100 Jews from the Nazis in occupied Amsterdam.


2010: The Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival opened in Washington, DC.

2010: Dr. Stephen Whitfield, Professor of American Studies at Brandeis University, author of In Search of American Jewish Culture and one of Tulane University’s most distinguished graduates is scheduled to speak at the Guardain-Benefactor Luncheon sponsored by the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington.

2010: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Great House by Nicole Krauss and David Susskind: A Televised Life by Stephen Battaglio.

2010: The IDF Israel Defense Forces attacked a terrorist cell planning to launch Qassam rockets or mortar bombs at Israel from Gaza.

2011: President Shimon Peres is scheduled to open his residence to the public today from from 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon. It is the continuation of a long-held tradition for the presidents of Israel to open the residence to the wider public during one of the intermediate days of the Succoth.

2011: Philip Levine, the newly named Poet Laureate is scheduled to open the annual literary season of the Library of Congress with a reading of his work at the Coolidge Auditorium.

2011: Ron Skolnik, Executive Director of Partners for Progressive Israel (formerly Meretz USA) is scheduled to speak on "Rent, Cottage Cheese and Peace: What's making Israel tick these days?" at Kol Ami, the Northern Virginia Reconstructionist Community

2011: Dr. Michael Berenbaum is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “Three German Jews Rediscover Their Judaism” during which he will examine the lives of Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, and Gershom Scholem.



2011: A genuine simchah as the family and friends of Laurie Silber celebrate the birthday of this remarkable ayshish chayal: loving wife, devoted daughter, doting mother and grandmother, sweet singer of Psalms who brightens the Musical Shabbat and energetic community leader who taught in our Sunday School for many years and who brings new energy to Temple Judah in each of her terms as co-President.  For those lucky enough to know her she is a “chever” – a friend for all seasons.



2011:The Israel Law Center (Shurat Hadin) is set to launch a hotline today, to help Jewish college students who are victims of anti-Semitism on their campuses. According to attorney Kenneth A. Leitner, the Law Center’s director of American affairs, students will be able to call the hotline to report incidents of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel acts on US college campuses, and the Law Center will use the data to take legal action against colleges believed to be breaching Jewish students’ legal rights, he added.

2011:The State today responded to petitions lodged against the release of 477 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for kidnapped soldier Gilad Schalit at the High Court of Justice today, saying the swap was strictly a political matter to be carried out by the government.

2011:The High Court of Justice rejected numerous petitions against the execution of the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap deal today, effectively removing the last legal obstacle en route to the release of the abducted Israel Defense Forces solder.

2011(19th of Tishrei, 5772): Chol Hamoed Sukkoth



2011: Following a speech by David Einhorn today at the Value Investing Congress in which he “publicly announced his short position in Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, its share price fell by 10 per cent.

2011(19th of Tishrei, 5772): Ninety-four year old audio innovator Edgar M. Villchur passed away (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)


2012(1st of Cheshvan, 5773): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

2012(1st of Cheshvan, 5773): Eighty-nine year old “Stanford R. Ovshinsky, an iconoclastic, largely self-taught and commercially successful scientist who invented the nickel-metal hydride battery and contributed to the development of a host of devices, including solar energy panels, flat-panel displays and rewritable compact discs,” passed away today. (As reported by Barnaby J. Feder)




2012: University of Liverpool Professor Eve Rosenhaft is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “Black People under Nazi Rule: Perspectives on the ‘Racial State’” at the Wiener Library in London.

2012: The Washington Jewish Film Festival and the Hebrew Language are among the sponsors of the scheduled screening of “Four Pairs of Shoes” at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

2012: Israeli singer-song writer Onili (Nili Ohayon) is scheduled to perform at Littlefiled in Brooklyn.

2012:Israel has not done enough to carry out the directive issued by Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu to increase the country's aerial firefighting capabilities, in spite of the growing threat of wildfires posed by rockets and missiles pointed at the Israeli home-front both from the north and south, the state comptroller's report stated today.

2012:Incoming Egyptian ambassador to Israel Atef Salem presented President Shimon Peres with his official credentials at the President's Residence in Jerusalem today. Salem, the first ambassador sent by new Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, said at the ceremony that Cairo is committed to all agreements with Israel, including the peace agreement.

2012: Friends and family look forward to celebrating the birthday of Laurie Silber a pillar of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Jewish community whose efforts has included multiple tours as President of Temple Judah, enthusiastic singing member of Shir Yehuda, long-time Sunday School teacher as well as a loving wife, devoted mother and “grand” grandmother   An Ashish Chayil in the truest sense of the term.



2013(13th of Cheshvan, 5774): Eighty-four year old Emmy award winning producer Lou Scheimer passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)


2013: At the Library of Congress, the Czech film series that features movies with Jewish themes is scheduled to show “Four Pairs of Shoes.”


2013: The Center For Jewish History is scheduled to host a panel discussion on “The Remarkable Life and Afterlife of Sholem Aleichem” featuring Jeremy Dauber author of The Worlds of Sholem Aleichem: The Remarkable Life and Afterlife of the Man Who Created Tevye



2013: The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to present “Behind the Scenes of Elegy” in which Ron Hirsen discusses his play that “reveals the family dynamic between Holocaust survivors and the next generation.”



2013: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington and the National Archives are scheduled to present “Discovery and Recovery: Preserving Iraqi Jewish Heritage”



2013: Middle Eastern vocalist and composer Galeet Dardashti is scheduled to demonstrate the melismatic vocal ornaments present in Mizrachi Jewish music and Persian classical music to students at Tulane University



2013: US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro expressed support for Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorism following an IDF guided tour of a recently unearthed tunnel running beneath the border with the Gaza Strip today. (As reported Naama Barak)

2013: While Israel issued no official response to a Washington Post report today that claimed Turkey had deliberately exposed a network of up to 10 Iranians working for the Mossad, a former Israeli spy chief fumed that, if accurate, the incident constituted a grave betrayal by Turkey of years of unwritten understandings between the two intelligence communities.



2014: SukkahPDX 2014 , Juried Outdoor Design Exhibit sponsored by the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to come to an end.



2014(23rd of Tishrei, 5775): Simchat Torah

2014(23rd of Tishrei, 5775): Ninety-five year old Mildred Puro Pittman, who had been pre-deceased by both of her husbands – Joseph Puro and Howard Pittman – passed away today in Delray Beach



2014(23rd of Tishrei, 5775): Eighty-five year old playwright Herb Shapiro passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)






2014: In the UK, the Oxford University Jewish Society chaplains are scheduled to host a festive lunch at their home.

2014: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the Ritual Committee hosts a Pizza dinner prior to the Consecration Ceremony honoring the newest youngster in the Religious School.

2014: “The US State Department denied claims today that US Secretary of State John Kerry made statements yesterday suggesting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was fueling the spread of Islamic terror in the Middle East.” (As reported by Joshua Davidovich)

2014: Following yesterday’s congressional hearings, Dr. Tom Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, appears to have become the scapegoat for the current Ebola outbreak in the United States.

2014: “Fury” a very disappointing movie set in the last days of WW II starring Shia LaBeou, Logan Lerman, John Bethanal and Jason Isaacs was released throughout the United States two days after its premiere in Washington, DC.

2014: An Ebola defense exercise was held early today with participants including Ben-Gurion International Airport units, the Health Ministry, MDA, the Interior Ministry Population and Migration Authority and the Israel Police.

2015: Shabbat Noach

2015: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host “a women’s tefillah service” this morning designed to provide “an opportunity for all women from whatever strand of Judaism to come together and pray together.”



2015: Rabbis and leaders of the Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and Reconstructionist movements in conjunction with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations have designated today as a special Sabbath of Solidarity with Israel.



2015: As a sign of the vitality of “small town Judaism” in Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah Shabbat morning services are scheduled to “go on the road this morning” when they are held at Cottage Grove Place for the convenience of its Jewish residents.



2015: “New York City mayor Bill de Blasio visited victims of a recent terror wave in Jerusalem today as part of a “solidarity visit,” saying that pain felt by Jerusalem was also being felt by his city.”



2015: The Tulane University Jewish Studies is scheduled to host Dr. Steve Whitfield, the Max Richter Professor of American Civilization at Brandeis University and the smartest person I ever met at Tulane as he speaks about “Franz Boas and the Struggle Against Racism.”



2015: “The Decent One” a documentary about Himmler is schedule to open at Cinema Village in NYC.




2016(15thof Tishrei, 5777): Sukkoth;

2016: Among the candidates for the short-list of the “Baillie Gifford Prize, the UK’s most prestigious award for non-fiction are Ben Judah author of This is London and Phillipe Sands author of East West Street.

2016(15thof Tishrei, 5777): Ninety-two “celebrity” dentist Irwin Smigel passed away today.




2016(15thof Tishrei, 5777): On the Jewish calendar 73rd anniversary of the Sobibor Uprising which began in the early hours of a day when Jews were commanded “to dwell in booths.”




2016: Retired four-star Marine Corps General James E. “Hoss” Cartwright,” the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff “pleaded guilty today to a federal felony charge of lying to the FBI in a probe of a leak of classified information about a covert U.S. –Israeli cyberattack on Iran’s nuclear program.” (As reported by Spencer S.HSU and Ellen Nakashima)

2016: On the final day of the Conference of the “US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation” a group whose leader is opposed to the existence of the state of Israel, attendees are scheduled to lobby members of Congress.

2017: The Kennan Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center hosted “a film screening and conversation with Israeli documentary directory Boris Maftsir, creator of the Searching for the Unknown Holocaust film series this afternoon.”

2017: Master Canasta Teacher, Judie Begoun, from the L'Chaim Center in Deerfield is scheduled to offer tips as part of “Friends, Fun and Games” sponsored by the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.

2017: At the Bard Graduate Center, Andrea M Berlin is scheduled to present “Jewish Daily Life in the time of Herod the Great” which is part of the Leon Levy Foundation Lectures.

2017: The American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to present Deborah Dash Moore and Ronit Stahl speaking on “Jewish New York, 1917” part the exploration of “New York Jewry’s myriad responses to WWI from the viewpoints of military and social urban history”

2017: Walter Isaacson’s biography of Leonardo da Vinci was published today after which Universal Pictures won “a bidding war” for the right to bring the book to the movie screen.

2018:  From Milwaukee, to Memphis, to Cedar Rapids friends and family of Laurie Silber prepare to celebrate the natal day of the Matriarch of a Clan of three generations whose sense of Yiddishkite is a tribute to example, guidance and plain old fashioned hard-work.

2018: In Atlanta, GA, the Bremen Museum is scheduled to host another stop in its “Historic Jewish Atlanta Tours” with a visit to “historic Oakland Cemetery” whose “Jewish Hill” is the final resting place of “several members of the Rich family who founded Rich’s Department Store Dr. Joseph Jacobs, owner of the pharmacy that served the first Coca-Cola; Jacob Elsas, owner of the Fulton Bag & Cotton Mill; as well as members of the Montag, Selig, Massell, Haas, and Guthman families.”

2018: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is schooled to host “Nudge, Wink in Whitechapel: Secret Histories from the Lyrics of the Cockney-Yiddish Music Hall at the Turn of the Twentieth Century” – a lecture by “historian, Yiddishit and performer Vivi Lachs, the author of Whitechapel Noise: Jewish Immigrant Life in Yiddish Song and Verse, London 1885 – 1914.

2019: The Center for Jewish History and the American Jewish Historical Society are scheduled to host a screening of “Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People,” “followed by a conversation with director Oren Rudavsky.”

2019: The Jewish Studies program at Vanderbilt is scheduled to sponsor a screening of “Sefarad” as part of the Nashville Jewish Film Festival.

2019: The exhibition “Jews, Money, Myth” is scheduled to come to an end at the Jewish Museum in London.


https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/20/arts/design/jews-money-myth-antisemitism-exhibition-london.html?action=click&module=Editors%20Picks&pgtype=Homepage

https://jewishmuseum.org.uk/exhibitions/jews-money-myth/

2019: In New York, Theaterlab is scheduled to present “A Ghost Tale” by Moti Brecher “created in collaboration with Roni Cohen, a scholar of 16th and 17thcentury popular Jewish literature…”

2019: Holocaust survivor Halina Peabody is scheduled to make the introductory remarks before the screening of “For Sama” at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum>

2019: “Cosmic Diaspora,” “A trio that combines experimental poetry, jazz and klezmer in an eclectic, improvised manner that touches on Jewish mysticism, the immigrant experience, ritual and much more” is scheduled to perform at Malloy Hall in San Francisco.

2019: As part of the Donald and Sue Pritzker Voices of Conscience Program, the Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to present “No Surrender: A Father, A Son and an Extraordinary Act of Heroism” during with Pastor Chris Edmonds described how his father Sgt. Roddie Edmonds “refused to cooperate with the Nazis and identify the Jewish servicemen under his command” – an act of heroism that earned him recognition by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations.

2019: In Atlanta the Breman Museum is scheduled to host “Music Talk – African Americans, American Jews and American Popular Music” featuring “pianist and author Ben Sidran” and “composer and musician Reverend Dwight Andrews.”

2019: In New Orleans, the National Council of Jewish Women is scheduled to host the Hannah Solomon Award Luncheon.

2019: The Sonoma County JCC’s 24th annual Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host the Bay Area Premier of “Sustainable Nation” along “with the Israeli humorous short film ‘How to Swim.’”

2019(18th of Tishrei, 5780): Fourth Day of Sukkoth; for more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/






This Day, October 18, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin

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OCTOBER 18


67 CE: Roman soldiers captured Gamla, a fortress in Israel's Golan region, and killed all its inhabitants. The ancient historian Josephus Flavius, a leader of the Jewish revolt against Rome, fortified Gamla as a main stronghold in 66 CE. The Romans attempted to take the city by means of a siege ramp, but were turned back by the defenders; only on the second attempt did they succeed in penetrating the fortifications and conquering the city. Thousands of inhabitants were slaughtered, while others chose to jump to their deaths from the top of the cliff. The location of ancient Gamla was discovered in archeological excavations during the 1970s; the remains have been preserved as a national park (As reported by Aish)

323:  Constantine the Great decisively defeats Licinius in the Battle of Chrysopolis, establishing Constantine's sole control over the Roman Empire. Constantine is perhaps best known for being the first Roman Emperor to endorse Christianity.  To put it mildly, Constantine tipped the scales in favor of Christianity and helped begin a downward spiral for European Jewry for an extended period of time.  This is an example of the fact that Christianity owes its dominant position to the power of the state.  As one author has pointed out in a recent bestseller, the Sword of Constantine was the vehicle for empowering the Cross of the Church.

412:Cyril was made Pope or Patriarch of Alexandria. Two years later, he “incited the Greeks to kill or expel the Jews. He forced his way into the synagogue at the head of a mob, expelled the Jews and gave their property to the crowd. The Prefect Orestes, who refused to condone this behavior, was set upon and almost stoned to death. Only one Jew, Adamanlius, agreed to be baptized. Within a few years Jews were allowed to return, but a majority of them returned only after the Mohammedans conquered Egypt.”

614: Today the fifth Council of Paris “prohibited the Jews from asking or from exercising civic or administrative rights.”

1009: The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, a Christian church in Jerusalem, is completely destroyed by the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who hacks the Church's foundations down to bedrock. His treatment of a Christian shrine provides an insight as to how Islam treated the holy sites of other religions.  In other words, Islam’s current claims to the Temple Mount are consistent with a pattern of usurpation and destruction.

1035: Sancho III, King of Navarre, called by some, the Great, was assassinated during a revolt. Four officials and sixty Jews were put to death during that revolt, because the locals considered Jews to be "property" of the crown.

1210:  Pope Innocent III excommunicates German leader Otto IV. This was part of Innocent’s drive to become the dominant power in Europe.  Jews will recognize him as the true father of the Inquisition and the driving force behind the Fourth Lateran Council that served to demean the Jewish people and force them to live a life isolated from their Christian neighbors which would ensure their impoverishment.

1270: The Last Crusade ended.  The Crusades began in 1095 with the People’s Crusade.  These first Crusaders moved through Central Europe like a giant wave attacking the local Jewish communities as they moved toward the Holy Land.  There were eight crusades, the last two led by the French King, Louis IX known as St. Louis.  St. Louis actually died of the plague in 1270 in Tunis thus failing to reach the Holy Land.   Many historians see the Crusades as a negative in Jewish History.  The slaughter of the Jews in Europe by the Crusaders on their way to the Holy Land and the slaughter of the Jews of Jerusalem by the Crusaders once they got there are two examples for this view.  The fact that the Crusaders lost out boded well for the Jews since Islamic dominated societies at this time provided better treatment for the Jewish citizens.

1356: Basel, Switzerland was destroyed by an earthquake which was the most significant historic seismological event north of the Alps.  In all likelihood, no Jews died in the earthquake since the Jewish community in Basel had been dissolved in 1349 when 600 adults were burned to death and the children were forcibly baptized in response to claims that the Jews were well-poisoners who were responsible for the Black Death.

1503: Pope Pius III passed away. The Papacy of Pius III was one of the shortest in history since it had begun on September 22, 0f 1503.  He was a compromise Pope who was preceded by Alexander VI and followed by Julius II, two the Medici popes who showed some sympathy for the Jews and otherwise left them alone while they pursued other, more worldly interests. There are those who think that Pius may have died as the victim of sort of Medici induced plot.

1571: In Mexico, an inquisition was set up that remained in force until the end of the eighteenth century.

1635: Urban VIII issued “Cum sicut acceptimus” a papal bull dealing with the requirement to feed poor Jews imprisoned for failure to pay their debts.

1739(16th of Tishrei, 5500):António José da Silva, a Portuguese-Brazilian dramatist, known as "the Jew" (O Judeu) fell victim to the Inquisition suffering death in an auto-da-fé.

1747:  In London, establishment of the Sephardi Jews’ Hospital (Beth Holim).

1747: Three Jewish doctors, Jacob de Castro Sarmento, Dr. Phillip de la Cour and Dr. Joseph Vaz de Silva offered their services to the newly opened Beth Holim - The Sephardi Jewish Hospital.

1748: Signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the War of the Austrian Succession. The Jews of Silesia would now live under Prussian rule instead of Austrian governance.  Silesia would eventually become part of Poland.  This is an excellent example of how the Jews never moved; the nations of Europe kept redrawing their boundaries so that a Jew, depending upon the time period could be an Austrian, a German or a Pole.  Breslau, which at one time was home to a significant Jewish community, is located in Silesia.

1761: Birthdate of Rabbi Wolff Kalusner

1762: Birthdate of Lazarus Bendavid, the native of Berlin who became a leading mathematician and philosopher.

1763: Uriah and Eva Hendricks gave birth to Rachel Hendricks the wife of Abraham Gomez and the mother of Ernest Gomez.

1779: The combined Franco-American forces ended the Siege of Savannah during which Philip Minis, a member of a prominent Jewish family served as guide and helped the attackers find the best landing place for their forces.

1786: “Feis Moses Fraenkel” and “Kehla Fraenkel” residents of “Schopfloch, Germany gave birth to Moses Feiss Fraenkel.”

1816: Jacob Weil, delivered a speech in the chapel of the Jewish school (Philanthropin) of Frankfort where he would become an instructor two years later, in which “he expressed the hope that the new era would bring the emancipation of his” fellow Jews.

1817: In the book burning at the Wartburg festival today, Saul Asher's writing "Die Germanomanie" ("The Germano Mania") was burned.”

1818: Inauguration of The Hamburg Temple, “the first reform synagogue in Germany.”

1818: “On the anniversary of the Battle of Nations near Leipzig, the members of the New Israelite Temple Society inaugurated their first synagogue in a rented building in the courtyard between Erste Brunnenstraße and Alter Steinweg in Hamburg's Neustadt quarter which was called the Hamburg Temple “the first reform synagogue in Germany” and was led by Dr. Eduard Kley and Dr. Gotthold Salomon

1829(21stof Tishrei, 5590): Hoshana Raba

1831: In London, stockbroker Frederick Harrison and his wife Jane” gave birth to the British jurist and historian Frederic Harrison who in 1920 expressed his opposition to the creation of  aJewish homeland in Palestine writing that “the idea of creating in” Palestine “a new Jewish Nation is nonsense” and that Jews may be a race of a sect” but “they are not a nation.”

1835: Lipman Levy married Hannah Jones at the Great Synagogue.

1837: Meyer Hartog Silver married Rachel David Blok in Amsterdam today.

1839: In London, Elizabeth Solomon and Naphtali Hart gave birth to Sarah Abigail Hart.

1839: Two days after her death, Gittle Rinkel Friedlander, the wife of Joseph Friedlander, the daughter of Joseph Rinkel and the mother of Henriette Friedlandler Munk was buried today at the Old Jewish Cemetery in Dresden.

1842: In Hambrug, the cornerstone was laid for the new house of worship to be used by the city’s Reform Jews.

1844: “Under the editorship of Joseph Mitchell,” The Jewish Chronicle “tool the title of The Jewish Chronicle and Working Man’s Friend.”

1846: Birthdate of Kovno native Isaac Rabinowitz who lived in Telshi where he met his wife for 22 years before eventually settling in New York where he tried to continue he vocation of writing songs and translating novels into Yiddish.

1848: In New York, Temple-Emanuel “organized an elementary school” which “was maintained until 1854” when it was replaced by “a religious school” that had over 500 students as of December, 1870.

1851(22nd of Tishrei, 5612): Shemini Atzeret

1851: The New York Times began publishing. Contrary to popular misconception the paper was not founded by Jews.  Nicknamed "The Gray Lady" or The Times, the newspaper was founded as The New-York Daily Times by Henry J. Raymond and George Jones as a sober alternative to the more partisan newspapers that dominated the New York journalism of the time.  In 1896, the times was purchased by Adolph Simon Ochs, an American Jewish reporter of Bavarian background who rescued it from near oblivion, increasing its readership from 9,000 at the time of his purchase to 780,000 by the 1920s. His daughter, Iphigene Bertha Ochs, married Arthur Hays Sulzberger, who became publisher of the Times after his father-in-law. Her son Arthur Ochs "Punch" Sulzberger also became publisher of the Times.  The Times may be owned by Jews but it sure is not a Jewish newspaper.

1854: In New York City, Henry Waldstein and his wife gave birth to chemist Martin E. Waldstein who earned a Ph.D. in 1875 at Heidelberg after studying at the Columbia College of Schools of Mines and who became the “head of Atlanta Chemical Works.”

1855: In Krojana, Germany David J. and Esther Marks Meyerhardt gave birth to Max Mayerhardt who practiced law in Rome, GA for forty years. (Editor’s note – some sources show his birthdate as 1855


1856(19thof Tishrei, 5617): Shabbat Shel Sukkoth

1859: In Paris, pianist Michal Bergson and Katherin Levison, the daughter of an English doctor gave birth to French philosopher, author and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature Henri Bergson.

1860: In Pittsburgh, PA, Louis Berkowitz and Henrietta Jaros Berkowitz gave birth to William J. Berkowitz the Kansas City, MO businessman, founder of Berkowitz and Company Printers and a “delegate to the National Conference of Jewish Charities and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations” who married Emilie Block with whom he had three children – Eugene, Estelle and Walter.

1861: “Rabbi Wolff Klausner…celebrated his one-hundredth anniversary today.

1862: During the Civil War, Philadelphian Joseph L. Moss began serving in the 113thRegiment with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

1863(22nd of Tishrei, 5764): During the U.S. Civil War Union forces raid Fort Brooke, near Tampa, FL as Jews on both sides of the conflict observe Shemini Atzeret

1864: In Manhattan, the founding of the Progress Club at Fifth Avenue and 63rdStreet who members included Levi Samuels, Jesse S. Epstein, Henry Goodman and Charles M. Eisig.

1867: Birthdate of Adolf Büchler “a Hungarian-Austrian rabbi, historian and theologian. In 1887 he began his theological studies at the Rabbinical Seminary of Budapest, and at the same time studied in the department of philosophy of the university under Ignác Goldziher and Moritz Kármán. Büchler continued his studies at the Breslau Seminary, and in 1890 graduated as PhD at Leipzig University, his dissertation being Zur Entstehung der Hebräischen Accente, which was afterward published in the Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Akademie der Wissenschaften of 1891. Büchler returned to Budapest to finish his theological studies, and was graduated as rabbi in 1892. He then went to Oxford for 1 year, where he worked under the direction of his uncle, Adolf Neubauer, and published an essay, "The Reading of the Law and Prophets in a Triennial Cycle". The same year he accepted a call as instructor at the Vienna Jewish Theological Seminary, teaching Jewish history, Bible, and Talmud. He became Principal of Jews' College in London, in 1906. He passed away in 1939.

1869: In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Temple Emanu-El was formed under the leadership of David Adler and Herny Friend.

1871: It was reported today that 800 buildings have been burned by arsonists in Boguslav who are described as “fanatical oppressors of the Jews.”  [Boguslav is a city in the Kiev district of the Ukraine which at that time was part of the Russian Empire. The Ukraine was the scene of periodic spasm of anti-Semitism from the 17th century through the 20th century.]

1872: In “Plzeňský, Česká republika,” Lazar and Therese Sucharipa Epstein gave birth to Adalbert Epstein, the husband of Emma Epstein with whom he had two sons – Friedrich and Wilhelm.

1873:  “Explorations in the East” published today examines recent archaeological discoveries including the Stone of Moab which was uncovered five years ago. Questions still remain about its authenticity.  There is a thriving traffic in fake ancient antiques some of which are attributed to Professor Shapira a noted Orientalist living in Jerusalem. [Moses Shapira would be involved in several cases where he was accused of forging or creating relics.  These charges would contribute to his death in 1884.  Shapira was born a Jew but became an Anglican while living in Palestine.]

1873: Based on information that first appeared in Germany’s Cologne Gazette, it was reported today that the Kingdom of Poland has a total population of six million people, over 800,000 of whom are Jews meaning that they make up about 13 per cent of the total.  Since 1816, the Jewish population has quadrupled. The eastern districts of the kingdom have the largest proportions of Jewish citizens while the western districts have a larger proportion of Germans in their population.

1875: Birthdate of Lawrence, Kansas native Bella Ney Cahn Printz who was first married to Louis Coahn with whom she had two children and then was married to Bert Printz.

1878(21st of Tishrei, 5639): Hoshana Raba

1878: A meeting of property owners was held tonight at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association at #110 West 42nd Street to protest the construction of a horse-railroad at this location.  The protesting property owners include Jews and non-Jews who are united in a desire to protect their aggregate investment of $1,730,000

1878: It was reported today that Italy, France and the United Kingdom have informed the government at Belgrade that they will not recognize Serbian independence until the civil and political of its Jewish citizens is guaranteed.

1879: At tonight’s meeting of St. Luke’s Hospital in New York City, the report of the house physician stated that in the past fiscal year, the hospital treat 1,216 patients two of whom were Jews.

1880: In Odessa, Chava Zach and Yevno Jobotinsky gave birth to Zionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky. There is no way that this blog can do justice to the life of this complicated person who played such an active role in the activities that led to the creation of the state of Israel.  His untimely death in 1940 prevented him from seeing the horrors of the Holocaust and the final fruits of his labors.  Regardless of your view of his Revisionist wing of the Zionist movement all would do well to learn more about him which should include reading Vladimir Jabotinsky's Story of My Life Edited by Brian Horowitz and Leonid Katsis

http://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/vladimir-jabotinskys-story-my-life

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ze-ev-vladimir-jabotinsky



1880: Five days after she had passed away, Elizabeth (nee Moses) Leverson, the wife of Montague Leverson whom she had married in 1815, was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1880: In the past six months the Jews of Newcastle-upon-Tyne have purchased beef from 15 different shipments from the United States. This is an indication that American meat is gaining in acceptability among the British since the “the Jews are the most particular race of people upon the face of the earch grading the wholesome state of their butcher’s meat.”

1881: It was reported today that 131 Russian Jewish immigrants were on board the SS Italy when it docked at Castle Garden.

1881: It was reported at tonight’s annual meeting of the Society of St. Luke’s Hospital that the Episcopal institution had treated 1,665 patients in the past year, seven of whom were Jewish.

1881: “Mr. Jacobsohn’s Grievance” published today described the suit that Adolph Jacobsohn has brought against Moses Keniger.  The Plaintiff claims that the Respondent has defamed him by claiming that he “failed to fast and pray on Yom Kippur” and that, instead, he had gone to Connecticut “to purchase goods.”  Jacobsohn is seeking two thousand dollars in damages because he claims that his fellow Orthodox Jews have refused to do business with him.

1882: In New York City, a concert sponsored by the Young Men’s Hebrew Association will be held in Chickering Hall this evening.

1882:  Louis Seigman Ehrich and Cornelia C. Sampson Ehrich gave birth to South Carolinian Louis Seigman Ehrich.

1883: There were several families of Russian Jewish immigrants aboard the SS Canada when it arrived in New York today.

1883: Henry J. Greenberg, a thirty year old Jewish peddler from Huntingdon County, PA, registered at Hartman’s Hotel in the Bowery.

1884:Dr. Kaufmann Kohler, the rabbi at New York’s Temple Beth-El is scheduled to deliver the address at the centenary birthday celebration being sponsored by the Young Men’s Hebrew Association tonight.

1884: An “informal celebration” marking the 100thbirthday of Sir Moses Montefiore was held “in the last chapel of the Five Points House of Industry.  N.W. Platzek, President of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association provided the opening remarks to the standing room only crowd during which he praised Montefiore and introduced the evening’s main speaker, Dr. Kohler, Rabbi of Temple Bethel.  Kohler, who began his speech in English, but switched to German so that all assembled could understand spoke glowing of Montefiore’s efforts including those alleviate the suffering of the Jews of Russia.

1884: Birthdate of Emmanuel “Manny” Shinwell, the British trade unionist who would become a member of Clement Attlee’s government – the first Labour government in British history.

1885: “A Magazine Library” published today provides a look at various traditions and tales based on folklore including The Merchant of Venice which Shakespeare seemed to have completely twisted from its Italian origins.  “According to an authority from 131 years, in the time of Pope Sixtus, Paul Sedchi insured his ships with Samson Ceneda, a Jewish underwriter…”  It was the gentile Secchi who bet the pound of flesh meaning that when his ships were lost he was the one who “insisted on taking his pound” from Ceneda, the Jew.  In response to all of these the Pope said: “Go ahead Secchi carve your meat rare; but we wold advise you to careful it you cut a scruple more or less than is due you shall certainly be hanged.” (Editor’s Note: The Pope would be “Sixtus” not Sextus. In terms of the reference to Shakespeare it might be a reference to Sixtus V, one of the Popes issued a bull against the Blood Libel since the only other Sixtus it could be was Sixtus IV who instituted the Inquisition)

1885: Concert pianist Fannie Bloomfield became Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler today when “she married her second cousin Sigmund Zeisler, the defense lawyer for anarchist accused of violence in the Haymarket Riots with whom she had two sons – Paul and Ernest

1886: A bail of $300 was set yesterday in the Essex Market Police Court for Wolf Bloom a 26 year old Russian Jew who is charged with violating the Sunday “closing laws.”

1886: Henry L. Sayles is scheduled to on trial in the Court of General Sessions for his role of alleged financial improprieties surrounding the Broadway Surface Railroad in New York.



1888: Attendance at Poole Theatre fell off markedly tonight following the withdrawal of support of the production by the Jewish Order of the Harp of David,



1889(23rdof Tishrei, 5650): Simchat Torah



1889: In Hamilton, Ohio, Rose and Samuel Hurst gave birth to Fannie Hurst, the St. Louis educated novelist who wrote Imitation Of Life



1890: Mayor Grant responded to a request by a committee led by Samuel Roeder for the appointment of Coroner Ferdinand Levy to one of the vacant Police Justiceships by expressing doubt that such a vacancy existed but adding that even if one did he would not fill it until after the elections had been held.



1891: It was reported today that “Count Koffsky, the Cossack Chief of Police whose brutalities in evicting the poor Jews of Moscow last March shocked the whole world has been” accused of being part of a forgery ring involving 200,000 rubles.

1891: In New York, Albert Loeb, “ a successful investment banker with Kuhn, Loeb and Company” and his wife Rose, a cousin of Peggy Guggenheim, gave birth to American author Harold Albert Loeb, “the found editor of ‘Broom,’ an international literary and art magazine.”



1893: “Otto Irving Wise’s Candidacy” published today provided background information on the Republican nominee for the Assemblyman in the 21st District including the fact that he is the son of Dr. Aaron Wise, the rabbi at Rodolph Shalom, the brother of Stephen S. Wise, the rabbi at Madison Avenue Synagogue and the editor of The Hebrew World



1894: The Jockey Club purchased Baron Hirsch's three year old English horse Matchbox for 18,000 English pounds



1894: The Lexow Committee which had already heard testimony from Senator Cantor and from Jewish soda water peddlers on the Lower East Side continued its hearings into charges of corruption in the New York City Police Department.



1894: A circular printed in Hebrew advertising a meeting of Republicans in New Haven to be held tonight when translated revealed “a bitter attack on the Irish and requesting the Russians to turn out to the mass meeting and denounce the Irish.” (The Republicans canceled the meeting for fear of trouble.)



1896: German Lutheran missionary Johann Ludwig Schneller, the founder of Jerusalem’s Schneller Orphanage passed away



1896: In London, operetta composer Victor Hallaender and his wife gave birth to German-American film composer Friedrich Hollaender “who worked on more than 200 films” including one of my all-time favorites, the original version “Sabrina” the 1954 romantic comedy.

1897(22ndof Tishrei, 5658): Shmini Atzeret

1897: Today in London, “the wife of E.A. Joseph” gave birth to a son.

1897: The Hambro Synagogue is scheduled to hold services this evening at Bonn’s Hall in London.

1897: In Warsaw, Adolph and Natalia Lieberman gave birth to Maxim Lieberman, the WW I U.S. Army veteran, literary agent and Soviet Spy.

1898: Birthdate of Viennese singer and actress, the non-Jewish wife of Kurt Weil who left Germany after the rise of the Nazis came to power.

1898(2ndof Cheshvan, 5659): David Levi, who fought in the Italian wars of independence and whose literary efforts included “Il Profeta,” a five act drama set in the final days of the First Temple, passed away today.



1898(2ndof Cheshvan, 5659): Eighty-nine year old Ralph Disraeli, the son Isaac D’Israeli passed away today in Yorkshire.

1898: Herzl has an audience with Wilhelm II in Constantinople.

1898: Louis Selig, Director of the Hebrew Charities in Detroit is scheduled to be one of the speakers at the Civic-Philanthropic Conference that opens today in Battle Creek, Michigan.

1898: Two days after he had passed away, 74 year old Leopold Mohr was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery in London.”

1898: United States took possession of Puerto Rico.

1902: Herzl begins his trip to London in search of support for the Jewish homeland.

1902:  Inaugural service of the Jewish Religious Union which led to the formation of the Liberal Jewish Movement.

1902(17thof Tishrei, 5663): Shabbat Chol HaMoed Sukkoth

1902(17thof Tishrei, 5663):Reuben Asher Braudes, the Wilna born Hebrew author whose novels included The Repentant, Religion and Life and The Morning Light and editor of the Yiddish weekly Yedhudit passed away today in Vienna.

1903: Hedwig Bergman, the daughter of Rabbi Adolf Rosenzweig and Rabbi Juda Bergman gave birth to physicist Ernst David Bergman, “the father of the Israeli nuclear program.”

1903: Birthdate of Zygmund William Birnbaum a native of Lwów, Austria-Hungary who gain fame as Bill Birnbaum, Professor of mathematics and statistics at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington.

1904: Birthdate of Chaim Shirman an Israeli scholar of medieval Spanish Jewish poetry who passed away in 1981.

1904: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Simenhoff officiated at the wedding of Sam H. Baron and Jennie Widelitz.

1904: Birthdate of screenwriter Hans Wilhelm “who was forced to emigrate after the Nazi takeover in 1933” because of his “Jewish heritage.”

1904: Birthdate of Russian native Zalmon Yauneh, who in 1922 came to the United States where he served as “cantor and composer of liturgical music.”

1905: Birthdate of New York native and CCNY graduate Samuel Perlman who served as a Rabbi in Bayonne, NJ and Quincy, MA and the Director of the Hebrew Home for Orphans and Aged of Hudson County before passing away in 1975;

1905: This marked the first day of what was the blackest week in Russian Jewish history until the Holocaust. The Black Hundreds and other bands of reactionary, anti-Semites were formed during and after the Russian Revolution of 1905.  They alleged that the Jews were responsible for Russia’s many military, economic and political ills. These government sanctioned militias killed hundreds of Jews and injured thousands more. Over forty thousand homes and shops were destroyed in one week of rioting.

1905: Start of a Pogrom in Rostov.

1907: In Frankfurt am Main, Amalia Margarethe Mandello, (Seligsohn) a teacher;  and  Herrmann Mandello, who  worked in a department store gave birth to Johanna Mandello Mandello  who gained fame as photographer Jeanne Mandello.


1908(23rdof Tishrei, 5669): Simchat Torah

1908: After Jews had gathered at the gates of the jail in Bialystok follow a government spread rumor that prisoners were to be released, soldiers fired into the crow killing twenty-two of the JewsBorukh-Mikhal bar Asher ROGAL, 53.

Moshe bar Yakov SACHARNI, 28.

Shmuel-Hersh bar Eliezar MARGOLIUS, 34.

Moshe bar Nisen FAJNSZTAJN, 50.

Golde-Sura bas [daughter of] Mordekhai PASTRIGACZ, 70.

Chaya bas Moshe CHWOROWSKI, 50.

Feygl bas Yitzhak TICHOWSKI, 38.

Hindl-Bayle[4] 25.

Ester bas Shmuel BARTINOWSKI, 17.

Szprinca bas Avraham WAJNBERG, 54

Leib bar Tzwi-Hirsh LIBERMAN, 17.

Guta-Freyda bas Mordekhai KAPLAN, 20.

Freyda bas Yitzhak KOPICER, 56.

Chana bas Dovid Zalman KAPLAN, 60.

Khisa bas Moshe Zev PINONZNIK, 40

Tzipora bas Benimin KOHEN, 70.

Beyla bas Moshe LIBERMAN, 32.

Chaya bas Ahron KOHEN, 19.

Rywka LEWIN, 30.

Chashe bas Yitzhak MOSKOWSKI, 20.

Chava bas Yehoshua Haim LIBERMAN, 21.

Ester bas Yakob-Leib KURAN, 21.

1908: When Israel Zangwill’s “The Melting Pot” opened today in Chicago it was declared an “immediate success” and ran for three weeks.

1909: In China, “Mr. and Mrs. N. Blumenthal gave birth to Bessie Blumenthal who was buried in the Happy Valley Jewish Cemetery in Hong Kong after she had passed away at the age of one month.

1910(15thof Tishrei, 5671): Sukkoth

1910: Birthdate of Morris Kertzer, the Canadian born rabbi who earned a bronze start for bravery during the Battle of Anzio and who became an active leader in the move to improve relations between Christians and Jews after the war.


1911: It was reported today thatJames Loeb, the banker, who retired from the firm of Kuhn, Loeb Co, a few years ago, has made arrangements for the translation into English and publication at his own expense of the classical authors of all periods.”  The volumes in question were originally written in Latin or Greek. Professor Salomon Reinach, the French archaeologist and intellectual (who happens to be Jewish) brought the need for this project to Mr. Loeb’s attention.  Details are not available at this time because Mr. Loeb is traveling.

1911(26thof Tishrei, 5672): Michael Cadison a native of Lithuania and the son of Joseph Ezra Cadison and Ida Yenta Kadison and the husband of Fannie Anne (Frume Sheina) Cadison passed away today in Pittsburgh, PA.

1912(1stof Cheshvan, 5673): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan and Shabbat

1912: Fifty-four year old Mobile, Alabama merchant Abraham H. Spira passed away today.

1912(1stof Cheshvan, 5673): “Communal worker” Levin Fredman passed away today

1912: When the Turco-Italian War came to an end today the Italians were effectively in control of Libya whose Jewish community dates back to the first century before the Common Era according to archeological evidence at Benghazi.

1913: “The Girl from Utah” a Paul Rubens’ musical “opened at the Adelphi Theatre in London” today where it “had an initial run of 195 performances” after which Charles Frohman would produce a successful American version in 1914.

1913: Today, The New York Review, “noted that” “The Tik-Tok Man of Oz,” a play with music by Louis Gottschalk, “was to close for two week for practical reconstruction of the sets” after which it was reportedly to open this winter “in one of the three largest Eastern cities.”

1914: During World War I, The Yorkshire Herald, an English newspaper, reported on the Czar’s awarding the Cross of St. George to a Jewish soldier named Leo Osnas by that his display of bravery “has won freedom for the Jews in Russia; he has gained for his race the right to become officers in the Russian army and navy, hitherto denied them, and he has so delighted the Russian government that it has since proclaimed that henceforth Jews in the Empire shall enjoy the full rights of citizenship.  Surely no man’s winning the Victoria Cross ever resulted in such magnificent results for a subject people as this.”  As Martin Gilbert points, the Herald went a bit too far in its praise since under the Czars the Jews never attained full citizenship nor did the persecution ever stop.

1915: “Wilson’s Pledge to Jews” published today quotes Simon Wolfe as saying that “he had” a letter from Woodrow Wilson “in which the President said that when the time should come for the making of another treaty with Russia ‘none shall be granted by the Government of which I am President unless the Jews are given full rights.’”

1915: It was reported today that Dr. Samuel Bettelheim, the editor and proprietor of the Hungarian Jewish News of Budapestsaid he had “come to New York because it is the biggest and greatest Jewish center in all history” and “it is here that a world-wide movement should start” that will guarantee the rights of the Jews of Rumania and Russia after the war, as well as ensuring the growth of the Jewish community in Palestine.

1915: “Lashes Atlanta Churches” published today described the farewell sermon Dean John R. Atkinson who has resigned from St. Philip’s Episcopal Cathedral spoke disparagingly of the houses of worship in Atlanta say that the “Jews” were “the most people” he met while in the city.

1915: It was reported today that Rabbi Stephen S. Wise told those attending a mass meeting held to protest the Ottoman treatment of the Armenians that he was there “not an opponent of Turkey nor as a champion of Armenia but to protest against inhumanity, whether committed by Germans against Belgians, by Russians against Jews or by Turks against Armenians.” Instead he was there to call upon Germany and Austria to work to end “the Armenian atrocities.”

1915: “All Europe Crave Peace Says Bernstein” published today included the first-hand report by Herman Bernstein of conditions in the war zone including the observation that he “found that the Jewish people was the most tragic victim of the war.  In Russia the Jews were crucified during the war in Russian fashion.  For their military defeats on the battlefield the Russian authorities made military pogroms against their own peaceful Jewish population. In Austria, where the Jews even though economically wretched, enjoyed equal rights and freedom, where the Jews have fought bravely and loyally, they have now been deprived of many of their rights.”

1916: “Rabbi Rudolph Grossman, President of the New York Board of Hewish Ministers and Rabbi Bernard Drachman, President of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations…issued statements” today “denouncing Meyer London for his attack” on “ex-Judge Leon Sanders, his opponent for Congress in the Twelfth District” in which London reportedly referred to his opponent as a “cheap Tammany kosher-ham sandwich politician.”

1917: One day after she had passed away, Sarah Bernstein, the Russian born wife of Elias Bernstein with whom she had six children, was buried today at the “Brady Street Burial Ground.”

1917: It was reported today that in giving their consent to hold the upcoming Special Assembly of Jews In America at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, the Trustees were breaking traditions that had existed for 250 years which is further proof that “this special assembly is the most important national gathering of Jews since the European war began and the most important event to Jewry since the entry of the United States entry into the war.”

1918: The Assistant Minister of the Interior was told today that using a knowledge of Polish as a criteria for resettling those who had fled during the war “was harsh” because under Russian rule the Czars had worked to keep the Jews from studying Polish and because the documents issued by the Russians “contained no proof of permanence in any given city.”

1918: Sergeant Abraham Blaustein was part of the 165th Regiment which forced the Germans to retreat from Somerance and the surrounding ridges.

1919: Birthdate of New York native Arthur “Artie” Marpet who played basketball for three years at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

1919: In Fort Dodge, Iowa, Samuel and Daisy Lumelsky Rabiner gave birth to France E. “Francie” Cohen.

1919: A pogrom began at Ivankiv, a town the Ukrainian district of Kiev. This was part of a series of pogroms that racked the Ukraine during 1919 during the Civil War that found the Whites, the Cossacks and the Reds battling for control of what had been the Russian Empire.

1920: Birthdate of actress and political activist Melina Mercouri, the wife of movie director Jules Dassin who was a victim of the infamous Hollywood Blacklist.

1923: Birthdate of Ukrainian born American director Boris Sagal


1926:In Paris, Sholom Schwartzbard goes on trial for allegedly having assassinated Symon Petliura the Ukrainian leader who played a leading role in the pogroms during which Schwartzbard’s family was wiped out.  Despite the fact that Schwartzbard had in fact shot him, a jury would acquit him after an eight day trial.

1926: U.S. premiere of “The Eagle of the Sea,” a silent film produced by B.P. Schulberg and co-starring Florence Vidor, the future wife of Jascha Heifitz.

1927(22nd of Tishrei, 5688): Shemini Atzertz

1927: Sholem Schwartzbar is scheduled go on trial in Paris today for the assassination  of General Simon Petlura who was responsible for the slaughter in Kiev in 1919 that claimed the lives of 50,000 Jews.

1927:  Columbia Broadcasting System went on the air. This radio network lost money in its first year, and two years later it was purchased by William S. Paley, the son of Jewish cigar manufacturer from Philadelphia.

1927: Birthdate of Marvin Joseph Rotblatt, a left-handed relief pitcher who toiled for the Chicago White Sox for “three seasons in the late 1940s and early 1950’s” (As reported by Richard Goldstein)

1928: Birthdate of Jack Weinstein the native of Saint Francis, Kansas who was award the Medal of Honor “for courageous actions during combat operations in Kumsong, South Korea, on October 19, 1951.”

1929: Birthdate of New Jersey state Democratic political leader Byron Baer who passed away in June, 2007. “In 2005, shortly before he retired from the Senate, the New Jersey Association of Jewish Federations presented Baer with the Shem Tov and Distinguished Service awards. Jeffrey Maas, then executive director of the association, said Baer was responsible for making sure Jewish community centers, nursing homes, and social service agencies received extensive state funding.”

1929: Seventy-five year old architect John Hemenway Duncan, the designer of a mansion for Jewish investment banker Philip Lehman which gained famed as the “Philip Lehman Mansion” which was “designated as a New York landmark in 1981” passed away today.

1929: Birthdate of Erasmus High alum Hillard (Hilly) Elkins the award producer who worked in theatre, the large screen and the small screen and who may be best remembered for “Oh! Calcutta!”


1930(26thof Tishrei, 5691): Parsahat Bereshit – the cycle begins again

1930: Northwestern University led by Guard Hyman “Hy” Crizevsky defeated Illinois in its third straight win of the season.

1930: Birthdate of Wilno, Poland native Esther Rudomin who gained fame as award winning author Esther R. Hautzig, the wife of “concert pianist Walter Hautzig with whom she had two children – Deborah and David.


1930(26thof Tishrei, 5691): Forty-two year old Bialystok born conductor and composer Josiah Zuro who collaborated with his father Louis, passed away today in California.


1931: “Keep Banks Open, Dr. Palyi Advises” published today described the view of Dr. Melchoir Palyi, the economic advisor to the Deutsche Bank, “the largest commercial bank in Germany” that now is not the time to close the banks because such a move punishes the whole community turning “a minor panic into a major one” but rather it is the time to extend liberal credits and then punish the banks when the panic is over.  (Editor’s Note – Palyi was a Jewish convert to Roman Catholicism who would seek refuge in the United States after the Nazis came to power.)

1932: “Gov. Meier For Hoover” published today included the views of Julius Meier, the Governor of Oregon on the upcoming election in which he wrote that “to exchange the tried and successful leadership of President Hoover now for the new, untried and untrained leadership of the Democratic Presidential nominee would, in my opinion, not only defer for years the return of prosperity but might plunge the country into another crisis.”

1933(28thof Tishrei, 5694): “Rabbi Jacob Mayer Kahan” passed away today at “Far Rockaway, NY.”

1933: The Mortimer L. Schiff Scout Reservation was officially dedicated today. “The Mortimer L. Schiff Scout Reservation, located in central New Jersey, was a major Boy Scout training facility for almost 50 years. It was named after Mortimer L. Schiff, the father of John M. Schiff; both of whom were World Scout Committee members and notable early Boy Scouts of America (BSA) leaders.The land was purchased for the BSA by Mrs. Jacob Schiff in memory of her son, Mortimer, who died while President of the BSA in 1931…When the Mortimer L. Schiff Scout Reservation was closed, Nassau County Council's Camp Wauwepex in Wading River, New York was renamed as the John M. Schiff Scout Reservation, in honor of Moritmer's son, John.”

1933: Birthdate of Irwin Mark Jacobs the Cornell University electrical engineer who co-founded Qualcomm.


1934: U.S. premiere of “Man of Aran,” a “British fictional documentary” produced by Michael Balcon.

1934: “An exchange agreement to facilitate the importation of Palestinian oranges into Germany has been devised by the Anglo-Palestine Bank of London and Tel Aviv and the banking firm of M.M. Warburg & Co. in Hamburg.”  The agreement will “enable Germany to buy about three million dollars worth of Jaffa oranges during the coming year…”

1935(21st of Tishrei, 5696): Hoshana Raba

1935(2st of Tishrei, 5696): Seventy-two year old Lt. General Milton J. Foreman whose service in the Spanish American War, the First World War and the post-war period earned him a Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver star and decorations from Belgium and France passed away today.



1935: The German government introduces the anti-Semitic Law for the Protection of the Hereditary Health of the German People.

1936: “A Detroit all-star soccer team…held the Maccabees of Tel Aviv…to a 2 to 2 tie before 10,000 spectators at the University of Detroit stadium.”

1936: At the Free Synagogue, meeting in Carnegie Hall, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The Truth About Palestine: Britain, Arab, Jew.”

1936: In “Berdyaev’s Philosophy of Human Destiny” published today John Cournos provided a reviews of The Meaning of History by Nicolas Berdyaev the Christian philosopher who “credits the Jews with being the first people to contribute the concept of ‘historical’ to world history” saying that the Jews not only “grasped the significance of the past present; they were also the first people to link these up with the future” as can be seen “in Daniel’s interpretation  of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream” which “Berdyaev sees as the first attempt in the history of mankind to attribute a design to history…”

1936: At the Jewish Science Society, Rabbi Morris Lichtenstein is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “How to Banish Fear” this morning.

1936: “Between the beginning of 1933 and July 1, 1936, the Jewish population of Germany decreased from approximately 517,000 persons to about 405,000 persons according to figures sent by Michael Traub of Berlin, director of the Palestine Foundation Fund of Germany, to the United States Appeal’ and made public today.

1936: In Philadelphia  “An appeal to this country to be on guard ‘against those who would pit one religious or racial group against another’ was voiced tonight by the Governor of Pennsylvania who spoke at the opening session of the annual convention of Hadassah” which is being attended by 1,200 delegates and “several hundred guests’

1936: The SS Excalibur of the American Exports line unloaded it cargo at Tel Aviv, making it the first American ship to use the newly built port facilities at the first “all Jewish metropolis”

1937, The Palestine Postreported that renewed Arab terror claimed three more Jewish victims, while violence continued throughout the country. One Arab assailant was killed in the Old City of Jerusalem. In Ness Ziona an 11-year-old Yemenite boy, Eliahu Sherabi, was fatally shot in the head while sleeping in his house. Jewish buses were shot at and armed Arabs attacked workers of the Palestine Quarries near Motza. Arabs had also attacked Kibbutz Ramat Rahel, where the children's house became their main target. In Jerusalem, an Orthodox Jew, Shmuel Guttman, was stabbed five times in the Mea She' street, near the Sheller compound, by an Arab who escaped. The town was under night curfew for more than a week.

1937: Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered an address on “Problems of Youth” at a luncheon at the Hotel Astor.  The luncheon is the opening event of a campaign by the Women’s League for Palestine to raise $100,000 to build “a home for immigrant girls in Jerusalem.”  Mayor La Guardia will also address the gathering while Dr. Stephen S. Wise and Rabbia Israel H. Leinthal will open the dirve.

1937: As Arab violence continued to grow, a gang of terroirsts attacked the Jewish settlement at Artuf in southern Palestine and a band of twenty armed Arabs “attacked the Baharieh police post between Hebron and Beersheba” and made off with weapons belonging to the British police.

1938(23rd of Tishrei, 5699): Simchat Torah

1938: During his third visit to Germany, Charles Lindbergh attends a dinner at the U.S. embassy in Berlin. Hermann Göring presents him with the Service Cross of the German Eagle with Star, also known as the Order of the German Eagle (Verdienstorden vom Deutschen Adler).Personally created by Adolf Hitler, this is the highest honor which the Nazi government can give to a foreigner and was last presented to Henry Ford two months earlier.

1938: “The German government expeled 12,000 Polish Jews living in Germany; the Polish government accepts 4,000 and refuses admittance to the remaining 8,000, who are forced to live in the no-man's land on the German-Polish frontier.

1938: With Jerusalem under a virtual state of siege because of the worst outbreak of Arab violence since 1929, the British declared a state of virtual martial law and sent troops into the Old City aimed at driving out the “rebel bands.”  “The Mufti of Jerusalem, leader of the rebellious Moslems, declared from exile in Syria, that the Arab peace terms included an independent Ara state and an end to Jewish immigration into Palestine.

1939: In Poland, Arthur Weissmann, the brother of Holocaust survivor and author Gerda Weissmann complied with the German summons to register for military service and was never seen again.

1941: When it appeared that the Germans might defeat the Red Army outside Moscow, Chaim Kaplan the director of Hebrew school in Warsaw wrote in his diary, “a Nazi victory means complete annihilation, morally and materially, for all the Jews of Europe.”

1941: Mass executions of Soviet Jews in Borisov, Byelorussia, 50 miles east of Minsk, Byelorussia, are carried out by an Einsatzkommando (special killing squads) following a night of celebration by German troops.

1942: The Nazis gassed 1,594 deportees from Holland at Auschwitz.

1943: “A sonata for a piano duet and string quartet” was premiered in a concert today in Seattle, Washington

1943: Pope Pius explained his failure to speak out against the Nazi deportation of the Jews of Rome.  He told Harold Tittman, the United States representative to the Vatican that a “demonstrative censure” might provoke a class with the SS “that could benefit only the Communists.”

1944(1st of Cheshvan, 5705): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

1944: Seven hundred Plaszów, Poland, camp deportees are sent from the Gross-Rosen, Germany, camp to Brünnlitz in the Sudetenland. Oskar Schindler, owner of a newly opened munitions factory in Brünnlitz, persuades the SS to give him all 700 Jews for use as workers. Schindler also makes arrangements to have 300 Jewish women transferred from Auschwitz to his factory.

1944: As the Red Army drives toward Berlin, the Soviet Union invades Czechoslovakia. This would help to lead to Soviet control of Czechoslovakia after the war; a fact that proved oddly beneficial to Israel when it was fighting for its independence.  The Israelis had no aircraft.  There was a store of surplus ME-109’s in Czechoslovakia. The Soviets gave the Czechs permission to sell the planes to the Jews which meant that the first fighter craft flown by the Israelis in May of 1948 were planes left over from the Luftwaffe.

1944(1st of Cheshvan, 5705): Eva Heyman and Gisi Fleischmann, head of the women's Zionist movement in pre-war Slovakia were murdered at Birkenau.

1944(1st of Cheshvan, 5705): Forty-six year old composer, conductor and pianist Viktor Ullman was gassed today at Auschwitz-Birkenau



1944: “The Master Race” a film about post-war plans to continue the Nazi dream directed and written by Herbert Biberman was released to ay RKO.

1945: “The Seventh Veil” a “melodrama” with music by Benjamin Frankel was released in the United Kingdom today.

1945: Nazi war crimes trials opened in Nuremberg, Germany. This week marked the appearance of The Nuremberg Interviews edited by Robert Gellately. The book is a collection of the interviews conducted by a Dr. Leon Goldensohn, a U.S. Army psychiatrist.  He was assigned by the Army to interview the defendants and the witnesses at the Nuremberg War Crime Trials.  His detailed notes which have been annotated and edited by Professor Gellately provide a chilling window into the minds of those who made the Holocaust.

1946: In Toronto, Bernice (née Ash) and Mac Shore gave birth to Oscar winning composer Howard Leslie Shore.

1946: In Jerusalem, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and his wife gave birth to Rabbi and MK Ya’akov Yosef.

1947: In three separate incidents seen as part of the work of Jewish fighters seeking to end British rule in Palestine, a British army truck “was blow up by a mine just west of Petah Tikva injuring two soldiers, “another army truck hit two mines near Benyaminia” without any casualties and an RAF jeep “ran over a mine on the road near Hadera wrecking the Jeep” without any casualties.

1947: Birthdate of songwriter Laura Nyro who passed away in 1997.

1947: The University of Michigan, led by Dan Dworsky who played “linebacker, fullback and center” defeated Northwestern for their fourth straight win of the season

1947: “Several …banners with legends such as ‘Don’t dissect our country’ and ‘Remember the Warsaw ghetto’ went up on the wire in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem this afternoon.”

1948(15thof Tishrei, 5709): For the first time in almost 2,000 years Jews celebrate Sukkoth in their own country.

1948:Gertrude Berg made her television debut as Bronx housewife Molly Goldberg on NBC's Chevrolet on Broadwayin 1948. The Goldbergs began running as a comedy series on NBC radio in 1929 and became one of television's earliest and most popular situation comedies beginning in 1949. Berg produced and scripted the shows and portrayed Molly Goldberg, the family matriarch. Each show offered audiences a pleasant, often comical portrayal of the life of a second-generation Jewish American family. Assimilation into American culture was a prominent theme throughout the series with the last season incorporating the family's move from their Bronx apartment to a fictitious suburb. After the series' cancellation in 1955, Berg went on to win a Tony Award in 1959 for her work in the Broadway comedy A Majority of One by Leonard Spigelgass (As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archives)

1950: Today, “Burning Bright” “produced by Rodgers and Hammerstein opened on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre.

1950: In Brooklyn Lola (née Liska) Schleifer and textile manufacturer Morris Wasserstein gave birth to Tony Award winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein, the author of “The Heidi Chronicles.”

1951(18thof Tishrei, 5712): David Cohen, the husband of Eva Cohen and the father of Aaron Cohen passed away today after which he was buried in the Ahavas Sholom Congregation Cemetery in Baltimore County, MD.

1952: In New York City Robert Levine and his wife gave birth Charles Michael Levine, the State University of New York drop-out who gained fame Chuck Lorre the creator of numerous successful sitcoms including “Two and a Half Men,” “The Big Bang Theory” and “Young Sheldon.”

1954: “A committee of Hadassah members, headed by Mrs. Maxwell Kaufman, is scheduled to decorate the House of Hospitality auditorium for the annual United Nations Dinner sponsored by the American Association for the U.N., San Diego Chapter, this evening.

1954: In Flushing, NY diamond cutter Max Weinstein and the former Miriam Postel gave birth to producer Robert Weinstein, the brother of Harvey Weinstein.

1954: Texas Instruments introduces the first transistor radio. “The transistor was invented and patented in the 1920s by Julius Edgar Lilienfeld. Its re-invention some twenty years later earned Bell Telephone Laboratories the Nobel Prize, but Bell Labs was forced to abandon all patent claims to the field-effect transistor (which completely dominates modern electronics) because of Lilienfeld's prior work.” 

1954: "The Week in Religion" aired for the last time over Dumont television. First broadcast in March 1952, this ecumenical Sunday evening panel show divided the hour into 20-minute segments each for Protestant, Catholic and Jewish news.

1954: George Pirkis Kidd began serving as the first Canadian Ambassador to Israel.

1956: Birthdate of Leningrad native Yevgeny Arkadievich Yelchin who gained fame as Eugene Yelchin, the illustrator and author children’s books including the Newbery award winning Breaking Stalin’s Nose.

1958: Birthdate of New Jersey native Leon Calvin Murray, the Ohio State University and NFL running back who converted to Judaism.


1961: Six months after premiering in Italy, “The Golden Hours” with music by Stanley Black was released today in the United States.

1964: Ed Sullivan alleged that Jewish comedian had given him the finger during tonight’s show – a claim that Mason denied and which led to his ban from the leading variety show and a lawsuit which Mason won.

1965: Al Silverman, editor of Sport magazine was the maters of ceremonies at today’s luncheon at Cavanaugh’s Restaurant where Sandy Koufax was award the Corvette the “magazine presents each year to the outstanding performer in the World Series.”

1966: “The Apple Tree, “ “a series of three musical playlets with music by Jerry Bock and lyrics Sheldon Harnick” who collaborated together on “the book” featuring Larry Blyden “opened on Broadway today at the Schubert Theatre.

1967: MGM released “Far from the Madding Crowd” directed by John Schlesinger with a script by Frederic Raphael.

1967:  Funeral services were held today for attorney Edwin Otterbourg two days after he had passed away at the age of 82.




1968(26thof Tishrei, 5729): Forty-seven year old Julius Bahr Kahn, Jr., the son of Leona and Julius Bahr Kahn, the husband of Carol Kahn and University of Chicago educated pharmacologist passed away today.


1970: Final performance of “Steambath,” “second play by Bruce Jay Friedman that had opened “off-broadway at the Truck and Warehouse Theatre in June of 1970.

1973 (22nd of Tishrei, 5734): Shemini Atzeres

1973 (22nd of Tishrei, 5734): Seventy-four year German-born American philosopher, Leo Strauss, passed away.

https://leostrausscenter.uchicago.edu/

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/993329.html

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/on-leo-strauss/





1973: Major Asa Kadmoni was awarded the Medal of Valor for the extraordinary courage he displayed “fought a large enemy force while surrounded in the Sinai” today.

1973: During the Yom Kippur War, the Israelis were able to finally put a pre-fabricated bridge across the Suez Canal.  Moving the bridge into position and actually using it to span the Canal was a costly operation.  One hundred IDF soldiers died in the attempt with forty-one dying in a single night.  The bridge made it easier to move tanks across the Canal but there was no lightening quick strike as had been seen in 1956 and 1967.  In fact, if the Egyptians had pressed home their advantage while the bridge was being put in place, the whole plan would have ended in failure.  This is another example of how much the Yom Kippur War was “a near run thing.”

1973: Guri Palter and Itzhak Bar’am were taken prisoner after ejecting from their F-4E Phantom Jet that had fallen victim to an Egyptian SAM.

1973: Doron Shalev and Yosef Lev-Ari were taken prisoner after ejecting from their F-4E Phantom Jet that had fallen victim to an Egyptian SAM.

1973: The half-track in which Eliezer Kalina was riding was hit by Syrian gunfire killing the two other occupants and leaving Kalina so gravely wounded that his leg had to be amputated. He overcame adversity to form a volleyball team which he led to three gold medals and one silver medal at the Paralympic Games.

1973: During the Yom Kippur war, Colonel Giora "Hawkeye" Epstein went on a two day spree in which he downed 17 enemy aircraft.

1973: The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob) a French-Italian comedy film directed by Gérard Oury was released today in France and Italy.

1974: After two years of negotiations over the proposed Jackson-Vanick Amendment, Secretary Henry Kissinger and Senator Henry Jackson exchanged a series of letters that would pave the way for Jews to leave the Soviet Union in large numbers with relatively little impediment.

1974: “Airport 1975” a sequel to the 1970 disaster movie featuring Norman Fell, Jerry Stiller, Sid Caesar, and Larry Storch was released today.

1976: Refusniks who had been detained after staging a sit-in demonstration in the Supreme Soviet “were taken into the woods and released” this evening.

1981: Publication of “How Clifford Odets Spent His last Desperate Days” by Margaret Brenman-Gibson


1981: ABC broadcast the first episode of season 4 of Taxi created by James L. Brooks and Ed Weinberger and co-starring Judd Hirsch and Andy Kaufman.

1982(1st of Cheshvan, 5743): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

1982(1st of Cheshvan, 5743): French political leader and former Premier, Pierre Mendès France passed away.  Political accomplishments aside, Mendes France may be best remembered for his choice of beverages.  Convinced that the French drank too much wine, Mendes France made a point of drinking milk in public.  When he first appeared on the American news program Meet the Press, a class of milk was prominently placed next to the French leader much to the delight of the interviewers.


1984(22nd of Tishrei, 5745): Shemini Atzeret

1985(3rd of Cheshvan, 5746): Sixty-two year old Maurice Cerier, United Jewish Appeal’s assistant vice president for major gifts, died of a brain tumor” today.


1986(15th of Tishrei): Sukkoth

1987(25th of Tishrei, 5748): Eighty-seven year old Philip Levine, the renowned pathologist who is the namesake of the “Philip Levine Award” passed away today.(As reported by Peter Flint)


1987:“In Jerusalem of the 1800’s” published today which is excerpted below, Nitza Rosovsky, curator of the exhibits at the Harvard Semitic Museum and author of Jerusalem Walksprovides a virtual walking of Jerusalem highlighting the history of the city by referencing various architectural gems


1988: Israel's supreme court upheld the ban on Meir Kahane`s Kach Party as racist.

1988 ((7 Cheshvan 5749): Bar Mitzvah ofAharon Mordechai Rokeach the only child and heir of the current Rebbe of Belz, Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach. Born in Jerusalem, Israel, he was named after his father's uncle, Rabbi Aharon Rokeach, the fourth Belzer Rebbe, and his father's father, Rabbi Mordechai of Bilgorai.



1988: In Waterford, CT, premiere of “Italian American Reconciliation” co-starring Helen Hanft.



1988: ABC broadcast the first episode of “Roseanne,” starring Roseanne Barr.

1990: "O you beloved Spain, ‘mother’ we call you, and throughout our lives we will not forget your sweet language. Even though you have expelled us as a stepmother from your womb, we have not stopped loving you as our holy ground, where our ancestors are buried and where the ashes of thousands of tormented and burned still lie..." Haham Solomon Gaon quoted at the ceremony of the Prince of Asturias Concord Award, Oviedo, Spain.

1990: “Once on This Island” “a one-act musical with a book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens” opened on Broadway today at the Booth Theatre.

1992(21st of Tishrei, 5753): Hoshana Raba

1992: Seventy-six year old Abraham Manie “Abe” Adelstein the son of Jews from Latvia who became the Chief Medical Statistician of the UK passed away today.


1992(21s of Tishrei, 5753):Yoram Ben-Porath, the president of Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a leading Israeli economist, died today in an automobile accident. He was 55 years old. Also killed in the accident near the town of Eilat were his wife, Yael Cohen Ben-Porath, 42, a lecturer in the university's philosophy department, and their 5-year-old son, Yahali. Mr. Ben-Porath was named president of Hebrew University, Israel's largest and oldest, in 1990. He had previously served as its rector. He received his doctorate from Harvard and was known for his research on surveys and random sampling. During the 1980's he was active in the Israeli political movement Peace Now, which favors conciliation with the Arabs.

1994: “Shrunken Heads” a horror film directed by Richard Elfman with music by Danny Elfman was released in the United States today.

1996: “Swingers” a comedy-drama directed and filmed Doug Liman was released today in the United States.

1998:The New York Times book section included a review of The Microsoft File: The Secret Case Against Bill Gatesby Jewish author Wendy Goldman Rohm.

1999(8thof Cheshvan, 5760): Eighty-five year old San Francisco children’s rights advocate Jean Jacobs, the widow of Tevis Jacobs and an active member of Congregation Emanu-El passed away today.

2000(19thof Tishrei, 5761): Fifth Day of Sukkoth

2000(19thof Tishrei, 5761): Seventy-four year old Julie London, the actress and jazz singer with the unique silky voice passed away today.



2001: After premiering at the Seattle International Film Festival, “Ghost World,” with a script by Daniel Clowes who had a Jewish mother and Terry Zwigoff, the son of dairy farmers who also served as director was released today in Germany.

2001: U.S. premiere of “The Grey Zone,” a film based on Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account written by Dr. Miklós Nyiszli co-starring Harvey Keitel and produced by Avi Lerner.

2002(12thof Cheshvan, 5763): Eighty-eight year old producer Frank Rosenbeg passed away today. (As reported by Elaine Woo)


2002:  Congregation Har Sinai, a congregation that traces its origins to pre-Civil War Baltimore began the dedication of its new facility in Owings Mills, MD

2003(22ndof Tishrei, 5764): Shemini Atzeret

2003: A revised version of “Mourning Becomes Electra  “an opera in 3 acts by composer Marvin David Levy” “premiered at the Seattle Opera today.

2004: The New York Times book section features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jews including Chain of Command: The Road From 9/11 to Abu Ghraib by Seymour M. Hersh and The Five Books of Moses: A Translation With Commentary by Robert Alter  

2004: The Jewish Women's Archive joined with National Women's Philanthropy of the United Jewish Communities for an historic celebration of 350 years of American Jewish community. The evening showcased Jewish women, of the past and the present, whose boldness, vision, and hard work have shaped the American and the American Jewish life. Part of the International Lion of Judah conference in Washington, D.C., the event was attended by more than 1,200 women from across the United States. An extraordinary group of contemporary women of achievement were brought together for this evening to reflect upon their own work and careers within the historical context of 350 years of Jewish women creating community in North America. Honorees included Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Ruth Bader Ginsburg; Representative Shelley Berkley; communal leaders Shoshana Cardin, Amy Friedkin, Carole Solomon, and Linda Rae Sher; artist Judy Chicago; actress Tovah Feldshuh; composers Debbie Friedman and Elizabeth Swados; cookbook author Joan Nathan; authors and activists Blu Greenberg, Ruth Gruber, and Letty Cottin Pogrebin; Rabbi Sally J. Priesand; and Barnard College President Judith Shapiro.

2005:Matt Bloom unsuccessfully challenged Satoshi Kojima for the AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship.

2005: The Icon Festival, a celebration of science fiction and the imagination is held yearly during the Hol Hamoed period of Sukkoth began today at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque.

2006: The exhibition "Israel - Art and Life 1906-2006," curated by Amnon Barzel, opens at the Palazzo Reale in Milan. Much like the exhibition "The New Hebrews," curated by Dorit Levita around a year ago in Berlin, this exhibition also attempts to survey 100 years of Israeli art. The exhibition features the works of 35 artists from the Bezalel era through the young generation of contemporary artists.

2006: French Jewish director’s O Jerusalem a film version of the history written thirty years ago by Collins and Lapierre premiered in Paris, France.

2006: Edah HaChareidis organized this evening’s demonstration in Jerusalem that was a protest against the upcoming “Gay Pride” parade.

2006: The Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz was not released to the public today as previously announced.

2007: The Center for Jewish History presents a screening of the documentary On My Way to Fathers Land a 1995 Hebrew Language film with English subtitles directed by Aner Preminger “The filmmaker brings his father back to his native Vienna as part of a quest to understand his history as an Austrian, a Jew, a communist, and a Zionist. Following the screening, Matti Bunzl, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois leads a discussion about the movie.

2007(6th of Cheshvan, 5768): Sixty-nine year old British writer and satirist Alan Coren whose children Giles, born in 1969 and Victoria born in 1973 followed in his professional footsteps, passed away today.


2007: Limmud FSU, the largest Jewish studies and cultural event ever to take place in Russia opened in Moscow.

2008: On the fifth day of the 24th Haifa International Film festival, screenings of a variety of films including “A Jumpin Night in the Garden of Eden,” a 1980’s film that was the first cinematic effort to document the American Kletzmer revival.

2009 (30 Tishrei, 5770): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan I

2009:This afternoon the Open Door Reading Series at the Writer's Center in Bethesda, MD presents a reading by Gail Collins from "Words that Burn Within Me: Faith, Values, Survival," a book of poetry and prose by the late Hilda Stern Cohen. Werner Cohen, Hilda Cohen's widower, will offer a preface to the event relating his discovery of his wife's journal after her death.



2009: The Los Angeles Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Chronic City” by Jonathan Lethem and an hitherto unpublished short story by Kurt Vonnegut appearing in his latest work "Look at the Birdie"



2009: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Worse Than War: Genocide, Eliminationism, and the Ongoing Assault on Humanity” by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen and “Manhood For Amateurs” by Michael Chabon and the recently released paperback edition of “Writing In The Dark” a collection essays by David Grossman, the Israeli novelist and peace advocate who defends the necessity of literature in a violent world.



2009: The Washington Post features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Enemies of the People:My Family's Journey to America” by Kati Marton

2009: In Washington D.C., opening night of Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival

2009: In an opinion piece published today in The Times and Democrat newspaper, Bamberg County GOP Chairman Edwin Merwin and Orangeburg County Chairman James Ulmer defended the fiscal policies of U.S. Senator Jim DeMint, by saying he was "like Jews who are wealthy got that way not by watching dollars, but instead by taking care of the pennies and the dollars taking care of themselves."

2010: In an interview published today, author Stacy Schiff talked about growing up in Adams, Massachusetts.


2010: Michal Govrin, author of Hold on to the Sun is scheduled to appear at the Library of Congress as part of the Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival in Washington, DC. “

2010: In an article entitled “Confessions of An Agent” published in Sports Illustrated, Josh Luchs “a dyslexic Jewish kid” tells how he used $2,500 of his bar mitzvah money to pay a college player in violation of NCAA rules in hopes that he would become a client of Luchs.  In the article Luchs gives detailed accounts of the various players he would illegally pay during his twenty year career.

2010: General Staff Forum members gathered this morning at the Rabin Center to mark 15 years since the assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin

2010: The New York Times featured a review of Claude Levi-Strauss: The Poet in His Laboratory by Patrick Wilcken

2010: A memorial service honoring the late William Coblentz one San Francisco’s most ardent champions of major civic projects and one of its most influential attorneys is scheduled to be held at the Herbst Theatre.

2010: A website providing information on over 20,000 works of art stolen by the Nazis from their Jewish owners during the 1930s and 1940s was launched today. Much of the artwork featured on the website which includes paintings by the likes of Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall and Gustav Klimt has never been restored to the original owners

2011(20th of Tishrei, 5772): Chol Hamoed Sukkoth

2011(20th of Tishrei, 5772): Eight-nine year old Ruby Cohn, the academic who was the leading authority on Samuel Beckett, passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)


2011(20th of Tishrei, 5772): Norman Corwin, a producer and dramatist from the golden age of radio passed away today at the age of 101. (As reported by William Grimes)


2011: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to co-sponsor a screening of “The People v Leo Rank,” a film that “is both a…murder mystery and an insightful look at racial, religious, regional and class prejudices in the early years of the 20th century.”

2011: The Ballad of Shoe Dependency: Nan Goldin Shoots a New Ad Campaign for Jimmy Choo published today


2011: Rabbi Ita Paskind, the Assistant Rabbi of Olam Tikvah in Fairfax, Virginia, is scheduled to deliver the first in a series of lectures on “Aggadah's Influence in Development of Law in the Torah.”



2011: Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called the release of over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the return of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit today a strategic turning point in Hamas’s struggle against Israel.



2012: The 96th Hadassah Convention is scheduled to come to an end in Jerusalem.



2012: Hayehudim, considered one of the most successful Rock bands in Israel, is scheduled to perform at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill



2012: Pianist Jeanne Golan is scheduled to perform the piano sonatas of Viktor Ullman under the sponsorship of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center



2012: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to present a screening of “Everything is illuminated.”



2012: President Shimon Peres said today that the people of Iran should be encouraged to overthrow their government.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/peres-encourages-iranian-people-to-revolt/





2012: A new centrist “super party,” bringing together former prime minister Ehud Olmert, former Kadima chair Tzipi Livni and popular political newcomer Yair Lapid, “is not going to happen,” Lapid said today.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/olmert-livni-lapid-centrist-party-not-going-to-happen-says-lapid/



2013: A screening of “Ghosts of the Third Reich” which “documents the stories of the descendants of the Nazis who confront their family’s past and communicate their most profound feelings of guilt by inheritance” is scheduled to take place today at the Library of Congress.



2013: In the UK, The Wiener Library is scheduled to present “Hitler’s Helpers: The Female Administrators of the Holocaust”

2013: Today Rachel Lichtenstein reviewed No Place Like Home, “Judah Passow’s affectionate yet unsentimental collection of photographs documenting the diversity of Jewish life in Britain today.”

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/18/no-place-home-judah-passow-review

http://www.judahpassow.com/pm/pages/user.public.details.php?uid=5





2013: Folk/Reggae/songwriting Rabbi Jack Gabriel is scheduled to lead a special Kabbalat Shabbat service at Kol Ami in Arlington, VA.



2013: “German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to slow down settlement construction today.The Wall Street Journal quoted Merkel as saying following a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, "We call on Israel to opt for a restrained approach in its settlement policy. I have said this repeatedly in talks with Prime Minister Netanyahu, because we must not put at risk the talks." (As reported by JP staff)

2013: Scattered showers fell in northern Israel this morning, eventually making their way to Tel Aviv in the early afternoon. Temperatures fell considerably on Friday and the rain was accompanied by strong winds in some areas of the country.

2013(14thof Cheshvan, 5774): Ninety-one year old airline victims advocate Hans Ephraimson-Abt passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)


2013(14thof Cheshvan, 5774): Seventy-year old Norman Geras, Professor Emeritus of Politics at the University of Manchester and husband of Jerusalem born children’s author Adèle Geras passed away today.




2014(24thof Tishrei, 5775): On Shabbat the cycle is scheduled to begin again with “Bereshit.”

2014: Ninety-eight year old Chinese translator Stanley Shapiro passed away.


2014: Four-time Tony nominee Tovah Feldshuh is scheduled to recreate her award-winning performance as Golda Meir in “Golda’s Balcony” at the Victoria Theatre.

2014: “Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman called Jews visiting the Temple Mount a "herd of cattle” today.” (As reported by Tova Dvorin)

2014: “Dozens of Israeli trekkers stranded by avalanches and snowstorms which killed at least 29 people — including three Israelis — in the Himalayas this week will be airlifted from the mountainous region of Annapurna today.


2014: “A senior Palestinian official called today for Washington to develop a strategy to simultaneously combat radical Islamism while working to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian dispute – following US secretary of state's remarks on the link between the two ongoing conflicts.”


2014: Louis Black is scheduled to appear the Seneca Allegany Casino in Salamanca, NY.

2015: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently released paperback editions of The Impossible Exile: Stefan Zweig at the End of the World by George Prochnick and PRO: Reclaiming Abortion Rights by Katha Pollit

2015: “Valley,” the first full length feature directed by French born Israeli Sophie Artus, is scheduled to be shown as the closing film at the 3rd Chelsea Film Festival.

2015: The Jewish Museum of London is scheduled to host a “Walking Tour of the Old Jewish East End including a visit to Sandys Row Synagogue.

2015: The Nebraska Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to host its annual meeting “The Boomer Years” this afternoon.

2015: The Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to host Leon Taranto speaking on the “History and Genealogy of the Jews of Rhodes and their Diaspora.”

2015:Still Engines, a conference scheduled to be held at Mishkenot Sha’ananim today, will address the subject of freedom of speech and public discourse

2015: “Thousands of people demonstrated in Rome, Paris and Madrid today in solidarity with Israel, as the Jewish state experiences weeks of escalating violence and daily terror attacks” including “the Chairman of the Italian Parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee” who “said that it is a moral duty to stand by Israel

2015: The ever-popular Maccabeates are scheduled to return to the JCCNV today for two performances.

2016(16thof Tishrei, 5777): Second Day of Sukkoth

2016: “The CIC (Chinese in Iowa City) is scheduled to join members of the University of Iowa Hillel chapter to discuss autumn traditions.”

2016: The Israel Museum is scheduled to host its annual kite festival including “kite-making workshops and kite flying with the help of kite experts.”

2016: Today, “it was announced that Beanie Feldstein would playing Minnie in the 2017 Broadway production alongside Bette Midler.>

2016: A revival of “Fiddler on the Roof” “featuring new movement and dance routines by Israeli choreographer Hofesh Schecter is scheduled to be performed at the Broadway Theatre.

2017: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host CNN’s Ana Navarro discussing “the new age of alternative facts”

2017: “Likud MK Sharren Haskel, Yesh Atid MK Haim Jelin, Zionist Union MKs Yossi Yonah and Nachman Shai, and Knesset Secretary Yardena Meller-Horowitz complained about mistreatment at the Inter-Parliament Union assembly in Saint Petersburg, Russia, including being heckled while trying to speak at the event today.”

2017: In Atlanta, as part of its Historic Jewish Atlanta Tour seies, the Breman Museum is scheduled to host a visit to “historic Oakland Cemetery” where attendees will “explore the history, burial customs, and symbolism found throughout the Jewish Grounds of this powerful city landmark.”

2017: At the Bard Graduate Center, Andrea M Berlin is scheduled to present “Reading, Writing and Jewish Daily Life through Graffiti” which is part of the Leon Levy Foundation Lectures.

2017: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to host a lecture by Wojciech Tworek, a postdoctoral fellow at the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto on “Mystic, Teacher, Troublemaker: Shimon Engel and the Challenges of Hasidic Yeshiva Education in Interwar Poland.”

2017: Yeshiva University Museum, Center for Jewish History and the American Sephardi Federation are scheduled to host Paula Fredriksen on “A Tale of Two Cities: Rome and Jerusalem” in which she will explore Rome’s role in building as well as destroying the Jewish capital.”

2018: In Ann Arbor, Michigan,Allison Schachter of Vanderbilt University is scheduled to give a lecture titled, “Madame Bovary in the Jewish Provinces: Fradel Shtok’s Modernist Yiddish Prose” during which she  will discuss Fradel Shtok, a celebrated poet credited with writing the first sonnet in Yiddish and focus on her life after she published a collection of her lesser-known prose writings in 1919, which were dismissed by critics at the time as too similar to Gustave Flaubert, a French novelist and leader in literary realism, and too dissimilar compared to prominent Yiddish author and playwright Sholem Aleichem.

2018: In Des Moines, IA, The Iowa Jewish Senior Life Center is scheduled to host its Fall Fundraiser completing with a “silent auction, wine tasting and appetizers.”

2018: The American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to host a “staged reading feat” in which Alysia Reiner and David Basche will reading the wartime letters from newlyweds Lenny and Diana Miller found in We Are Going to be Lucky.

2018: At Coe College in Cedar Rapids, IA, “Steve Feller, the B.D. Silliman Professor of Physics, is scheduled to lead the third of the Thursday Forums where attendees will discuss the novels of Leon Uris.

2018: In Jerusalem, Mercaz Hatarbuyot is scheduled to host an evening of classical and Klezmer Music featuring concert pianist Eliah Zabaly and clarinetist Ira Goyfeld.

2019: “GALLIMasters with Bosmat Nossan,” “an Israeli independent choreographer…and former dance with the Bat Sheva Dance Company and the Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Polak Dance Company” is scheduled to begin this morning at 10:00 am.

2019: “Where’s My Roy Cohn?” “a documentary about the Jewish lawyer who served as Senator Joseph McCarthy’s chief counsel and Donald Trump’s personal attorney,” is scheduled to be released at theatres throughout the United States.

2019(19th of Tishrei, 5780): Fifth Day of Sukkoth; for more see

http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/






This Day, October 19, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin

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OCTOBER 19


1187:  Pope Urban III passed away. Urban was a supporter of the Crusades, the cause of so much Jewish misery. A large part of his papacy was spent in struggle with Frederick I, the Emperor who issued “The Confirmation of Rights of the Jews of Regensburg” that stated, “We must make provision for them tom maintain their customs and secure peace for their persons and property.” 

1216: King John of England died at Newark-on-Trent and is succeeded by his nine-year-old son Henry.Richard's brother John's lack of judgment and popularity meant that he was always short of money and support. While his barons might grumble at John's incompetence and resist his ever-increasing demands for money, the Jews had no such leverage.  When the Baron’s forced him to sign the Magna Carta they included a clause that restricted claims of Jews against debtors who died owing them money. John pressed his Jews to provide a royal dowry for his daughter, Joan, followed too quickly by the massive so-called Bristol Tallage, which depleted the wealthiest Jews upon which it largely fell.  Henry was only a nine year old child.  As Henry III will also clash with the Barons and will look to the Jews as a source of revenue to prop up his throne.

1216: King Henry III who gave “Peter de Rivel gives him the office of Treasurer and Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer, the king's ports and coast, and also "the custody of the King's Judaism in Ireland" began his reign today.

1298:  Two hundred Jews were massacred in Germany.  This was part of a period half century of violence aimed against the Jews of Germany.  Much of the popular sentiment was aroused by claims that Jews were using Christian blood to make matzoth.  The clerics were working to enforce laws against any kind of intercourse between Christians and Jews.  And the royalty was trying to figure out ways to strip the Jews of their wealth.  It was this kind of violence that would cause Asher ben Yechiel (see above) to flee Germany in 1303.

1329 (9 Cheshvan 5090): Asher ben Yechiel passed away. Born in 1250 this great Talmudic commentator was known as Rabbenu Asher or the "Rosh". He fought against the over-philosophizing of his day. Asher was a unique case.  He was Ashkenazi and had begun his work among the Jews of France of Germany.  When his life was threatened in Germany he fled to Spain where he became rabbi of the Sephardic Jews of Toledo.   His rabbinical academy attracted students from Europe and Russia. His works included "Diskei Rosh", discussions, over 1000 Responsa, a commentary of the MishnayotZerayim and Teharot, and notes on some Talmudic Tractates. He encouraged his pupil, Isaac ben Yoseph, to write Yesod Olam "Foundation of the World," a scientific work on astronomy and the calendar. At the time of his death he was preparing a codification of commentaries that for the first time included the views of the German and Spanish rabbinical authorities.  His son, Jacob ben Asher, would finish his father’s task by writing a code called Turim.

1433: In Figline Valdarno, Republic of Florence, Diotifeci d'Agnolo , “a physician under the patronage of Cosimo de' Medici” and his wife gave birth to Marsilio Ficino, the Roman Catholic priest and Christian Kabbalist..

1466: In Poland, the Thirteen Years War comes to an end with Polish forces victorious over the Teutonic Knights.  This victory came during that period of time when Poland was on its way to becoming home to the largest Jewish population in Europe.

1469:  Ferdinand II of Aragon wedded Isabella of Castile, a marriage that paved the way to the unification of Aragon and Castile into a single country, Spain. The marriage also paved the way to Spanish Inquisition, The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, and the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus.  In other words, these two Hispanic lovebirds closed out what had been one of the most vibrant Jewish communities in history and opened the door to what would become the most vibrant Jewish community in the history of the Diaspora.

1518: “Shealtiel a Sephardic Jew who had served as Kahya for twenty years was ousted from office by the community leaders, after many complaints of bribery and arbitrary taxes were lodged against him by Jews. The community banned him and his sons from holding the position of kahya or performing any other function involving contact with the Ottoman authorities.” (As described by the Jewish Virtual Library)

1686(2nd of Tishrei, 5446): Jacob Abendana passed away today after which he was buried in the Velho Sephardic Cemtetery.

1733: The will of Barbados resident Abraham Burssy was dated today.

1735(2nd of Cheshvan, 5496): Moses Kalman, grandfather of A.M. Rothschild passed away.

1739: In Portugal, Antonio Jose da Silva, who was a Converso born in Brazil to Converso parents was found guilty of heresy. He was a well-known dramatist and his works were popularly referred to as those of “The Jew.” Da Silva whose parents had also been persecuted by the inquisition was arrested numerous times and tortured. Although the King himself was inclined toward leniency, he was burned. At the same time, one of his plays was playing in a popular theater in Lisbon.  Despite the King’s inclination towards leniency Da Silva was garroted and burnt at a Lisbon auto-da-fe. His wife, who witnessed his death, did not long survive him.  At the time of his death, one of da Silva’s plays was being performed in a popular Lisbon theatre.  Da Silva's tragic story has inspired several modern writers, including the Portuguese Camilo Castelo Branco (author of the novel O Judeu), who was himself of Converso origin.

1753(21stof Tishrei, 5514): Hoshana Raba

1767: Birthdate of Salomon Heine, the Hamburg born banker who was the father of Amalie Friedlander and the uncle of Heinrich Heine.

1773: In New York City, Jonas Phillips, the son of Aaron Phillips and his wife Rebecca Mendz Machado gave birth to the their second child and first son, Naphtali Phillips who married Esther Siexas one year after the death of his first wife Rachel and became the publisher of the National Advocate.

1781: Emperor Joseph II issues the Toleration Decree in which the Jews of Austria were accorded civil and political equality.

1781: The British fleet having been defeated by the French fleet thanks in no small part to the anti-Semitic plundering of St. Eustatius by Admiral Rodney, Cornwallis’s army which lacked supplies, provisions or a route of escape, marched out of Yorktown and surrendered to George Washington.

1781: The articles of capitulation were signed today marking the end of the siege of Yorktown and for all intents and purposes the end of the American Revolution.

1783(23rdof Tishrei, 5544): Simchat Torah is celebrated for the first time since the signing of the Treaty of Paris which marked the end of the American Revolution

1790: Feiwel Duschenes and Brache Duschenes gave birth to Joachim Duschenes, the husband of Sara Duschenes.

1793: Birthdate of German native Julia Isaak, the wife of Samson Nathan Eisendrath with whom she had eleven children.

1798: In Rhode Island, Esther Mordecai and Philip Moses Russell gave birth to Rachel Russell, the wife of David de Oliveria Tobias and the mother of Orlando, Esther, Josephine, Thaddeus and Rachel H. Tobias.

1803:  In Great Britain, an official fast for success in the war against France begins.

1810: The Grand Duke of Frankfurt, a French official, resisted granting full equality to the Jews.  A.M. Rothschild was sure that the Grand Duke was just holding out for a larger bribe.

1812:Napoleon begins his retreat from Moscow.  This marks the beginning of the end for the emancipation of the Jews of Europe that had followed in the wake of France’s military victories. The defeat at Moscow would hasten the return of the reactionaries.  Figuratively, if not literally, ghetto doors that had been thrown open would be closed again.

1821(23rdof Tishrei, 5582): Simchat Torah is celebrated for the first time since Mexico and the nations of Central America threw off the yoke of Spanish rule.

1826: Birthdate German Jewish philosopher Manuel Joel who followed Abraham Geiger as the rabbi in Breslau.

1829(22ndof Tishrei, 5590): Shmini Atzeret

1833: In “Canterbury, Kent” Hannah Barnard and Nathan Jacobs gave birth to Asher Jacobs.

1842: Birthdate of Adolph Meyer, the native of Natchez, Mississippi and student at the University of Virginia who left school to fight in the Confederate Army and who later represented Louisiana’s First Congressional District for 18 years.

1846(29thof Tishrei, 5607): Sixty-nine year old Jacob Hirsch Kann, the son Miriam and Isaac Jacob Kann and the husband of Jetta Kann with whom he had 13 children passed away today.

1847: After struggling for two years, Temple Emanu-El purchased “a church on Chrystie Street between Hester Streets for $12,000 which it would alter so that it was ready to be used as a Jewish house of worship by Pesach, 1848.

1851(23rdof Tishrei, 5612): As the turmoil that would lead to the coup that would end the Second Republic gripped France, Jews observed Simchat Torah

1854: In Spitalfields, Jane Silver and Henry Woolf gave birth Louis Woolf.

1854:Ernestine Rose, a leading early American advocate for women's rights, presided over the Fifth National Woman's Rights Convention in Philadelphia which ended today. (As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archive)

 http://jwa.org/thisweek/oct/19/1854/ernestine-rose

1859: In Mulhouse, Alsace, Second French Empire,Raphaël Dreyfus was a prosperous, self-made, Jewish textile manufacturer and his wife Jeannette Dreyfus (née Libmann) gave birth to the youngest of their nine children, Alfred Dreyfus, the French army officer whose trumped up treason trial would split French society and become a prime catalyst for the creation of the Zionist movement under Herzl. 

1859: In Liverpool, Professor Prag and his wife gave birth to Joseph Prag, the graduate of Queen’s College who was a member of the Anglo-Jewish Association and the Conjoint Committee for Foreign Affairs as well as a Warden of the North-West London Synagogue.

1859: Birthdate of Cincinnati native and University of Cincinnati trained attorney Alfred Morton Cohen, who served as a state legislator and city councilman.

1860(3rdof Cheshvan, 5621): Rebbe Eliezer Horowitz of Dzhikov, the son of Rebbe Naftali Tzvi passed away today.

1861: One day after he had passed away, 40 year old Lazarus Leopard was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”

1862: Philadelphian, Abraham Kuhn completed his service with Company B of the 27thRegiment.

1863(23rd of Tishrei, 5764): Simchat Torah

1863: During the American Civil War, on the same day marking the end of the Jewish “holiday season” General U.S. Grant replaces William Rosecrans as Commander of the Army of with General George Thomas. Thomas will appoint Major Alfred Mordecai Junior, Senior and Supervising Ordinance Officer of the Army of the Cumberland. Young Mordecai was a West Point Graduate and the son of one of the Army’s highest ranking Jewish officers in the pre-Civil War U.S. Army.

1864(19th of Tishrei, 5625): Chol Hamoed Sukkoth

1864: During the American Civil War, Union forces under the command General Sheridan decisively and dramatically defeated the Confederates at the Battle of Cedar Creek. This victory marked the end of the Valley Campaigns of 1864.  From this time on no Confederate Army could threaten Washington with invasion through the Shenandoah Valley and the rich valley farms would no longer be a source of supply for the armies of Robert E. Lee. The defeated Confederate was commanded by a general with a name straight out of Bereshit – Jubal Early. Major Lyon Levy Emanuel, a member of a prominent Jewish family from Philadelphia was among those fighting with Union in the Shenandoah Valley

1864: "Our Paris Correspondence" published today reported that "Baron Erlanger and his fair bride, Miss Slidell, were the prime pets of the brilliant feudal throng, and the joy at Baden-Baden knew no bounds…nothing remains of all the Summer's gay humbug but Erlanger’s courtship with Miss Slidell. The Erlangers are German Jews, originally from Marburg, a University town in the Electorate of Hessen, but the academic glories of that town made but little intellectual impression upon the Erlanger stock, who took themselves to Frankfort, where they attained to wealth by stock-jobbing, and to a baronetcy by the grace of the King of Portugal, to the great distress of Rothschild-- he being no longer the only Jew Baron…”  Erlanger was a member of family of German-Jewish bankers who was head of the leading banking house in France.  Miss Slidell was the daughter of John Slidell of Louisiana, a Confederate diplomat living in France who tried unsuccessfully to get the French to recognize the South’s independence during the Civil War.  Erlanger was not the first Jew to marry into Slidell’s family.  August Belmont was his brother-in-law.  The Rothschild’s claim to the title Baron stemmed from the Austrian house of the famous banking family.

1876: Argentina completed legal reforms that would permit the establishment and consolidation of Jewish agricultural settlements.

1876: Judith Aria, the eldest child of Alexander Aria and the former Flaimngo Abigail was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1876: Rosalie and Samuel Peck gave birth to Eleanor Peck, who became Eleanor Kuh when she married Millard F. Kuh with whom she had one son, Howard Michael Kuh.

1877: The report of a correspondent who is traveling with the Russian Army during the Czar’s war with the Ottoman Empire reported that there are more Jews at the Bulgarian town of Sistova now than on his last visit.  He described the Jews as “more bestial than before.”  Once he had reached the Czar’s headquarter encampment, the correspondent found himself eating food provided by “a firm of enterprising Israelites” that charges “Fifth Avenue Hotel prices.”

1878(22nd of Tishrei, 5639): Shemini Atzeret

1878: “In Lipine, Silesia,” Whilhelm and Johanna Lebowitsch Sonderling gave birth to Jacob Sonderling who in 1904 received a Ph.D. from the University of Tiibgingen, “was ordained by Dr. Baruch Jacob” and “married Emma Kleman” with whom he had three sons – Egrmont, Fred and Paul – after which “during the First World War he served as a Germany Army Chaplain on the staff of Field Marshall Paul von Hindenburg and then came to the United States where he “founded the Fairfax Temple in Los Angeles.”

https://jewish-history-online.net/source/jgo:source-83

https://www.nytimes.com/1964/10/01/archives/rabbi-sonderling-zionist-aided-herzl.html

1879: In Bucharest, the Chamber of Deputies is scheduled to vote on a measure designed to resolve the issue of Jewish emancipation.  Under the proposal, the Jews will have to apply individually for naturalization except for those who have served in the army.  Jewish veterans will be granted full citizenship en bloc. 

1880: It was reported today that in the past year St. Luke’s Hospital treated 1,114 patients in the last year, four of whom were Jewish.

1880: An article published today described the bustling commercial activity in Smyrna, a Turkish city where trade “is chiefly in the hands of the Greeks and the Jews.”  Smyrna, according to the article, was the scene of “one of the most striking episodes in the history” of the Jews – the rise to prominence of Shabbetai Zvi.

1881: Birthdate of Harold Hirsch the University of Georgia football player who studied law at Columbia and went to serve as the General Counsel for The Coca-Cola Company.  According to some, Hirsch played a role in designing Coke’s uniquely shaped bottle.

1881: In Charleston, Rabbi David Levy officiated at the marriage of Albert De Leon of Baltimore, MD and Amanda Moise, the “eldest daughter of B.F. Moise.”

1882: The Young Men’s Hebrew Association is sponsoring tonight’s concert at Chickering Hall in New York.

1882: Israel Ettler, is scheduled to return to court today where he will face charges involving his role in the recent “riot” among the immigrants on Ward’s Island.

1882(6thof Cheshvan, 5643): Seventy-four year old Celia Marks, the daughter of Moshe and Hannah Wolfe and the wife of David Woolf Marks passed away today.

1883: In New York City, “Jacob Meyer and Hannah Horn” gave birth to Julia Horn the college educated public school teacher who after marrying Gabriel Max Hamburger became Julia Horn Hamburger, the champion of numerous social causes and the mother of Maxsina and Bernard Hamburger. (As reported by Daniel Bender)



1859: Birthdate of Cincinnati native and University of Cincinnati trained attorney Alfred Morton Cohen, who served as a state legislator and city councilman.







1883: Three days after she had passed away, Henrietta (Montefiore) Samuel, the daughter of “Horatio Joseph Montefiore and the former Sarah Daniel Mocatta” and the wife of Horatio Simon Samuel was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.

1883: It was reported today that Mrs. Martin Scherbner has filed for a divorce in New Jersey Chancery Court because her husband deceived her before they were married.  Before their wedding he assured his Catholic bride that he was not Jewish, but Catholic like her.  After the wedding, he confessed that he was Jewish.

1883:Sir Moses Montefiore has given a gift of 99 English pounds to the London Sheriffs' charitable fund. That sum represented 1 pound for each year of the giver's age. Nearly 50 years ago the aging philanthropist had held the office of Sheriff for London and Middlesex.

1884: It was reported today that 40 year old Benjamin Levy “is lying at his home…dangerously near death.”  According to Levy and those who witnessed the event, Levy was beaten by a policeman in plain clothes.  The officer claimed he had been provoked by Levy and his companions “who were full of liquor” The officer’s claim is questionable since the beating took place on Yom Kippur.

1884: “Statistic of the Deaf and Dumb” published today reported that “in Berlin the greater proportion of deaf-mutes is found the Israelites where consanguineous marriages are frequent and the smaller number among the Catholics to whom such marriages are forbidden.” In evaluating these statistics it should be noted that the same article said that the causes of “deaf-mutism” are “damp atmosphere, uncleanliness, bad air in dwellings and” parents who are laundresses, excavators, miners and weavers.

1885(10th of Cheshvan, 5646): A mounted officer serving with the New York Park Police found the dead body of a man identified as 29 year old Albert Unger propped against a tree just south of Camp Grant.

1886: Birthdate of Reb Velvel (Yitzchok Zev) Soloveitchik, the native of Belarus and son Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik of Brisk

1886:”A Thrifty Prince” published today erroneously reported that the Princess of Battenburg, the wife of Prince Alexander of Hesse “was the daughter of a German Jew” named Haucke. (Actually her father was a German professional soldier).

1886: “Violated the Sunday Law” published today described the plight of Wolf Bloom, a 26 year old Jewish immigrant from Russia who had been arrested on charges brought Cornelious Leary for having violated the Sunday Law (aka Blue Laws) by having the employees of his cloak factory work on Sunday.  In his defense Bloom said that as a Jew he observed Saturday as “his holy day” which is why he worked on Sunday. (In a world where everything seems to be open 7/24/36, it is hard to remember that Sunday closing laws were the norm in many parts of the U.S. well into the second half of the 20th century)

1886: In New York City Angeline Seligman married Albert H. Gross

1887: Joseph Krauskopf began serving as the rabbi for Keneseth Israel, a Reform congregation in Philadelphia, PA.

1888: Moshav Gederah was attacked by Arabs. Gederah was one of the first agricultural settlements developed by Jewish pioneers.  It was established by a Russian-born Jew named Yehiel Michael Pines in 1884.  Money for purchasing the land came from the Moses Montefiore Testimonial Fund.  Grapes and grain were the principal products of the moshav.

1888: As charges of financial mismanagement swirl around the theatrical productions that the Jewish Order of the Harp of David have been sponsoring at Poole’s Theatre in New York, a threatened injunction brought by one group of claimants might cancel tonight’s performance of “King Solomon.”

1888: It was reported today that Mrs. John Jacob Astor has made a bequest of $25,000 to St. Luke’s Hospital in New York City.

1888: It was reported today that of the 1,793 patients treated at St. Luke’s, an Episcopal Hospital in New York, 19 of them were Jewish

1889: It was reported today that property valued at $27,500 owned by the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews and property valued at $4,000 owned by the Talmud Torah on East Broadway, were among those charitable and educational institutions granted an exemption from paying property taxes.

1890: It was reported today that during 1889, St. Luke’s Hospital a New York facility supported by Episcopalians that is non-denominational when it comes to offering services, served 1,997 patients of whom 38 were Jewish.

1890: The managers of theSociety of St. Luke’s hospital reported that of 1,384 patients treated this year four of them were Jewish.

1890: The Jews of Alpena, Michigan met today and adopted the articles of incorporation and by-laws creating Temple Beth El for which they agreed to purchase a building on White Street to use as a sanctuary.

1890: “A Big Hotel Planned Where Jews Will Be Welcomed” published today described the purchase of 10,000 acres owned by the Mutual Life Insurance Company in the Adirondacks around Lake Saranac Nathan Strauss on which he along with Isidor Straus, Max Nathan and Mayor Hugh J. Grant will spend one million dollars to develop with cottages and a luxury hotel that will be open to all who wish stay which would set it apart from many of the hostelries in the areas which do not accept Jewish guests.

1891: “An Indictment of Russia “ published today described the “golden age of the Jews in Russia” which “lasted from 1857 to 1877” was followed by a “return to oppression” in which “nobody in Russia has dreamed of paying a debt owed to a Jewish trader or artisan” in the past twelve months.

1892: In Lancashire, Thomas and Annie Mackereth give birth to Sir Gilbert Mackereth who in 1937 while serving as the British council “advised an increase in border patrol around Palestine due to the high numbers of Jewish immigrants fleeing Nazism in Hitler's Germany”  At the same he “observed that the Arab nationalists had hired known criminals in Syria who crossed the frontier to join bandit groups in Palestine where they blew up passenger trains, menaced and murdered both soldiers and civilians alike, and indiscriminately robbed Arabs, Christians and Jews.” (As reported by Leslie Stein)

1892: In New York City, William Israel Walter, the son of Henriette and Isaac David Walter, and his wife Florence Walter gave birth to Marjorie Walter who became Marjorie Goodhart when she married Howard Lehman Goodhart.

1894(19thof Tishrei, 5655): Fifth day of Sukkoth

1894(19thof Tishrei, 5655): Forty-five year old James Darmesteter who “published a thesis on the mythology of the Avesta, in which he advocated that the Persian religion of Zoroastrianism had been influenced by Judaism (and not backwards as many scholars say) passed away today

1894: After visiting his son Lester, Abraham Keyser, a retired grocer left to go home and was never seen alive again.

1894(19thof Tishrei, 5655): Forty-five year old James Darmesteter author of Les Prophetes D’Israel (The Prophets of Israel) passed away today.

1894: In New York, morning newspapers described the decision of the Trustees of the Hebrew Institute to not to let the Women’s Municipal League use its building for a meeting even though only one of the five, Nathan Straus had opposed the request.

1894: The two children of Mrs. Urchittel, who had been sent to the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society, were returned to her at a meeting of the Lexow Committee which is investigating corruption in the New York City Police Department.  The children had been taken from her based on the testimony of two men from the 12th Precinct who claimed she ran “a disorderly house” when in fact her only crime was her refusal to pay them blackmail.  State Senator Cantor had previously testified before the committee on her behalf.

1895: Birthdate of New York City native Walter Staunton Mack, Jr. the Harvard educated, WW I Naval officer and long-time President of Pepsi-Cola.



1896: The Vitascope Theatre opened in Buffalo, New York.  It was one of the first buildings built deliberately for the showing of motion pictures.  The theatre was owned by Mitchell Mark. In 1906 this Jewish entrepreneur teamed with his brother Moe, Adloph Zucker and Marcus Lowe to for the Automatic Vaudeville Company. 

1896:Gaston Michel Calmann-Lévy and Hélène Koenigswarter gave birth to Nicole Germaine Oulman

1896: Colonel J.E. Bloom, Chairman of the Wage Earners Patrotic League presided over a mass meeting at Cooper Union where delivered an address opposing William Jennings Bryan and his Free Silver Platform.

1896: Birthdate of NYU star basketball player Nat Holman who went on to a successful coaching career at City College of New York that included winning both the NCAA and NIT titles


1896: Morris Lincoln Bettman, the son Matilda and “Baerlein (Bernhard) Betterman and Alma Bettman gave birth to Arthur Bettman, the brother of Louis Rauh Pappenheimer.

1897(23rdof Tishrei, 5658): Simchat Torah is observed for the first time during the Presidency of William McKinley

1897(23rdof Tishrei, 5658): In London, the Hambro Synagogue is scheduled to hold services at Bonn’s Hall.

1897: “The East London Jewish Communal League winter session” opened this evening “with a social gathering at the Stepney Jewish Schools.”

1898:The Zionist Delegation aboard the "Emperor Nicolai II" is on its way to Palestine.

1898: Forty-two year old Harold Frederic the journalist who visited Russia in 1891 to investigate the conditions of the Jews and who wrote The New Exodus: A Study of Israel In Russia in 1892 passed away today.


1900: In Baltimore, the organization overseeing The Frank Free Sabbath School led by principal Martha Sromberg met today.

1904: Birthdate of Hayyim Schirmann, the Russian born Jewish scholars who specialized in Hebrew Poetry of the Middle Ages and who  worked in Berlin until the rise of the Nazis when moved to Palestine and began teaching at Hebrew University.  He passed away in 1981.

1905: A two day Pogrom began at Kishinev.  This was the second Pogrom at Kishinev in two years.  The Kishinev Pogrom of 1903 is the more famous (or infamous) of the two.

1906: Birthdate of Polish born, American cinematographer Irving Glassberg

1907: After winning the first two games of the season, The Tennessee Volunteers coached by Izzy Levene lost to arch rival Georgia Tech in Atlanta.

1907: In Morristown, NJ, Adelaide “Addie” Wolf and “Otto Herman Kahn, a wealthy banker and patron of the arts gave birth to Roger Wolfe Kahn, jazz bandleader and composer, who like his father appeared on the cover Time magazine.


1908: “Irving Lehman” published today described the qualifications, career and family history of 33 year old Irving Lehman “who was nominated for Justice of the Supreme Court by the Tammany County Convention” and who will be the youngest person to serve on the bench if elected which seems to be highly likely.

1909: The Jewish Record Story Contest which offers three cash prizes to the Jewish women who write the best articles “on prominent modern Jews” as well as the possibility of being published in The Jewish Record came to an end today.

1912:  Italy took possession of Tripoli, Libya from the Ottoman Empire. “According to the first-century Jewish historian Josephus, Jews were first settled in Cyrene and other parts of present-day eastern Libya by the Egyptian ruler Ptolemy Lagos (323-282 B.C.E.) With their numbers likely bolstered by Berbers who had converted to Judaism, later supplemented by Jews fleeing the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition, and, from the seventeenth century, by Jews from Leghorn and other Italian cities, Jews lived continuously in Libya for well over two millennia, predating the Muslim conquest in 642 C.E. by centuries. In 1911, 350 years of Ottoman rule ended and the Italian colonial period began. At the time, Libya’s Jewish population numbered 20,000. The next quarter century was to prove a golden age for Libya’s Jews. By 1931, nearly 25,000 Jews lived in Libya.”  For more about the Jews of Libya see

1914: The Germans clash with the French, Belgian and BEF forces on the opening day of the First Battle of Ypres, one of the many futile attempts by both sides to try and outflank the other and bring the war to the quick close that had been promised with the slogans of “home by Christmas.

1915: Birthdate of major league pitcher Samuel Ralph "Subway Sam" Nahem

1915: Ethel Seligman, the daughter of Addie and “De Witt J. (David) Seligman) and Edgar Dinkelspiel, the son of Lazarus and Pauline Dinkelspiel gave birth to Edgar Ned Dinkelspiel

1916(22nd of Tishrei, 5677)” Shmini Atzeret

1916: Birthdate of New South Wales native Julius Cohen, the RAAF pilot and public servant who changed his name to Richard Kingsland to avoid being a victim of anti-Semitism.

1916: Tonight, “at a series of big rallies… which marked the start of the homestretch” of the Presidential campaign in New York, Oscar charged “that President Wilson and his advisers had insulted the Jews by appealing to them to sell their birthright as American citizens by voting for the President on the ground that he had appointed a number of Jews to responsible offices…”

1916: Birthdate of pianist Emil Gilels.  Born in Odessa, Gilels is variously described as a Ukrainian, and a great artist who made his career in the Soviet Union until his death in 1985.  But his name appears on the list of Jewish Pianist. This litany of origins points once again to the difficulty of answering the question, “Who is A Jew?”

1916: Dr. Judah Magnes, “who went abroad in July armed with credentials from the Secretary of State to investigate the methods of distribution of the vast sums of money raised in this country for the relief of Jewish War Sufferers” sailed from Europe today with the expectation that he will return to New York next week.

1917: Benny Leonard (the Ghetto Wizard) defeated Jack Britton in what would be the first of three bouts between the two.

1917: At Moscow, the mayor and members of the Council of Workmen and Soldiers intervened to stop anti-Jewish rioting.

1917: In Indianapolis, IN, Bella and Bernard Isaacs, the future “Superintendent of Hebrew Schools” in Detroit gave birth Irving Raphael Isaacs, WW II Army Air Corps veteran and the husband of Martha Lillian Horelick.


1917: In Lugansk, “several Jewish shops and houses were looted and burned before the militia could restore order.

1917: In Petrograd, “several Jews were injured” during “anti-Jewish rioting” which was triggered by “a shortage of supplies.”

1918: Sergeant Abraham Blaustein, who was serving with the 165th Regiment on the Western Front left Excamont today to attend the Army Candidate School at La Volbonne.

1918: In Lockhart, Texas, Edith Violet (née Schwarz) and Charles H. Strauss gave birth to Robert Straus the Democratic political leader whose career including serving as U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union under Republican President George H.W. Bush.

1918: In the Bronx, Samuel and Molly Eisen gave birth to their only child, Max. Max Eisen was one of the nation’s leading press agents who “from 1954 to 1997… was the press agent for more than 60 Broadway shows and dozens of Off Broadway productions.”

1919:The Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago White Sox, 5 games to 3 in the16th World Series. This series is known as the Black Sox Scandal since 7 White Sox players threw the series.  Supposedly the Series was fixed by Arnold Rothstein.  Although raised as an observant Jew, Rothstein turned his back on his Jewish upbringing after his Bar Mitzvah.  A son of wealthy middle class parents, Rothstein hung out with “Irish gangsters” and married out of the faith.  Did Rothstein fix the series?  Or was this part of a pattern of blaming Jewish and other foreign influences for corrupting a pristine America.  This was a common theme among Natavists during the 1920’s.

1921: Today, Franz Kafka wrote in his diary, “Moses fails to enter Canaan, not because his life is too short but because it is a human life.”

1922: Birthdate of author and historian Ruth Gay, a writer known for her nonfiction books documenting Jewish life in the Old World. Ms. Gay's books include Safe Among the Germans: Liberated Jews After World War II which dealt with a little-studied subject - the more than 250,000 Jews who returned to Allied-occupied Germany in the immediate aftermath of World War II. She also wrote The Jews of Germany: A Historical Portrait which chronicled Jewish life in Germany from the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 to the rise of Hitler in 1933. Reviewing the book in The New York Times Book Review, Peter Filkins called it "moving and lively.""What emerges is the portrait of a culture very much alive and aware of its own rich heritage," he wrote. In 1997, Ms. Gay received the National Jewish Book Award for nonfiction for Unfinished People: Eastern European Jews Encounter America. In that book, she examined the immigrant experience through the lens of her own girlhood in the Bronx. Ms. Gay has also coauthored a book with her daughter, Sophie, entitled Ms. Gay's book The Jewish King Lear Comes to America. She passed away in 2008.

1923: Hadoar, a Hebrew Language weekly published in the United States temporarily suspends publication

1923:Czernowitz born authorRosalie Beatrice Scherzer married Ignaz Ausländer. Her increasingly famous works were published under her married name, Rose Ausländer even though her marriage proved to be short-lived.

1923: Alfred Mond, 1st Baron Melchett completed his service as Minister of Health in the government led by David Lloyd George.

1924(21st of Tishrei, 5685): Hoshana Rabah

1926: In New Haven, CT, Anna Henrietta Mendel and Sol Ellis Wallant gave birth to author Edward Lewis Wallant.

1926:  Birthdate of American moral philosopher Joel Feinberg.

1927(23rdof Tishrei, 5688): Simchat Torah

1927: Pan American World Airways, one of the corporate clients of press-agent Benjamin Sonnenberg, began operations today.

1927: Birthdate of Schaerbeek, Belgium native abstract painter Pierre Alechinsky.





1927: Harry Blitman who had not lost a bout, fought his 26th bout.

1928: Birthdate of “animator and voice actor” Louis Sheimer, the Pittsburgh, PA who helped to found Filmation.

1928(5th of Cheshvan, 5689): Sixty-seven year old Chess Champion Berthold Lasker passed away.  Chess must have been in his genes since he was the brother of Emanuel Lasker.

1929(15thof Tishrei, 5690): Sukkoth

1930: Sir Hermann Gollancz, “the first British rabbi to be granted knighthood” was buried today at the Willesden Jewish Cemetery followed by a memorial service at the Bayswater Synagogue.

1934: Boxer Harry Blitman fought his 76th and penultimate bout.

1934: “Forbidden Territory,” a film version of the book by the same name starring Gregory Ratoff and with Music by Louis Levy was released in the United Kingdom today.

1936: Harry Newman scored the Brooklyn Tigers' only touchdown in a loss to Pittsburgh at Forbes Field

1936: In Philadelphia, “about 2,000 delegates and visitors from 45 states” attending the annual convention of Hadassah hear a message from President Roosevelt in which he praised the “women’s Zionist organization” for its “fine humanitarian work.”

1936: “Sir Philip Game, the Commissioner of Metropolitan Police is demanding some Cabinet decision… on which to base his plans for protecting the people of East London” a large number of whom are Jewish from “physical attack and oratorical abuse by Sir Oswald Mosley’s Black Shirts.”

1937: Haj Amin el Huseini, the Mufit of Jerusalem, leader of the latest wave of Arab violence who is currently in Syria, is trying to get permission to take refuge in Italy, where Mussolini’s fascist government has expressed support for the Arabs.

1937: Arab violence continues as bombs were thrown in the Shimon Hazadik quarter of Jerusalem, in Safed at group of reserve Jewish policeman and in the Tel Aviv/Jaffa area.

1937: Birthdate of Peter Max. The American Pop Artists was born in Berlin, and raised in Shanghai, China and in Israel before his family settled in the United States in 1953. Max's art work was influential and much imitated in advertising design in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  His artwork may be viewed at numerous websites.

1938: In Great Neck, NY, Jeanette and Bernard Workman gave birth to Peter Israel Workman the founder of Workman Publishing.

1938: The National Council of Catholic Men sent a letter to President Roosevelt today asking him “to exercise his influence to avert the closing of the doors of Palestine to Jewish refugees and the abandonment of the Jewish national home policy Great Britain.” 

1939: At the World’s Fair in New York, members of the New York Council Pioneer Women’s Organization meet this morning for a ceremony at the Palestine Pavilion followed by a luncheon at the Café Tel Aviv.

1939: A Jewish ghetto at Lublin, Poland, is established.

1939: In Pittsburg, Ross Freedman, “a traveling salesman” and Selma Freedman, “a nurse,” gave birth to “street photographer” Jill Freedman. (As reported by John Leland)


1939:  The American film classic “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” starring Jimmie Stewart premiered.  The real Jewish connection comes from Columbia Studios the production company that made the movie.  Harry Cohn owned and ran the studios.  He was one of a group of Jewish movie moguls who helped to create the middle brow American culture and the myths that were a part of it. 

1939: Otto Blumenthal and his wife moved from Utrecht to Delft because they had been able to find a flat in that Dutch city.  Blumenthal could only find one student to tutor which left them so impoverished that they had to live on charity.  After the Nazi invasion, the Blumenthals would be forced to leave Delft because of ethnic cleansings.  The tragic life of the mathematician would end at Theresienstadt in 1944 where he had gone voluntarily to care for his sister.

1940: Air raid sirens sounded tonight in Jerusalem as Axis planes were spotted approaching the coast of Palestine.  No bombs fell on the City of David.

1941(28thof Tishrei, 5702): Just ten days after celebrating 77th birthday, “Jessica Blanche Peixotto, Professor of Social Economics, Emeritus” at U.C. Berkeley passed away today.



1941: During the Battle of Moscow, Stalin institutes martial law, ordering the NKVD to shoot looters and anybody else who looked suspicious.  Yes, this was more of Stalin the brutal.  But it replaced Stalin, the confused, the supreme leader of the Soviets who had so supremely bungled everything in the fight against Hitler.  Although the Battle for Moscow would rage into the spring of 1942, these aggressive tactics provided the impetus for the defense that brought the seemingly invincible Nazi military machine to a grinding halt.  From a Jewish perspective (and from the point of view of the western democracies as well) whatever was good for the Russians was good for the Jews and the West in the fight against fascism in general and the Holocaust in particular.

1942: Today, the Gestapo arrested Robert Abshagen who would later be beheaded for his work with the Red Orchestra resistance group.

1943: In Trieste, the Nazis conduct a round up Jewish citizens.

1943: Operation Reinhard, the German program to murder all of the Jews in Poland, “was terminated today by a letter from Odilo Globocnik which meant that operations at Treblinka came to an end but the murder of the Jews continued.

1943: Streptomycin the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, was first isolated by researchers at Rutgers University by a Jewish research student from Connecticut named Albert Schat. However, according to academic tradition, Schatz's supervisor, Professor Selman Abraham Waksman, took credit for his student's discovery and received the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1952. Schatz was belatedly awarded the Rutgers medal in 1994, at the age of 74.

1944(2nd of Cheshvan, 5705): Sixty-seven year old screen writer Isadore Bernstein, passed away today.

1944: Today fifty-nine year old Dr. Ernst Eylenburg who had been transported from Berlin to Terezin in 1943 was transported from Terezin to Auschwitz where he was murdered.

1944: Today, a month after her 51st birthday, Anna Skobisova who had been transported from Prague in 1943 was transported to Terezin to Auschwitz where she was murdered.

1945: Today, Syria ratified the charter of the United Nations, the organization that two years later would, much to Syria’s dismay would vote to partition Palestine and create a Jewish state.

1946: After two weeks, the curtain comes down on “A Flag is Born” at the Adelphi Theatre.

1947: Prosecutors completed their preparations for the start of tomorrow’s trial for the Nazi leaders of the “SS Race and Settlement Office.”

1948: In some of the fiercest fighting of the War of Independence Israeli forces are victorious at Huleikat after fighting both Egyptian and Saudi army units.  This victory opened the road to rest of the Negev.

1948: A naval battle took place between three Israeli warships near Majdal, and an Egyptian corvette with air support. An Israeli sailor was killed and four wounded, and two of the ships were damaged. One Egyptian plane was shot down, but the corvette escaped. This naval clash was part of the Israeli attempt to thwart the Egyptian drive up the coast through Gaza with the aim of taking Tel Aviv. [While people have heard of the Israeli Air Force and the accomplishments of the IDF’s armored and infantry units, they are unaware of the fact that Heil HaYam HaYisrael (the Israeli Navy) has played an active role in the defense of Jewish people going back to the days of the British Mandate.

1948: Stan Andrews, who had promoted to the rank of major and made the IAF “liaison to the UN truce supervision forces in the South” today “flew as an observer in a Beaufigher D-171” belonging to Squadron 103.

1948:This afternoon, Len “Fitchett left Ramat David to take part in a naval skirmish off Majdal but before he could reach the Egyptian vessel, he encountered three Egyptian fighters: two Spitfire LF9s and a Fury. Fitchett jettisoned his ordinance and dove for the surface, maneuvering violently. The Fury moved in for a rear attack. Just before hitting the sea, Fitchett hauled back on the stick and leveled out. The Fury slammed into the sea. Its pilot, Sqn Ldr Muhammad Abd al Hamid Abu Zaid, commanding officer of 2 Sqn REAF since May 22, was considered one of the REAF's top flyers and had flown 72 sorties since May.”

1948: In Iraq, “the discharge of all Jewish officials and workers from all governmental departments was ordered.’

1948: Tonight, the 51st Battalion of the Givati Brigade launched an unsuccessful attack from the south on the Egyptian held police fort of Iraq Suwaydan

1948: Founding of Tzova, a kibbutz in the Judean hills outside of Jerusalem.

1951: During the Korean War, near Kumson, when his platoon came under enemy attack Sgt. JackWeinstein volunteered to stay and provide cover while his men withdrew. Weinstein killed six enemy combatants and, after running out of ammunition, used enemy grenades around him to keep the enemy forces back. Weinstein held his position until friendly forces moved back in and pushed the enemy back. (He received the Medal Honor for this action)

1951: In compliance with a decision reached in 1950 at a meeting of the foreign ministers of France, the UK and the US, the United States officially ended the “state of war with Germany” that had existed since December of 1941.

1952: “Two’s Company” a musical revue with lyrics by Sammy Cahn opened its out of town tryout at the Shubert Theatre in Detroit, Michigan.

1953: In a radio broadcast to the nation Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion blatantly “says that no IDF unit had left its base on the night of the attack on Qibya and that it seems as though it was done by a group of local Israeli villagers.”

1953(10thof Cheshvan, 5714): Forty-six year old attorney Felix Solomon Cohen who received the Department of Interior’s Distinguished Service award for his handbook on federal Indian law passed away today.


1954(22ndof Tishrei, 5715): Shmini Atzeret

1954(22ndof Tishrei, 5715): Seventy year old Sholom Joseph Perlmutter, the vice president of the Hebrew Actors Union, co-founder of the Society of Jewish Composers and the Jewish Playwrights League as well as a “historian of the Jewish theatre” who wrote Jewish Dramatists and Jewish Composers passed away today at Coney Island Hospital.

1961: Helen Shaprio’s “Walkin’ Back to Happiness” topped the UK pop charts today.

1963(1stof Cheshvan, 5724): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan; Parashat Noah

1963(1stof Cheshvan, 5724): Eighty-one Russian born American author Elias Tobenkin, the son of Marcus and Fanny Tobenkin and the husband of the former Rae Schwid with whom he had one son, Paul, passed away today.



1963: Birthdate of New York native “Jonathan David Haidt, the Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business.”


1963: Today actress Hope Lang married Jewish producer, director and writer Alan J. Pakula who would marry the former Hannah Cohn Boorstin after this union ended in 1971.

1964:Simon and Garfunkel's first LP, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., which consisted of 12 songs in the folk vein and five written by Paul Simon was released today and initially was a flop.

1965(23rdof Tishrei, 5726): Simchat Torah

1965: “The Man Who Has Almost Everything Gets Another Honor” published today tells of Sandy Koufax being named the outstanding player in this year World Series, which helped the Dodgers win by pitching three victories even though he had refused to pitch the opening game because it was Yom Kippur.

1966: United Artists released “The Fortune Cookie,” a comedy directed and produced by Bill Wilder, with a screenplay written by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond and starring Walter Matthau.

1966: In Queens, Madeleine and Charles gave birth to actor Jon Favreau who followed the faith of his mother and “attended Hebrew school and had a Bar Mitzvah.”

1967(15thof Tishrei, 5728): Sukkoth

1967: Polish born Canadian physician and Holocaust survivor Henry Morgentaler “presented a brief on behalf of the Humanist Association of Canada before a House of Commons Health and Welfare Committee that was investigating the issue of illegal abortion.”

1968(27thof 5729): Parashat Bereshit – on Shabbat the cycle begins again

1968(27thof Tishrei, 5729): Sixty-eight year old Polish born poet Anatol Stern who was sent to the Gulag at the start of WW II and then allowed to live in Palestine before returning to Warsaw where he passed away today.

1970: Seventy-five year old Lazaro Cardenas, the President of Mexico, whose government had hired Morris Swadesh to promote the education of “indigenous peoples” passed away today.

1970: Birthdate of SNL cast member Chris Kattan the son of an Iraqi born Jew

1970: After thirteen previews, the Broadway production “The Rothschilds” produced by Emanuel Azenberg and directed and choreographed by Michael Kidd, opened today at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, where it ran for 505 performances. Hal Linden, who happened to be Jewish, played Mayer Rothschild. “The Rothschilds” is a musical that tells the story of the rise of the famous Jewish banking family

1971: Broadway premiere of “The Incomparable Max,” with a script co-authored by Jerome Lawrence based on a collection of short stories by Max Beerbohm.

1971: Reed v. Reed for which Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the plaintiff’s brief was argued before the Supreme Court today.

1971: Look magazine which had carried a large feature article on the demise of the American Jewish community was published for the last time – while the Jewish community continued to survive and thrive.

1973: “The Way They Were” a film that spans the Depression through the Post-War years directed by Sydney Pollack, written by Arthur Laurents, with must by Marvin Hamlish, starring Barbra Streisand and featuring Herb Edelman was released today in the United States by Columbia Pictures.

1973 (23rd of Tishrei, 5734): Simchat Torah

1973: The Battle of Ismail which took place south of the Egyptian city as part of a plan to cut off supplies to Egypt’s Second Field Army continued for a second day.

1973: The Yom Kippur War continued to exact its toll.  By nightfall, the Syrian counterattack on the Golan Heights had been repelled with losses that included thirty Jordanian and Iraqi attacks.  Israel may have been alone, but the Syrians certainly were not.  On the Suez front seventy Egyptian tanks were knocked out and fourteen of Sadat’s aircraft had been shot down.  With the war entering the end of its second week, the Arabs were looking to the Soviets to bring about a face-saving cessation of hostilities.  Secretary of State Kissinger, who had arrived in Moscow, joined the Soviets in issuing a call for the end of hostilities. 

1976: “Thirteen activists held a demonstration at the Supreme Soviet” at the end of which  participants were detained and  taken into the woods where some of the  refuseniks, including Zahar Tesker, were beaten up by the police.

1976: A “press-conference organized by Natan Sharansky was held at Vladimir Slepak’s apartment in connection with beating of activists in the forest near Moscow, following the demonstration at the Supreme Soviet.”

1976: At “a joint Israeli-American committee meeting in New York participants agree in principle to restrict aid to “drop-outs” in Vienna.”

1977: U.S. premiere of “Looking For Mr. Goodbar” the film version of the novel by Judith Rossner directed by Richard Brooks and produced by Freddie Fields, the brother of band leader Shep Fields.

1979: “French Postcards” a comedy produced and written by Gloria Katz and starring Mandy Patinkin and Debra Winger was released today in the United States.

1979: After premiering in Toronto, “And Justice for All” a film that looks at the dark side of the judicial system with an Oscar nominated script co-authored by Barry Levinson, featuring Lee Strasberg, Darrell Zerwling and Sam Levene was released in the United States today.

1980(9thof Cheshvan, 5741): Sixty year old Sydney Stuart Baron, the “son of a Brooklyn shoemaker,” “an ‘A’ English student at New Utrecht High School” and husband of high school sweetheart Sylvia Schreibman whose public relations clients included Anheuser-Busch, Iona College, Beth Jacob Schools and Carmen G. DeSapio whom he served as press agent passed away today.


1982: Yitshak Moda’I began serving as Minister of Energy and Water Resources.

1984(23rd of Tishrei, 5745): Simchat Torah

1984: In “New Moon Offered” published today, Allen Hughes provides a glowing review of Light Operate of Manhattan’s production of Sigmund Romberg’s 1928 class “New Moon.”


1986(16thof Tishrei, 5747): Second Day of Sukkoth

1986(16thof Tishrei, 5747):Eighty-one year old Moses Asch, the driving force behind Folkways Records passed away today. (As reported by Jon Pareles)  Eighty-one year old


1987(26thof Tishrei, 5748): Forty two year old Jacqueline du Pre the brilliant Anglo-Jewish cellist who had been stricken by multiple sclerosis passed away today.


1988: Leon Lederman, Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger win the Nobel Prize for Physics.

1989: A London revival of “Stop The World – I Want to Get Off “directed by, and starring, Anthony Newley opened today at the Lyric Theatre.

1990: Two days after opening in Los Angeles, “Reversal of Fortune” a film adaption of Alan Dershowitz’s book produced by Edward R. Pressman and co-starring Ron Silver opened in New York today.

1992(22nd of Tishrei, 5753): Shemini Atzeret

1992(22ndof Tishrei, 5753): Eighty-three year old Magnus Alfred Pyke “the son of a wholesale confectioner and cousin of Geoffry Pyke” passed away today after enjoying a career as food scientist, author and broadcaster.


1994(14thof Cheshvan, 5755): Twenty-one Israelis and one Dutch national were murdered and another fifty were injured by a Hamas terrorist who set off a bomb as bus was approaching Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv.

1994: Sivan Horesh survives the No. 5 bus bombing on Dizengoff Street in central Tel Aviv.

1995: A revival of David Merrick’s “Hello Dolly” opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre

1996: During the U.S Presidential election, Chris Wallace served as moderator for the Third Presidential Debate.

1996: “The Fortune Cookie,” a comedy directed, produced and written by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond and co-starring Walter Matthau was released to theatres today.

1996: The talents of cartoonist, playwright, screenwriter and novelist Jules Feiffer were on display as he spoke to a gathering at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. 

1997: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics related to Jewish history or culture including Perfidia by Judith Rossner,Miriam’s Kitchen A Memoir by Elizabeth Ehrlich and The World Is The Home Of Love and Death by Harold Brodkey.

2000(20th of Tishrei, 5761): Sixth Day of Sukkoth

2000(20th of Tishrei, 5761): Sixty-four year old Rabbi Binyamin Herling was murdered today when “Fatah members and Palestinian security forces opened fire on a group of men, women and children” at Mount Ebal.

2001: In “Her Name Still Rings A Bell” published today described the “life of Mercedes Jellinek, daughter of a wealthy Austrian businessman with a passion for the newly invented motorcars at the turn of the 20th century.”


1999: The 1960 production of Peter Pan with music by Mark “Moose” Charlap and July Styne and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green was released today on DVD.

2003(23rd of Tishrei, 5764): Simchat Torah

2003: The New York Timesfeatures reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics related to Jewish history or culture including Blacklist by Sara Paretsky, Arthur Miller: His Life and Work by Martin Gottfried and The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis by Leon R. Kass.

2004: Archivists in the Dutch City of Tilburg announced the discovery of the diary of a Holocaust victim that has an eerie similarity to that of Anne Frank.  The Holocaust era diary and love letters written by Helga Deen, a Jewish woman, for her Dutch boyfriend while she imprisoned in a Dutch internment camp were donated by the family of the now deceased Dutch man.  Deen died at Sobibior.

2004: In “Cole Porter and Moss Hart’s Jubilee: Still Smart, Funny and Tuneful” published today Michael Dale sings the praises for the musical Juiblee.


2004: Adam Aptowitzer, a tax and charity lawyer in Ottawa and “former Ontario chairman of B'nai Brith Canada’s Institute for International Affairs” “made statements today on the  broadcast of the Michael Coren Show defending the bulldozing of Palestinian terrorists' homes as a means of deterring further suicide bombings” arguing “that such actions were permissible when used to prevent deaths.”

2005: Second Day Sukkoth 5766.

2006: The Times of London reported on the premier of the documentary “Spell Your Name” by the Ukrainian director Sergei Bukovsky. The 90 minute film records testimonies of Jews who survived the Nazi occupation of Ukraine. The highlight of the event was the appearance of Steven Spielberg whose grandparents came from the Ukraine.

2007: “Things We Lost In The Fire” directed by Susanne Bier with a script by Allan Loeb was released today in the United States and Canada.

2007: Rex Ditto, one of the men convicted of murdering Allen Shalleck who co-authored parts of the Curious George series with Margaret Rey in the 1970’s was sentenced to life in prison today.

2007: The Washington Post featured a review of Jezebel: The Untold story of the Bible’s Harlot Queen by Leslie Hazelton.

2007: The New York Times featured a review of Young Stalin by Jewish historian Simon Sebag Montifore.   This book could be viewed as a prequel to Mr. Montifore’s Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar.

2007: “The Last Jews of Libya” opens at São Paulo International Film Festival in São Paulo, Brazil.“The Last Jews of Libya documents the final decades of a centuries-old North African Sephardic Jewish community through the lives of the remarkable Roumani family, who lived in Benghazi, Libya, for hundreds of years. Thirty-six thousand Jews lived in Libya at the end ofWorld War II, today none remain. The film traces the story of the Roumanis from Turkish Ottoman rule through the age of Mussolini and Hitler to the final destruction and dispersal of Libya's Jews in the face of Arab nationalism.”

2008: The New York Times includes reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Fred Astaire by Joseph Epstein and Explainers a new anthology “which ­gathers all of Jules Feiffer’s Village Voice strips from 1956 to 1966.

2008:A former Israeli soldier, Marti Mintz, who was trained in a counter-terror unit of the IDF and is married to an Australian risked his own life today to save five people during during a fire that had broken out in supermarket in Perth, Australia. 

2009(1st of Cheshvan, 5770): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

2009(1st of Cheshvan, 5770):Ninety one year old Joseph Wiseman a Canadian actor, best known for starring as the titular antagonist of the first James Bond film, Dr. No, passed away today. (As reported by Adam Benstein)

http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-joseph-wiseman21-2009oct21-story.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/arts/20wiseman.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/20/AR2009102003549.html

2009: At Olam Tikvahthe new sisterhood Co-President Rachel Rothberg, leads a discussion of the well-reviewed book Sarah by Marek Halter. 

2009:In Chevy Chase, MD, Richard Breitman, a professor of history at American University, discusses and signs Refugees and Rescue: The Diaries and Papers of James G. McDonald, 1935-1945. McDonald was the first U.S. ambassador to Israel.

2009: In “A Believer in Heroism, to Jews’ Lasting Gratitude,” published today Joseph Berger described the exploits of Dr. Tina Strobos who is scheduled to be honored today by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center, based in Westchester.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/17/nyregion/17metjournal.html

2009: CBS is scheduled to hold a memorial service today at the Time Warner Center in New York for Don Hewitt the creator and longtime executive producer of ''60 Minutes.'' Hewitt died of cancer in August at age 86. In addition to his work at ''60 Minutes,'' Hewitt also produced the first televised presidential debate in 1960.

2009: At The Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival a screening of “Adam Resurrected” based on novel of the same name in which “a former circus clown who was spared the gas chamber so that he might entertain thousands of Jews as they marched to their deaths, Adam Stein is now the ringleader at an asylum in the Negev desert populated solely by Holocaust survivors.”

2009:“Jewish Transit Berlin: From Hell to Hope,” the 52-minute documentary, which premiered today at the Berlin Jewish Museum, relates the unusual and brief history of the Displaced Persons camps set up in postwar Berlin.

2009:“Schmatta: Rags To Riches To Rags,” a documentary about the rise and decline of New York’s garment district — and the efforts to preserve what remains of a sector that played a vital role in the American Jewish experience during the past century — premieres tonight on HBO. Its director, Marc Levin, recently sat down with the Forward’s senior writer Nathaniel Popper to discuss the Jewish workers, employers and gangsters who shaped the fashion industry; how the garment district influenced designers like Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Donna Karan, and what the Torah has to say about what we wear.



2010: Scribner published a collection of short stories, Palo Alto, by James Franco



2010:Israeli author David Grossman who was named the winner of the Germany's book publishers' association’s 2010 Peace Prize in honor of his support for reconciliation between Israel and the Palestinians is scheduled to be awarded the $30,200 prize today during the annual Frankfurt Book Fair. In his epic novel To the End of the Land, Grossman tells the story of a woman's journey through Israel. It was written after Grossman's son was killed by a Hezbollah missile in 2006. Past winners include Orhan Pamuk, Susan Sontag, Amos Oz, Vaclav Havel and Octavio Paz.



2010: Leon Wieseltier, Literary Editor at The New Republic is scheduled to introduce “Ruth Franklin, A Thousand Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction” at the Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival in Washington, DC.



2010:Labor Party lawmakers lambasted their fellow MK, Einat Wilf today for proposing to cancel the annual memorial rally marking the assassination prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.

2010:Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today that his cabinet needed more time to decide when and how to dismantle certain illegal West Bank outposts, due to the "political implications" involved

2010(11th of Cheshvan, 5771): Tom Bosley, best known for his role as Richie’s father on the t.v. sitcom “Happy Days” passed away.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/arts/television/20bosley.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

2011(21st of Tishrei, 5772): Hoshanah Rabbah

2011: This afternoon Israel Defense Forces soldiers thwarted a stabbing attack at the Gush Etzion junction in the West Bank, Channel 10 reported.

2011:A day after returning to his home in Mitzpe Hila after five years in Hamas captivity, Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit marked the Simchat Torah holiday at home with his family tonight

2012: At the Wiener Library in London, Dr. Ruth Levitt is scheduled deliver a lecture on “Jews in the Netherlands,” a country where “some 75 percent” of the Jews “were deplored and killed in the Holocaust

2012: Director Arnon Goldfingers award winning film, “The Flat,” is scheduled to open at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas

2012:Four masked individuals infiltrated the IDF's Naftali camp near the Golani junction in the North early this morning and stole four weapons. The infiltrators tied up the soldier on guard duty, stealing his and three other weapons before escaping

2012:The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) announced today that the long-time director of its Jerusalem office, Wendy Singer, will be leaving her position early next year. Singer will be replaced by Leslie Levy Mirchin, who is currently the lobbying group’s local director of policy and research

2013: As part of the Performing Arts Series, the Jewish Community Center is scheduled to present “The Marcy and Zina Show” featuring Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich.



2013: In California, the Center for Jewish Culture is scheduled to present Khaossia, performing EOSLove Across Time, Space, and Sound, a concert based on a love story from Puglia, after the Shoah.

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2013: Gaza-based Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called today for Palestinians to wage a “popular uprising” in the West Bank.



2014: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest including Spoiled Brats by Simon Rich and The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker.



2014: In Washington, DC, the Hyman S & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival is scheduled to begin today.

2014: Ed Stein’s comic strip “Freshly Squeezed” ended today.

https://www.gocomics.com/freshlysqueezed/about



2014: “Hitler’s Hidden Drug Habit” is scheduled to be shown on British Channel 4.

2014: The Center For Jewish History is scheduled to show “Jacques Faitlovitch and the Lost Tribes,” a film that explores the ‘extraordinary odyssey’of Jacques Faïtlovitch, a Polish Jew who “discovered” Ethiopian Jewry, in 1904, and thereafter set about reestablishing a connection between their community and the rest of the Jewish world.”

2014: “Police opened an investigation today after graffiti was found in the Temple Mount compound depicting a swastika as the equivalent of a Star of David.”

2014: “The daughters of slain American tourist Leon Klinghoffer released a statement today, a day before the opening of the play recounting the murder of their father, saying it “rationalizes, romanticizes and legitimizes” the killing. (As reported by Lazar Berman)

2014: A spokesman for Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital confirmed reports issued today by Reuters that it had treated a daughter of Ismail Haniyeh, a top leader for Hamas, following complications during a standard medical procedure in Gaza.” (As reported by Marissa Newman)

2014: In Boston, Ashkelon native Roni Vorvoreanu, 16, will fly the Israeli flag today for the first time in the Head of the Charles Regatta rowing race, considered one of the sport’s premier events. (As reported by Tamar Pleggi)

2014: Funeral services for Mildred Puro Pittman, the widow of Joseph Puro and Howard Pittman is scheduled to take place in Great Neck, NY

2014: “Louis-Fest!” a celebration of the life of local realtor, bicycle enthusiast and musician Louis Lederman of blessed memory will be held today at The Willow (formerly Jimmy’s Music Club

following the Saints vs. Detroit Lions game. (As reported by the Crescent City Jewish News)

2014: “Dancing in Jaffa” is scheduled to be shown at The Twin City Jewish Film Festival

2014(25thof Tishrei, 5775): Eighty-four year old photographer Alfred Werthimer passed away today. (As reported by William Yardley)

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/25/arts/music/alfred-wertheimer-early-photographer-of-elvis-presley-dies-at-84.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpHedThumbWell&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

http://www.alfredwertheimer.com/

2015: “Israeli Bedouin leaders today expressed shock, surprise and outrage at news that the perpetrator of yesterday’s deadly terrorist attack at the Beersheba central bus station was an Israeli Arab from a Bedouin village east of the city, in the country’s Negev region.”



2015: “A Jewish and a Muslim cemetery were defiled with Nazi symbols and anti-migrant slogans in western Austria, police said today, just weeks after similar attacks on a refugee hostel and Jewish museum.”



2015: Martin Kaufman is scheduled to begin teaching the Leon Finley Course in Jewish Studies which will focus on the lives and teachings of Maimonides and Nachmanides.



2015: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to a screening of “The Blum Affair” directed by Erich Engel.



2016(17thof Tishrei, 5777): Third Day of Sukkoth

2016:  Today, “the municipality of Amstelveen south of Amsterdam where several thousand Jews live, inaugurated a street sign bearing the name of” writer Jules “Schelvis, who survived seven Nazi concentration and death camps” and who “died earlier this year in Amstelveen.”

2016: In Little Rock, Chabad Center for Jewish Leadership under the leadership of Rabbi PInchas Ciment hosted “Sushi in the Sukkah.”

2016: In Jerusalem, the Admaya Conference “where architects, builders and creative types discuss the opportunities for building with earth” is scheduled to open today.

2016: Dora Horn is scheduled to “provide a look at the contemporary significance of the Book of Job” during an appearance at Ursinus College.

2016: “A safari in search of wild animals” is scheduled to place in the center of Jerusalem this evening.

2016: The Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County (HMTC), in cooperation with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), is scheduled to present a one-day professional development workshop on "Choice and Responsibility during the Holocaust."

2017: Case Western Reserve University is scheduled to host “What are the Dead Scrolls and Why are They Important” with Alex Jassen.

2017: “Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox protesters launched major protests against the arrest of draft-dodging community members today, capping a week of road-blocking actions and scuffles with the police”

https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2017/10/000_TJ5XX-e1508423081425.jpg

2017: JW3 is scheduled to host two screening of “Moos,” a comedy about Jewish families following their dreams.

2017: “Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox protesters launched major protests against the arrest of draft-dodging community members today, capping a week of road-blocking actions and scuffles with the police.”

2017: The Dodgers defeated Theo Epstein’s defending World Champion Chicago Cub denying them a chance to return to the World Series to try for a second chance championship.

2017: “Designs on Britain” an exhibition depicting “how much of the most iconic British design was produced by immigrants” to the UK opened today at the Jewish Museum in London.

2017: Katinka’s Tail, the latest book by Judith Kerr, the 94 year old English author whose family fled Nazi Germany is scheduled to “be published by HarperCollins in hardback” today.

2017: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host “An Evening with Mel Brooks,” the man who gave us The 2000 Year Old Man, The Producers, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein.

2017: The Leo Baeck Institute and the Jewish Review Books are scheduled to present Abraham Socher, David Sorkin and Leora Batnitzky discussing “Why Moses Mendelssohn Matters.”

2017: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present “Rescuing Endangered Jews: The Unit for Aliyah, Absorption, & Special Operations.”

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf7gZZmhBv3JnswnbfqUKv4xdLF3sEQExDIjwTvhdUzMIHTJQ/viewform

2018:  “Architect Leora Berry, the Deputy Director of the Bible Land Museum is scheduled to lead a tour that “will highlight the architectural qualities originating from countries of the ancient East, which are incorporated in the museum`s modernist façade, as well as models from the museum`s collection that illustrate ancient construction techniques and the philosophies and beliefs associated with architectural elements that appear on ancient artifacts.”

2018: “Architect and geographer Michael Jacobson” is scheduled to lead a tour of the Library and Garden at the National Library of Israel.

2018: The Oxford University Jewish Society Friday Night Book Club is schedule to “Rachel Adler’s short essay ‘Feminist Judaism: Past and Future.’”

2018: After premiering at Tellluride, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” a film “based on the confessional memoir of the same name by Lee Israel” with a screenplay co-authored by Nicole Holofcener was released today in the United States.

2018: Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak is scheduled to “deliver remarks during” Friday night serves at Temple-Emanuel followed by “an extended Oneg Shabat and a moderated conversation.”

2019: Despite having found “an Israeli flag defaced with a swastika and white supremacist symbols” on its grounds right after Yom Kippur, the Falmouth Jewish Congregation is scheduled to host its “open Sukkah program” this afternoon.

2019: In Napa, CA, Congregation Beth Shalom is scheduled to host “L’Chaim Napa Valley,” “a benefit and dinner celebrating Jewish vintners.”

2019: In New Orleans, the New Avodah 2019-2020 Cohort is scheduled to celebrate Havdalah in their Sukkah.

2019(20th of Tishrei, 5780): Shabbat Chol Hamo’ed Sukkoth; for more see

http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/






This Day, October 20, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin

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OCTOBER 20

1409 BCE (10 Cheshvan 2351): This is the traditional date of the death of Gad, son of Jacob, one of the Twelve Tribes (born 2196).

460: Aeilia Eudocia, the Byzantine Empress who allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem in 438, passed away today.

1314: Louis IV, who in 1349 would authorize the Duke of Guelders “to receive Jews in his duchy where they provided services, paid a tax and were protected by law” began his reign as “King of the Romans.”

1314: In an agreement signed today by Rabbenu Asher and his sons “Judah ben Asher and his brother Jacob were appointed trustees” of a trust that would distribute funds to the poor.”

1614: Franciscus Mercurius van Helmont, “the most famous (or infamous) Christian Kabbalist of the 17th century” and author of the Short Sketch of the Truly Natural Hebrew Alphabet who “claimed that he had rediscovered the key to peace on earth in the shape and sound of the Hebrew letters” was baptized today.



1650: Coronation of Queen Christina of Sweden, who became a Catholic, moved to Rome in December 1655 and made Clement X prohibit the custom of chasing Jews through the streets during the carnival.

1710: Robert Raymond, who while serving as Attorney General “was asked to decide whether a Jew born in England but of foreign parentage could purchase and enjoy an estate in fee” ruled that such a Jew “was fully capable of purchasing and enjoying the land and that the law had put no disability upon him account of his religion” became Sir Robert Raymond when he was knighted today.

1722: Wolf Popper “a Primator of the Jews of Bohemia” and his wife gave birth to banker Joachim Edler von Popper, “commonly known as ‘Court Jew’ to the Habsburgs.”

1740: Maria Theresa takes the throne of Austria. France, Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony refuse to honor the Pragmatic Sanction and the War of the Austrian Succession begins. At the end of the war, unfortunately for the Jewish people, she would still be on the throne. She attempted to expel all of the Jews from Bohemia. She imposed a myriad of restrictions on the Jews living in her realm but was not averse to gouging them for as much money as she could. Like her Russian counterpart, she sought to limit the number of Jews living in her empire. And then, with the partition of Poland the number of her Jewish subjects soared when she acquired Galicia. The famous Jewish historian Simon Dubnow said that this Empress caused the Jews more trouble than all of the Emperors who had come before her.

1748: “Sussel Strauss” and his wife gave birth to Samuel Strauss, the husband of Judith Baierthaler and father of Carolline, Isack, Abraham, Moses and Grace Strauss.

1753(22nd of Tishrei, 5514): Shabbat and Shmini Atzeret

1772(23rd of Tishrei, 5533): As relations between Britain and her American colonies begin to deteriorate to a level that will eventually lead to revolution, Jews on both sides of the Atlantic observe Simchat Torah

1778: Birthdate of Baltimore native John Jeremiah Jacob, the husband of Ann Overton Fontaine and father of John Jeremiah Jacob.

1779: During the American Revolution, the Supreme Council of Pennsylvania passed a series of resolution related to Solomon Bush who had been wounded and taken prisoner by the British before being paroled so he could recuperate at the home of his father, Matthias Bush.

1780)21st of Tishrei, 5541): Hoshana Rabah

1781: The Holy Roman Emperor, Joseph II of Austria issued the Patent of Toleration which was an edict extending to religious freedom to non-Catholic Christians living in the Habsburg Empire. The Jews would have to wait another year. In 1782 Joseph II issued the Patent of Toleration for the Jews of Lower Austria, thereby establishing the civic equality of his Jewish subjects.

1791(22nd of Tishrei): Shemini Atzeret

1802: Hyman Hurwitz married Hesther Levy at the Great Synagogue today.

1803: The United States Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase. The tiny Jewish population of New Orleans and the surrounding bayou country were now “American Jews.” The first Jews probably came to the Louisiana coast at the start of the 18th century when they brought trade goods from the Caribbean. Ironically, Judo Turo, the famous merchant and philanthropist who would contribute to the development of Jewish communal institutions arrived the same year that the Louisiana Purchase was ratified. St. Louis, the other “city” the United States acquired as part of the Louisiana Purchase would not see its first Jewish settler until 1807.

1820: Birthdate of Whilhelm Wolfensohn the Odessa born author and playwright.

1827: During the Greek Liberation War, an allied fleet made up of British, French and Russian ships defeated a combined Turkish and Egyptian fleet at the Battle of Navarino. The battle effectively marked the end of the war and paved the way for the creation of the independent nation of Greece which had been part of the Ottoman Empire. According to Nikos Stavrolakis one of the founders and director of the Jewish Museum in Greece from 1977 until 1993, “The Greek War of Independence brought disaster to the Jewish communities in the Peloponnesos the place where the revolution erupted in 1821. The Jews, because of their close association with the Ottoman administration, were massacred along with the Turks. The Jewish communities of Mistras, Tripolis, and Kalamata were decimated; the few survivors moved north to settle in Chalkis and Volos, still under Ottoman rule. Patras lost its ancient Jewish community, which was re-established only in 1905.”

1824: Abraham Jacob Jones married Rebeca Montefiore at the New Synagogue today.

1827: Birthdate of Viennese native Magdelena “Lena” Woolner, the wife of Abraham Woolner and mother of Sophie, Hanna, Maximillian Isabella and Gisela Woolner

1828: Birthdate of Horatio Gates Spafford , the New York born lawyer who was one of the founders of the “American Colony,” whose members “engaged in philanthropic work amongst the people of Jerusalem regardless of their religious affiliation and without proselytizing motives”

1829(23rd of Tishrei, 5590): Simchat Torah is celebrated for the first time during the Presidency of Andrew Jackson.

1840:Solomon Benedict de Worms, Hereditary Baron of the Austrian Empire, and Henrietta Samuelde Worms gave birth to their third son, Henry de Worms, a leading member of the Conservative Party in the UK.1848(23rd of Tishrei, 5609): As Europe is racked by Revolutions and thousands head for California in search of the newly found gold, Jews observe Simchat Torah

1850: Birthdate of Adolf Rosenzweig, the Hungarian born Biblical and Talmudic scholar.

1852: It was reported today that “An insane Jew died at the House of Industry in Boston, last week, at the age of 30 years. This is the 1st Jew that ever became a public charge in the City of Boston within the memory of one of its oldest city officials.”

1852: In Romania, Idel Ber Brociner and his wife gave birth to author Marco Brociner who was the brother of Joseph Brociner, Maurice Brociner and Andrei Brociner.”

1855: Reverend Findlay is scheduled to deliver a sermon tomorrow evening at the Presbyterian Church in the Williamsburg section of NYC entitled "The Restoration of the Jews."

1856(21st of Tishrei,5617): Hoshana Rabah

1859: Birthdate of John Dewey, the American educational philosopher who met Anzia Yezierska in 1917 while she was auditing one of his seminars at Columbia.  Despite the differences in their ages, they became romantically involved which led to his writing her poems and she describing their relationship in a novel, All I Could Never Be.

1862: In New York City, Robert Weeks Nathan and Anne Augusta Florence gave birth to Maud Nathan, the wife of Frederick Nathan and an American social worker, labor activist and suffragist for women's right to vote who came from a prominent Sephardic family that included her cousins Emma Lazarus and Benjamin Cardozo and the author of several “papers on Christianity and Judaism” including “The Heart of Judaism” which she “read before the Council of Jewish Women.”

1865: Sir Saul Samuel began his second term as Treasurer of New South Wales.

1867(21st of Tishrei, 5628): Hoshana Rabah

1867(21st of Tishrei, 5628): In Prague, five days after he had passed away, Rabbi Solomon Judah Loeb Rapoport was buried after eulogies were delivered by Rabbi Hurwitz and Dr. Jellinek, who had come from Vienna for this solemn occasion.

1868(4th of Cheshvan, 5629):Ephraim "Ferdinand" Waldstein, the son of Zadok and Esther Waldstein and the husband of Lea "Lisette" Koppel Waldstein, passed away today after which he was buried in the Old Jewish Cemetery at Muenchen, Bavaria.

1870: In Baden-Wurteemberg, Germany, Lena and Max Jeselsohn gave birth to Samuel Jeselsohn the husband of Malchen Jeselsohn and the father of Albert, Sigmund and Ludwig Jesselsohn

1872: In Egeln, Germany, Selig and Juliane Blumenthal, gave birth to Alfred Blumenthal who would die at the age of 70 in Theresienstadt.

1872: In Cleveland, founding of The Excelsior Club whose members have included Nathan Loeser, Sol M. Hexter, Joseph Goodhart and Herman Koppel

1874: On his twentieth birthday, Adolf Aharon Rosenzweig “entered the rabbinate of Pasewalk in Pomerania.

1875(21st of Tishrei, 5636): Hoshana Rabah

1876: Samuel A. Lewis, who is a candidate for Alderman at Large in New York City, was described as a native New Yorker and a Hebrew who “occupies a god social position.”  He has served as a School Commissioner, and has twice been elected Alderman at Large.  Currently he is President of the Board of Alderman and editor of the Hebrew Leader.  He had unsuccessfully sought the nomination to serve as Mayor of New York.

1878(23rd of Tishrei, 5639): Simchat Torah

1878: According to a report published today on conditions in the French colony on the island of Cyprus the native (non-European) “community consists of Muslims, Jews and Christians.  Of these a European merchant can always believe the first upon his simple word, the two latter he can rarely credit on oath, and the harder they swear the more certain one may be that they are stating what is not the case.” [The report is unusual for two reason – first it lumps Jews and Christians together and second it speaks highly of the trustworthiness of a local Muslim population, two things that western writers rarely, if ever, did.

1879: According to a letter published today reported that Joseph Barclay, the recently consecrated Bishop of Jerusalem, “showed an extraordinary interest in the conversion of the Jews” even when he was a “mere child.” Before being appointed Bishop, Barclay served as the Superintendent of the Church of England’s Missions to the Jews of the Continent and served in Jerusalem for ten years where he became a noted Orientalist. [Barclay was one of a large cast on English characters who showed an unusual interest in Palestine and the Jewish people.]

1880: Three days after he had passed away, 87 year old Jacob Quixano Henriques, a native of “Spanish Town, Jamaica” was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1880: In Jackson, CA, Dora Steckler gave birth to her third child who was born two months after the death of his Charles Steckler, a local merchant who is buried in Givoth Olam Cemetery.

http://www.weeklypioneer.com/2010/08/charles-steckler.html

1880: Three days after he had passed away, Karl Schmidt, a native of German and the husband of Mary Schmidt, was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1880: In Minsk “Nachim Mendel and Rose Baskin” gave birth Joseph Baskin the husband of the “former Mary Plotkin,” the father of Geraldine and Gilbert Baskin and since 1916 the “general secretary of the Workmen’s Circle” and “editor of The Friend”

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1952/06/27/92667566.pdf

1880: Rosa and Adolphus Rich gave birth to Clara Wilhemine Rich who became Clara Wilhemine Fechheimer when she married Carl J. Fechheimer, the Purdue trained engineer who left “a $150,000 bequest…to establish a chair in electrical engineering at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology”

188O: Birthdate of Kolin native Rudolf Saudek, the sculptor and graphic artist who after surviving Theresienstadat returned to Prague where “he held a professorship at the Academy of Fine Arts.”

1881: Birthdate of Romanian native Joseph Solomon Diamond, the NYU-Bellevue Medical College trained internist who “helped to introduce the Secretin Test for pancreatic test” in the United States and who was the husband of Ethel Diamond with whom he raised two daughters, Naomi and Adele.

1882(7th of Cheshvan, 5643): Eighty-one year old Solomon Benedict de Worms the grandson of Mayer Amschel Rothschild who was successful British stockbroker and plantation owner in Ceylon before being named as a Baron by Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, passed away today.

1882 George de Worms “became 2ndBaron de Worms” after which he “was awarded the honor of Knight Commander of the Order of Franz Joseph.”

1883: It was reported today that the families that recently arrived from Odessa aboard the SS Canada will be sent back to Europe because they are destitute.

1883: It was reported that Henry J. Greenberg a Jewish peddler from Pennsylvania, whose body was found in a hotel in the Bowery probably committed suicide.  Before coming to New York, he had visited his brother Marcus in Boston.

1883: This morning, Isaac Cohen, President of Ansche Chesed on Hester Street, visited the Tenth Precinct and requested that a police officer be sent to the synagogue that evening because he feared that there might be an “uprising” during the scheduled business meeting.

1883: Harry and Caroline Breslau gave birth to Hermann Bresslau



1883: In Nizhny Novgorod violinist Abram Krein and his wife gave birth to composer Alexander Abramovich Krein whose works included “Kaddish” which he composed in 1921 “for tenor soloist, choir and orchestra.

http://www.editionsilvertrust.com/krein-three-sketches-on-hebrew-themes.htm

1883: Violence broke out during the business meeting of Ansche Chesed B’nai Kovanah that was held tonight at the Hester Street Synagogue.

1884: It was reported today that in the past year St. Luke’s Hospital in New York treated 1.497 patients, 18 of whom were Jewish.

1884: Professor Felix Adler was among the members of the Tenement House Commission that met this afternoon in New York.

1884: In Safed, Meyer and “Bet-Sheba Taubenhaus gave birth to the Cornell University and U. of Pennsylvania trained “plant pathologist” and husband of Esther Hirschenson who in 1916 found “TAMC Menorah Club” which was became the Hillel chapter at Texas A & M.

1884: Isaac Hamburger, Grand Master of The Grand Lodge of the United states of the Independent Order of Free sons of Israel and H.I. Goldsmith, the organization’s Grand Secretary sign an address on behalf of its 12,000 members living throughout the United States, that is being sent to Sir Moses Montefiore on “the one hundredth anniversary” of his birth “recognizing his unique greatness to which no one nation can lay claim.”

1885: “A Suicide At Riverside” published today describes events surrounding the death of Albert Unger whose body was found by a police officer after he heard two gunshots.  Unger, who belong to several Jewish organizations, had recently been discharged by Steinhardt Brothers where he had worked for 12 years, but Abraham Steinhardt refused to discuss the matter. 

1886(2st of Tishrei, 5647): Hoshana Rabah

1887(2nd of Cheshvan, 5648): Baron Hermann de Stern passed away in London. Born at Frankfort in 1815 he and his brother moved to London in 1844 where they became respected members of the financial community through their company, Stern Brothers

1889(25th of Tishrei, 5650): Sixty-nine year old George Judah Cohen, the London born son of “Barnett and Sierlah Cohen” and husband or Rosa Solomon who was “a storekeeper” and for a short while “postmaster” in Maitland, New South Wales, Australia passed away after which he was buried in the Maitland Jewish Cemetery.

1889: In Owensboro, KY, founding today of The Standard Club who members including Phillip Dahl, Lee Levy and Ben C. Koltinsky.

1889: “Russian Converts” published today described the pressure brought to bear on Jews to convert to the Orthodox Church. As a result, “young men” who were “once honest Jews” are now “spurious Christians.”

1890: Sixty-nine year old Sir Richard Francis Burton a British orientalist and explored who antagonized the Jewish population of Damascus while serving there as consul in 1869, passed away. Burton’s The Jew, the Gipsy and el Islam which was published 8 years after his death was critical the Jews and “asserted the existence of Jewish human sacrifices.

1892: Eduard Schnitzer passed away. He was born in 1840 to assimilated German Jewish parents. His parents had him baptized at the age of two because they thought it would advance his career. Schnitzer later converted to Islam and took the Turkish name of Emin Pasha. As, Emin Pasha, he traveled throughout the world as an explorer, adventurer and doctor, spending much of his time in Khartoum in the Sudan. He was a tireless fighter against the slave trade which was still rampant. He returned to Central Africa on a semi-political voyage for Germany and was killed there by slave traders.

1893: Birthdate of New York native chemist William Edward Popkin, the graduate of CCNY and Cornell who had two daughters – Mae and Jane – with his wife Esta.

1893: “George Samuel’s Big Estate” published today described the disposition of his estate which was valued at $2,365,000 most of which went to his nephew Baron Henry de Worms who represents a Liverpool borough in the House of Commons.

1893: In Germany, the annual report of the Social Democrats published today complained that when the right wing Anti-Semites boycott Jews firms nothing is done but when the Social Democrats do the same they are prosecuted with the full “rigors of the law.”

1893: In Vienna, Ludwig Teller, the “son of Isak and Anna Teller, and his second wife Natalie Thalia Teller  gave birth to Erwin Teller,

1894: Seventy-six year old James Anthony Froude who in 1869 “was elected Lord Rector of St. Andrews, defeating Benjamin Disraeli by a majority of fourteen” and who wrote Lord Beaconsfield, a biography of Benjamin Disraeli published in 1890, passed away today.



1894: When Alexander III died in Crimea today, “according to Simon Dubnow: ‘as the body of the deceased was carried by railway to St. Petersburg, the same rails were carrying the Jewish exiles from Yalta to the Pale. The reign of Alexander III ended symbolically. It began with pogroms and concluded with expulsions.’"



1894(20th of Tishrei, 5655): Shabbat Sukkoth Chol Hamoed



1894: In Minsk, Shimon and Zishe Feigin gave birth to Dr. Solomon S. Feigin, the optician who was the husband of “Dorothy Dee Lubell Feigin and father of Dr. Simeon Lubell Feign.

1894(20th of Tishrei, 5565): Fifty-four year old Austrian neuroanatomist and ophthalmologist Ludwig Mauthner who discovered “Mauthner Cells” passed away today.



1894: Dr. Charles Henry Parkhurst, the leader of the “municipal purity movement” in New York told a reporter today of the broad support he has found among women in New York including “Mrs. Frederick Nathan, who belongs to an old and highly distinguished Hebrew family of great wealth and social position.”



1894: French police officer and handwriting expert Alphonse “Bertillon's provisional report, submitted today inferred ‘without any reservation whatever’ that Dreyfus was guilty.”



1894: Samuel Greenbaum, the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Educational Alliance took issue with the a request by the Women’s Municipal League for the use of the Hebrew Institute Building which is controlled by the Alliance was handled; especially the influence the of Nathan Straus who is neither an officer or a director of the Alliance.



1895: In New York, “Russian Jewish immigrants Ida (Edelson) and Abraham Ryskind multi-talented author and political activist Morrie Ryskind who earned  “the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the Broadway production “Of Thee I Sing.” (As reported by Jeffrey Schmalz)

http://www.nytimes.com/1985/08/25/nyregion/morrie-ryskind-dies-at-89-wrote-plays-and-screen-comedies.html

1897: As of today, there eight men, six women and two children residing as patients “in the Jewish Seaside Convalescent Home at West Brighton.”

1897: Birthdate of London born American Oscar winning composer Adolph Deutsch.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/adolph-deutsch-mn0000497873/biography

1897: The Jewish Board of Guardians Emigration Committee is scheduled to meet at 4:30 pm

1897: The Jews’ College Education Committee is scheduled to meet this evening at Tavistock House.

1898: In Wilkes-Baree, PA, Edward and Bess Cohen gave birth to Edith Cohen who became Edith Lieberman when she married William Lieberman

1899: In ParisGaston Michel Calmann-Lévy and Hélène Koenigswarter gave birth to

 Robert Paul Michel Calmann-Levy

1899: One day after he had passed away, 72 year old Solomon Simons was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery in London.”

1900: Birthdate of Sidney R. Rabinovitz who gained fame as philanthropist and supermarket executive Sidney R. Rabb.

https://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/15/us/sidney-rabb-84-dies-supermarket-executive.html

http://findingaids.cjh.org/?pID=109208



1904(11th of Cheshvan, 5665): Sixty-one year old Joseph Bernhardt Bloomingdale the husband of Clara Koffman and the father of Rosalie Stanton Bloomingdale passed away today in New York City.



1904: Birthdate of multi-talented author Charles Kaufman, the native of Patterson, NJ, who screenplay for the film “Freud” was nominated for an Oscar.

1905(2st of Tishrei, 5666): Hosahan Raba

1905: A two day pogrom at Kishinev came to an end. According to some reports only 19 Jews were killed and 56 were injured.  This was the second pogrom that had taken place at Kishinev in the first decade of the twentieth century. The first pogrom in 1903 was the more infamous and deadly of the two.  Jewish self-defense leagues formed in 1903 helped to hold down the casualties in the second pogrom.



1905: A two day pogrom at Rostov came to an end leaving more than 150 Jews murdered, 500 more wounded and great damage done to the “Jewish shops, stores, warehouses and mills” despite the efforts of “a small self-defense detachment organized by the Po’le Zion.



1908(25th of Tishrei, 5669): Fifty-five year old Vaiben Louis Solomon, the son of Rachel (Cohen) Solomon and Judah Moss Solomon, husband of “Mary Bridgland” and then Alice Solomon  who combined a career as a businessman with a career in politics that climaxed with him becoming the “21st Premier of South Australia” passed away today.

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/solomon-vaiben-louis-8577

1909: Birthdate of silent screen actress Rebekah Isabelle "Carla" Laemmle, “the niece of Carl Laemmle, the founder of Universal Pictures.http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/20/movies/carla-laemmle-actress-with-silent-screen-debut-dies-at-104.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&_r=0



1910: Sixty-seven year old David B. Hill the Democratic political leader who as U.S. Senator from New York and Governor of New York openly opposed the American Protective Association (APA) an powerful anti-immigrant organization that favored discrimination against many groups including Jews, passed away.

1911: In the United Kingdom, the Home Secretary declined “to reduce sentences in connection with anti-Jewish riots in Wales.

1911:The “American Jewish Community in Jerusalem resolved to ask Jews in the United States to effect repeal of clause of naturalization laws providing for expatriation of naturalized American citizens resideing abroad.”

1911: “Ernst Schenieder, a notorious anti-Semite” was “appointed Chief of the Education Department for Lower Austria.

1911: In Austria, “Albert Frankfurter and Leopold Kronberger” received the “title of Court Councillor.”

1912(9th of Cheshvan, 5673): Oscar E. Appelgreen passed away today in “the Jewish Hospital” in Philadelphia where he had spent the last five weeks of his life.

1914: “The first remittance” from the American Jewish Relief Committee consisting of five thousand dollars for the Jews of Palestine and five thousand dollars for the Jews of Galicia was sent abroad today.

1915: A wireless telegraph from Berlin received at Sayville, Long Island today said “286 Jews in the German Army have been promoted to be officers.”

1915: In Revere, Massachusetts, “Harry J Ginsberg, a maintenance worker and Rose Harris gave birth to the Tufts and Columbia trained social worker and WW II veteran Mitchell Irving Ginsberg, the husband of Ida Robbins, who held leadership roles in the Peace Corps and VISTA while also teaching at Columbia.

https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/ginsberg-mitchell-irving



1916(23rd of Tishrei, 5677): Simchat Torah



1916: Producer Joseph M. Schenck who was Jewish married actress Norma Talmadge following which the couple formed the Norma Talmadge Film Corporation.



1916: It was reported today that at the Republican rally held at the Star Casino on Lexington Avenue, “the most enthusiastic applause came when Isaac Siegel happened to mention the name of Morris Hillquit, the Socialist writer and candidate for Congress” in what was supposed to have been a speech that would generate support the candidacy of Republican Charles Evans Hughes.



1917: In Berlin, Helen and Franz Hessel gave birth to Stéphane Frédéric Hessel, the naturalized French citizen who “was a diplomat, ambassador, writer, concentration camp survivor, French Resistance member and BCRA agent.”



1917: During WW I, a German submarine commanded by Martin Niemoller sank a British steamer. This is the same Martin Niemoller who as Pastor Niemoller became an anti-Nazi who went to the camps in 1937 where he remained until the end of WW II.

1918: Twenty-six year old Rabbi Aaron D. Bruack, the Kovno born son of Chaim Nathan and Basse Burack who had come to the United States in 1914 married Esther Inselbuch today.

1918: The New York Branch of the Jewish Welfare Board has transformed the dormitories of the Jewish Theological Seminary into a canteen for soldiers. Among other things, the canteen will provide meals for the troops and their visiting family members. The effort is being led by Mrs. Solomon Schechter whose son, a graduate of Columbia, is serving with the Army in France.

1918; Sergeant Abraham Blaustein who had been attending Army Candidate School at Dijon left today heading for La Vallone where he was to rejoin the 165th Regiment

1918: The founding conference of Yevsektsiya took place today. Yevsektsiya was the Jewish section of the Soviet Communist party and was established to popularize Marxism and encourage loyalty to the Soviet regime among Russian Jews. “For most of its existence, the Yevsektsya was headed by Semyon Dimanstein. Yevsektsiya was entirely subordinate to leadership of the Soviet Communist party. Yevsektsiya members were people of Jewish origin, but they were hostile to traditional Jewish culture and instead sought to assimilate Jews into the new Soviet society, often by repressive measures. In line with official Soviet doctrine, Yevsektsiya was deeply opposed to Bundism and Zionism, labeling them forms of "bourgeois nationalism”. The Yevsektsia was disbanded in 1929. Many leading members perished in the Great Purge. Dimanstein was arrested and received death sentence in 1938 and was executed. He was rehabilitated posthumously in 1955, 2 years after the death of Joseph Stalin.”



1920: Max Bruch passed away. The German composer and conductor was a Protestant. However, he wrote a piece for cello and orchestra which remains quite popular, Kol Nidrei based on Hebrew melodies, most notably the melody of the Kol Nidre, which gives the piece its name.



1920: Birthdate of Janet Rosenberg, the Chicago native who married Cheddi Jagan and as Janet Jagan played a key role in the political life of Guyana including serving as its sixth President.



1920: Birthdate of Clara Bagelman who gained fame as Claire Barry who with her sister formed a popular Yiddish singing duo.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/01/arts/music/claire-barry-half-of-yiddish-singing-duo-dies-at-94-.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=1



1923: Birthdate of actor Herschel Bernardi who is best remembered as Lt. Jacobi on the television hit, “Peter Gunn,” the voice of Charlie the Tuna and the second person to play Tevye in the Broadway hit, “Fiddler on the Roof.”



1924(22nd of Tishrei, 5685): Shemini Atzeret



1925: In Hechingen, Germany, writer, doctor and diplomat Friedrich Wolf who would take his family to the Soviet Union after the Nazis came to power and his wife gave birth to movie director Konrad Wolf, “the younger brother of Stasi spymaster Markus Wolf.”



1925: Birthdate of columnist Art Buchwald. The cigar-chomping humorist first gained popular acclaim for his daily column written from Paris. His annual Thanksgiving column where he would explain the holiday to the French was a classic.



1927: In Brooklyn, Estelle (née Rapaport)[4] and Morris K. Bauer, attorneys who shared a law practice gave birth to Joyce Diane Bauer who gained famed as psychologist, quiz show contestant and columnist Dr. Joyce Brothers.

1927: “The Eleven Devils,” a “sports film” directed by Zoltan Korda, a member of the famous Korda family, was released today in Germa

1928: “Love in the Cowshed” directed by future Nazi party member Carl Froelich and starring Jewish actor Eugen Neufeld and featuring Felix Bressart, the Jewish character actor who left Germany after the Nazis came to power was released today in Germany



1928: “In the presence of 400 Jewish leaders representing twenty-five States and Canada, Mr. Louis Marshall opened the Non-Zionist Conference at the Hotel Biltmore” this evening. (As reported by JTA)



1930: Lord Passfield issued his "White Paper" banning further land acquisition by Jews and slowing Jewish immigration. Chaim Weizmann who had always toed a pro-British line resigned in protest.



1930: In Boston, Sam Fisher who “ran the Fisher Shoe Company” and his wife gave birth to Jerome Fisher, the founder of “Nine West, a women’s shoe company.” (As reported by Daniel Slotnik)

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/30/business/jerome-fisher-a-founder-of-nine-west-dies-at-85.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=1





1932: “The Old Dark House” a horror film produced by Carl Laemmle, Jr, with a script co-authored by Benn W. Levy and co-starring Melvyn Douglas was released in the United States by Universal Pictures.



1933: “The Perils of Pauline” filmed by cinematographer Richard Fryer was released in the United States today by Universal Pictures.

1933(30th of Tishrei, 5694): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

1933(30th of Tishrei, 5694): “Loney” Haskell, the husband of the former Jessie Garson Haskell and the businessman turned entertainer who delivered the eulogy for Harry Houdini and was Secretary of the Jewish Theatrical Guild of America at the time of his death passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1933/10/21/105809314.pdf



1933(30th of Tishrei, 5694: Seventy-year old Bertha Simon Dreyfus, the New Orleans born daughter of David and Theresa Kaufman Simon, the wife of Isaac Dreyfus and the mother of Ruth, H. Artie, Jerome, and David Dreyfus   passed away today after which she was buried in the Congregation Anshe Emeth Cemetery in Pine Bluff, AR.

1935: Birthdate of Jerry Orbach. The actor has played everything from the father in the film “Dirty Dancing” to Detective Lenny Briscoe in “Law & Order.”



1935(23rd of Tishrei, 5696): Simchat Torah

1936: Birthdate of Aleandria native Jacques Hassoun, the French psychiatrist who became an amateur export on the history of the Egyptian Jewish Community.

http://www.bassatine.net/hassoun.php

1936: In Philadelphia, “delegates at the annual convention of Hadassah…cheered today” when a cablegram from Palestine was ready “announcing that ground had been broken on Mount for the Rothschild Hadassah University and Medical School, the first Medical Center in Palestine.”



1936: Felix M. Warburg, announced last that for “the third successive year Lawrence Marx” “the guest of honor at a dinner tonight at the Hotel Plaza” “will head the annual deficit campaign of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies.



1936: In Warsaw, “at the College of Commerce more than twenty Jewish students were severely beaten today by Nationalists when they refused to obey an order to leave their seats at the front of a class and occupy ‘ghetto’ back benches.”



1936: “The Charge of the Light Brigade” a film set in the Crimean War directed by Michael Curtiz, produced by Samuel Bishcoff, Hal B. Wallis and Jack L. Warner with music by Max Steiner was released in the United States today by Warner Bros.



1936(4th of Cheshvan, 5697): Mrs. Sarah Sandler, mother of New York Attorney Bernard Sandler, passed away in Tel Aviv today at the age of 85. Mrs. Sandler had lived in Palestine for the last 18 years. She was active in numerous charitable activities and refused her son’s request that she return to New York after the most recent outbreak of Arab violence.



1937(15th of Cheshvan, 5698): Felix M. Warburg, a member of the Jewish family known for its financial acumen and philanthropies passed away today at the age of 66.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F30C15FC3959177A93C3AB178BD95F438385F9

1937: In response to discrimination policies, Jews of Poland, assorted liberals and students went on strike. Within a few weeks the government succeeded in putting down the strike and enforcing its decrees. The environment of anti-Semitism obviously existed before the Nazis arrived and made their work much easier.

1937: The Palestine Post reported that a loud explosion which shook the American Colony was found to be due to a bomb thrown at a Jewish shop at the Simon the Just Quarter, just off the Nablus Road in Jerusalem. Shots were also fired at Jewish buses and an Armenian photographer was hit. A £2,000 fine was imposed on the Adh Dahariya village for raiding a police post. An immediate fine collection began in kind, livestock, wheat and other movables.

1938: Adolf Hitler gave “a speech at the city hall of Krumau, a city in southern Bohemia, in which he praised ‘Providence’ for having helped the German people achieve so much in recent years” bit added that “this was only possible because we stood armed…”

1940: More than 7000 Jews from the Saar region of Germany are interned at the camp at Gurs, France.

1942(9th of Cheshvan, 5703): Twelve thousand Jews are murdered at Bar in the Transnistria region of the Ukraine.

1942: “The Art of This Century Gallery,” which “exhibited important modern art until it closed in 1947” and which was designed by Frederick Kiesler was opened today by Peggy Guggenheim today in Manhattan

1942: Samuel “Willenberg boarded the Holocaust train along with 6,500 inmates of the then-liquidated Opatów ghetto, and went with them to the extermination camp at Treblinka.”



1942(9th of Cheshvan, 5703): Seventy-four year old classical scholar Friedrich Münzer who had been officially classified as Jewish in 1935 by the Nazis died today at Theresienstadt concentration camp.



1942: The deportations of Jews from Slovakia were halted today after a group of Jewish citizens, led by Gisi Fleischmann and Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl, built a coalition of concerned officials from the Vatican and the government, and, through a mix of bribery and negotiation, was able to stop the process. By then, however, some 58,000 Jews had already been deported, mostly to Auschwitz. The deportations would be resumed in 1944.



1943: Mrs. Moses Schorr, her daughter Felicia and the grandchildren of Moses Schorr arrived in the French town of Vittel where they were supposed to be exchanged for German POW’s.



1943: Irene Sendler was arrested in a Gestapo night raid on her apartment and taken to Pawiak prison where she was tortured. Sendler held out and did not betray any of confederates with whom she worked to smuggle 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto.

https://jwa.org/thisweek/oct/20/1943/this-week-in-history-irena-sendler-saves-jewish-children-from-warsaw-ghetto



1944: Nazis put 25,000 Hungarian Jewish men and 10,000 Jewish women to work digging anti-tank trenches in the path of the advancing Red Army.



1944: Men of the Polish Home Army attack Jewish houses in the freshly liberated village of Ejszyszki. The village's Jews subsequently retaliate against the Poles.



1944: 22,000 Budapest Jews are entrained for deportation to Auschwitz.



1944: Nazi administrators at Auschwitz burn documents related to prisoners and their fates.



1944: Nazis initiate death-march deportations of Jews from Budapest, Hungary, to Germany.

1944(21st of Tishrei, 5769): At Birkenau, 600 of 650 boys between the ages of 14 and 16 whohad been locked in barracks since the Revolt at Birkenau on October 7, would be gassed. Most of them were Hungarians. Many race about the camp, naked and panicked, before being clubbed by the SS guards who pursue them. The 50 survivors are put to work unloading potatoes from railcars.

1944: On this day the deportations from Hungary begin again. Despite the uprisings, more Jews from Theresienstadt were selected for death. Another 1,416 would be gassed.

1945(13th of Cheshvan, 5706): Parashat Lech-Lecha

1945(13th of Cheshvan, 5706): Eighty-four year old Isaac (Isaak)) Plaut, the German born son of Betti and Mendel Manachem Plaut and the husband of Fannie Plaut passed away today in the United States.



1946: Birthdate of Austrian Novelist Elfriede Jelink, winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize for Literature. “Elfriede Jelinek was born in the village of Mürzzuschlag in Styria, Austria. Although Jelinek’s father was classified a Mischling (a person of “mixed races”) under National Socialism, he and his wife escaped the most extreme excesses of anti-Semitic persecution due to his work as a chemist in war research. Jelinek is not considered a Jewish writer per se, but the author herself positions her writings within the Jewish tradition and history. Critics, too, prompted by the scathing irony underlying her texts, traces a continuity between the Austrian Jewish satirical tradition - represented in the writings of Karl Kraus or Elias Canetti - and Jelinek, while recognizing the latter’s radicalization of that tradition.”

1947: The leaders of the Jewish refugees living in DP camps under British control sent a telegram that “makes clear the wishes and determination of the refugees to find a home in Palestine.’Nothing will deter us from Palestine. Which jail we go to is up to you (the British). We did not ask you to reduce our rations; we did not ask you to put us in Poppendorf and Am Stau.’" [Poppendorf and Am Stau were in Germany.]

1947: HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee) opened hearings into alleged Communist influence in Hollywood. While engaging in its highly publicized search for alleged Communists, HUAC certainly had a tendency to stir up a lot of collateral anti-Semitic dust. Ironically, many of the cooperative witnesses who were the first to take the stand were Jewish including Jack Warner, Louis B. Mayer (ex-chairman of the Republican Party's California State Committee) and Ayn Rand. Warner told HUAC: "Ideological termites have burrowed into many American industries, organizations and societies. Wherever they may be, I say let us dig them out and get rid of them. My brothers and I will be happy to subscribe generously to a pest-removal fund. We are willing to establish such a fund to ship to Russia the people who don't like our American system of government and prefer the Communistic system to ours." Ayn Rand who was identitified as a “Russian émigré” attacked "Song of Russia," complaining that the Soviet peasants smiled too much. Red-baiter Adolphe Menjou testified on Oct. 21 that he believed the Communist Party should be "outlawed." HUAC and its right-wing supporters were quick to tie Jews to Communists, making the two seem to be one in the same. However, they never identified the friendly witnesses as Jews. This would have interfered with the Right Wing prejudice and conspiracy theoris.

1947: "The Careful Dreamer," a Time magazine cover story on Oscar Hammerstein II, was published today.

1948: After five days of fighting along the Jerusalem Corridor, there is no major change in territorial holdings.



1948(17th of Tishrei, 5709): Chol Hamoed Sukkoth



1948(17th of Tishrei, 5709): “In a low-level bombing attack on the strategic Egyptian-held fortress of Iraq-El-Suweidan, one of the recently acquired Bristol Beaufighter Bombers was shot down, killing Len Fitchett, Dov Sugarman, and Stanley Andrews



1948: “A smaller force from the Fifth Battalion broke-away and travelled with a battle corps of the 10th Armored Brigade on the Bayt Jibrin highway and captured Beit Jimal.



1948:The internal Negev road from Julis to Bror Hayil through Kawkaba and Huleiqat was taken today by Givati's 52nd and 54th battalions. Upon taking Huleiqat, the Israelis discovered a mass grave where the Egyptians buried Israeli casualties of the failed July Negev Brigade attack.

1949(27th of Tishrei, 5710): Seventy-three year old Cincinnati born “artist, etcher” and portrait paineter David Rosenthal passed away today.



1950: The SS Benjamin Peixotto, a decommissioned Liberty ship was refloated in a harbor in Hong Kong after having been damaged by a typhoon.  The ship was named after the 19th century American-Jewish leader who had served as U.S. Consul to Bucharest.



1952: In Philadelphia, PA, Norma (née Goodman)Mayron, a real estate agent, and David Mayron, a pharmaceutical chemist gave birth to actress and director Melanie Joy Mayron who was the product of a “mixed” marriage since her father was Sephardic and her mother was Ashkenazi family.

http://www.filmreference.com/film/53/Melanie-Mayron.html



1952: Birthdate of Dalia Itzik, the native of Jerusalem born to a family of Iraqi Jews who was the first female Speaker of the Knesset.

1953(11th of Cheshvan, 5714): Sixty-one year Fred E. Ahlert, the Fordham Law School graduate who decided to become a composer and songwriter passed away today.

http://www.jazzbiographies.com/Biography.aspx?ID=1

1953: CBS broadcast an episode of “See It Now” entitled "The Case of Milo Radulovich" co-produced by Edward R. Murrow and Joseph Wershba which was a landmark in exposing the Red Scare led by Joe McCarthy and other reactionaries. (Wershba was Jewish; Murrow wasn’t)



1953: General Kenneth Nichols retired from the Army which enabled him to become a senior management at the AEC which would enable him to lead the fight to take away the security clearance for J. Robert Oppenheimer.



1954(23rd of Tishrei, 5715): Simchat Torah



1954: The 1954 musical version of “Peter Pan” directed by Jerome Robbin with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and music by Jule Styne opened at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City.

1955: Composer Alfred Newman and Martha Louis Montgomery gave birth to Grammy, Golden Globe and Emmy award winning composer Thomas Newman

1959: CBS broadcast an adaptation of “The Turn of the Screw” directed by John Frankenheimer.



1963(2nd of Cheshvan, 5724): Eighty-one year old Elias Tobenkin, the Russian born son of Mark A and Fanny Tobekin, University of Wisconsin graduate whose career in journalism including working for the “Hearst Newspapers,” “The New York Tribune” and JTA who was the husband of the former Rae Schwid, passed away today

https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingaid.cfm?eadid=00256



http://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w6259g62



1963: Today “a special memorial programs was held at the Hebrew Confederate Cemetery the plaque marking the final resting place of Henry Grintberger who was killed at the Battle of Cold Harbor was corrected so that it no longer showed the last name of Gersberg.



1963: In Moscow, Rudolf Naumovich Solovyov, and Inna Solomonovna Shapiro gave birth to Russian electronic journalist Vladimir Rudol'fovich Solovyov who “was awarded the TEFI Russian television prize as the best interviewer.”



1964: Herbert Hoover 31st President of the United States passed away. Hoover named Benjamin Cardozo as Associate Justice to the Supreme Court in 1932. How a Hawkeye Quaker came to name a liberal Sephardic New York Jew to the High Court without incurring a burst of anti-Semitic diatribes is one of the under-told stories of the 20th century



1964: “Golden Boy” a musical based on Clifford Odets’ play of the same name produced Hillard Elkins by with music by Charles Strouse starring Sammy Davis, Jr. opened on Broadway at the Majestic Theatre.



1964:Henry David Leonard George Walston, the son of Florence and Sir Charles Waldestein began serving as Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, a position he would hold until the “beginning of 1967.



1967: Seven men were convicted in Meridian, Miss., of violating the civil rights of three murdered civil rights workers. Two of the three victims were Jewish youngsters who had come South during the summer of 1964 to work on a voter registration project. Their deaths helped bring about the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.



1969: NBC broadcast episode six of “My World…and Welcome to it” created by Melville Shavelson, co-starring Harold J. Stone.

1971: “The Organization” the third and final of the “Mr. Tibbs Trilogy” that began with the ground-breaking “In the Heat of the Night” produced by Walter Mirisch was released today in the United States.



1971: “T. R. Baskin” a dark “romantic” drama directed by Herbert Ross, produced and written by Peter Hyams and co-starring James Caan was released today in the United States by Paramount Pictures



1972: In Ann Arbor, Michigan, cardiologist Irwin Schatz and his wife gave birth to Brian Emanuel Schatz, the future Senator from Hawaii.

1972: Tonight, Maurice Gusman “the 87year old immigrant, now millionaire, with tears in his eyes faced a standing and cheering audience of some 1,800 Miamians who came to the inauguration of the Maurice Gusman Philharmonic Hall, formerly the Olympia Theater, the new home of the Miami Philharmonic Orchestra.”



1973: When their F-4E Phantom Jet was hit by an Egyptian SAM, Aharon Sagi and Moshe Barton were recovered by the IDF after safely ejecting from their aircraft.



1973: David Zeit and Yoram Rubenstein were taken prisoner after their F-4E Phantom Jet was hit by an Egyptian SAM.  The Israeli Air force faced a Soviet designed air defense network that was more sophisticated than anything any air force had had to cope with in modern warfare.  The willingness of these flyers to take to the skies is a tribute to their individual courage and those who were shot down were no less heroes than those who made it safely back to base.



1973: “Starting at sunrise” today, “the Israeli Air Force launched aerial attacks for the duration of the day, targeting Ismailia, the nearby al-Galaa' army base, and Jebel Mariam

1973:Israeli forces came within 10 miles of Damascus.

1973: William Shatner married Marcy Laffert. Yes, Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock were both played by Jewish actors.

1973: The Israelis shot down Syrian aircraft on its way to bomb the oil refineries at Haifa. The IDF force on the west bank of the Suez Canal continued to widen its area of activity. The Israelis were actually taking control of some of the roads between Cairo and the Canal – between the Egyptian capital and the attacking Egyptian armies. While the Israelis understand what is happening, the Egyptian high command either is not aware of what is going or is hiding the truth from its battlefield commanders.

1976: Twenty-eight activists demonstrated at the Supreme Soviet demanding that those who beat up Jewish activists on October 19 be punished.

1977: Rachel Vixman, “authority on parliamentary procedure and a founder of the Pittsburgh Chapter of Hadassah” was interviewed to by Ida Selavan for a project created by the Pittsburgh Section of the National Council of Jewish Women.

https://historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/object/pitt%3Aais196440.477

1982: Revival performance of Abraham Goldfaden’s “Shulamith” presented by Ben Bonus, Lively and Yiddish Productions, in association with the Yiddish Musical Theater of Israel, producer, Dr. Rabbi Israel Walin at the Norman Thomas Theater in New York City.

1982(3rd of Cheshvan, 5743):Aryeh Ze'ev (Leib) Gurwicz “the son-in-law of Rabbi Elyah Lopian and best known as Rosh Yeshiva of the Gateshead Yeshiva in Gateshead, England, where he taught for over 30 years” passed away today.

1983: Today, “Lillian Goldman moved out of the Waldorf-Astoria suite she shared with her husband Sol” the hold of “New York City’s largest private real estate empire” and “began divorce proceedings in which she asked for half of his $1 billion in assets.”

1985: In a review entitled “A Place Like No Other,” Michael Grant, the author of The Jews in the Roman Empire and A History of Ancient Israel examines Jerusalem: The Holy City in the Eyes of Chroniclers, Visitors, Pilgrims, and Prophets From the Days of Abraham to the Beginnings of Modern Times  by F. E. Peters.

1985: At Temple Beth Am, Rabbi Sanford E. Saperstein officiated at the wedding of Cornell underrad Donna Sue Glickstern, and Albert Wise Tanenbaum, “the son of Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Jerome Tanenbaum, Jr. of Dumas, Arkansas.

1986: Shimon Peres completes his second term in office as Prime Minister of Israel.

1986: Yitzhak Shamir began his second office term as Israel's prime minister

1988: In Moscow, founding of Mikhoel’s Cultural Center.

https://www.rbth.com/arts/2013/05/06/a_memorable_embassy_performance_pays_tribute_to_the_legacy_of_solomon_mi_25743.html



1989(21st of Tishrei, 5750): Hoshana Rabah

1989(21st of Tishrei, 5750): Sixty-five year old “Israeli radio broadcaster, journalist, playwright, and author” Dahn Ben-Amotz who made Aliyah in 1938 and whose parents died in the Holocaust lost his battle with liver cancer and passed away today.

1990: Among those celebrating today’s Cincinnati’s four game sweep that made them World Champions is Larry Rothschild the former pitcher now serving as a coach for the Reds.

1990(1st of Cheshvan, 5751): Shabbat Rosh Chodesh Chehsvan; parashat Noach

1990(1st of Cheshvan, 5751): Eighty-two year old Stanley “Stan” Jaloff, the California native who was a star basketball player for the University of Washington Huskies from 1928 to 1930 passed away today.

1992(23rd of Tishrei, 5753): Simchat Torah is celebrated for the last time during the Presidency of George Bush.

1994(15th of Cheshvan, 5755): Shlomo Calbach passed away. Words cannot describe what he has done. Everybody has their favorite Carlbach tunes or songs. Here are two sites where you can sample some of his work by BenZion Solomon. I do not get any royalties. I just happen to like them. http://www.israel-music.com/ben_zion_solomon_sons/nishmas_kol_chai/>



http://www.israel-music.com/ben_zion_solomon_sons/lchu_nrannoh/>



1995: NBC broadcast the first show of season 4 of “Homicide: Life on the Street” based on a book by David Simon and co-starring Richard Belzer and Yaphet Kotto.



1998: “After eighteen years of using the Sabin vaccine, the federal government recommended that children use the Salk vaccine exclusively” today



2000(21st of Tishrei, 5761): Hoshana Rabah

2000: “Bedazzled” a remake of the 1967 comedy directed by Harold Ramis who co-produced the film and co-authored the screenplay with Larry Gelbart was released in the United States today.

2002: In an article entitled “Funny, You Don't Look Jewish,” Judith Shulevitz reviews Hillel Halkin's Across the Sabbath River: In Search of a Lost Tribe of IsraelAcross the Sabbath River relates an improbable story: a people on a remote border of India, Tibet and Burma want to migrate to modern Israel because they believe themselves to be descended from one of the 10 tribes exiled from ancient Israel 2,700 years ago, and close analysis of their folklore hints that they may be right.”



2002: Ceremonies marking the dedication of Har Sinai’s new facility in Owings Mill, a reform congregation with roots in pre-Civil War Baltimore came to an end.



2004:The Cedar Rapids Gazette reported on a speech given by Schindler's List survivor Rena Finder. Now 75 and living in Massachusetts, Finder told of what it was like to be a ten year old in Krakow, Poland in 1939 when the Nazis arrived. "Nobody saw us, nobody helped us, nobody cared." In speaking about Schindler she said, "What Oskar Schindler did for us and for the world, nobody, nobody had achieved."



2004: The Cedar Rapids Gazettereported that "a Holocaust-era diary and love letters written by a Jewish woman for her Dutch boyfriend in an internment camp in 1943 have been donated to a Dutch archives." The woman who was named Helga Deen died at Sobibor.



2005: Mikhail Khodorkovsky was delivered to the labor camp YaG-14/10.”The labor camp is attached to a uranium mining and processing plant and during Soviet times had a reputation as a place from which nobody returned alive.”



2005: Earle Irving Mack, the son real estate developer H. Bert Mack and Ruth Kaufman Mack, completed his service as the 30th United States Ambassador to Finland.



2006: “The Great Conjurer,” a new play about Franz Kafka, premiers at the Kirk Theatre in New York City.



2007: As part of the Daniel Pearl Memorial Concert the Alei Gefen Chorus performs "A Ceremony of Songs" at Kol Haneshama Synagogue, to mark the fifth anniversary of the murder of Jewish journalist, Daniel Pearl, in Pakistan.



2007: In a story with dateline of Fayetteville, Arkansas,The Cedar Rapids Gazette reported that “a Jewish synagogue is rising in the hills of Arkansas, in large part because of the generosity of the project contractor: a Muslim immigrant from the West Bank. Fadil Bayyari, a Springdale, Ark., general contractor, agreed to waive his regular fee for Temple Shalom, saving the Reform congregation at least $250,000. Bayyari, who built the mosque in Fayetteville, cited both religions’ ties to Abraham and said the fact that his faith community, too, lacked its own building until the mosque was completed.”



2008(21st of Tishrei, 5769): Hoshana Rabbah



2008: “The re-trial of Phil Spector for murder in the second degree in the death of Lana Clarkson began today.



2008: Haaretz reports that “the Foreign Ministry is examining an initiative aimed at reaching a long-term non-belligerence pact with Lebanon to prevent renewed fighting along the northern border.”



2008: The Menier Chocolate Factory production of Jerry Herman’s “La Cage aux Folles” transferred to the West End at the Playhouse Theatre co-produced with Sonia Friedman Productions, Robert G. Bartner, David Ian Productions, The Ambassador Theatre Group, Matthew Mitchell and Jamie Hendry Productions



2009: The first group of Kaifeng Jews arrived in Israel, in an aliyah operation coordinated by Shavei Israel.

2009: Andrew Ross “Sorkin's book on the Wall Street banking crisis, Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System—and Themselves, was published by Viking” today.



2009: Opening session of the National Jewish Democratic Conference Washington Conference.



2009: Opening session of the Presidents’ Conference in Jerusalem.



2009: At the Hyman S. Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival Zoë Heller discusses The Believers in a conversation with Ron Charles, Senior Editor of The Washington Post Book World



2009: International Harp Contest in Tel Aviv-Jaffa comes to an end.



2010: A program entitled “Miryam Kabakov, ed., Keep Your Wives Away from Them: Orthodox Women, Unorthodox Desires” is scheduled to be presented at The Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary in Washington, D.C.



2010: The American Jewish Historical Society and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research are scheduled to present :Revisiting the American Soviet Jewry Movement: A Panel Discussion Honoring the Publication of Gal Beckerman's book When They Come for Us, We'll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry



2010(12th of Cheshvan, 5771): Ninety-five year old Coleman Jacoby, “a comedy writer during the golden age of television who, with his partner Arnie Rosen, created some of Jackie Gleason’s most memorable characters and engineered one of the great match-ups in television history, Gleason and Art Carney,” passed away today (As reported by William Grimes.’)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/13/arts/television/13jacoby.html

2010(12th of Cheshvan, 5771):Seventy-seven year old  Robert Katz, an author and screenwriter who incurred the wrath of the Vatican by accusing Pope Pius XII of failing to act to stave off a Nazi massacre of Italians in 1944, passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/22/arts/22katz.html?_r=0

2011(22nd of Tishrei, 5772): Shemini Atzeret

2011:Today, two Israeli soldiers were struck by a Palestinian vehicle at a checkpoint near Beit Ur al-Fauqa south of Ramallah in the West Bank. The soldiers were lightly injured and evacuated to a hospital in Jerusalem after a Palestinian driver reportedly sped past other cars waiting in line at the checkpoint, ramming the soldiers, and then speeding away.



2011: Noam Shalit, father of recently released Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, said  today that claims his son was not tortured during his time in Hamas captivity should be taken "with a grain of salt.".



2012(4th of Cheshvan, 5773): Eighty-six year old philosopher Paul Kurtz passed away today.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/22/us-religion-kurtz-idUSBRE89L19D20121022

http://www.centerforinquiry.net/paul_kurtz_obituary



2011: Ninety-year old Jerzy Bielecki, a World War II resistance fighter, passed away today. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/24/world/europe/jerzy-bielecki-dies-at-90-fell-in-love-in-a-nazi-camp.html



2012(4th of Cheshvan, 5773): Eighty-five year old science writer and Timemagazine editor Leon Jaroff passed away today. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/22/business/media/leon-jaroff-editor-at-time-and-discover-magazines-dies-at-85.html?hpw



2012: Temple Beth-El in Bloomfield, Michigan, is scheduled to host a special ceremony blessing pets belonging to members of the congregation.



2012: The Israeli band, Flora, is scheduled to perform at Muchmore’s in Brooklyn, NY



2012: Shalom Bard is scheduled to make his debut as RBC resident conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra today “at a special concert featuring violinist and conductor Maxim Vengerov.”



2012:Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid called to "finally get rid of the Palestinians" by giving them their own state at a cultural event in Kiryat Motzkin today.

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=288611





2012: The Israeli Navy today surrounded a ship carrying pro-Palestinian activists intent on breaching Gaza’s blockade as it approached the coastal strip. IDF soldiers boarded the vessel without employing the use of force and rerouted it to the port of Ashdod, where it arrived just after 8 p.m. local time

http://www.timesofisrael.com/navy-surrounds-and-boards-ship-carrying-pro-palestinian-activists-to-gaza/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=34e326e8e8-2012_10_20&utm_medium=email



2013: In Baltimore, Barry Steelman is scheduled to present “Standing by Their Flags,” exploring the Jewish military experience on both sides of the Civil War at the Jewish Museum of Maryland

2013: Dani Shapiro “appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s Super Soul to discuss her new book Devotion.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/16/books/review/hourglass-time-memory-marriage-dani-shapiro.html?ref=headline&nl_art=&te=1&nl=book-review&emc=edit_bk_20170519



2013: ‘Nazi loot’ Is In Major National Gallery Show” published today described E. Randol Schoeberg’s contention that “An unfinished portrait by Gustav Klimt used as the centerpiece of the National Gallery's major new exhibition is loot stolen by the Nazis.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/nazi-loot-is-in-major-national-gallery-show-8891813.html



2013: Folk/Reggae/songwriting Rabbi Jack Gabriel, a leader in the Jewish Renewal Movement is scheduled to perform in Alexandria, VA.



2013(16thof Cheshvan, 5774): Ninety-year old Sid Yudain, the founder of “Roll Call” passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/27/us/politics/sid-yudain-who-created-roll-call-dies-at-90.html?ref=obituaries

2013: In Australia, “The Songs They Sang,” a musical narrative of the Vilna Ghetto during World War II is scheduled to be performed at the South Melbourne Town Hall

2013: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to host a walking tour that will showcase Jewish life in the historic Seventh Street, NW Community from 1850 to 1950

2013: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host as special of book launch of Out Chaos: Hidden Children Remember the Holocaust edited by Elaine Saphier Cox

2013: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present “Performing Captivity, Performing Escape: Cabarets and Plays from the Terezín/Theresienstadt Ghetto”

2013:The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats is scheduled to close today.

http://www.nmajh.org/SpecialExhibitions/

2013: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Roth Unbound: A Writer and His Books by Claudia Roth Pierpont, Norman Mailer: A Double Life by J. Michael Lennon, Identical by Scott Turow and Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation by Yossi Klein Halevi

2013: In Milwaukee, WI, Meaghan Meredith Reider, daughter of Sue and Dr. Ron Reider, pillars’ of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa Jewish community married Mikhail Iosifovich Guterman son of Dina Gezhes and Iosif Guterman.

2013: While no injuries or significant damages afflicted surrounding areas, a string of minor earthquakes have rattled Israel’s North over the past few days – including two today alone. An earthquake with a magnitude of 3.6 on the Richter scale hit the Hula Valley-Kinneret region this morning at around 11:50 am, with its epicenter in the northwestern portion of the Kinneret – a few kilometers northeast of Kibbutz Ginosar and a few kilometers south of Capernaum, according to data from the Israel Geophysical Institute’s Seismology Division. Just four hours later, at 3:54 p.m., another quake with a 3.5 magnitude similarly shook the region. (As reported by Sharon Udasin)

http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Earth-continues-to-move-as-another-minor-earthquake-shakes-Israel-329217

2013: News of Karnit Flug's appointment as the head of the Bank of Israel has been well received, with opposition leader Shelly Yacimovich of Labor even hailing the appointment as "enlightened." Her appointment along with that of Janet Yellin as Chair of the Federal Reserve Board means that Jewish women occupy the two highest financial positions in their country’s for the first time in history

2014: John Adams’ “The Death of Klinghoffer” which is  consistently accused of being anti-Semitic because of its sympathetic and factually inaccurate portrayal of the terrorists who hijacked the “Achille Lauro” and murdered wheelchair-bound Jewish-American Leon Klinghoffer” is scheduled to have its debut at the Met in New York today.

2014: The Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival  is scheduled to host “Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks for a multi-media concert based on the story of the Sarajevo Haggadah and featuring Bosnian-born composer and accordionist Merima Kljuco.”

2014: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present an evening of film and discussion with historian Linda J. Borish, examining “Women in American Sport: Settlement Houses to the Olympics.”

2014: “Twenty-one year-old British citizen Garron Helm was sentenced to jail for sending a “grossly offensive” anti-Semitic tweet to Liverpool Labor MP Luciana Berger, UK's Jewish News reported today.”

2014: In Coralville, IA, Agudas Achim is scheduled to host its inaugural Sisterhood Lunch Out for 5775.

2014: “Former Nazis should not be collecting Social Security benefits as they age overseas, the White House said today, responding to an Associated Press investigation that revealed millions of dollars have been paid to war-crimes suspects and former SS guards forced out of the US.” (As reported by Richard Lardner, David Rising and Randy Herschaft)

2014: “Former Likud minister Moshe Kahlon announced today that he will start a new political party focused on reducing the cost of living in Israel.” (As reported by Lazar Berman)

2014: “A former National Union of Students (NUS) President voiced condemnation for the Goldsmith University and its Student Union's rejection of a motion to commemorate the Holocaust.” (As reported by Cynthia Blank)

2015: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington and the Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival are scheduled to host “The Game Must Go On: Hank Greenberg, Pete Gray and the Great Days of Baseball on the Home Front in WWII.”

2015: At the Skirball, Dr. Ron Wolfson, a native of Omaha, Nebraska, is scheduled to discuss The Best Boy in the United States: A Memoir of Blessings and Kisses

2015: The Dallas-based Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art foundation which was established to honor the hundreds of “Monuments Men” who saved more than 5 million artworks stolen by the Nazis announced today that it will cease operations at the end of October due to a lack of funds

2016(18thof Tishrei, 5777): Fourth Day of Sukkoth

2016(18thof Tishrei, 5777): Ninety-one year old Litvak Stanley Silverstein, who co-founded Nina Footware with his brother Mike passed away today. (As reported by Daniel Slotnik)

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/26/business/stanley-silverstein-dead.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

2016: In England, an election is scheduled to be held to fill the seat vacate by former Prime Minster David Cameron in which 81 year old Larry Sanders, the brother of Senator and failed presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is the Green Party Candidate.

2016: In Haifa, “a competition for the title of Strongest Person” is scheduled to take place “at the BIG station in the Checkpoint intersection.”

2016: The Skirball Center is scheduled to host “Let’s Talk About Pickles” a discussion about the best green vegetable in the world lead by Sandor Katz, author of Wild Fermentation.

2016: “Israeli archaeologists found the site of a fierce battle where the Roman army bombarded and breached the walls of Jerusalem before conquering the city and destroying the Second Temple almost 2,000 years ago, officials said today.”

http://www.timesofisrael.com/archaeologists-find-battle-site-where-romans-breached-jerusalem-walls/

2016: The London Jewish Cultural Centre is scheduled to host a screening of “Watermarks” Yaron Zilberman’s film about “the champion women swimmers of the legendary sports club, Hakoah” which “was founded in 1909 in response to the notorious Aryan Paragraph, which forbade Austrian sports clubs from accepting Jewish athletes.”



2017(30thof Cheshvan, 5778): First Day Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan;

2017: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host “a special Oneg Shabbat” marking the opening of the exhibition of “On Jews and Chocolate” – “an indulgent evening for the chocolate lover in all of us.”

2017: Today, a group of about 300 men and women including “dozens of veterans of the Six Day War” were barred by Security guards from “entering the main plaza of the Western while holding a Torah scroll while a “Six Day War veteran named Micha Eshet, 70, was shoved to the ground by Orthodox protesters while holding the scroll…” (JTA)

2017: In Atlanta, the High Museum of Art is scheduled to host a talk by Holocaust survivor Henry Friedman “talk about his post-war experience as a street artist in Italy on his way to America.”

2018: In Jerusalem, the Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host a “Special Concert” featuring Pianist Oxana Yablonskaya playing the works “by Schubert, Liszt, Chopin and Mendelssohn.”

2018: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a lunch after morning services.

2018: During Homecoming Week at the University of Iowa, this evening Hillel, led by its Executive Director David Weltman, is scheduled to host a special evening complete with drinks and hors d’oeuvres.

2018(11thof Cheshvan, 5779): Parashat Lech-Lecha;  

2019: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Hitler’s Last Hostages: Looted Art and the Soul of the Third Reichby Mary Lane.

2019: The American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to host a walking tour led by Tony Michels who “traces how the Yiddish socialist movement influenced NY politics and culture.”

2019: French historian and psychologist Jacques Sémelin is scheduled to discuss his book, The Survival of the Jews in France at the Breman Museum in Atlanta.

2019: The Eyal Vilner Big aBand is scheduled to return to Birdland Jazz Club.

2019: In Los Gatos, CA, the Addison-Penzak JCC is scheduled to host the “Sukkot BBQ.”

2019: In San Francisco, Congregation Sherith Israel is scheduled to host a performance of “Nabucco,” Verdi’s opera based on the story of the Babylonian king who destroyed the First Temple.

2019: In New Orleans, the Jewish Federation is scheduled to host “JNOLA’s Safari in the Sukkah.”

2019(21st of Tishrei, 5780): Hoshana Rabah

http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/








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