This Day ... In Jewish History

November 30

1215: The Fourth Lateran Council which had been led by Innocent III came to a close. The Fourth Lateran Council made first official use of the term "transubstantiation," with reference to the Eucharist (Lord's Supper). The adoption of this concept would lead to anti-Semitic outbreaks based on charges that Jews had desecrated the Host i.e. the wafer that was seen as being the body of Christ.

1286 Pope Honorius wrote to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, reaffirming the decision of the Lateran Councils. He enlarged on the evils of relations between Christians and Jews and warned of the pernicious consequences of the study of the Jews’ Talmudgoing so far as to issue a bull condemning the Jewish text.

1518: Maria Lopez and her daughter Isabel were sentenced to death by the Inquisition after having been charged with “juadizing. (As reported by Renee Levine Melammed)

1631(5^th of Kislev, 5932): Rabbi Samuel Eliezer ben Judah ha-levi Edels passed away. Born in Cracow in 1555, Edels is known by the acronym Maharsha. He was known as outstanding Talmudist and master of dialectics whose commentaries were of such value that they were included in most editions of the Talmud. Edels was a man of character as well as erudition. “He attacked the misuse of rabbinic authority and the attempt made by wealthy individuals to monopolize communal offices.”

1654: Sixty-nine year old John Selden an English jurist and student of Jewish law whose writing included a 1646 treatise on marriage and divorce among the Jews entitled Uxor Ebraica, passed away today.

1654: Sixty nine year old English jurist and scholar John Selden, “the first Talmudist in England since the expulsion of the Jews…who recognized the humanness of Jewish marital law and found in Deuteronomy and the Talmud a model for the proper relationsip between the judicial and executive branches of government” and who wrote The Jewish Wife, a work “on the theory and practice of Jewish marriage and divorce law” passed away today.

1670: Birthdate of John Toland, Anglo-Irish author and philosopher. In 1714, at a time when Jews were still considered to be outsiders by many Englishman, Toland wrote “Reasons for Naturalizing the Jews” in which he advocated “full citizenship and equal rights for the Jewish people.

1725: Today Felix de Castro, a Spanish physician living at Agramunt “was condemned by the Inquisition for life for Judaizing.

1726: In Dusseldorf, Lazarus Eliezer Leiser Joseph van Geldern and Sara Lea van Geldern gave brith to Dr. Gottschalk van Geldern.

1748(9^th of Kislev, 5509): Mordecai ben Jacob Ẓahalon, a doctor and rabbi who was part of a famous Sephardic family, passed away today in Ferrara, Italy. Among his many books were Megillat Naharot," describing the miraculous rescue of the Jewish community of Ferrara from the inundation that occurred in 1707

1774: Pamphleteer Thomas Paine whose opposition to Monarchy was based in part on his reading of the Bible where the Israelite kings had a propensity for leading their subjects into the evils of idolatry, arrived in Philadelphia on the eve of the American Revolution.

1778: The “40 year old wife of Abraham ben Simon” was buried today at the “Alderney Road (Globe Road) Jewish Cemetery.”

1782: In Paris, representatives from the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain sign preliminary peace articles (later formalized as the 1783 Treaty of Paris).

1790: King Leopold II forwarded the petition from the Jews asking for full equality with other citizens to the “chancelleries of Hungary and Moravia” to see if this change would be supported.

1790: Georgia Governor, Edward Telfair granted to Levy Sheftall, Cushman Pollock, Joseph Abrahams, Mordecai Sheftall, Abraham de Pas, Emanuel de la Motta, and their successors a charter of incorporation wherein they were declared to be "a body incorporates by the name and style of the 'Parnass and Adjuntas of the Mickve Israel at Savannah.'" This charter is still in the hands of the congregation and it is the document under which it operates to this day.

1790: Birthdate of Klingen, Germany native Samuel Weis, the husband of Agatha Klein and the father of Julius and Sophia Weis.

1803: In New Orleans, Louisiana, Spanish representatives officially transfer the Louisiana Territory to a French representative. Just 20 days later, France transfers the same land to the United States as the Louisiana Purchase.

1805: In Chatham, Kent, England, Lazarus Magnus and Sarah Moses gave birth to Jacob Magus.

1813: In Paris, Alkan Morhange and Julie Morhange, née Abraham gave birth to Charles-Valentin Morhange, the descendant of Ashkenazi from Metz who gained fame as French pianist and composer Charles-Valentin Alkan.

http://www.alkansociety.org/

1813: William VI, the future King William I who would play an active role in the reorganization of the Dutch Jewish community arrived at Scheveningen.

1817: Birthdate of German scholar and political leader Theodore Mommsen who denounced the anti-Semitic campaign being led by his colleague Heinrich von Treitschke and who descried the “position and influence of Jews in the Roman Empire” in his multi-volume History of Rome.

1823: Birthdate of German botanist Nathanael Pringsheim who “in 1882 established the German Botanical Society, which in twelve years included over 400 German botanists, and of which he was annually elected president until his death.”

1824(9^th of Kislev, 5585):Sixty year old David David, the Montreal born son of Lazarus David and Phebe Samuel, the fur trader and militia officer who was the first Jew born in the Province of Quebec passed away today.

1825: In Liverpool, Sarah and Lyon Samson gave birth to Lewis Samson.

1831(25^th of Kislev, 5592): Chanukah

1833: In London, Rebecca Jacobs and Michael Meir Myers gave birth to Maia Golda Myers.

1836: Today, “Mr. Danofsky, of King Street, St. James, Westminster married Mrs. Hughes, the widow of the late Mr. Moses Hughes at Margate.”

1841: Alsey Harris and Abraham Ellis gave birth to Nancy Ellis.

1845: Birthdate of Wisconsin Congressman Richard W. Guenther who worked with Congressman Ford during the 1880’s to conduct a series of hearing designed to exclude Jews from immigrating to the United States

1840: Birthdate of Ludovic Trarieux, the supporter of Dreyfus who founded the League of Human and Civil Rights

1852: Birthdate of Hermann Gollancz the Professor of Hebrew at University College.

1854: Between 300 and 400 people danced to the music of Dodsworth’s Band at the Hebrew Young Men’s Ball held in the New York City’s Chinese Assembly Rooms. Proceeds from tonight’s event will be be given to the Ladies’ Hebrew Benevolent Society.

1856(3rd of Kislev, 5617): Marcus Cone, a Jew who had been living in New York, passed away today in Abbersweiler, Germany, his home town.

1856: The Manchester Guardianreported a "Great Fire" had taken place in Constantinople where 600 homes were destroyed, and another devastated Adrianople.

1856: Two days after he had passed away, 49 year old Joseph Abrahams was buried at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.

1858: Today’s City Intelligence column reported that the recent stories about the arrest of three Jews for their role in selling lottery tickets were in error. At least one of those arrested was identified as being a rabbi when in fact he made no claim to being a clergyman. Apparently he is the leader of a “Bet Hamidrash” or House of Instruction which is attended by recently arrived poor immigrant Russian Jews who speak little or no English. In Europe, the sale of lottery tickets is legal and apparently the immigrants had no reason to think that this was not the case in the United States. Those preparing the original report were unaware of the fact that the term “Reb” merely implies that one is a “master” or an “instructor” and not a clergyman.

1861: Emmanuel Marks, who was killed while serving in the Union Army, began serving with Company K of the 28^thRegiment.

1863: In Paris France, Sophie Neymarck and Elie Camille Spire gave birth to Ferdinand Espir.

1864: In Tennessee, Colonel Frederick Knefler commanded a brigade protecting the Union flank at the Battle of Franklin, one of the worst defeats suffered by the Rebels during the Civil War.

1864: Private Abraham Greenawalt, Company G, 104^th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, served with such valor at the Battle of Franklin that he would be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for capturing the “corps headquarters flag” of the Confederates.

1867(3^rd of Kislev, 5628): Fifty-two year old Wolf Alois Meisel, the Chief Rabbi in Budapest passed away while preaching a sermon that was “later published by Simon and Wilhelm Bacher under the title Die Brunnen Isaak's”

1869: Two days after he had passed away, David Nathan, the husband of Mary Lazarus with whom he had four children, was buried today at the “Canterbury Jewish Cemetery.”

1870: E.B. Hart delivered the opening remarks at the Hebrew Charity Fair. The lavish event was held to raise funds for the Mount Sinai Hospital and the Hebrew Orphan Asylum. In his speech Governor Hoffman of New York said praised both institutions saying that the latter was indeed populated primarily by Jewish children but that the former served all members of the community, regardless of their religion.

1871(17^th of Kislev, 5632): Thirty-five year old Gaston Cremieux who along with fellow Jew Adolphe Carcassone headed the Revolutionary Commission of the Département Bouches-du-Rhône was condemned to death and executed today for his role in the revolt that had followed the Franco-Prussian Warin November 1871, the only one among the leaders of the Commune.

1873: The Jewish Maternity Association, originally known as Ezrath Nashim (Helping Women) was founded in Philadelphia, PA.

1874: Birthdate of Sir Winston Churchill, the British statesman, orator and author who served as prime minister during World War II. Churchill’s official biographer was the famous Jewish historian Martin Gilbert. Churchill often spoke of his support for a Jewish homeland. During the war, his government studiously supported the White Paper which effectively banned Jewish immigration to Palestine. Churchill’s supporters explained this as being a wartime necessity meant to ensure Arab support for the Allied cause. Even if one accepts this argument, it does not explain Churchill’s support for the ban on Jewish immigration after the Nazis had surrendered in May of 1945. For more about Churchill and his relationship with the Jewish people, see Churchill and the Jews by Martin Gilbert. Like all off Gilbert’s work it is well researched and highly readable.

1876: Rabbi Einhorn is scheduled to deliver the sermon at Temple Bethel’s Thanksgiving Services the first of which will be held at 10 AM followed by a second service at 11 AM.

1876: Rabbi Gottheil will deliver the sermon at this afternoon’s Centennial Thanksgiving Service at Temple Emanu-El. The service will include musical program by the congregation’s choir and a reading of the President’s Thanksgiving Proclamation.

1876: In Philadelphia, a ceremony was held today unveiling and dedicating a monument symbolic of Religious Liberty that was built with contribution from member of B’nai B’rith from throughout the United States.

1876: It was reported today that the Ladies of the Forty-fourth Street Synagogue’s Hebrew Benevolent Society are seeking donations of goods and money for the fair they are holding during the last two weeks of December.

1878: Solomon A. Levy and Dilah Horner Levy gave birth to Henry Horner, the first Jewish governor of Illinois.

1879: C.J. Fishel of Mellis & Fishel read the opening prayer at the funeral of S.L. Lewis which was the first Jewish funeral to be held in the Sandwich Islands which we know as Hawaii.

1881: It was reported today that new regulations issued in Russia divided the Jews of Kiev into 8 different classes based on education and occupation. Membership in a particular class determines your rights including where you can live in the area and for how long.

1881: It is reported today that at least one Jew in St. Petersburg has found a way to get around the government law forbidding Jews from changing occupations. A Jew who began as a maker of ladies’ riding habits is now operating a counting house. He just never changed the signage, something that everybody including the authorities is aware of

1881: In Brooklyn, the fair sponsored by Temple Israel will open today and last until December 10.

1882: It was reported today that the United Hebrew Charities has contributed one hundred dollars to the Charity Organization Society, an umbrella organization that investigates applicants for charities in New York Society to make sure that they are really in need.

1883(1^st of Kislev, 5644): Rosh Chodesh Kislev

1883(1^st of Kislev, 5644: In Rushville, Indiana, a violent quarrel, including fisticuffs and gunfire, between Jewish merchants Eli Frank and Jacob Block turned fatal when Frank was shot to death by Block’s son.

1883 In Zalal Lovo, Hungary, a peasant woman informed a Jewish merchant named Kohn
that “some bands had collect in the neighboring villages and that they “planed “an attack upon him tonight. Kohn warned the Mayor who “strengthened the night watch” and the Jews prepared themselves for the worst.

1885: It was reported today that an unnamed Jew from Pittsburg stole $475 from a co-religionist in Newark, NJ.

1885: “Le Cid” a four act opera with a libretto co-authored by Adolphe d’Ennery was performed for the first time at the Paris Opera.

1885: It was reported today that New York Police Commissioner Stephen B. French, a Republican had several explanations for his party’s defeat in the recent election, including the fact that in Fourth Assembly there are “a great many Irish and a great many Hebrews.” According to French, the Jews “are always nearly against” the Republicans and the Irish have reverted to voting Democratic after their apparent switch in the 1884 election. (Electoral post mortems are nothing new and misguided ones are certainly not. Actually, in the post-Civil War United States, Jews in the North and Mid-West tended to vote for Republicans)

1886: The wife and daughter of a Polish Jew named Milkowski who has lived in Louisiana for the last 30 years took refuge in Lake Providence after a mob attacked their home in Caledonia.

1887: Based on information that first appeared in the London Truth, it is reported that there are no more than 100,000 Jews in France, but of the 86 prefectures (administrative chiefs) 60 are Jews. Furthermore “Jews have the best places in the Treasury” and “merit was the last consideration when they were appointed.” (Editor’s note: This sub-text of French anti-Semitism would play out in the Drefyus Scandal and continue into the darkest days of Vichy)

1887: It was reported today that the recently concluded conference of Reform Rabbis adopted a resolution introduced by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise to appoint a committee to “consider establishing a reformatory for Jewish children.” According to Wise, there are more than 150 Jewish children in various reformatories and they are never visited by a Rabbi.

1887: It was reported that the next national meeting of The Jewish Ministers’ Association, an organization of Reform Rabbis will be held this Spring in Washington, D.C.

1888: It was reported today that there had been a record number of Jews attending Thanksgiving services and that the Thanksgiving Dinner served to 200 east side children by the United Hebrew Charities was further proof of Israelites enjoyment of this American holiday.

1888: Birthdate of Frank T. Fleisher who did not live to see his second birthday.

1891: Benjamin Berensen, a leading member of the Boston Jewish community disappeared.

1891: Birthdate of Chicago native and Kent College of Law graduate Benjamin Kahane who entered the motion picture industry as general counsel for what became RKO studios, after which he served as vice president of Columbia Pictures and president of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences while being married to Mildred Kahane with whom he had two children – Shirley and Benjamin, Jr.

1891(29^th of Cheshvan, 5652): Seventy-three year old Edwin de Leon, the native of Columbia, South Carolina who while serving as U.S. consul-general to Egypt during the Franklin Pierce administration “rendered conspicuous services in protecting American Missionaries in Jaffa,” passed away today.

1892: The Hebrew Orphans Asylum band – 45 boys under the direction of Martin Cohen – will perform at this evening’s session of the American Institute Fair,

1893: Birthdate of author I.J. Singer the older brother of Isaac Bashevis Singer. Born in Poland, Singer gained fame as Yiddish writer. He was the Polish correspondent for The Jewish Daily Forward. He came to the United States in 1934.” Singer’s epic masterpiece Di Bruder Ashkenazi (The Brothers Ashkenazi) details Jewish industrial development before World War I.”

1893: “Three hundred children will be given a Thanksgiving dinner of Turkey, cranberry sauce and trimmings at the Industrial School of the United Hebrew Charities today at noon.”

1893: In the Reichstag, “toward the end of the budget debate” Dr. Foerster declared that “anti-Semitism was not a passing phenomenon” and that “it would endure as long as the Hebrew race.”

1894: Birthdate of Columbus, Ohio, native Donald Ogden the Academy Award winning screenwriter who during the 1930’s was Chairman of the Hollywood Ant-Nazi League “the first American anti-Nazi organization that was not overtly linked to American Jews” and that “served as the focal point of the film industry’s anti-Nazism from 1936 through 1939.”

1894: “Dedicated to Humanity” published today provided a description of the Montefiore Home’s new additions which is a five story edifice that includes a new synagogue on the ground floor that will accommodate 500 worshippers as well “a vast kitchen and laundry in the basement” and quarters for servant

1894: As of today, there are “3,383 children between the ages of eight and fourteen years enrolled in the afternoon classes sponsored Hebrew Free School Association ; children who must attend public schools in the morning to able to take these classes in Hebrew and “religious subjects.”

1895(13^th of Kislev, 5656): Parashat Vayishlach

1895: Birthdate of Samuel Norton "Sam" Gerson, the Ukrainian born Jewish-American wrestler who won a Silver Medal at the 1920 Olympics and helped to organize Philadelphia's Maccabi Sports Club.

1895: In New York, Daniel Ryan and Daniel Healy were each fined $10 for “striking at every Hebrew they passed on Broadway” which the court described as “Jew baiting.”

1895: Rabbi Joseph Silverman delivered a sermon entitled “One Touch of Nature, our Appeal in Behalf of Armenia” at Temple Emanu-El during Friday night services.

1896(25^th of Kislev, 5657): For the last time during the administration of President Grover Cleveland, first day of Chanukah

1896: Prior to tomorrow’s start of the 15^th Biennial Council of the American Hebrew Congregation in Louisville, KY, the Executive Committee met and chose temporary officers.

1897: “Ethnic Politics” published today described the difficulties that the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, which is polyglot multi-national domain is having in creating a national identity as can be seen even in Vienna where political lines “are drawn between Jews and Jew-baiters.” The rise of Jews in Viennese culture has been matched by a rise in Anti-Semitism which is opposed by the Emperor.

1897(5^th of Kislev, 5658): Just 12 days before his 65^th birthday Abraham Carl (A.C.) Wertheim, a partner in the Dutch banking house of Wertheim & Gompertz, the husband of Rosalie Marie Wertheim who was a member of States-Provincial for twenty and a leader of the Jewish community passed away today.

1897: Rabbi “Backowitz” (Berkowitz) of Philadelphia is scheduled to deliver a speech this evening at Temple Emanu-El in New York entitled “Jews’ Gifts to Humanity.”

1898: Leo M. Franklin an 1892 graduate of Hebrew Union College who was the Rabbi at Temple Israel in Omaha, Nebraska, “became the 11^th rabbi of Congregation Beth El in Detroit, a position he would hold for the rest of his life.”

1898: As the measles epidemic at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum comes to an end 15 children ranging in age from 6 to 11, remain in isolation at the hospital

1898: Private Will Hu Freudenstein of St. Louis finished his military service when Light Battery A, Missouri Volunteers was mustered out at Jefferson Barracks, MO.

1899: One thousand pounds of turkey was consumed by the children under the care of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society. The daylong celebration included band music, a speech by Dr. Kaufman on the meaning of Thanksgiving and an afternoon of play preceded by the receipt of “a masquerade costume” for youngster.

1899: Four hundred children attended the 19^th annual Thanksgiving Day Dinner at the Industrial School of the Hebrew Charities Society.

1899: In New York City, “Isidor Heldenstein and Rose Miller” gave birth to Columbia Law School trained attorney Herbert W. Haldenstein, the President of the Central Bureau for the Jewish Aged who married “the former Mrs. Jennie L. Whitehill” after his first wife Mrs. Marion Kaufman Haldenstein had passed away.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/08/06/88957963.pdf

1899: One hundred children who attend the kindergarten sponsored by the Shearith Israel Sisterhood were provided with a free Thanksgiving Dinner.

1899: In Branchville, SC, Julius and Etta Karesh Levin gave birth to Sidney Levin, the future husband of Tina Levovitz Levin.

1899: Seventy-five year old philosopher and psychologist Mortiz Lazarus, “son of Aaron Levin Lazarus” celebrated “the fiftieth anniversary of receiving his doctorate.”

1900: Oscar Wilde passed away. The Picture of Dorian Gray, possibly his most famous novel, includes a Jewish character named Isaacs, a theatre manager. The author stresses both his Jewishness and his ugliness describing him as “a hideous Jew,” a “horrid old Jew” who had “greasy ringlets, and an enormous diamond … in the centre of a soiled shirt.”

1901: In Watertown, WI, Sarah Johnson Woodward and Frank Elwin Woodward gave birth to Mary Woodward who gained fame as Mary Woodward Lasker, the art historian and designer who was the second wife of advertising executive Albert Lasker and the stepmother of Edward, Francis and Mary Lasker.

1903: In a case of literary matrimony, Else Lasker-Schuler married George Lewin, the author who used the penname Herwarth Walden.

1905(2^nd of Kislev, 5666): Forty-two year old chess champion Samuel Lipschutz passed away today.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=39131

1905: It was reported today that the massacre of Jews in Minsk that was originally supposed to take place on November 26^th will now take place on December 3.

1905: Jacob Schiff presided over “the great celebration in honor of the 250^th anniversary of the settlement of the Jews in the United States… held in Carnegie Hall” this afternoon which “included the reading of a letter from President Roosevelt and “the singing in Hebrew of ‘Adon Olam’ by fifty members of the Downtown Cantors’ Association of New York accompanied by 250 members of the Choral Union and the New York Symphony Orchestra.”

1905: “John Hoar, an American jockey who has been riding for Prince Louborinski in Russia arrived “in New York today and described “the sights he witnessed” which “were so awful that he fainted” that included the gutters in that “ran red with blood.

1905: It was reported from Paris today that prices on the Bourse “have firmed” now that it has been confirmed that laws aimed at restricting the Jews have “been abrogated.”

1905: The Orphan Hebrew Asylum observed Thanksgiving and the 250^th anniversary of the settlement of the Jews” in North America with a reading of a sketch by Harry Schneidermann on the history of the Jews in the United States followed by a dress parade and concert by the 400 member Cadet Corps and ending with a dinner for 1,030 children “provided by Emanuel Lehman.”

1905: Jacob Schiff presided at the Thanksgiving Day Services held at the Montefiore Home.

1905: Today, on Thanksgiving, “Mrs. Daniel Guggenheim gave dinners to the 272 resident of the Montefiore Home in honor of her son Robert’s wedding.”

1905: “The 1,245 immigrants detained on Ellis Island,” many of whom were Jewish enjoyed a turkey dinner with all of the trimmings followed by an evening of song that ended with the singing of the Star Spangled Banner.

1905: “A copy of a manifesto issued by the Odessa Zionist Central Committee” describing the murderous events in that city and the plans for a response was received in New York City today.

1905: It was reported today that to date the National Committee collecting funds to helping Jews being massacred in Russia has raised, $942,548.17 including $100 from the Societe Israelite Francais, $100 from Elihu Root, $543 from the Hebrew Benevolent Association of Binghamton, NY, $250 from Herbert Lehman, $100 from the Jews of Millville, NJ and $100 of Congregation Beth-El in Jersey City, NJ.

1908: Birthdate of Bernard Bernstein, the economist who rose to the rank of Colonel in the U.S. Army during WW II where he “served as a financial adviser to General Eisenhower” until the Morgenthau Plan was rejected as post war policy for the treatment of Germany.

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/07/obituaries/bernard-bernstein-aide-to-eisenhower-in-40-s-dies-at-81.html

1909(17^th of Kislev, 5670): Seventy-one Bavarian born, New Orleans businessman Isidore Newman who founded the Newman Training School which became a leading private school and supported numerous secular and Jewish charities including Turo Infirmary and the Young Men’s Hebrew Association passed away today

1910: Lucille Selig married Leo Frank. Selig was the member of an “old” Atlanta Jewish family that had founded the city’s first synagogue. Frank would come to a horrible end when he was lynched for a crime that he did not commit.

1912(20^th of Kislev, 5673): Parashat Vayeshev

1912: Rabbi Weil is scheduled to lead services at Temple B’Nai Jehoshua this morning in Chicago.

1912: Dr. A.B. Yudelson is scheduled to lead services this morning at the South Side Hebrew Congregation.

1912: Rabbi Abram Hirschberg is scheduled to lead services this morning at Temple Sholom in Chicago.

1912: In Chicago, Rabbi Israel Klein is scheduled to speak at this afternoon’s Shabbat Children Service at the Institute.

1912(20^th of Kislev, 5673): Seventy-five year old Joseph Felsenthal, a Confederate veteran and communal leader passed away today in Brownsville, TN.

1912: Yiddish actors Leon Blank, Francis Adler and Jacob Adler are scheduled to perform at the Haymarket Theatre this eveing.

1913: Jacob H. Schiff, President of the Montefiore Home, presided at the dedication ceremonies of the new buildings at the institution located at Gun Hill Road and 210th Street, near Jerome Avenue. The ceremonies included services at the synagogue located at the Montefiore Home.

1914: “To Meet Jewish Mark Twain” published today described the arrival of Solomon Rabinowitz, the author known as Sholom Aleichem, his wife and six children in New York who were making the second trip to the United States; the first coming in 1906 when they were escaping the Kiev massacres.

1914: It was reported today that Sholom Aleichim will be lecturing in New York “on the part the Jews are taking in the Great War.”

1914: “Contributions to the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews suffering through the war reached a total of $28, 098.52” today.

1914: “Counsel for Leo Frank, who is under sentence for the murder of Mary Phagan, a factory worker at Atlanta, GA, last year will ask the United States Supreme Court at noon today for leave to file a petition for a writ of error which, if it should be granted would lead to a retrial of the case” and if it is denied it will be up to the Governor Slaton of Georgia to save this victim of a wave of anti-Semitism and lynch mob mentality that has swept the Peachtree State.

1914: At today’ session of the sixth annual convention of the Federation of Jewish Farmers being held in the Educational Alliance, “it was suggested’ that Jewish famers with holdings close to New York City should cooperate that they could ship their produce to the city at a lower rate and would then enable them to charge less when making sales on the Lower East Side.

1914: In response to an appeal for aid from Ambassador Morgenthau, at Constantinople the American Red Cross cabled $3,000 from its reserved contingent fund for relief work Mr. Morgenthau” the prominent Jewish American businessman and diplomat.

1915: It was reported today that several million rubles, much of which was donated by Jewish organizations, have been given to support the 250,000 to 350,000 destitute people living in war-torn Warsaw.

1915: A large gathering of Rumanian Jews held a special memorial service at the Manhattan Lyceum in honor of Dr. Solomon Schechter who had passed away on November 20. While recognizing his leadership and scholarly skills, the Rumanians were also honoring one of their own and voted to name soon to be opened Jewish Home for Convalescents the “Professor Solomon Schechter Memorial.

1915: It was reported today that Meyer London’s matzah bakery which had originally been located on Bayard Street starting in 1871 is now located at 494 Grand Street in New York.

1916: “While the majority of the London and provincial newspaper” have kept silent “on peace topics, “the Northcliffe press today made its chief feature a denunciation of Jacob H. Schiff’s American Neutral Conference Committee.” A lengthy article by D. Thomas Curtin represents Schiff as “a deadly enemy of the Allies” and “an arch-intriguer on behalf of Germany” while “detailing his financial connections” with Kuhn, Loeb and Co which gives him access to Paul Warburg whose “membership in the Federal Reserve Board confers on Kuhn, Loeb at Washington an influence on government policy and national finance enjoyed by no other banking institution.”

1916: It was reported today that following the defeat of the Rumanians at Pitechti, a town sixty-five miles northwest of Bucharest, that while the majority of the wealthy residents fled, the town’s Jews “who are professedly friendly to the Germans” remained but did close their stores.

1916: It was reported today that Harry H. Schlacht of the East Side Protective Association has asked that any upcoming peace conference should have an “adequate representation of Jews” to ensure their religious, civic and political liberty “even if the Christian nations could not be induced to allow them re-establish an independent nation in Palestine.”

1917: According to an AP dispatch from Alexandria, Egypt, a German court-martialed hanged leaders in Jaffa after having used confessions obtained through torture to convict them of espionage

1917: The Australian Light Horse, part of Allenby’s forces, took the offensive against the Turkish forces blocking the way to Jerusalem resulting in the capture of 200 Turks while the remainder fell back toward the City of David.

1917: In Bieltsi, “two thousand Bolsheviki troops, deserters and Black Hundreds” began three days of looting Jewish owned shops.

1917: In Ostrog, gangs carried out attacks on Jews and their shops

1917: In reply to a deputation of Jews who asked him to use his influence to put an end to the pogroms, Leon Trotsky said “that as in Internationalist he sees no reason to defend the Jews.”

1917: Walter J. Finlay, an American engineer who has spent the last four years in Palestine and Syria arrived in New York today where he said that when he had “left Jerusalem in the early part of September” there was no coal to be had I the city, the cost of food and clothing had increased by five hundred percent and “that the small loaf of common bread that cost one cent in normal times is now selling for twelve cents” while “a can of kerosene costs $30.”

1917: As victorious British Imperial forces approached Jerusalem, the Turkish governor began to make good on the promise that there were would be no Jews in the city to welcome the British. Forty American Jews living in Jerusalem and several Zionists of Ottoman nationality were expelled from the city. A staff member of the German Consulate in Jerusalem said that the Jews were driven out on foot and beaten like criminals as they made their way towards Jericho.

1917: The Germans captured a British brigade headquarters and ammunition dump at Masnieres and Les Rues Vertes, France. Among those taken prisoners was the Captain Robert Gee, the son of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. Gee managed to escape and organized a party of the brigade staff with which he attacked the enemy, closely followed by two companies of infantry. He cleared the locality and established a defensive flank, then finding an enemy machine-gun still in action, with a revolver in each hand he went forward and captured the gun, killing eight of the crew. He was wounded, but would not have his wound dressed until the defense was organized. Gee was awarded the Victoria Cross for this action.

1918: All Night” a “silent comedy-drama film” co-starring Carmel Myers the San Francisco born daughter of an Australian rabbi and Austrian Jewish mother was released today in the United States.

1918: In New York, violinist Efrem Zimbalist, Sr. and soprano Alma Gluck gave birth to actor Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. who was baptized as a child in the Episcopal Church.

1918(26^th of Kislev, 5679): Seventy-two year old Jesse Lewisohn, the son of Leonard Lewisohn and the nephew of Adolph Lewisohn, all of whom made fortunes in the copper mining business fell victim to the infamous Spanish Flu Epidemic and passed away today.

1919(8^th of Kislev, 5680): Forty-nine year old Sir Lionel Barnett Abrahams the son of Mordecai Abrahams and the nephew of Barnett Abrahams, the civil servant, economist who worked with John Maynard Keynes and historian whose work included Jews from England in 1290 passed away today.

1920(19^th of Kislev, 5681): Seventy-two year old Arthur Strauss, the British MP whose son George was a served as an MP for 46 and whose other son Victor was killed in 1916 while serving as a Lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps.

1924: Birthdate of songwriter and humorist Allan Sherman author of the famous camp song that began, “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah.”

1924(3^rd of Kislev, 5685): Fourteen year old William Hayes Block, the son of Meir S. Block and Carly Pierson Block passed away today in St. Louis.

1924(3^rd of Kislev, 5685): Twenty seven year old Hannah Schnur passed away today.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/family-stumbles-upon-jewish-gravestone-on-beach-jetty/

1924: “Forbidden Paradise,” a silent film directed by Ernst Lubitsch and produced by Adolph Zukor and Jesse Lasky was released in the United States today.

1925: Josephine Bloomingdale Sperry married Walter David Yankauer today.

1925(13^th of Kislev, 5686): Sixty year old New York native and Columbia Law School graduate “a former Judge of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1925/12/02/100033844.pdf

1926: Birthdate of Andrew V. Schally. Schally is a Polish-born American endocrinologist and co-recipient with Roger Guillemin and Rosalyn Yalow, of the 1977 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Schally fled Poland with his family in 1939. Schally became a U.S. citizen in 1962. He became senior medical investigator with the Veterans Administration in 1973. He was noted for isolating and synthesizing three hormones that are produced by the region of the brain known as the hypothalamus; these hormones control the activities of other hormone- producing glands. These accomplishments were the synthesis of TRH (thyrotropin-releasing hormone), the isolation and synthesis of LH-RH (luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone), and studies of the action of somatostatin.

1927: “On the Lower East Side of Manhattan,” taxi driver Henry Hollander and garment worker Ida (Burak) Hollander gave birth to “Irwin Hollander, an artist and a master printer who persuaded Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell and other Abstract Expressionist painters to try their hands at lithography in his East Village workshop.” (As reported by Roberta Smith)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/14/obituaries/irwin-hollander-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

1928: “10 Religious Groups Meet” published today described the “community Thanksgiving service” that had been held in Carnegie Hall that included participants from the Free Synagogue, the Central Synagogue, Temple Israel, Tremont Temple, Congregation Rodeph Sholom and the West End Synagogue.

1929: “It’s You I Have Loved” a German film compared by some to “The Jazz Singer” with a script by Walter Reisch was released today.

1929: In Phoenix, AZ, Pauline and Sylvan Ganz gave birth to Joan Ganz, who as Joan Ganz Cooney gained fame as the television producer who was one of the founders of the Children’s Television Workshop that created “Sesame Street.” She was the granddaughter of Emil Ganz, the German Jewish immigrant who served three terms as the mayor of Phoenix.

1930: At a meeting in London today, Dr. Chaim Weizmann “insisted…that he did not and would not accept the MacDonald Government’s White Paper.” While expressing his displeasure with the White Paper, the Zionist leader “cautioned the Zionists…against taking sides in politics, a reminder obviously directed toward the White-chapel by-election in the East End of London, where it is said the preponderant Jewish vote may make trouble for the Labor candidate.”

1932: Birthdate of Erich Dyner, who was living in Prague when he was transported to Ujazdow at the age of nine after which he was murdered.

1932: “The David Baazov Museum of History of Jews of Georgia, a principal museum of the Jewish history and culture in Tbilisi, Georgia was established by the decision of Administration of the "Georgian Committee for assisting the Poor" today as a departmental organization within the framework of cultural base of Jewish workers.”

1933: The David Baazov Museum of History of the Jews of Georgia “was officially founded by the order of People's Commissariat of Education of Georgia today, under the title 'Jewish Historic-Ethnographic Museum'.”

1933: Rabbi Jerome D. Folkman, of Temple Beth Israel, delivered the Thanksgiving sermon today at a joint service attended by Jews and Gentiles. The services were held in the First Baptist Church of which the Rev. Carl Winters is pastor. (JTA)

1934: Today, the “trustees of the Lena Socolow Palestine Scholarship announced the creating of a scholarship to awarded annually to a man or woman over” the age of 18 which enable the recipient to spend “several months residence in Palestine for study and direct contact with the creative forces of the country.”

1934: “The National Labor Committee for Jewish Workers and Pioneers in Palestine opened its tenth annual convention” tonight at the Hotel Pennsylvania with more than one thousand delegates from North America in attendance.

1934: “The Private Life of Don Juan” a British comedy directed and produced by Alexander Korda and with music by Ernst Toch was released in the United Kingdom today.

1935: “Palestine Honors Lehmans” published today described the receipt of a certificate from the women’s division of the Jewish National Fund by Governor and Mrs. Herbert H. Lehman “saying that 25 trees had been planted in the George Washington Forest in Palestine in honor of their 25^th wedding anniversary” which “was celebrated several months ago.”

1935: Rosa and Avrom Shlavestein gave birth to their daughter Nina. in Berdichev in the Zhitomir District, USSR (today in Ukraine). Before World War II, Nina’s family lived in Moscow. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union Nina was vacationing in Klintsy in the Bryansk District of the Soviet Union, and was unable to return home because of the invasion. Nina perished during the Holocaust. Her mother Rosa survived and immigrated to Israel. Rosa submitted a Page of Testimony in Yiddish to commemorate her daughter Nina, probably in the 1950s. (As chronicled by Yad Vashem)

http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/october/02.asp

1936: In Worcester, MA, John Hoffman and Florence Schanberg gave birth to Abbot Howard Hoffman to known as “Abbie Hoffman”

1936: In Jerusalem, while testifying before the Royal Commission on the question of Jewish immigration especially as it pertained to laborers, Moshe Shertok, the head of the political department of the Jewish Agency, “indicated that far from overcrowding the labor market, the lasts group of immigrants, accompanied as it was by new Jewish capital for investment…increased opportunities for Arab laborers” who “are far better paid in Palestine than in any neighboring country.”

1936: “An American flag, the gift of Mayor a Guardia of New York, was presented today to the municipality of Tel Aviv by the Maccabee soccer team” which had just returned from a tour of the United States. “The Maccabee also presented a flag of New York Harbor to the new Tel Aviv port in ceremonies at the City Ha, where the athletes were officially welcomed after a parade.

1937: The Arab owner of a house in Nazareth where “two bombs and nineteen rounds of ammunition were found” yesterday remains under arrest today while awaiting trial “in the military court at Haifa.”

1938: According to Michael Hesemann, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli – the future Pius XII – wrote a letter today urging Catholic archbishops throughout the world to apply for visas for "non-Aryan Catholics" and Jewish converts to Christianity who wanted to flee Germany

1938: Germany bans Jews from being lawyers

1938(7^th of Kislev, 5699): Mrs. Jessie Fox Mack, the wife of Judge Julian Mack of the United States Court of Appeals passed away today “after an illness of several months.” (JTA)

1939: Just months after having divided Poland with its Nazi ally, the Soviet Union invaded Finland in hopes of scoring another quick victory that would re-establish Russian control of what was viewed as breakaway province from the old Imperial System. The attack would further confuse the military and political situation in Europe during the period of the Phony War.

1939: Three months after the start of World War II, the Soviet Union invaded Finland marking the start of the Winter War in which 204 Finnish Jews fought for the country with 27 being killed.

1939(18^th of Kislev, 5700): Seventy-seven year old Reuben Brainin, the Russian born Jewish journalist who was a delegate to the first Zionist Congress passed away today.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9A02E7DF153EE432A25752C0A9649D946894D6CF

1939: It was reported today that “there are already 45,000 Jews in the Lublin” ghetto” and that “more than 200,000 Lodz Jews will be sent there now that the center of the Polish textile industry has been incorporated into the Reich.

1939: It was reported today that “fifty thousand Jews have already been driven from their homes in Warsaw” and that while “Polish schools have been reopened” “Jewish schools are still closed.”

1939: In Paris, “Jewish circles are informed from Warsaw that the Nazis suggested the abolition of ghettos for” a payment of “1,000,000,000 zlotys” – an offer “Jewish leaders declined fearing the Nazis would not keep their promise.”

1940: “Lady with Red Hair,” a biopic directed by Curtish Bernhardt and produced by Jack Warner was released in the United States today.

1940: Anti-Jewish laws are established in Tunisia.

1940: “Bernhard Lichtenberg…the single most well-known Catholic cleric who openly disagreed not only with the persecution of baptized Jews but of Jews in general” said today “that the idea of Volksgemeinschaft (a racially bound community) was unchristian and that the Holy Spirit goes wherever it wishes irrespective of whatever Volk.”

1940: After the “Patriaincident,” General Wavell, Britain’s top military officer in the Middle East complains vehemently to Sir Anthony Eden protesting the decision to let any Jewish refugees remain in Palestine. He contends that the decision to let 1,900 Jews remain in Palestine will undermine British relations with the Arabs. The Mufti, who is Berlin with Hitler, will be strengthened. Nazi sympathizers in Syria will be encouraged. And fifth-columnist in Egypt will find it easier to gain support for the Germans. At least Wavell was honest. For him as for so many less honest Englishmen (and others) it was all about keeping the Arabs happy.

1941: Start of the Rumbula Massacre, the liquidation of the Riga Ghetto, a killing spree exceeded only by Babi Yar.

1941: The first group of Jews from Berlin were the first group of Jews to die during the Rumbala Massacre - a crime that that the Nazis would later describe as “1,000 Berlin Jews had been ‘disposed of.’”

1941: Eduard Strauch “participated, with 20 men under his command, in the murder of 10,600 Jews of Riga in the Rumbula forest near the city for which he was promoted to commander in Sipo and the SD and transferred to Belarus.”

1941: Fifty-nine year old Max Kohn was deported from Prague to Terezin today.

1941: Jews began to arrive at Theresienstadt from Prague.

1941: “Two-Faced Woman” a romantic comedy directed by George Cukor, produced by Gottfried Reinhardt, with a script by S.N. Behrman and Salka Vertel, filmed by cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg and co-starring Melvyn Douglas was released in the United States by MGM.

1941: Haj Amin, leader of the Palestinians was “ceremoniously received by Hitler.”

1942(21^st of Kislev, 5703): Sixty-two year old Vilna born “coal and fuel dealer” Edward M. Gans, the co-owner of Harris and Gans, former Norwalk, CT, City Councilman and “Zionist” passed away today.

1942: Bernhard Bästlein“gave the Gestapo a written statement explaining why he had been and would remain a Resistance fighter.”

1943(3rd of Kislev, 5704):Esther "Etty" Hillesum a young Jewish woman whose letters and diaries, kept between 1941 and 1943 describe life in Amsterdam during the German occupation died at Auschwitz. They were published posthumously in 1981, before being translated into English in 1983.

1943(3^rd of Kislev, 5704): One of two dates given for the death of 65 year old movie actor Paul Otto who committed suicide along with his wife in Berlin when his Jewish origins were discovered.

1943: All nine Palestinian Hebrew newspapers and the German-language daily issued at Tel Aviv re-appeared today after eleven days' suspension. “The suspension resulted from” the “simultaneous uncensored publication” by these papers “of identical accounts with uniform editorial comment on the search carried” out at a kibbutz named Ramat Hakovesh by British forces looking for arms. The search turned violent resulting in the murder of one of the Jewish settlers. The articles in the newspapers had been part of the Jewish response which, among other things, continues to claim the right for Jews to be able to defend themselves.

1943: Italy's Interior Ministry orders the concentration of all Italian Jews in camps.

1944(14th of Kislev, 5705): Anna Dresden-Polak’s husband, Barend, died today Auschwitz. Anna, a member of the Dutch ladies’ gymnastic team that won the Gold Medal at the 1928 Olympics, had been killed the year before at Sobibor along with Eva, her six-year old daughter.

1944: More than 100,000 persons, more than half the population of the city, greeted Dr. Chaim Weizmann when he visited Tel Aviv today for the first time since arriving in Palestine two weeks ago. The demonstration was the greatest welcome ever given to anyone in Tel Aviv. Weizmann responded by saying, “I never imagined my own people could have received me with such spontaneous joy.” When he went to Tel Aviv to review 200 soldiers who were serving in the new Jewish bridged of the British Army, he was greeted by crowds that were so large that they filled balconies, windows, lamp posts, trees, and telephone poles. Weizmann saw a direct connection between the fate of European Jewry, these troops and the creation of a Jewish commonwealth. He told the crowd that the “remnants of the European Jews” would receive the Jewish brigade as “a harbinger of freedom and by the masses of Jewish soldiers serving in the Allied armies as a symbol of national unity.”

1944: Cordell Hull completed his service as U.S. Secretary of State, a post he had held since FDR’s inauguration in March, 1933. Hull’s wife, Frances Witz, was the daughter of an Austrian Jew, something he worked very hard to hide. He may have won a Nobel Prize for helping to create the United Nations, but for Jews, his policy opposing the entry of Jewish refugees from Hitler’s Europe, should have earned a large measure of contempt.

1945: “Rudolf Hess dramatically told the tribunal at Nuremberg that he had faked amnesia, fooling Allied medical experts and his own attorney, but that he was now prepared to stand trial and "bear full responsibility for everything I have done.”

1945: “Heinz-Wilhelm Eck, 29, German U-boat commander was executed as a war criminal for ordering his crew to shoot the survivors of the Greek merchant ship Peleus in March 1944.”

1946: Bombs are set off in Jerusalem.

1947: A day after the two-state solution is approved by the United Nations, Arabs begin attacking Jews in Palestine.

1947: Arab rifleman fired shots at an ambulance on its way to Hadassah Hospital on Mt. Scopus.

1947(17th of Kislev, 5708): Arabs armed with machine guns and grenades attacked a bus traveling from the coast to Jerusalem killing four Jews including Jerusalemites Hirsh Stark and Hanna Weiss and twenty year old Shoshana Mizrachi Farhi who had been on her way to Jerusalem to get married.

1947(17th of Kislev, 5708): In another attack on a bus bound for Jerusalem, Arab gunmen killed Hehama Hacohen a pathologist at Hadassah Hospital.

1947(17th of Kislev, 5708): Moshe Goldman, a twenty five year old from Jerusalem was shot dead at the Jaffa-Tel Aviv boundary.

1947(17th of Kislev, 5708): Fifty-five year old director, actor, writer and producer Ernst Lubitsch passed away. Born in 1892, his urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as his prestige grew, his films were promoted as having "the Lubitsch touch".”

http://www.lubitsch.com/

1947(17^th of Kislev, 5708): Sixty-nine year old Ukrainian native William Edlin who came to the United States in 1891 where attended Stanford University where he acquired many of the Socialist ideas that would influence his career as a journalist, author and activist who “helped to found the Workmen’s Circle’ and serve as “president of the I.L. Peretz Yiddish Writers Union” passed away today.

http://findingaids.cjh.org/?pID=1529162

https://www.jta.org/1947/12/01/archive/william-edlin-editor-of-jewish-day-dies-was-69-years-old

1947: On the day after UN decree for Israel, Arabs attacked Jewish settlements. Even though the Jewish state would not officially declare its independence until May, 1948, this day marked the beginning of the Israeli War of Independence as a bus near Lydda (Lod) was attacked by Arabs killing five passengers. The Arabs proclaimed a general strike and attacked the commercial quarter near the Old City of Jerusalem. The Arabs, including those living outside of Palestine, were determined to destroy the Jewish homeland before the mandate officially ended. Their efforts would include attacks on Jewish settlements throughout the Yishuv as well as a siege of the City of Jerusalem. The Arabs were well armed and moved about with impunity. The Jews were limited in their response by an international arms boycott and the presence of the British Army.

1947: Birthdate of David Mamet, an American playwright, screenwriter, director and poet born to a Jewish family in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois who first gained acclaim for a trio of off-Broadway plays in The Duck Variations, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and American Buffalo, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for Glengarry Glen Ross. In 2006 and who wrote The Wicked Son, an examination of self-hating and assimilated Jews.

1948: In Philadelphia, comedian and late night television host Joey Bishop and Sylvia Rzga gave birth to Larry Bishop who partnered with high school chum Rob Reiner, the son of Carl Reiner before pursuing a solo career in director, writing and acting.

1948(28^th of Cheshvan): Seventy-three year old Brooklyn born realtor Joseph May, the recently “elected treasurer of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies and husband of “Aimee D. Loeb” passed away today.

http://www.cemeteryscribes.com/calendar.php?living=0&hide=altbirth,burial,bapt,endl,seal&tree=Cemeteries&m=12&y=2018

1948: Colonel Moshe Dayan of Israel and Lieutenant Colonel Abdullah el Tell of Transjordan Arab Legion sign cease-fire agreement “which included provision for a fortnightly convoy to Mount Scopus.”

1948: The American Council for Judaism asks Attorney General Tom C. Clark for a federal investigation of Menachem Begin’s U.S. activities.

1949: Birthdate of Matti Caspi, the member of Kibbutz Hanita who became a leading force in the Israeli pop music world.

http://www.matticaspi.co.il/home/index_eng.shtml

1950(21^st of Kislev, 5711): William Ackerman, the rabbi at Temple Beth Israel in Meridian, Mississippi passed away opening the way for his widow, Paula Ackerman to become “the interim spiritual leader” of the congregation. (Jewish Women’s Archives)

1950: Birthdate of Danny Sanderson, the native of Kfar Blum, who began his musical in 1971 after leaving the IDF by recording "The Left-handed Octopus" with the Egyptian-born musician Zouzou Moussa and the orchestra of Israel Radio Arabic.

1951: Birthdate of Christian Bernard, the former “Imperator of AMORC” who is the grandson of “French playwright, novelist, journalist and lawyer Tristan Bernard who was interred at Drancy but escaped deportation to Auschwitz.

1952: Birthdate of Semyon Mayevich Bychkov a Russian-American conductor who is the brother of the conductor Yakov Kreizberg, of blessed memory.

1952: In Chicago, “Doris "Doralee" (née Sinton), a homemaker, and Lester Patinkin, who operated two large Chicago-area metal factories, the People's Iron & Metal Company and the Scrap Corporation of America” gave birth to Mandel Bruce Patinkin who gained fame as Mandy Patinkin who attended Kenwood High and the University of Kansas before beginning his Broadway career that playing Che Guevara in Evita and a leading role in Stephen Sondheim's Follies.

1953: Edward Mutesa II, the kabaka (king) of Uganda is deposed and exiled to London by Sir Andrew Cohen, Governor of Uganda. “Sir Andrew was from a distinguished Anglo-Jewish family. He was a descendant of Levi Barent Cohen, the founder of the oldest Ashkenazi family in Britain.”

1953: “Confessions of a Nervous Man” by George Axelrod which depicts a “playwright waiting anxiously in a theatre district bar for the newspaper reviews of his first play to hit the streets” was broadcast on the television drama show, “Studio One.”

1953(23^rd of Kislev, 5714): Elvira Nathan Solis, “the daughter of David Hays Solis and Elvira Nathan Solis, sister of Emily Grace Soils Solis-Cohen and Isaac Nathan Solis, and a granddaughter of Jacob da Silva Solis” passed away today in New York

1954: As Churchill celebrated his 80th birthday, Moshe Sharett (formerly Shertok), sent the aging British statesman a telegram praising him for his leadership again the Nazis during World War II and for his steadfast support of Zionism in general and the Balfour Declaration in particular.

1954: The Alma Trio including pianist Adolph Baller, whose hands were crushed by the Nazis in 1938 after which his fiancée, Edith Strauss-Neustadt helped him to escape to the United States, performed the first of three Beethoven concerts tonight at Town Hall in New York City.

1955: Birthdate of Kiev native Peter Fishman who became a leading sculptor and painter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Fishman#/media/File:Admiral_Makaroff.JPG

1955: “Pipe Dream” the seventh Rogers and Hammerstein musical opened on Broadway today at the Shubert Theatre.

1956(26^th of Kislev, 5717): Second Day of Chanukah

1956(26^th of Kislev, 5717):Seventy-eight year old Budapest native Jean Schwartz, the songwriter who came to the United States at the age of 13 who wrote “Mr. Dooley” – a song “which was sung by the title character in The Wizard of Oz” passed away today.

1957: Eighty three year old Winston Churchill receives early Christmas presents – a case of Israeli oranges from Vera Weizmann, widow of Israel’s first President and longtime friend of Churchill and a Virginia Ham from American Jewish financer Bernard Baruch.

1958(18^th of Kislev, 5719): Seventy-five year old Russian born Yiddish author and co-founder of the Sholem Aleichem Schools, Joshua Kaminsky who in November of 1937 “introduced the new Kinder Tsaytung (Children’s newspaper) with a “cover that features a buoyant impressionistic drawing by Nota Koslowsky” passed away today.

https://www.jta.org/1958/12/02/archive/joshua-kaminsky-educator-and-author-dies-in-new-york

1959: Today’s broadcast of the Play of the Week featured the David Susskind production Sartre’s “Crime of Passion” translated by Lionel Abel, the Brooklyn born son of author Anna Schwartz Abelson and Rabbi Alter Abelson whom “Sartre called the most intelligent man in New York City.”

1960: Birthday of Hiam Abbass, the Israeli Arab actress and director born in Nazareth.

1961(22^nd of Kislev, 5722): Ninety-one year old Louis Parnes, the chairman of the board of the Paul Parnes Corporation and a founder of the Brooklyn Jewish Center and the Louis Parnes Foundation passed away today.

1962: The United Nations General Assembly elects U Thant of Burma as the new UN Secretary-General. U Thant was the Secretary General who caved in to President Nasser’s demand to remove the UN peace keeping force from the Sinai. The men in the Blue Helmets were the guarantee that Egypt would not remilitarize the Sinai. U Thant’s spineless behavior, in violation of the understandings that had caused the Israelis to withdraw after the 1956 Sinai Campaign, set events in motion that would lead to war in June of 1967.

1962: Birthdate of actor Ben Stiller

1964(25^th of Kislev, 5725): first day of Chanukah

1964(25^th of Kislev, 5725): Ninety-four year old pediatrician Sidney Valentine Haas, the Columbia trained doctor who made great strides in the treatment of celiac disease passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/1964/12/01/dr-sidney-valentine-haas-dies.html

1964: In Mexico City, actor and producer Muni Lubezki and his wife gave birth to cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki Morgenstern.

1964: “The Diamond Ring” a song written by Al Kooper and Irwin Levine was recorded today.

1965: Ninety-four out the 100 prominent Washingtonians whom Charles E. Smith had invited to a dinner at the Mayflower listened to his vision of what would become a campus on Montrose Road in Rockville that would include the Wasserman Residence, the JCC and the Charles E. Smith Day School

1966: Barbados becomes independent from the United Kingdom. In 1667 “many Jews moved to Barbados to retain their British citizenship. Jews are believed to have been established in Barbados as early as 1628. In 1661, three Jewish businessmen requested permission to institute trade routes between Barbados and Surinam, which was still part of the British Empire. As will be seen repeatedly, even though the Jews had full legal citizenship and were allowed by the government to trade and conduct business, their success caused the other settlers to try to limit the scope of Jewish trade. British businessmen claimed the Jews traded more with the Dutch than the British, and the government did finally put limits on the Jews' ability to trade. They were not allowed to purchase slaves, and were required to live in a Jewish ghetto. By 1802, the colonial government in Barbados had removed all discriminatory regulations from the Jews living there. A Jewish community remained on Barbados until 1831, when a hurricane destroyed all of the towns on the island.” By the time Barbados gained its independence, there were approximately 80 Jews living in the country. In 1987, the Nidhei Israel Synagogue would be rededicated in a new location and the Old Jewish cemetery in Bridgetown would be restored. “The former Nidhei Israel building, which served as the synagogue, is today used for a library. The Jewish cemetery in Barbados is considered to be the oldest graveyard in the Western Hemisphere. A few of the graves date back to the 1660s and include Samuel Hart, son of Moses Hart, and Moses Nehemiah (the first Jew to live in Virginia). Today, approximately 40 Jews live on Barbados. It was the Jewish community of Barbados that initiated and maintains the Caribbean Jewish Congress.”

1966: Birthdate of Leonard “Lenny” Abrahamson, the native of Dublin whose films have twice won the IFTA award for best film.

1968: “The Shakiest Gun in the West” a comedy written by Everett Greenbaum was released today.

1969: In New York City, “actress Susan Kohner and Berlin-born novelist/menswear designer John Weitz” gave birth Christopher John Weitz who “is best known for his work with his brother Paul Weitz” for their work on the films “American Pie” and “About a Boy.”

1970: Birthdate of Montclair, NJ native and Yale graduate Jodi Wilgoren who went from the New York Times to serving as editor of The Forward under the name of Jodi Rudoren, the wife of the former Gary Ruderman who is known as Gary Rudoren.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/23/business/media/jodi-rudoren-forward.html

1971: In Montreal, Toby Gilsig who is Jewish and his wife Claire gave birth to actress Jessalyn Sara Gilsig who had a Jewish wedding when she married Bobby Solomon.

1974(16^th of Kislev, 5735): Seventy four year old Bert Gordon (Barney Gorodetsky) whose career spanned the golden age of radio (Eddie Cantor Program) to the golden age of television (Dick Van Dyke Show) passed away today.

1974: In northern Israel, one Muslim was killed and another was wounded during a home invasion at Rihaniya.

1975: WABC-AM is scheduled to broadcast Message of Israel with an address by Dr. Human Judah Schachtel.

1975: WBAI is scheduled to broadcast “A Hanukah Offering – Shtetl on the Hudson with Issac Bashevis Singer, Leonard Michaels and Jerome Charyn, writers who transformed the Jewish experience from the old country to New York

1975: WMCA is scheduled to broadcast a 2 hour program featuring an interview of playwright Dore Schary.

1975: WNBC is scheduled to broadcast the long-running Jewish radio series, Eternal Light, with an appearance by Harry Kemelman, author of “Tuesday the Rabbi Saw Red.”

1975: New York Senator Jacob Javits, the state’s most prominent Jewish Republican, is scheduled to appear on a broadcast of Focus on Youth.

1976(8^th of Kislev, 5737): Eighty-five year old Philip Reis Alstat, the native of Lithuania and graduated of Columbia University and Jewish Theological Seminary who was a leading rabbi in the Conservative movement, ardent Zionist and author for 40 years of “Strange to Relate,” a weekly syndicated newspaper column passed away today.

1977: In South Africa, Harry Schwarz began serving as “Shadow Minister of Finance.”

1977: U.S. premiere of Neil Simon’s “The Goodbye Girl” directed by Herbert Ross, co-starring Richard Dreyfus in his Oscar winning performance as “Elliot Garfield.”

1978(30^th of Cheshvan, 5739): Rosh Chodesh Kislev

1979(10th of Kislev, 5740): Seventy-eight year old Zeppo Marx, the youngest of the famed Marx Brothers, passed away.

http://www.marx-brothers.org/biography/zeppo.htm

https://www.biography.com/people/zeppo-marx-21181001

1979: Ted Koppel becomes anchor of nightly news on Iranian Hostages (ABC)

1979: Stephen Roy “Reinhardt was nominated by President Jimmy Carter today, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, to a new seat authorized by 92 Stat. 1629.

1980: Leonard Bernstein’s "West Side Story" closes at Minskoff Theater New York City after 341 performances

1980: “For the second successive Sunday police prevented Moscow refuseniks from attending the unofficial scientific seminar in the apartment of Victor Brailovsky.”

1981: “Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon arrived at the Pentagon today for a meeting with Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger on the strategic cooperation between Israel and the United States.”

1983(24^th of Kislev, 5744): In the evening kindle the first Chanukah light

1983(24^th of Kislev, 5744): Sixty-two year old New York born Florida, Miami and NYU trained attorney Philip E. Heckerling, a professor of law at the University of Miami for the past twenty years and husband of Ruth Kaufman Heckerling with whom he raised two children – Stephanie and Dale – passed away today.

1985(17th of Kislev, 5746): Ninety-four year old Israeli artist Joseph Zaritsky passed away. A native of the Ukraine, he studied art in Kiev before making Aliyah in 1923. He moved to Jerusalem in 1929 and finally settled Tzova, a kibbutz near Israel’s capital city.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:313_69~Yossef_Zaritsky,_Safed,_c_1924_1.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Zaritsky,_Yossef,_Painting,_1950-1~B74_0036.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Zaritsky,_Yossef,_Painting,_1950-1~B74_0036.jpg

1988(21^st of Kislev, 5749): Amiram Nir, who “was said to have been in Mexico on avocado business” “boarded a one-engine Cessna on a flight from Uruapan to Mexico” which ended “when the plane went down in the mountains” killing Nir.

1988(21^st of Kislev, 5749): Seventy-four year old Kathleen Annie Pannonica de Koenigswarter (née Rothschild) the daughter of Charles Rothschild, a patron of Jazz and bebop passed a way today.

http://www.thejazzbaroness.co.uk/

1988: As Israeli political leaders continue try and form a government following the election held on November 1, today the Labor Party decided to end coalition negotiations with Likud. At about the same time, its leader, Shimon Peres, vowed that if a measure redefining who is Jewish under the Law of Return were put to a vote in Parliament, every Labor member would ''vote clearly against it.''

1988: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. buys RJR Nabisco for $25.07 billion. All three of the takeover kings were Jewish.

1993: “Schindler’s List,” the movie version Schindler’s Ark premiered in Washington, D.C. today

1994: Mark B. Cohen completed his service as “Democratic Whip of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.” Today.

1994(27th of Kislev, 5755): Eighty-six year old “Lionel Stander, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants whose gravelly voice and beetling brow made him a memorable presence on stage and screen and whose political beliefs in the era of the Hollywood blacklist earned him a long exile from American films, died today at his home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles. (As reported by Lawrence Van Gelder)

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/02/obituaries/lionel-stander-dies-at-86-actor-who-defied-blacklist.html?scp=1&sq=Lionel+Stander&st=nyt

1997(1st of Kislev, 5758): Rosh Chodesh Kislev

1997(1st of Kislev, 5758): Kathy Acker (née Karen Lehmann) “an American experimental novelist, prose stylist, playwright, essayist, postmodernist and sex-positive feminist writer” passed away.

1997: The New York Timesfeatured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including The Darkside of Camelot by Seymour Hersh and an essay by Alfred Kazin entitled “Missing Murray Kempton.”

1998: Michael Dobbs examines the interaction between major American companies and the Nazis in “Ford and GM Scrutinized for Alleged Nazi Collaboration” published today.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/nov98/nazicars30.htm

2000(3rd of Kislev, 5761): Seventy-five year old Holocaust survivor Ilona Karmel who was remembered as the author of the novel, An Estate of Memory passed away today. It is considered one of the most significant novels in English to address the experiences of Jewish women during World War II. Born in Cracow in 1925, Karmel was interned along with her mother and sister in three different labor camps after the Nazi occupation of Poland. She sustained severe leg injuries during the war and required years of recuperation before immigrating to the United States in 1948. Within four years of arriving in the United States, Karmel graduated from Radcliffe College, won a fiction-writing contest sponsored by Mademoiselle Magazine, and completed her first novel, Stephania. Stephania focused on the physical and spiritual recovery of a young woman who had survived the Nazi concentration camps. In 1969, Karmel published An Estate of Memory, which was reissued by the Feminist Press in 1986. Reviewed on the front page of the New York Times Book Review, it was one of the earliest significant literary treatments of Jewish experience in the Nazi camps and remains one of the most significant novels to address Jewish women's experiences during the Holocaust. Karmel taught creative writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for many years where an annual writing prize that she established has been renamed in her honor.

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/18/arts/ilona-karmel-75-who-wrote-of-holocaust.html

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/karmel-ilona

2000: Time of Favor (Ha-hesder) Israeli writer-director Joseph Cedar's 2000 debut film, starring Aki Avni was released in Israel today.

2000(3^rd of Kislev, 5761): Seventy-five year old Ilona Karmel, “literary chronicler of the Holocaust and author of An Estate of Memory, passed away.(As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archives)

http://jwa.org/thisweek/nov/30/2000/ilona-karmel

2001(15^th of Kislev, 5762): Ninety-three year old Syracuse native Robert P. Jacobs who served as the Rabbi at Temple Adas Emuno and Temp Beth Ha-Tephila before founding the Hillel House at Washington University in 1946 which he served as director until 1972, passed away today in St. Louis, MO.

2001: South African businessman Cyril Kern gave Gilad Sharon a loan to help cover the shortfall in the contributions being raised for his father’s campaign.

2002(25^th of Kislev, 5763): First Day of Chanukah; light second candle in the evening

2003: The New York Timesfeatures reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics of special interest to Jewish readers including In An Uncertain World: Tough Choices From Wall Street to Washington by Robert E. Rubin and Jacob Weisberg, Secrets of the City by Anne Roiphe, Primo Levi: A Life by Ian Thomson and Rumsfeld: A Personal Portrait by Midge Decter

2005: It is official. Former Labor chairman Shimon Peres announced that he was ending his political activity in the Labor Party and would support Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the upcoming March elections.

2006: Haaretz reported that a small room in Kibbutz Merhavia which was once home to Israel's first woman prime minister, Golda Meir, has been renovated and refurbished in the style of the 1920s when Golda lived there.

2006(9th of Kislev, 5767): Poet, songwriter and journalist Eli Mohar who wrote the “Goings On Around Town” column in the Tel Aviv weekly Ha’ir passed away from cancer at the age of 58.

2006: Sasson Somekh, visiting professor in Jewish Studies, opened the Jews Among Arabs conference at Vanderbilt with a lecture based on his memoir Baghdad Yesterday. Somekh grew up in the Jewish community in Iraq in the 1930s and ‘40s. He pointed out that some 250 Muslim Iraqis died in 1941 while trying to defend their Jewish neighbors being attacked by a pro-Nazi mob. About 150 Jews were killed in the incident, which launched the decline of Jewish community in Iraq, which had thrived there for 26 centuries.

2007: John Strugnell, controversial Dead Sea Scrolls scholar, passed away.

2007: The Wall Street Journallisted Ramaz as one of the top schools for graduates entering the top eight universities in the country, with 10 out of a class of 100 (class of 2007) going to these schools. The Ramaz School is a coeducational, private Modern Orthodox Jewish prep school located on the Upper East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan.

2007: At The Sydney Jewish Museum an exhibition styled “Butterflies of Hope” comes to an end. “Butterflies of Hope” is a very special exhibition designed to raise awareness of the plight of children trapped in war. Developed for children 10+ and their families, the exhibition introduces the Holocaust from a Child Survivors perspective. The experiences of Sydney based child Holocaust Survivors will be highlighted, along with original objects and photographs. Notably, original children’s drawings and a toy butterfly from the Terezin ghetto have been loaned from the Terezin Memorial Museum for the exhibition. A photographic exhibition of children caught up in recent genocides will also feature in the exhibition. Children are invited to inscribe a message of hope for children affected by such atrocities, and place it within the exhibition in support of the right of every child to live in peace.

2007: The week long launch of "Operation: Last Chance” will continue with a press conference in Chile. The Simon Wiesenthal Center's "Operation: Last Chance" is targeted to find and bring to justice at least some of the thousands of Nazis still hiding in South America 62 years after the end of World War II. It will probably be the final major effort to locate and bring to justice Nazis in hiding scattered around the world.

2007: The New York Timesreviewed The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father’s Nazi Boyhood by Mark Kurzem.

2007(20th of Kislev, 5768): IDF Private Ma’ayan Rotenberg of Kibbutz Beit Haemek passed away as a result of an accident while training with a tank unit. He died a week before his 19th birthday.

2007(20^th of Kislev, 5678): Ninety-three year old Isaac Cohen who served as Chief Rabbi of Ireland from 1958 to 1979 passed away today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Windermere%27s_Fan_(1925_film)

2008: The Orthodox Union's National Conference meeting, at the Ramada Hotel in Jerusalem comes to a close. Participants included Rabbi Metzger, Rabbi Lau, Rabbi Menachem Genack and Rabbi Herschel Schachter. The Keynote address was given by British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.

2008: The International Conference on Contemporary Issues and Halacha, opens at Yeshurun Synagogue in Jerusalem. The conference which is being held to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Israel's first chief Rabbi Isaac Halevi Herzog of Blessed Memory features the theme: "They'll be there, will you?""They" are 50 well-known personalities, including Chief Rabbis Yona Metzger and Shlomo Amar, along with their immediate predecessors Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau and Rabbi Eliahu Bakshi Doron, IDF Chief Rabbi Avraham Ronski, Yitzhak Peretz, Chief Rabbi of Raanana, lawyers Dr. Yaacov Weinroth and Prof. Yaakov Neeman, MKs Rabbi Michael Melchior, Rabbi Moshe Gafni and Zevulun Orlev, Supreme Court Justice Elyakim Rubinstein and retired Judge Zvi Tal.

2008: Four of eight soldiers wounded in terrorist attacks on the Nahal Oz Base Gaza crossing during the Sabbath remained hospitalized. Three of them are being treated for moderate to serious wounds in Soroka Medical center in Be'er Sheva. The fourth victim, Sergeant Noam Nakash, 21, of Beersheba, lost his leg in a mortar attack and is being treated in Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon.

2009: “Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza” a play panned by The Sunday Times, condemned by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and described as “a blood libel” by Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic opened at the Lebanese American University in Beirut, Lebanon

2009: "Pray for You" a song written by Joel Brentlinger & Jaron Lowenstein and recorded by American singer Jaron Lowenstein was released today.

2009: Amy Goodman, host of the radio and television program "Democracy Now!," discusses and signs her new book, Breaking the Sound Barrier, at Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C.

2009: AJWS and its President, Ruth Messinger join Congregation Emanu-El, Congregation Emanu-El’s Young Adult Community, Congregation Beth Sholom, Congregation Sherith Israel, Taube Center for Jewish Life at the JCCSF, The Hub of the JCCSF, The SF Bay Area Darfur Coalition and Congregation Sha’ar Zahav to cosponsor an advance screening of Reporter the new documentary featuring Nicholas Kristof, two-time Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times columnist.

2009: The opening of the John Demjanjuk trial today in Munich had to be delayed by over an hour because of the flood of visitors - including Holocaust survivors - who wished to observe what might be the last prosecution of an alleged Nazi war criminal.

2009(13^th of Kislev, 5770): Eighty-nine year old Columbia Law School graduate Charles Miller Metzner, the former “counsel to the General Jewish Council” and a federal judge starting in 1959 passed away today.

https://www.fjc.gov/node/1385066

2010: "My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish, and I'm Home for the Holidays!," is scheduled to have its first performance in Charlotte, NC.

2010: The 92^nd Street Y in New York apologized for the way Deborah Solomon had conducted her interview of Steve Martin along with an offer to refund their money.

2010: The Shin Bet has arrested three Palestinian militants suspected of carrying out a shooting attack against two Israelis in late September, it emerged today The three Palestinians belong to the Abu-Moussa group, a splinter faction of Fatah; the head of the cell received his military training in Syria and Lebanon. The suspects were charged today at the Ofer Military Court.

2010(23^rd of Kislev, 5771): Eighty-four year old Cleveland native Lawrence E. “Larry” Gelfand, Professor-Emeritus in the Department of History at the University of Iowa and husband of Miriam Ifland passed away today in Irvine, CA.

2010: Norman Lebrecht reviews “Why Mahler?: How One Man and Ten Symphonies Changed Our World.”

2010: “Through the Gale,” the third album of Asaf Avidan & the Mojos was released in Israel today.

2011: The Chabad Jewish Center in Metairie, LA, is scheduled to host its monthly Rosh Chodesh event which this month is entitled “Impression & Expression: The Essential Woman.”

2011: In New Orleans, Temple Sinai is scheduled to host its final session of this month’s Adult Education Series, “The Major Message of the Minor Prophet!”

2011: David Schmahmann is scheduled to discuss his new novel “The double Life of Alfred Buber” at the final event of the Jewish Community Center of the North Shore’s Jewish Book Month.

2011: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's top cabinet ministers approved the handover of $100 million in tax money to the Palestinian Authority today, despite the vocal opposition of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

2011: An errant volley of projectiles landed in the vicinity of a top Israel Defense Forces officer today, in what preliminary reports say was a severe mishap during a large-scale drill in Israel's south. IDF chief Benny Gantz stopped the drill after the projectiles exploded near GOC Central Command Avi Mizrahi.

2012: Adi Neuhaus, first prize winner of the “Voice of Music Young” Artist Competition is scheduled to perform at noon today in Jerusalem.

2012: “A Late Quartet,” Israeli director Yaron Zilberman's engrossing drama about an illustrious string quartet, is scheduled to shown at several cinemas in New York City.

2012: “A Search for God Through Bluegrass and Klezmer” published today described the career of Andy Statman.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/01/nyregion/andy-statmans-search-for-god-in-music.html?ref=music&_r=0

2012: In a clever combination of Mitzvot (Tzdekah and Shabbat) the Young Professionals Network is scheduled to host a Shabbat dinner where the attendees will make contributions toward the B'nai B'rith's Disaster Relief Fund for the victims of Hurricane Sandy.

2012: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/01/world/middleeast/israel-moves-to-expand-settlements-in-east-jerusalem.html?hp

2012: Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird, who delivered a supportive speech of Israel at the UN before its vote yesterday on the Palestinian statehood, said today "the bottom line is we will not let the Jewish people and the State of Israel stand alone when the going gets tough."

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=294114

2012: At a meeting of the Saban Forum, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton blamed the Palestinians for the collapse of the peace talks in 2000, when she said, “I don’t care how many people try to revise that history, the fact is [Arafat] said no at Camp David.” “The Palestinians could have had a state as old as I am if they had made the right decision in 1947,” she said. “They could have had a state if they had worked with my husband and then-Prime Minister Barak at Camp David. They could have had a state if they’d worked with Prime Minister Olmert and Foreign Minister Livni.”

2013(27^thof Kislev, 5774): Shabbat Chanukah

2013: Scheduled opening of the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.

2013:A Palestinian was shot to death this morning by Border Guard volunteers, who were searching after illegal aliens in the area of Yarkon Cemetery in Petah Tikva. The Border Guard stated that a policeman shot the Palestinian after the latter attempted to stab him. (As reported by Hassan Shaalan)

2013: Beduin Israelis and their supporters throughout the country staged protest demonstrations today against the controversial Prawer resettlement plan.

2014: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present “Modeling the Flood Story – from Ancient to Modern Times.”

2014: As part of UK Jewish Comedy Festival, LOCO and JW3 are scheduled to present “Time Travel” with Woody Allen

2014: In Melbourne, “King of the Jews” and “Magic Men” are scheduled to be shown at the Jewish International Film Festival.

2014: Thirty-one year old Gill Rosenberg, “an Israeli-Canadian woman who traveled to Syria to fight alongside the Kurds there earlier this month has been abducted by Islamic State fighters, Hebrew media reported today, citing Syrian jihadist-linked media

2014: According to a report published today in Haaretz, Jerusalem’s “is plumbing new depths to devise funerary solutions to Israel’s shortage of space, and has broken ground on two experimental crypts near the entrance to the city.

2014: “Rafi Eitan, the head of the Bureau of Scientific Relations in November 1985 that ran Jonathan Pollard confirmed Sunday for the first time that the prime minister Shimon Peres and defense minister Yitzhak knew full well that Israel had a spy within the US armed forces” who was in fact Jonathan Pollard.

2014: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including George Marshall by Debi and Irwin Unger with Stanley Hirschon and an essay “To Russia, With Tough Love” by Marsha Gessen

2015: Friends and family of Dr. Fred Goldblatt, whose incomparable contributions to the Cedar Rapids Jewish community include a willingness to share his considerable musical skills, prepare to celebrate his natal day.

2015(18^thof Kislev, 5776): “Janet Wolfe — gleeful gadabout, archetypal Gothamite and the longtime executive director of the New York City Housing Authority Symphony” passed away today at the age of 101. (As reported by Margalit Fox)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/08/nyregion/janet-wolfe-gleeful-gothamite-on-a-first-name-basis-with-her-era-dies-at-101.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

2015: Seventy-one year old Sheldon Silver “the son of a hardware store owner on the Lower East Side” who rose become “one of the most feared politicians in New York State was found guilty…of federal corruption charges” today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/01/nyregion/sheldon-silver-guilty-corruption-trial.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=1

2015: “Righteous Among Us: Two Who Defied the Nazis,” a film about how Waitsill and Martha Sharp worked to save Jews from the Shoah in 1939 is scheduled to be shown at Congregation Beth Shalom in Northbrook, Illinois.

http://www.ushmm.org/online/calendar/eventDetails.php?event=MWEPHEMERALPP1115

2016: The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to host a memorial tribute for Elie Wiesel this evening.

2016: “For the first time in three months, Israeli jets reportedly struck targets in Syria early this morning, hitting a Bashar Assad regime military base and a Hezbollah convoy en route to Lebanon, according to foreign media.”

2016: “Army reported” today that “several leading rabbis have decided to campaign against moves by the IDF to further integrate women into combat units and plan to advise religious male soldiers to avoid orders relating to mixed-gender acivities.”

2016: During an interviews on CNBC today, future Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin said that the Trump administration’s job is to “make sure that the average American has wage increases and good jobs” and “his priority was getting a sustained growth of GDP of 3% or 4%.”

2016: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present “We Were Neighbors: Remembering Middle Eastern Jewish Communities” which will include “scholarly, first-person reflections by award-winning writers Lucette Lagnado (The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: A Jewish Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World) and André Aciman (Out of Egypt)

2017(12^thof Kislev, 5778): Seventy-four year old Leslie Wolfe, the Washington born daughter of Theodore and Isabelle Rosenberg and holder of a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Florida who was a leader in the fight for equality of women through her work with the Center for Women Policy Studies passed today in Rockville, MD. (As reported by Amisha Padnani)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/08/obituaries/leslie-wolfe-who-pursued-equality-for-women-dies-at-74.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

2017: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a noon-time “chill and chat” with Rabbi Michael Rosenfeld-Schueler who also will be leading an “in-depth text-based Gemara learning” session before the weekday evening meal.

2017: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host Peter G. Weintraub’s first session of “Introduction to Judaism.”

2017: The Jewish Music Forum is scheduled to host a lecture by historian Daniel Jütte on “Gustav Mahler: Jewish Identity and Nineteenth-Century Musical Culture” followed by a concert featuring Arnold Schoenberg and Rainer Riehn’s chamber orchestra arrangement of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth)

2017: “The Jstyle Winter Premiere Party” is scheduled to take place at the StoneWater Golf Club in Highland Heights, Ohio.

2017: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education is scheduled to host “An Evening of Unity”

2017: Jewish Book Month, an annual event that provides us with a chance to contemplate Jewish books and the lives of authors such as David Fromkin whose works included the must-read A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East continues today.

2018: “The 10 Best Books of 2018” from the NYT included How To Change Your Mind: What the Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence by Michael Pollan, “the son of author and financial consultant Stephen Pollan and columnist Corky Pollan.”

2018: As of today, the Kfir Infantry Brigade has “completed an extensive two-month exercise simulating a war in the Gaza Strip against the Hamas terror group” prior to the unit being “stationed outside the coastal enclave” in 2019.

2018: “Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s former personal lawyer who has twice pleaded guilty to crimes that have implicated Mr. Trump in illegal or questionable conduct, asked a federal judge late tonight that he be allowed to avoid prison when he is sentenced in less than two weeks.”(As reported by Benjamin Weiser and Maggie Haberman.

2018: The Israel Museum is scheduled to host a lecture on “Vayeshev” with “Noga Elias-Zalmanovitch” at 11:00 A.M.

2018: As American Jews prepare for Shabbat, they dealt with reports of arsonists being responsible for a fire at an Orthodox synagogue in Houston, the attack by vandals on the offices of Professor Elizabeth Midlarksy at Columbia who painted the walls with Swastikas and the ramifications of Michael Cohen’s plea deal that included claims that were diametrically opposite to President Trump’s description of the same events.

2019: Seventy-fifth birthday of University of Iowa, Ph.D. and “distinguished Professor of English at Indiana University who authored several tomes including Judas, A Biography;

http://www.indiana.edu/~jsp/faculty/profile_sGubar.shtml

2019: “The Israel Defense Forces said it had launched airstrikes against the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza in the predawn hours this morning after weapons were fired at Israel from the Strip yesterday.” (As reported by Times of Israel Staff)

2019: In a testament to the vitality of Jewish life in the rural heartland, in Coralville, IA, Agudas Achim is scheduled to host the “Baby Blessing Ceremony” of Juniper Josephine Kline, daughter of Jake Kline and Alice Baker and Ariella Rose Greenfield, the daughter of Andrea and Brandon Greenfield.

2019(2^ndof Kislev, 5780): Parashat Toldot; for more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/

December 1

500: (Kislev 4428): This is the traditional date of the closing of the Talmudic era and the beginning of the Saboraic era. Saboraim is “the title applied to the principals and scholars of the Babylonian academies in the period immediately following that of the Amoraim. The Saboraic Era lasted for approximately 200 years.

800: Charlemagne judges the accusations against Pope Leo III in the Vatican. Fourteen years later, with the crown firmly on his head Charlemagne would issue his Capitulary for the Jews.

During his papacy, Leo III “introduced public disputations between Jews and Christians, resulting in forced conversions to Christianity.”

1081: Birthdate of Louis VI of France. “During his reign jurisdiction over the Jews (and their revenues) gradually passed from royal control to the hands of the Church. The Abbey of Saint-Denis, in 1112, obtained from the king judicial control over the Jews in the town. In 1119 Louis ceded half his income from the Jews of *Tours to the Abbey of Saint-Martin there; and in 1122 he granted five houses belonging to Jews to Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis.” (As reported by Bernhard Blumenkranz)

1135: Henry I of England passed away. During Henry's reign (1100–1135) a royal charter was granted to Joseph, the chief rabbi of London, and all his followers. Under this charter, Jews were permitted to move about the country without paying tolls, to buy and sell goods and property, to sell their pledges after holding them a year and a day, to be tried by their peers, and to be sworn on the Torah rather than on a Christian Bible. Special weight was attributed to a Jew's oath, which was valid against that of 12 Christians, because they represented the King of England in financial matters. The sixth clause of the charter was especially important: it granted to the Jews the right of movement throughout the kingdom, as if they were the king's own property (sicut res propriæ nostræ). Henry died without a direct male heir. The result was civil strife that was bad for England in general and the Jews in particular. Peace would only come when Henry’s grandson, Henry II, took the throne.

1145: Pope Eugenius III issued “Quantum praedecessores” a papal bull calling for the Second Crusade – another disaster for the Jews of Europe and Palestine.

1145: Pope Eugene III sent a papal bull to the French King, Louis VII, proclaiming the Second Crusade. Led by Louis and Emperor Conrad III from 1147 to 1149, the crusade failed to accomplish its goal.

1291: Eight year old Infanta Isabella of Castile, the eldest daughter of Sancho IV, the ruler of Castile “who treated the story of the affair between Rahel la Fermosa, a Jewish woman from Toledo, and King Alfonso VIII as fact and not fable” married James II of Aragon.

1516: Jerusalem surrendered to Selim I, the Ottoman Sultan

1521: Forty-five year old Pope Leo X, one of those Italian Popes whose pursuit of other interests left him “no time to think of torturing Jews” passed away today. Bonet de Lates, a Jew from Provence served as Leo’s physician and unofficial advisor. He was more of an aristocrat than man of the cloth who was more concerned about navigating among the competing temporal powers than matters of religion. His leniency towards the Jews may have stemmed from an attitude summed up by his statement that “It is well known how useful this fable of Christ has been to us and ours!”

1652: Manuel Fernando de Villa-Real, a distinguished Marrano who "conducted the consular affairs of the Portuguese court at Paris" was seized in Lisbon, gagged and executed.

1573(Kislev, 5334): This date marks the death of Solomon Luria who was born in 1510 at Brest-Litovsk. Luria is known as the "Rashal" or the Maharshal. A contemporary of Salomon Shakna, he represented an opposing view in Talmudic study, believing in plain but lucid methods. He was also the author of the Yam Shel Shlomo (Sea of Solomon), a commentary on several volumes of the Talmud, and Chokmat Shlomo (Wisdom of Solomon) in which he corrected many faulty readings in the Talmud, Rashi and the Tosophot.

1626: Ibn Farukh (Governor of Jerusalem) was deposed after harshly persecuting the Jews.

1652(Tevet, 5413): Portuguese Jewish statesman Manuel Fernando de Villarreal was executed by the Inquisition.

1676: Aaron Samuel Kaidanover the Chief Rabbi of Cracow, who lost two of his two daughters and had all his possession stolen during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, passed away today “while attending the Vadd HaGalil of Krakow.”

1742: The Jews living in “Great Russia” were expelled by order of Empress Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great and Catherin I.

1742: Suleiman Pasha of Damascus ended the siege of Tiberias

1762: Lob Kann’s son, Moses Kann, the chief rabbi of Hesse-Darmstadat, passed away today.

1785: In German, Frommet Hajim and Aron Abraham Arnold gave birth to Mayer Arnold, the husband of Fannie Wolf with whom he 16 children.

1793(27^thof Kislev, 5554): Third Day of Chanukah

1793: The day after he had passed away, “Abraham ben Jacob” was buried at the “Alderney Road (Globe Rd.) Jewish Cemetery” today.

1820(25^thof Kislev, 5581): Chanukah

1820: Hayman and Almeria Levy gave birth to their oldest child, George Levy

1825: Czar Alexander I passed away. This anti-Semitic Russian monarch’s death coincided with a temporary cessation of the forced re-settlement of Jews in the Pale of Settlement. The cruel re-settlement policy would be quickly reinstituted by his son and successor, Nicholas I. Prayer for the Czar: May the Lord keep the Czar…far away from the Jews.

1825:Nicholas I, the incompetent, reactionary Czar who led his nation to defeat in the Crimean War and promulgated a series of anti-Semitic decrees that included drafting under-age Jewish boys for 25 years of military service, the banning of Yiddish and the banning of Jews from several cities including Kiev.

1833: The music journal, Le Ménestrel which was a competitor with Maurice Schlesinger’s Gazette Musicale de Paris, first appeared today.

1834: Birthdate of Joseph Blumenthal, the native of Munich who became a successful New York businessman who served in the State Assembly and was instrumental in bring down the Tweed Ring.

1841: In Charleston, SC,Emanuel Nunes Carvalho married Caroline A. (Woolf) Carvalho.

1843: Birthdate of Leopold Lowenstein a German rabbi born from Gailingen, Baden. The son of a rabbi, he would eventually serve as the Rabbi for three districts located in his native Baden.

1844: In an election for Chief Rabbi of the British Empire Jacob Adler received 121 votes, Hirsch Hirschfeld 12, and Samson Raphael Hirsch 2.

1848: Birthdate of Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld, or Sonnenfeld, who was the Chief Rabbi and co-founder of the Edah HaChareidis, Haredi Jewish community in Jerusalem, during the years of the British Mandate of Palestine.

1848: In Cornwall, UK, Amelia Jacob and Henry Joseph gave birth to Bessie Joseph.

1850: Birthdate of Hermann M. Kisch, the thirty-yearlong member of the Indian Civil Service diplomat who had earned an M.A. from Cambridge in 1879 and was called to the Bar in 1883 and was President of the Bristol Branch of the Anglo-Jewish Association.

1852: A British ship, the Fitzjames under the command of Captain arrived at the Quarantine area in New York tonight. Among the passengers were two Jews – a man named Drestner from Poland and Augustine Behr from Germany. Apparently when the ship was about thirty miles from Sandy Hook (off the coast of New York) the two Jews had a discussion about religion that became so heated that Behr stabbed Drestner with his knife. Drestner was taken to the hospital on Staten Island. While the police are holding Behr in jail, U.S. authorities say they have authority in the case since the attack took place on British vessel in international waters. The British Counsel has been notified and may send Behr back to England for a hearing.

1855: The U.S.S. Minnesota, on which Adolph Marix would serve in 1880, was launched today.

1859: In New York City Simon and Rosa Marx (the future Rosa Bloom) gave birth to Samuel Marx

1860: The New York Times correspondent wrote from Jamaica that “an Anti-Jewish feeling is brewing in the community, and I am very much afraid that, politically -- that is, speaking daggers, but using none, for we can never come to that -- a war of races will have to be fought. The colored classes who constitute the education, the planters who represent the wealth, and the blacks who have the force of numbers, are not going to rest satisfied while the Government and the patronage of Government are given up to the Jews, who are clannish enough to employ them to their own use, and to the detriment of all other classes. This is the state of things at present; but the difficulty is far from being settled, and I am afraid the Governor will, at the long run, be forced to retire.”

1861: E. Delafield Smith, the U.S. District Attorney, wrote a letter of introduction to President Lincoln on behalf of Rabbi Fischell “who has been appointed by the Board of Delegates of the Israelites of the U.S. to urge the modification of the laws in relation to chaplains, so far as they affect the practice, though I doubt not unintended exclusion of clergymen of the Jewish faith from acting in that capacity, even in regiments composed of persons of that faith. This class of our citizens has evinced loyalty to the Government, and I need not say is entitled to at least a hearing on this subject. Dr. Fischell is a gentleman of great worth and intelligence.”

1867: Birthdate of 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.

1868: Disraeli completed his first term as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and became the leader of the Opposition.

1870: It was reported today that the Hebrew Charity Fair under the chairmanship of E.B. opened to a full house with a program that included a speech by the Governor of New York.

1870: Attendance at the second day of the Hebrew Fair for the benefit of Mount Sinai Hospital and the Hebrew Orphan Asylum was less than on opening night, but was robust enough to raise an additional $7,000. When this total is added to the over $51,000 raised the first night, it means that in only two days the fair has already raise almost $60,000.

1870: Professor Singler’s Orchestra provided the music at tonight’s second annual ball of the Hebrew Young Men’s Literary Association which was held at the Apollo Hall in New York.

1871: The Hebrew Young Men’s Literary and Benevolent Association is scheduled to host an evening of entertainment at the Irving Hall.

1871: It was reported today that children at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum enjoyed a “splendid” Thanksgiving meal filled with “holiday pleasure.”

1871: It was reported today that in Brooklyn all businesses were closed for Thanksgiving except for “saloons and Jew clothing-stores.”

1874: In Simbirsk, Russian Empire, Eugenia Berliner and Gabriel Zon gave birth to Raphael Zon, the husband of Anna Puziriskaya, who in 1898 came to the U.S. where he pursued a 43 year career as a forest researcher.

https://www.wisaf.org/wisconsin-forestry-hall-of-fame/1988-raphael-zon/

1875: In Chicago, founding of Congregation Moses Montefiore which offered religious school classes on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays and whose members included Rabbi Isaiah Agat.

1876: It was reported today that the Hebrew Charity Ball will be held on December 21 at the Academy of Music.

1876: It was reported that Rabbi George Jacobs delivered the invocation at yesterday’s ceremony in Philadelphia, PA during which a monument dedicated to Religious Liberty financed by the B’nai B’rith was presented to the Centennial Committee chaired by A.L. Singer.

1877: The Hebrew Free School Association in New York is providing services to 701 students.

1878: The annual meeting of the Hebrew Free School Association was held today at the schoolhouse located at Number 96 Bowery. As of this date, the association operates five schools, employs 17 teachers and serves 1,045 students.

1879: The Paula Markham troupe including Josephine Sarah Marcus, the future wife of Wyatt Earp arrived by stagecoach in Tombstone, supposedly on the same day that Wyatt and his brother arrived in the Arizona town

1883: In Rushville, Indiana, Jewish merchant Jacob Block is suffering from the after effects of having been slashed with a razor by the son of his competitor Eli Frank while his is son is under arrest for fatally shooting Eli Frank.

1883: In the early morning hours, just after midnight, a troop of peasants from Budas armed with guns and axes attacked Jews living at Zala Lovo in southwestern Hungary.

1885: The new home of Congregation B’nai Jershurun on Madison between 64^th and 65^thStreets is scheduled to be dedicated today.

1885: Two days after he had passed away, John Hadkins, the husband of Maria Woolf with whom he had had five children was buried today at the “Balls Pond Jewish Cemetery.”

1886: The Wife and daughter of a Polish Jew named Milkowski who has lived in West Carroll Parish came to Lake Providence, LA to report that a mob made of people who owed him money had destroyed the family home and outbuildings at Caledonia.

1887: D. Burkmann, a Polish Jew arrived in New York aboard the Steamship State of Indiana along with Perl Cajesky who had promised him that her husband would repay him for her ticket as soon as they arrived.

1888: Mr. Harpman said today that $500 has been turned over to the committee for the benefit of destitute Jews in Dakota and “there is no longer any need for the money among the Jews” because “they are abundantly supplied” and he feels compelled “to request that nothing further be shipped.”

1890: In Latvia, Isaac and Ida Gelfand gave birth to Maurice Hirsh Gelfand, the Cleveland lawyer and WW I veteran who was the husband of Rachel Shapiro Gelfand and the father of Lawrence Emerson Gelfand.

1891: “Benjamin Berensen Disappears” published today described how Berensen, a Boston Jewish “dry-goods jobber” defrauded his co-religionist out cash and goods valued at $10,000 to $15,000 by using an elaborate check-kiting scheme before skipping town.

1892: Officials of the New York Health department were alarmed yesterday at the reappearance of typhus five months after dealing with the last epidemic which had begun with a group of infected Russian and Polish Jews who had arrived on the SS Massila,

1893: In Posen, Prussia, “Ida (Kohn) and Max Toller, a pharmacist” gave birth to Ernst Toller, a German-Jewish playwright and active anti-fascist, who fought for the Kaiser in World War I and whose sister and brother were to a concentration camp after which he hung himself at the Mayflower Hotel. W.H. Auden memorialized him with a poem entitled “In Memory of Ernst Toller” published in 1940 in an anthology called Another Time.

1893: It was reported today that among the dignitaries who had served Thanksgiving Dinner to the children at the United Hebrew Charities’ Industrial School were H.S. Allen, Dr. H.P. Mendes and Mrs. Louis Mendes.

1894: New Yorker A. M. Huntington has purchased University of Chicago Professor William I. Knapp’s 6,000 volume library that included the Ferrara Bible of 1443 which is known as the “Jews Bible.

1895: It was reported today that the Harmonie clubhouse at 42^nd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues “has already been the scene of some excellent affairs” and that “the club is deeply interested in the success of the Hebrew fair” which means the club “will not give any of its larger affairs until late December.”

1895: It was reported today “that mint sauce, the accompaniment of roast lamb is a survival of the Jewish custom of eating the Passover lamb with bitter herbs.”

1895: “Dr. Silverman On Armenia” published today provided a summary of the views of Rabbi Joseph Silverman of Temple Emanu-El on “the Turkish persecution directed against the Armenians” as well the Turkish persecution against Christian missionaries, and against those Americans residing in the Ottoman Empire. Silverman believes that Jews, given their own history of persecution, have an obligation to speak out when others persecuted.

1895: Despite the dismissal of an indictment against Peter Peiser, a delicatessen dealer, who had been arrested for selling sausage on Sunday, today the police will follow the instruction of Acting Police Chief Conlin and arrest today any violators of the Sunday law prohibiting sales after ten o’clock in the morning.

1896: The Fifteenth Biennial Council of the American Hebrew Congregations opened today in Louisville, KY, with a business meeting in the gymnasium of the Yong Men’s Hebrew Associations and ending with a “musicale” at Liederkranz Hall.

1897: Moritz Rosenthal is scheduled to “give his first piano recital…at the Academy of Music.”

1897: Le Figaro published a letter from Zola entitled “Le Syndicat” “in which the novelist defended the position of the Dreyfus faction.”

1898: The United States Consul at Beirut wrote a report today “The Jews in Palestine” which opened by saying “In view of the impetus given the Zionist movement by the second Zionist congress held at Basel in September and also by the Palestine journey of Emperor Wilhelm II, the present status of Jews in Palestine becomes a matter of general interest.”

1899: Forty-six year old Vaiben Louis began serving as the 21^st Premier of South Australia.

1900(9^th of Kislev, 5661): Parashat Veyetzei

1900(9^th of Kislev, 5661): Joshua Ḥayyim ben Mordecai ha-Levi Epstein also known as "Reb Joshua Ḥayyim the Sarsur" who authored a “novella on the Midrah Rabbot” passed away today in his native Wilna.

1901: Birthdate of Budapest native and world class violinist Ilona Fehér who escaped a concentration with her daughter, fought with the partisans and made Aliyah in 1949 where she resumed and expanded her career which is forever memorialized by the foundation created in her name.

1901: The St. Louis World’s Fair which included a display of Conrad Schick’s final model, in four sections, each representing the Temple Mount as it appeared in a particular era, came to a close today.

1901: The St. Louis World’s Fair which included nine of the works of Moshe Maimon which were on display at the Russian Exhibition came to a close today.

1903: In Russia, Nathan Bassok and his wife gave birth to Bessie Bassok who Bessie Bassok Warshawsky when she married Samuel Warshawsky in 1923.

1905: A review of The White Terror and The Red: A Novel of Revolutionary Russia by Abraham Cahan said that “he revolutionary outbreaks in Russia, and particularly the rioting and massacre of Jews in Odessa seem to have been foretold in Abraham Cahan’s dramatic novel of revolutionary Russia in which the vivid pictures of the mob looting houses and assailing men, women and children while the gutters ran with liquor and the streets were strewn with household goods, affords a realistic idea of actual present conditions in the present centers of disturbance in Russia.”

1905: As of today it was reported that the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in New York is caring for over 1,030 children.

1905: As of today the national committee collecting funds for the relief of the Jews being attacked in Russia totaled $970,130 included contributions of $217 from the Community of Baton Rouge, LA, $510 from the “Israelites and friends of Augusta, GA and $158 from Congregation Mt. Zion in Jersey City, NJ.

1906: Bernhard Rothschild, the German born son Sibilla Rothschild and his wife Henriette (Jetta) Rothschild gave birth to Elsa Rothschild Kindman

1907(25^th of Kislev, 5668): Chanukah

1907: In Alpena, Michigan, the community’s Jewish women formed the Hebrew Ladies Benevolent Society.

1909: The first Kibbutz, Degania, was established in pre-state Israel. Aaron David Gordon (1856-1922), one of its founders, was considered the "Apostle" of the kibbutz movement. Each colony was independent and democratically governed. Membership was voluntary and all earnings and expenses were shared.

1911: Peter Bercovitch, of Montreal was appoint “King’s Consul” today.

1911: The Queen of Holland appointed T.M.C. Asser as a “member of the committee formulating the Government’s proposals to the International Committee making arrangements for the third Peace Conference at the Hague.

1911: In Montreal, during a meeting of the Baron de Hirsch Institute, attendees expressed their opposition to “the forcible teaching of Christians Scriptures in schools largely attended by Jewish children.”

1912: Miss Kate Block is scheduled to perform as the soloist at the Seventh Sunday afternoon concert hosted by the Institute in Chicago.

1912: Yiddish theatre stars Jacob P. Adler, Leon Blank and Francis Adler are scheduled to perform for the last time tonight at the Haymarket in Chicago this evening.

1912: The People’s Synagogue Association held services this afternoon at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Michigan Avenue in Chicago.

1913: Birthdate of Hilda Hammerschlagova, who in 1942 was deported from Prague to Ujazdow where she was murdered by the Nazis.

1913: Crete, having obtained self-rule from Turkey after the First Balkan War, is annexed by Greece. “The Jews of Crete are first mentioned in 2 Maccabees and appear to have had a community at Gortys.” “Toward the end of the 19th century, Crete was made into an independent republic under a Greek prince regent. A parliament was established, with several Jewish representatives, who managed to claim their constitutionally guaranteed seats with great difficulty. After Crete was formally annexed to Greece in 1913, Jewish emigration continued until, by 1941, there were only 364 Jews in Hania, 1 in Rethymnon, and 7 in Herakleion.”

1913(2^nd of Kislev, 5674): Sixty-seven year old Rosa (Kahn) Hirschel, the daughter of Samuel and Henriette Kahn passed away today in Schopfen.

1914: It was reported today that the “lack of adequate schools in the rural” areas of the United States “was given as the chief reason why more Jews did not take up farming” – a reality that is being overcome by some daring individuals including “Isaac Neleber the 25 year old owner of a 120 acre in Connecticut.”

1914: A list of contributors to the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews suffering through the war published today included I.L. Greenblatt, San Francisco; Congregation Augdas Achim, Little Rock, AR; Congregation Agudas Achim, Bessemer, Alabama; Congregation Agudas Achim, Braddock, PA; Congregation B’nai Zion, Farrell, PA and Congregation Eitz Chaim in Ellwood City, PA

1914: In Hlinski. Otto Taussig and Frederike, née Federer Taussig gave birth to Czech journalist Josef Taussig and “amateur trombonist” who used his musical skills to survive for almost two years at Theresienstadt before being shipped to Auschwitz and ultimately dying at Flossenburg.

1914: “Frank Appeals to Highest Court” published today provides a complete of the pleadings made by the attorneys representing Leo Frank before the U.S. Supreme Court.

1915: First night of a “fete” held for the benefit of the Spanish and Portuguese Sisterhood which is chaired by Mrs. Mortimer M. Meken.

1915: “The Joint Distribution Committee which represents the three largest of the American Jewish committees for the relief of Jewish sufferers in the European war zones voted” today to send those in need an additional $229,000 of aid.

1915: “The Spanish and Portuguese Congregation gave a series of historical tableaus in its synagogue” tonight “as part of a fair held by the Sisterhood to raise funds to aid Oriental Jews” who have been forced to come to the United States to seek refuge from the World War.

1916; “The Executive Committee of the Federation of Jewish Farmers was instructed by a resolution adopted” today “at the Convention of the organization held in the Education to petition President Wilson and Congress asking that no restriction be placed upon immigration” because “there is a dearth of farm labor at present which is a decided handicap to those who are operating farms.”

1916: Italian government declares an Italian, and not a native, be appointed as rabbinate in Tripoli. Arabs are in charge of local courts of justice and deal unjustly against Jews.

1916: While serving with the Australian Imperial Force on the Western Front, Leonard Maurice Keysor was promoted to the rank of Sergeant today.

1916: In Illinois, Betram Joseph Can and Irma B. Cahn gave birth to Bertram Joseph Cahn, Jr.

1917: In furious fighting at Nebi Samwill, Imperial forces repulsed numerous counterattacks by the Ottoman Seventh Army.

1917: As the British fought the Turks in and around Jerusalem, it was reported today that one Turkish airplane “was driven down out of control and one was damaged” when five enemy planes attacked three Allied aircraft.

1917(16^thof Kislev, 5678): Just 28 days before his 63^rd birthday Dr. Henry M. Leipzieger, whose twenty-five year career in New York City education culminated with his service as Supervisor of Lectures of the Board of Education passed away today.

1917: A fund raising campaign led by Jacob Schiff is scheduled to begin today in New York City.

1917: The Bolshevik Armistice Commission, with two Jews, Adolf Jofee and Leo Kamenev (Trotsky’s brother in law) as chief negotiators left Petrograd for peace talks with the Germans at Brest-Litovsk.

1917: It was reported today that the “Turko-German artillery again made its objective the mosque erected on the traditional sit of the tomb of the Prophet Samuel” resulting in the destruction of the minaret “by this bombardment.”

1918: “The French expelled Harry Besslau from Stasbourg because he was a ‘militant-pan Germanist.’”

1918: Following the incorporation of Bessarabia and Bukovina, Transylvania united with Romania to form what will become known as Greater Romania. Greater Romania gained its legitimacy as a result of the Versailles Peace Conference that end World War I, during which 882 Jewish soldiers died defending Romania (and 825 were decorated). This enlarged state had an increased Jewish population. Based on treaties signed after the war, the government of Romania agreed to change its policy towards the Jews, promising to award them both citizenship and minority rights, the effective emancipation of Jews. The 1923 Constitution of Romania sanctioned these requirements, meeting opposition from Cuza's National-Christian Defense League and rioting by right-wing students.

1918: The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) is proclaimed. The redrawing of the map of Europe by the Allied Powers following WW I was intended to break up the old European imperial system recognizing the aspirations of a variety of nationalities throughout central and eastern Europe. The process may have looked very tidy in the drawing rooms of London and Paris. But it was quite messy for those having to live it out and this very true for the Jews of the Balkans. For a primer on the early days of the Sephardic and Ashkenazic communities in the political invention called Yugoslavia read the following:http://www.ceu.hu/jewishstudies/pdf/02_goldstein.pdf

1918:Iceland becomes a sovereign state, yet remains a part of the Danish kingdom. Jews were not officially allowed to reside in Iceland until 1855 when the parliament complied with the request of the Danish king to allow Jews to enter the little island and trade under the same terms as had been adopted in Denmark. By the end of 19^th there were a small number of trading agents which represented firms owned by Danish Jews but there is no record as to how many of them, if any were Jewish. A Jewish Danish merchant named Fritz Heyman Nathan moved to Iceland and pursued a successful business career in Reykjavik in the first two decades of the twentieth century. He moved returned to Copenhagen to pursue his business interest, having found that Iceland was a hard place to follow a Jewish way of life. Today, the Jewish population of Iceland is miniscule.

1920: In the House of Lords, Lord Crawford declared that “in the application of the Balfour Declaration the revival of Hebrew is legitimately considered to play an important part…and that the percentage of the Jewish population in Palestine speaking” classical Hebrew with such modifications as modern conditions require “is probably between 60 and 70” per cent.

1921: In South Philadelphia, Morris Wolinsky and the former Sadie Pincus gave birth to Sylvia Wolinsky who gained game as actress Sylvia Kauders. (As reported by Sam Roberts)

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/10/arts/television/sylvia-kauders-a-late-blooming-actress-dies.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

1921: The additional recovery of the German mark on the London exchange “was assisted by optimism regarding the negotiations led by Walter Rathenau, the former German Minister of Reconstruction, regarding “Germany’s forthcoming reparations payment and the possibility of a moratorium. (Rathenau was the German industrialist who played a key role in putting the Kaiser’s economy on war-time footing which did nothing to ameliorate the Kaiser’s anti-Semitism and the victim of German assassin who murdered him as the “stabbed in the back” myth took hold in the 1920’s)

1921:Following an investigation into Sir Edgar Speyer's wartime conduct held in camera by the Home Office's Certificates of Naturalization (Revocation) Committee, his naturalization was revoked by an order issued today.

1922: Rabbi Joseph Stolz delivered the sermon at the Isiah Temple at Hyde Park Blvd and Greenwood Avenue.

1922(11^th of Kislev, 5683): Thirty-four year old Dr. Moses Feinberg, the son of Barnett and Dora Kriss Feinberg passed away at which he was buried at Bayside Cemetery.

1922: Rabbi S. Felix Mendelsohn led services at Temple Beth Israel on North Kedzie Blvd.

1924: “Lady, Be Good” a George and Ira Gershwin musical “premiered on Broadway at the Liberty Theatre tonight.”

1924: In Indianapolis, funeral services are scheduled to be held for 14 year old William Hayes Block, the grandson of William H. Block, president of the William H. Block, after which he will be interred in the Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation Cemetery.

1925: “The Love Trap,” a silent movie filmed by cinematographer Heinrich Garnter who would be forced to flee Germany when the Nazis came to power because of his Jewish descent and featuring Johannes Reimann who became “a member of the Nazi party.”

1925: Funeral services are scheduled to be held today for 60 year Julius M. Mayer, the New York born son of “on of J. Daniel and Fannie (Marshuetz) Mayer and Columbia Law School Graduate who had served as a Judge of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Southern District of New York.

Columbia Law School Graduate

1925: Mr. and Mrs. Abraham J. Cahan arrived in New York today aboard the SS Majestic. Mr. Cahan is editor of the Forwards. They were returning from a month long visit to Palestine where Mr. Cahan had spent most of his time investigating the growth and development of the newly created city of Tel Aviv

1925: Birthdate of Martin Rodbell. Dr. Rodbell was an American biochemist who was awarded the 1994 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery in the 1960s of natural signal transducers called G-proteins that help cells in the body communicate with each other. He shared the prize with Alfred G. Gilman, who later proved Rodbell's hypothesis, by isolating the G-protein, which is so named because it binds to nucleotides called guanosine diphosphate and guanosine triphosphate, or GDP and GTP. Prior to Rodbell's research, scientists believed that only two substances--a hormone receptor and an interior cell enzyme--were responsible for cellular communication. Rodbell, however, discovered that the G-protein acted as an intermediate signal transducer between the two. [Ed. Note: I have note a clue as to what this really means.]

1926: “The Third Degree” the first American movie directed by Michael Curtiz which was based on the play by Charles Klein was released today in the United States.

1927(7^th of Kislev, 5688): Sixty-Eight year old Isaac N. Fleischner, the son of Jacob and Fanny Fleischner and the husband of Tessie Golinsky of San Francisco whose business activities led him to spend “five years in Europe and Africa” and who “the first President of the Portland Lodge of the International Order of B’nai B’rith passed away today after which he was buried at Beth Israel Cemetery in Portland Oregon.

1927: Birthdate of Mordkhe Schaechter, a leading Yiddish linguist who spent a lifetime studying, standardizing and teaching the language.

1927: Birthdate Abraham Goodman, the native of Philadelphia who grew up in East Pittsburg and went to become American film writer and producer Abby Mann best known for his work on controversial subjects and social drama. His most famous work is the drama Judgment at Nuremberg, which was initially a television drama aired in 1959. Stanley Kramer directed the 1961 film adaptation, for which Mann received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. In his acceptance speech, he said: "A writer worth his salt at all has an obligation not only to entertain but to comment on the world in which he lives." Mann later adapted the play for a 2001 production on Broadway, which featured Maximilian Schell from the 1961 film in a different role. Working on television, he most notably created the television series Kojak, starring Telly Savalas. Mann was executive producer, but was credited as a writer also on many episodes. His other writing credits include the screenplays for the television films The Marcus-Nelson Murders, The Atlanta Child MurdersTeamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story, and Indictment: The McMartin Trial, as well as the film War and Love. He passed away in 2008 at the age of 80

1927(7^th of Kislev, 5688): Sixty-eight year old Newton Fleishner, the Albany, Oregon, born son Bohemian natives Jacob Fleischner and Fanny who was an 1878 graduate of St. Augustine’s College, a partner in Fleischner, Mayer & Company, “the largest wholesale dry goods house on the Pacific coast” and President of the local B’nai B’rith Lodge and the husband Tessie Goslinsky with whom he had two daughter passed away today after which he was buried in the Beth El Cemetery in Portland, Oregon.

1927: “The False Prince” a film set in post-World War I Germany produced by Lothar Stark was released in the Weimar Republic.

1928: “A London reported received today by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency” said that the “Fascist press” in Italy had “taken exception to the terminology employed by the Italian Zionists during their recent convention.”

1928: “Dream of Love,” a silent film featuring Carmel Myers as “The Countess” was released in the United States today by MGM

1928: In New York, “Austro-Hungarian Jews, Samuel and Rebecca Thorne gave birth to Malachi Throne.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/15/malachi-throne-dead-dies-batman-actor_n_2885549.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/25/arts/television/malachi-throne-actor-in-it-takes-a-thief-dies-at-84.html

1929: Eleven months after premiering in Germany, “Pandora’s Box” featuring Siegfried “Sig” Arno opened today in New York City.

1929(28^th of Cheshvan, 5690): Seventy-Nine year old German pharmacologist Louis Lewin who in 1886 “published the first methodical analysis of the Peyote cactus, a variant of which was named Anhalonium lewinii in his honor” passed away today in Berlin.

1929: Journalist Emil Ludwig (born Emil Cohn) interviewed Mustafa Kemel Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish state.

1930: Birthdate of Joachim Hoffmann, the German military historian, who contended that the number of Jews killed during the Holocaust, was in the thousands and not the millions and who testified on behalf of Holocaust denier Germar Rudolf.

1930: The “so-called matzoh trust trial” where “the question to be answered was whether or not Horowitz Brothers & Margareten, Inc. of New York and B. Manishewitz Company of Ohio constituted a combination in restraint as charged by Rabbi Moses Winberger, Inc.” opened today,

1931: Twenty-five year old Eduard Strauch who would convicted as War Criminal for his role in the mass murder of the Jews of Riga became a member of the SS.

1931: Birthdate of Mervyn Taylor, the native of Dublin who became a solicitor and leader of the Irish Labour Party.

1932: “Fight Kosher Food Racket” published today described plans for the Kashruth Association of Greater New York to issue a new emblem to aid in combatting “racketeering in the production and sale of Kosher food.

1933: Birthdate of Sir James David Wolfensohn the Australian who was the ninth president of the World Bank Group.

1934(24^thof Kislev, 5695): Parashat Vayeshev; in the evening kindle the first light of Chanukah

1934: Rabbi Joshua L. Goldberg led services as the Astoria Center of Israel in Queens.

1934: In the Soviet Union, Leonid Nioleav murdered Sergei Kirov, the head of the Communist Party in Leningrad providing Stalin with an excuse to start the five year long purge known as The Great Terror the first victims of which were two Jewish leaders, Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev.

1935: Birthdate of Woody Allen

1935: In Cleveland, OH, “checks and pledges for $75,000 for the Rothschild Hadassah University Hospital to be built in Palestine” which will cost nearly $700,000, “were given today at the final meeting of Hadassah.”

1936: “Dr. Isaac Herzog, the chief rabbi of Dublin, Ireland, was elected chief rabbi of Palestine today by a council of seventy elders, which is the modern equivalent of the Hebrew Sanhedrin.

1936: “At today’s session of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Palestine, Moshe Shertok, head of the political department of the Jewish Agency told of the work being done in European countries to prepare prospective immigrants for pioneer tasks in Palestine” the aim of which is to “forge both muscles and spirit so as to change university students and shopkeepers in farmers, artisans and manual laborers.”

1936: On behalf of “the Brooklyn lodge of B’nai B’rith, the largest Jewish fraternal organization in the United States” Postmaster Albert Goldman “presented an award” tonight “to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle as the metropolitan New York City newspaper that had done most this year to promote ‘inter-racial amity and comity as well as good-will among the people of the United States.”

1937: This date marks the seventh anniversary of the Palestine Post, which would later become the Jerusalem Post.

1937(27^thof Kislev, 5698): Third Day of Chanukah

1937(27^thof Kislev, 5698): Seventy-nine year old attorney Eli Benjamin Felsenthal, the son of former school board member Herman Felsenthal and Gertrude Felsenthal and husband of Nettie Goldsmith Felsenthal with whom he had five children who was “the last surviving of the charter members of the board of trustees of the University of Chicago” passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1937/12/03/94469455.pdf

1937: “Courage of the West” a “B” of the singing cowboy genre, which marked the directorial debut of Joseph H. Lewis was released today in the United States.

1937: “The original Broadway production of ‘Hooray for What!’ with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg opened at the Winter Garden Theatre.

1937: The Palestine Post reported that two members of a police patrol, a British sergeant and an Arab constable were killed by an Arab terrorist gang at Wadi Malak, near Haifa. A Public Works Department store was sabotaged and burnt out at Tulkarm.

1938: Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Haining, the General Officer Commanding British Forces in Palestine and Trans-Jordan, reported secretly to the Cabinet that "practically every village in the country harbors and supports the rebels and will assist in concealing their identity from the Government Forces."

1938: Reichsbank President Hjalmar Schacht travels to London to propose to George Rublee, of the Intergovernmental Committee for Political Refugees, an extortionate scheme: German Jews could emigrate if they put up cash assets that would be transferred to the Reich upon emigration. This Schacht-Rublee plan will be abandoned in January 1939, when Schacht will be dismissed by Hitler after Schacht objects to the high cost of Germany's rearmament.

1938: The British Cabinet allows 10,000 unaccompanied Jewish children into Britain in an action called the Kindertransport. (Britain, however, refuses to allow 21,000 more Jewish children into Palestine.) The rescued children come from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia with the help of British, Jewish, and Quaker welfare organizations. Because of the Holocaust, most of the children will never see their parents again, and many of the Jewish children will be converted to Christianity.

1939: This date marked the final deportation of Jews from Poland to the Soviet Union. The Jews had been marched from Chelm to Hrubieszow, Poland. Then 1800 Jews set off marching from Hrubieszow, Poland to the Soviet border. More than 1,400 were killed on December 4 on or near the Russian border.

1939: German Field Marshal Johannes Blaskowitz, commander-in-chief of the German Army Group East, reports that many Jewish children in transport trains are arriving at their destinations frozen to death.

1939: The Lipowa camp at Lipowa Street in Lublin, Poland, is established. It is initially an assembly point for Polish-Jewish POWs, and it will later be a Jewish work camp.

1939: Lódz (Poland) Ghetto administrator Friedrich Übelhör notes that ghettoization of Jews is only temporary. The final goal is to clean Jews out of Lódz, to "utterly destroy this bubonic plague."

1939: Publication date of Desert Democracy by Roy L. Smith, “the story of ancient Jews and how their struggles for freedom contributed to modern democracy.”

1940: Inside the Warsaw (Poland) Ghetto, Polish-Jewish historian Emanuel Ringelblum begins work on a secret diary of ghetto life.

1940: “Veteran song writer, actor and movie director Gus Edward” who “discovered Eddie Cantor, George Jessel and Groucho Marx” and Lillian Boulanger celebrated their 35^th wedding anniversary today.

1941: Lew Zickman left Japan today aboard the Tatsuma Maru which was bound for the United States.

1941: The German Ministry of Occupied Eastern Territories decrees that the destruction of Jews shall continue irrespective of economic considerations; i.e., the allure of unpaid Jewish labor will be ignored.

1941: During the murder of 5000 Jews at Novogrudok, Belorussia, 200 Jews resist and kill 20 Nazis before being gunned down.

1941: “Himmler issued strict instructions to Frederich Jeckelin that no mass murder of Jews shipped from Germany to the ghetto in Riga were take place without his express orders”

1941: Ten thousand Jews deported from Odessa, Ukraine, are murdered at camps at Acmecetka, Bogdanovka, and Domanevka, Romania.

1941: Mass murders of Jews in the Ukraine and Volhynia region of Poland are slowed when the frozen ground prevents the digging of execution pits.

1941: Fur coats belonging to Jews in eastern Germany are confiscated by the Nazis. They'll be used by German soldiers on the Eastern Front.

1941: The Jesuit journal Civiltà Cattolica, published in Rome under strict Vatican supervision,reminds Catholics that the Jews are supposedly those primarily responsible for murdering God and that the Jews repeat this crime by means of ritual murder "in every generation."

1941: For the next three days and nights, seven thousand Jews from Novogrudok, Belorussia, are forced to stand all day and night in frigid temperatures outside the municipal courthouse. Five thousand are taken away to their deaths on the 6th; the remaining 2000 are impressed into forced labor at suburban Pereshike

1941: According to an Einsatzkomando Report only 15% of Lithuanian Jews were left alive less than six months after the Nazis had invaded the Soviet Union.

1941: The German established a ghetto in Losice forcing all the Jews from surrounding areas to move there.

1941: Himmler issued “strict instructions that no mass murders of deported German Jews were to occur without his express orders.

1942: Birthdate of Israeli-American businessman Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter, who owned Remington and Mavel Toys before become CEO of Marvel Entertainment.

1942: Birthdate of New Yorker world shotput champion Gary Gubner who switched to weightlifting and finished fourth at the 1964 Olympic Games.

1942:Ayn Rand, novelist and creator of Objectivism, delivered the completed manuscript of her novel The Fountainhead to her publisher

1942: Four hundred laborers were killed at Karczew a town near Warsaw

1942: Members of the Siemiatycze (Poland) Group of Jewish resisters kill a Polish peasant and his entire family as retribution for the peasant's capture and betrayal to the Nazis of three Jews.

1942: Nazis lock 1000 Gypsies in a Lithuanian synagogue until the prisoners starve to death.

1942 Ghetto resistance is organized at Czestochowa and Kielce, Poland.

1942: At Brody, Ukraine, Jewish resistance is led by Solomon Halberszstadt, Jakub Linder, and Samuel Weiler.

1942: Jewish resistance at Chortkov, Ukraine, is led by Heniek Nusbaum, Mundek Nusbaum, Reuven Rosenberg, and Meir Wasserman.

1942: Jewish Resistance leader Dr. Yeheskel Atlas, a young Polish physician, is mortally wounded by Nazi troops in a battle at Wielka Wola, Poland.

1942: The Jewish ghetto at Lvov, Ukraine, is liquidated.

1942: The SS shuts down extermination activities at Belzec.

1942: A Sonderkommando plan to escape from Auschwitz is discovered, and the inmates are gassed.

1942: A forced-labor camp is established at Plaszów, Poland.

1942(22nd of Kislev, 5703): Partisan leader Hirsch Kaplinski, survivor of an August 1942 massacre of Jews at Diatlovo, Belorussia, is killed in combat during a German attack on the Lipiczany Forest.

1942: Roosevelt and Churchill issued a joint public statement revealing the dire facts of the Nazi extermination program aimed at the Jews and issuing a solemn warning that individuals engaged in it would ultimately would be tried as war criminals.

1943: Mussolini ordered the arrest of "all Jews living on the national territory." As a result Italian police and carabinieri arrested thousands, who were promptly delivered to the Germans and deported to Auschwitz. Within Italy, 200 Jews were murdered by German Nazis and their Italian Fascist collaborators. “However, by now, many Italians did not follow Il Duce's bidding and 40,000 Italian Jews survived the war while another 8,000 died.

1943: United States Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau instructs assistants Randolph Paul and John W. Pehle to investigate the State Department's handling of the Jewish refugee issue.

1943: The Daman Yankee, a B-17 piloted by Bruce Sundlun was damaged by flack during a bombing run over Solingen, Germany. The plane was so badly damaged that crew was forced to bail out over Jabbeke, Belgium. Before bailing out, Sundlun turned the plane to make sure it crashed harmlessly into a turnip field instead of landing in the town, an act of derring-do that earned him the designation of honorary citizen in 2009. (Sundlun would serve the war and eventually served as the second Jewish governor of Rhode Island)

1944: After three months' work at Lieberose, Germany, Nazis suspend slave labor on a vacation complex for German officers. They instead evacuate the Jewish workers 100 miles on foot northwest to the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen, Germany. Of the 3,500 who began the march, only 900 arrived at the destination. Several hundred sick inmates who were unable to begin the march were shot in their beds.

1944: Birthdate of Eric Bloom of “Blue Oyster” fame.

1944: American pollster Elmo Roper warns that anti-Semitism has infected the U.S., most strongly in and around cities.

1945: Anti-Semitic Poles murder 11 Jews in the town of Kosow-Lacki, Poland, which is located less than six miles from the site of the Treblinka extermination camp.

1945: Oliver Cox, an American sociologist, concludes that Christians in the United States regard the Jew as "our irreconcilable enemy within the gates, the antithesis of our God, the disturber of our way of life and of our social aspirations."

1945: After having been “convicted and sentenced to by an American military tribune, a photographer was taken of German General Anton Dostler being “tied to a stake before his execution by a firing squad.

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/military/ww2/photos/images/ww2-171.jpg

1945: In Honolulu, Ruth (née Schindel), a seamstress and housewife, Fred Midler who worked at a Navy base in Hawaii as a painter, and was also a housepainter gave birth to University of Hawaii graduate Bette Middler the singer, actress and comedian who got her start singing in the Continental Bathhouse and is known as “The Divine Miss M.”

1946: Birthdate of the multi-talented Jonathan Paul Katz.

http://www.jonathankatz.com/homepage.html

1946: Anglo-Jewish teacher Esther Cailingold, who would die while defending the Old City from the Arab Legion in 1948, arrived in Jerusalem where she would teach English at the Evelina de Rothschild School.

1947: In response to the partition vote, the Arab High Committee declared that November 29 was henceforth to be “a day of mourning” and that it marked the beginning of the struggle against the Partition.

1947: The Arab League plans to meet and discuss ways to resist the partition of Palestine into two states.

1947: Emanuel Neuman, President of the Zionist Organization of America, sought formal recognition of the Jewish volunteer defense units as being the Jewish militia in Palestine.

1947: In Cluj in Transylvania, Romania, Shmuel Grunzweig and his wife Olga who was a survivor of Auschwitz gave birth to Emil Grunzweig who made Aliyah in 1963 and after serving in several wars with the IDF became a teach and “a peace activist affiliated with ‘Peace Now.’”

1948: U.S. premiere of the “Adventures of Don Juan” a swashbuckler directed by Vincent Sherman and produced by Jerry Wald with music by Max Steiner.

1948: The Arab Congress names Abdullah of Trans Jordan, King of Palestine. Abdullah earned this title because the Jordanian Army (known as the Arab Legion) had successfully crossed the Jordan River and seized what is now called the West Bank and the eastern section of Jerusalem. Under the partition plan, the area of the West Bank should have been part of an Arab State. Apparently the Arabs saw things differently since they awarded it to Abdullah as “spoil” for his part in the war against the Jewish state. Since it now held land on both sides of the Jordan, Trans-Jordan would officially change its name to Jordan. Please note, there was no attempt to create an independent Palestinian state on this land for the almost twenty years it was occupied by the Jordanian Army.

1948: Riots break out in Damascus in response to King Abdullah of Transjordan being proclaimed king of Palestine at a meeting of central Palestinian Arabs in Jericho and Syrian premier Jamil Mardam Bey and his cabinet resign.

1949: The UN General Assembly's Political Subcommittee recommends an international Jerusalem despite objections of Israel and Jordan.

1950: Ten boxes containing thousands of documents describing life in the Warsaw Ghetto collected by Oyneg Shabbos which was part of what we call the Ringelblum Archive, name in honor of historian Emanuel Ringelbum who gave a whole new depth of meaning to the Biblical command “Zachor… Remember let you forget” was unearthed today. (For more see Who Wil Write Our History by Samuel D. Kassow)

1950: Today, during the Korean War, U.S. Army Corporal Morris Meshulam was captured in the Gaunlet near Kunu-ri and taken as a Prisoner of War.

1951(2^nd of Kislev, 5712): Parashat Toldot

1956(27^th of Kislev, 5717): Parashat Miketz; Third Day of Chanukah

1956: The Dutch Kingdom officially recognized the Jewish community of Aruba.

1958: “The Buccaneer” a biopic about Jean Lafitte that made no reference to rumors of his Jewish origins co-starring Clare Bloom, written by Jesse Lasky, Jr. and with music by Elmer Bernstein was released today in the United States.

1958: Rogers and Hammerstein’s 8^th musical, “Flower Drum Song” opened on Broadway today at the St. James Theatre with Larry Blyden playing the role of “Sammy Fong” which would gain him a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical.

1959: NBC broadcast “Something Special: starring Red Buttons which was the 9^th episode of “Ford Startime.”

1959: Publication today of The Mystery of the Chinese Junk a Hardy Boys mystery novel which was the basis for a 1967 film directed by Larry Peerce,.

1959: U.S. Premiere of “The Fugitive Kind” directed by Sidney Lumet, produced by Richard Shepherd and filmed by cinematographer Boris Kaufman.

1960: In “Simon Dubnow-A Revaluation” published today, Saul Goodman re-examines the life and the work of this Jewish historian as we mark the 100^thanniversary of his birth.

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/simon-dubnow-a-revaluation/

1960: “Cimarron” the film version of Edna’s 1929 novel with a screenplay by Arnold Schulman and music Franz Waxman

1961: Birthdate of Tel Aviv native, South African trained photographer Nadav Kandar who “began taking pictures when he was 13 on a Pentax camera, which he bought with his Bar Mitzvah money” and who gained a certain amount of additional fame (or notoriety) for his photograph of the 2016 TIME Person of the Year cover.

1961: “The Jungle,” episode 77 of the “The Twilight Zone” featuring Jay Adler was broadcast today.

1961: Jean-Marie Gaétan Déry began serving as Canada’s Ambassador to Israel.

1961: It was reported today that the late dress manufacturer Louis Parnes, chairman of the board of the Paul Parnes Corporation was survived by his daughter Mrs. Rose Ptechesky and his sons Paul, Samuel and Edward Parnes.

1962(4^th of Kislev, 5723): Sixty-nine year old Jona von Ustinov, the native of Jaffa “who worked for MI5 during the time of the Nazi regime” passed away today.

http://www.statesecrets.co.uk/klop.html

1962: Ninety-two year old William Stiles Bennet, the member of the House of Representatives who in 1915 worked to help Jews raise funds to aid their brethren in war torn Europe passed away today.

1965: Although he lost his seat in the November elections, Fritja Zoaretz “returned to the Knesset as a replacement for Shabtai Daniel.”

1966: In response to competition from W & S an automated bagel factory that had begun operating in metropolitan New York, “the bagel bosses” presented baker’s union with a list of “radical demands,” including a 40% pay cut, a decrease in the number of paid holidays and a 50% cut in the number of bakers on each shift.

1966: Yad Vashem officially recognized Father Père Marie-Benoît as a Righteous Among the Nations for helping thousands of Jews to reach Switzerland and Spain from the South of France and continuing his work after escaping to Rome where he was pursued by the Gestapo.

1968: Near Amman, Jordan, Israeli commandos destroy four bridges.

1968(10^th of Kislev, 5729): While on his way to the airport in Istanbul forty-seven year old musician and actor Darío Moreno who began his career by singing at Bar Mitzvah in the Turkish Sephardic community suffered a heart attack and passed away.

1968: “Promises, Promises” a Burt Bacharach musical with lyrics by Hal David and a book by Neil Simon produced by David Merrick premiered today on Broadway at the Schubert Theatre.

1968: It was reported today that “Tel Aviv is building a huge five-level bus terminal with local and out-of-town platforms, shops and movie theatres. The terminal will be the world’s largest surpassing even the Port Authority Terminal in New York City.”

1969: NBC broadcast the 12^th episode of “My World and Welcome to it” created by Melville Shavelson, produced by Sheldon Leonard and Danny Arnold and co-starring Harold J. Stone.

1970: In Manchester, NH, Beth Ann O'Hara and Donald Silverman gave birth to Sarah Kate Silverman of SNL fame.

1970(3^rd of Kislev, 5731): Ninety-five year old David de Sola Pool the native of London who served as the rabbi of New York’s Congregation Shearith Israel — often called the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue which is the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States.

1971: Jeff Goldbulum was part of the chorus when “the Broadway production of Two Gentlemen of Verona directed by Mel Shapiro opened at the St. James Theatre, where it ran for 614 performances and won two Tony Awards.”

1971: Birthdate of Berkley, CA native and Peabody Award winning write Akiva Schaffer, “a member of the comedy group The Lonely Island.

1972(25^thof Kislev, 5733): Chanukah

1973: Today, Rachael Lily Rosenbloom (And Don't You Ever Forget It), a musical featuring Ellen Greene is her “first starring role on Broadway” which had begun it Broadway previews on November 26 closed tonight “prior to it its official opening” earning it a place on the list of all-time Broadway flops.

1973(6th of Kislev, 5734): David Ben-Gurion, First Prime Minister of Israel, passed away. There is no way that a short blurb can do justice to one of the greatest Jewish leaders in modern times. Regardless of what one might think of his flaws, and he did have them, without Ben-Gurion there would have not been a modern state of Israel. He was a walking contradiction: an idealist and a pragmatist; a secular Jew who was an expert on the Bible and biblical history; a man whose hands were hardened from manual labor on a kibbutz who taught himself English and classical Greek; a seemingly autocratic political figure who believed in democracy even when the process when against him. No matter how the revisionists work at it, nobody can take away his most monumental achievement – the Jewish homeland. To paraphrase what was said about Maimonides, from David (the king) to David (Ben-Gurion) there was none like David.

1973:“A small notice in the local newspapers announced Rachael Lily Rosenbloom (And Don't You Ever Forget It) starring Ellen Greene would be closing tonight, prior to its official opening.”

1974(17^thof Kislev, 5735): Eighty year old Cooper Union School of Engineering alum and Fordham University trained attorney Henry J. Harkavy, the husband of “the former Fannie Gottlieb” with whom he had two daughters – Judith and Louis – passed away today.

1974: “In the Guidelines and Suggestions for Implementing the Conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate, published today, the Holy See's Commission recalled that "the step taken by the Council finds its historical setting in circumstances deeply affected by the memory of the persecution and massacre of Jews which took place in Europe just before and during the Second World War". Yet, as the Guidelines pointed out, "the problem of Jewish- Christian relations concerns the Church as such, since it is when "pondering her own mystery" that she encounters the mystery of Israel. Therefore, even in areas where no Jewish communities exist, this remains an important problem".

1975:Over 300 British doctors appealed for the release Dr. M. Stern who was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment by the Soviets.

1975: “Felix Dektor, co-editor of samizdat magazine “The Jews in the USSR”, was expelled from the Writers’ Union” today.

1975: Harold H. Saunders began servicing as 6^th Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research today.

1976: “Funeral services” are scheduled to “be held for 85 year old Philip R. Alstat, a leading Conservative Rabbi, “columnist for the Jewish Week and former chaplain of the Manhattan House of Correction.”

1977: Birthdate of guitarist Bard Delson.

1977: Three weeks into the Sadat peace initiative, the Carter administration had offered only the faintest approval for the Egyptian president’s visit to Jerusalem, and had not yet abandoned its support for Geneva in favor of the bilateral Egyptian-Israeli process that Sadat, Begin and Dayan were actively proposing.

1980: Yosef Mendelevich, the last of the Jewish prisoners form the First Leningrad trial who is still in prison, begins a hunger strike.

1980: During November, 1980, 789 Jews had left the Soviet Union.

1983(25^thof Kislev, 5744): Chanukah

1983: “Scarface” a crime film produced by Martin Bergman, with a screenplay by Oliver Stone whose father was Jewish and featuring Steven Bauer, Michelle Pfieffer, Richard Belzer and Mark Margolis premiered in New York City today.

1984: Three people were injured when grenade throwing terrorists attacked a bus in Jerusalem.

1985: In an article entitled “First A State, Then A Nation,” Paul Johnson reviews Israel The Partitioned State: A Political History Since 1900 by Amos Perlmutter.

1985: In “Quarrying History In Jerusalem” published today Thomas Friedman described the impact of the excavations at Zedekiah’s Cave.

http://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/01/travel/quarrying-history-in-jerusalem.html?pagewanted=all&pagewanted=print

1985:Zvi Kanar, an internationally known mime who survived six concentration camps “drew upon his experiences of the Holocaust in ‘Run Jacob, Run’ an autobiographical mimetic drama” while performing this afternoon at the Dramatis Personae Theatre at 25 East Fourth Street in New York.

1986: Ivan “Boesky was on the cover of Time magazine today

1987: One Israeli soldier was injured by a terrorist crossing into Israel from Egypt.

1988(22^ndof Kislev, 5749): Seventy-eight year old Gwendolyn Cafritz a leading Washington hostess often referred to as “the Jewish Pearl Mesta) and the widow of real estate magnate Morris Cafritz passed away today. (As reported by Susan Heller Anderson)

http://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/01/obituaries/gwendolyn-cafritz-78-washington-hostess.html

1988: Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz gave birth to Zoe Kravitz.

1988: As Israeli politicians struggle to form a new government after the elections which were held on November 1, Shimon Peres signed a coalition agree with Agudat Israel even though his Labor Party and this Orthodox political party held different views on attempts to redefine who is Jewish under the Law of Return.

1988:Israeli and American women joined together and attempted to pray as a group at the Western Wall for the first time today.

http://jwa.org/thisweek/dec/01/1988/western-wall

1988: Israeli and American women joined together and attempted to pray as a group at the Western Wall for the first time.

1989: “Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge,” a horror film starring Jonathan Goldsmith and Pauly Shore was released in the United States today.

1991: Holocaust Testimonies: The Ruins of Memory by Lawrence L. Langer, Maus: A Survivor's Tale II. And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman and Wartime Liesby Louis Begley are among the ten books chosen by the New York Times Book Review as the best books published in the country during the preceding year

1991: After 469 performances at the Booth Theatre, the curtain came down on the original Broadway production of “Once on This Island,” a “musical with a book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens.

1992(6^thof Kislev, 5753): Eighty-three year old Rabbi Eli A. Bohnen passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/02/obituaries/eli-a-bohnen-rabbi-83.html

1993(17^thof Kislev, 5754):Shalva Ozana, age 23, and Yitzhak Weinstock, age 19, were shot to death by terrorists from a moving vehicle, while parked on the side of the road to Ramallah because of engine trouble. Weinstock died of his wounds the following morning. Iz a-Din al Kassam claimed responsibility for the attack, stating that it was carried out in retaliation for the killing by Israeli forces of Imad Akel, a wanted HAMAS leader in Gaza.

1994: “A Christmas Carol” the musical version of the Dickens’ classic with music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens who co-authored the book was performed for the first time at the Paramount Theatre

1994(28th of Kislev, 5755):An ax-wielding Islamic militant killed an Israeli soldier in a northern Israeli town today, officials said. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, vowing that his peace efforts with the Palestinians would continue despite a surge of guerrilla attacks, said the killer belonged to the Islamic resistance movement Hamas. The Prime Minister said no responsibility for the attack could be attached to Palestinian self-rule authorities because the guerrilla had come from a part of the West Bank still under Israeli control. "He did not have an entry permit into Israel," Rabin said. "We have to investigate how he managed to get to Afula.""We shall continue on our road to peace and to fight those who oppose it," Rabin said. The army identified the soldier as Liat Gabai, 19, an Afula resident. The police identified the attacker as Wahib Abu Alrub, 25, from the occupied West Bank, and said he was in custody. The police commander in Afula, Rami Rahav, said the guerrilla, from a village near the West Bank town of Jenin, attacked the soldier near a police station, striking her on the head with an ax. Speaking at Tel Aviv airport, where he welcomed the two-millionth tourist to visit the Jewish state this year, Mr. Rabin told reporters that Mr. Alrub was a Hamas member who had been detained several times by Israel in the past.

1995:Yigal Amir, the confessed assassin of Yitzhak Rabin, today denied suggestions that he had acted with the approval of a rabbi, and insisted that he had decided on the killing alone after careful deliberation.

1995: It was reported today that Alfred Lerner, the son Russian-Jewish immigrants and one of America's wealthiest men, with a net worth of $1 billion gained in real estate and banking has donated 25 million dollars to Columbia University in New York City.

1995: “Wil Bill” a biopic about the 19^th century lawman co-starring Ellen Barkin as “Calamity Jane” was released in the United States today.

1996: In “Shulberg Tackling Fitzgerald Play Anew” Meryl Spiegel described his interview with Budd Schulberg in this last of “the living links to F. Scott Fitzgerald, talked about ''The Disenchanted,'' his fictional tale of their cataclysmic collaboration on a film script.Having lost favor with the literary world of the 1930's, the ''laureate of the Jazz Age'' was a shadow of his former self, Mr. Schulberg recalled. Deeply in debt, physically ill and desperately trying to stay sober, Fitzgerald grabbed the screenwriting job just to pay his bills and finance a return to his own work. The film, called ''Winter Carnival,'' was written in 1939, two years before the writer died nearly penniless at the age of 44. ''The Disenchanted'' was first written as a novel, published in 1950, and was later transformed into a play that opened on Broadway in 1958. Mr. Schulberg, 82, is probably most famous today for writing the screenplay for ''On The Waterfront,'' starring Marlon Brando, and for his first novel, ''What Makes Sammy Run?'' He has published many other novels, however, several works of nonfiction, and has seen his plays produced on Broadway.”

1996: Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw who converted to Judaism gave birth to Destry Allyn Spielberg.

1998(12^th of Kislev, 5759): Forty-four year old Cleveland born “Yosef Y. Kazen, a Hasidic rabbi who pioneered the use of the Internet as a powerful recruiting and educational tool for the Lubavitch movement” passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/13/nyregion/yosef-kazen-hasidic-rabbi-and-web-pioneer-dies-at-44.html

1999: Amidst report of NYPD bias, Eliot Spitzer is scheduled to release his 170 page report auditing and analyzing the methods of the NYPD from January 1, 1998 to March, 1999.

2000: Jews were cautious and quiet as Vicente Fox, Mexico’s first openly Roman Catholic president in more than a century” took the oath of office today.

https://www.jweekly.com/2000/12/01/mexico-s-jews-cautiously-eye-first-religious-president/

2001(28th of Kislev, 5755): Two suicide bombers blew themselves up in back-to-back explosions at a downtown Jerusalem pedestrian mall, killing 11 bystanders.

2001(28^thof Kislev, 5755): Eleven people including Assaf Avitan, 15; Michael Moshe Dahan, 21; Ya'akov Danino, 17; Yosef El-Ezra, 18; Sgt. Nir Haftzadi, 19; Yuri (Yoni) Korganov, 20; Golan Turgeman, 15; Guy Vaknin, 19; Adam Weinstein, 14; and Moshe Yedid-Levy, 19 were killed and about 180 injured when explosive devices were detonated by two suicide bombers close to 11:30 P.M. Saturday night on Ben Yehuda Street, the pedestrian mall in the center of Jerusalem. A car bomb exploded nearby 20 minutes later. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Yehuda_Street_bombings#2001_bombing

2002: In “Monsters in Fine Detail” published today Steven Heller reviewed Steven Luckert’s The Art and Politics of Arthur Szyk.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/01/books/books-in-brief-nonfiction-monsters-in-fine-detail.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FSzyk%2C%20Arthur&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=collection

2002: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or about subjects of Jewish interest including One World:The Ethics of Globalization by Peter Singer,The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman and the Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1941-1945by Michael Beschloss and Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World by Margaret MacMillan. The last two may seem like general history texts but they deal with events that had a unique impact on the Jewish people

2002: Maxine Frank Singer, a leading biochemistry researcher and advocate of science education, stepped down, after 15 years as the president of the Carnegie Institution, a major national scientific research center.

2002(26^th of Kislev, 5763): Ninety-three year old British bridge grandmaster Boris Schapiro passed away.

http://www.175heroes.org.uk/boris_schapiro.html

2003: Another GI was killed in Baghdad during the American war in Iraq which removed Hussein but left the Middle East much less stable and therefore threatening to Israel’s well-being.

2004: “Or” a film directed by Keren Yedaya was released to theatres in RAnce.

2004(18th of Kislev, 5765): Dr. Jonathan A. Goldstein, former professor at the University of Iowa passed away. Among his scholarly works were his translations and commentaries on the Books of the Maccabees as part of the Anchor Bible. He will be missed by all those who knew him.

2005: A new defense system designed for civilian planes passed it its final test. The new anti-missile protection system is designed to defend passenger jets from shoulder-held missile attacks. El Al will begin installing the systems as early as next week. The development of the systems came as a result of attacks on Israeli civilian airliners flying in Africa by terrorists armed with shoulder held missiles.

2005: The Maryland/Israel Development Center and The Trendlines Group co-sponsored a conference in Tel Aviv on raising money for Israeli homeland security companies. One hundred fifty executives and entrepreneurs of Israeli homeland security technology companies came to learn how to raise funds and break into the American homeland security market.

2005: In France, Jean-François Copé began serving as Mayor of Meaux.

2006: “The Jews Among Arabs Conference” at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN sponsored by the Program in Jewish Studies comes to an end.http://www.vanderbilt.edu/news/lectures/2006/12/1/lecture-sasson-somekh-speaks-at-jews-among-arabs-conference-nov-30

2006(10th of Kislev, 5767): Songwriter and journalist Eli Mohar passed away at the age of 58, of cancer. Mohar, considered one of Israel's best songwriters, was best known as the veteran columnist in the Tel Aviv weekly Ha'ir, which published his weekly column "Goings on Around Town."

2006(10th of Kislev, 5767): Character actor Sid Raymond passed away at the age of 97. The NYU dropout was famous for being the face people remembered but did not connect with any given character he portrayed. He was also “known” for being the voice of the cartoon character Baby Huey

2007(21^st of Kislev, 5768):Ninety-five year old “Moses M. Weinstein, a Queens Democrat who served in the State Assembly, with stints as majority leader and acting speaker in the 1960s, and nearly two decades as a trial and appellate judge of the State Supreme Court, died on today at Memorial Hospital in Pembroke Pines, Fla. (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/03/nyregion/03weinstein.html

2007: The Ninth Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival opens at the Jerusalem Cinematheque with the showing of Etz O Palestine, The Tribe, The Powder and the Glory, Toots, O Jerusalem and Song of David.

2008:The92nd Street Y presents "Radical Islam and the Nuclear Bomb: Understanding Contemporary Genocidal Anti-Semitism" - A conversation featuring Dr. Charles Small, founder and director of the Yale University Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism, and Bret Stephens, a writer and editor for the Wall Street Journal

2008 CSI star Marg Helgenberger has separated from her husband of nearly 20 years, actor Alan Rosenberg who is Jewish.

2008: Archbishop of Lublin, Josef Zycinski participated in a symposium entitled "Confronting a New Reality: The Polish Catholic Church, the Jews, and Israel."

2008 (4 Kislev 5769): Ninety-eight year old “Emanuel Rackman, the spiritual leader of the prominent Fifth Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan and an outspoken advocate of a more inclusive, intellectually open Orthodox Judaism passed away at his home in Manhattan (As reported by William Grimes)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/nyregion/05rackman.html

2009: Michael Rosen reads from What Else But Home, “a strikingly honest portrait of his unusual (Jewish) identity” at Prairie Lights Books in Iowa City, IA.

2009:Journalist Walter Isaacson, a former managing editor of Time magazine and currently CEO of the Aspen Institute, discusses and signs his new book, American Sketches: Great Leaders, Creative Thinkers, and Heroes of a Hurricane, at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C.

2009:At Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa, former Israeli Ambassador Asher Naim delivers a speech entitled “Ethiopian Jews then and now-from Operation Solomon-1991 to Israel 2009.”

2009:Knesset Member Ayoub Kara (Likud), who also is Deputy Minister for Development of the Galilee and Negev, is scheduled to tour the Dead Sea area this morning, accompanied by representatives of the Megilot Regional Council. He is promoting the Dead Sea as one of the 28 finalists in the contest for the New Seven Wonders of Nature, sponsored by the New Seven Wonders Fund.

2010:Dalia Tsuk Mitchell, a Professor of Law and History at The George Washington University, and author of a biography of Felix Cohen is scheduled to present a program entitled “Felix Cohen, Father of Federal Indian Law” at the Interior Department in Washington, DC. Felix Solomon Cohen's experiences as a Jewish American deeply influenced his career and legal philosophy, helping shape his reworking of federal Indian law in the 1930s. Come learn about this influential legal scholar in the beautiful New Deal-era auditorium at the Department of the Interior, where Cohen worked in the Solicitor's office.

2010: Editor and writer Robert Gottlieb and New Yorker writer Judith Thurman are scheduled to speak at the 92^nd Y in a program entitled “The Life of Sarah Bernhardt”

2010(24^th of Kislev, 5771): This evening Jews all over the world will be lighting the first Chanukah candle.

2010(24^thof Kislev, 5771): Eighty-one year old Harold Elkins, the producer best known for “Oh! Calcutta!” passed away today.

http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-hillard-elkins-20101204-story.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/theater/07elkins.html

2010: Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin (Likud) is scheduled to light the first Chanukah candle at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron this evening.

2010: In a world where the inmates seem to be running the asylum, today is the final day for students at Princeton to cast their ballot on a referendum that would allow brands of hummus other than Sabra to be sold in university stores. Sabra is half-owned by The Strauss Group, which has publicly supported the IDF and provides care packages and sports equipment to Israeli soldiers. The referendum was initiated by Princeton Committee on Palestine, which is led by Yoel Bitran, an American-born Jewish student who moved to Chile and returned to the U.S. to attend Princeton. It is part of larger program supported by the Philly BDS, which calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions against companies that support the Israel Defense Forces.

2010: “Comedian Conversation Falls Flat at 92^nd Street Y” published today provides Felicia R. Lee’s description of Deborah Solomon’s interview with Steve Martin.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/nyregion/02refund.html?_r=0

2010: Today Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu defended his policies against opposition claims that he had not kept his promises in regard to the peace process

2010: Today, British Prime Minister David Cameron wished "Hanukkah Sameach" to the millions of Jews around the world who prepared to light the first candle of the Jewish festival of lights.

"I want to pass on my very best wishes to the Jewish community here and around the world for a happy and peaceful Hanukkah," Cameron said. "The story of Hanukkah continues to be an inspiring message of the power of hope to sustain people through the toughest of times, and the strength that we can find when we come together and focus on building a brighter future," he added. "I wish you and your families a Hanukkah sameach,” Cameron said. The eight-day Jewish holiday, known as the Festival of Lights due to the ritual of lighting candles, commemorates the re dedication of the Second Temple and marks the narrative of the miracle of the oil lamp, in which oil that should have lasted for one day to light up the temple, lasted for eight days. British Foreign Secretary William Hague also recorded a special Hanukkah greeting saying "it's a great pleasure to send warm good wishes to the Jewish community in Britain and all over the world as you celebrate Hanukkah, the festival of lights.""Hanukkah is about courage," he said. "It is about hope, looking forward of course to the future and we certainly hope for peace and for continuing to strive for peace in a region that so desperately needs it."

2010: Still Hilfe, or Silent Aid, an organization which provides help for Third Reich fugitives of justice, is funding the defense of Klass Faber, a Dutch Nazi living in Germany, the Daily Mirror reported today. According to the report, Gudrun Burwitz, the 81-year-old daughter of Gestapo head Heinrich Heimler is a leading member of the organization, which began operating in 1946.

2010: At Princeton University, the referendum on whether to ask the university's dining services to provide an alternative brand of hummus came to an end. The referendum is anti-Israel championed by The Princeton Committee on Palestine, which is led by Yoel Bitran, an American-born Jewish student in attempt to dislodge Sabra brand hummus from the campus.

2010: http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=197568

2010: In “Small-City Congregations Try to Preserve Rituals of Jewish Life” Jane Levere described the effort of the Jewish Community Legacy Project to help cities like Laredo, Texas; Sumter, SC; and Marion, Indiana deal with “an economic and social decline, shrinking synagogue membership and the eventual end of cemetery oversight.” http://jclproject.org/

2011: After about three months of operation Jerusalem’s light rail is scheduled to begin charging passengers today

2011: The 22^nd Washington Jewish Film is scheduled to open with a screening of “Mabul” and a reception at the Avalon Theatre.

2011: The seventh annual Hamshoushalayim event begins today in Jerusalem

2011: Israel's Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch today condemned the recent "delegitimization campaign" carried out against the Supreme Court, saying Israeli politicians are responsible.

2011: “al-Qaeda claimed to be holding Warren Weinstein” a contractor who had been kidnapped while working in Pakistan.

2012: Clarinetists Alex and Daniel Gurfinkel are scheduled to perform at The Best of Chamber Music concert in Jerusalem

2012: The JCCNV is scheduled to host its 32^nd Annual Fundraising Gala.

2012: Today, Amram “Mitzna joined Tzipi Livni's new centrist party, Hatnuah.”

2012: In Cedar Rapids, the traditional minyan observes Solidarity Shabbat, marking the 65^th anniversary of the passage of UN Resolution 181, celebrating 65 years of American support for the Jewish state and memorializing those who were killed during the recent attacks on Israel

2012: Representatives of Jewish communities in Spanish-speaking countries are today and tomorrow in Miami to discuss the effects of recent political shifts on Jewish life in the Americas and Iberia.

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/11/30/3113266/spanish-speaking-jews-meet-in-miami-discuss-political-shifts

2012: Today, Tzipi Livni’s newly founded Hatnua (The Movement) party began filling its ranks, ahead of next week’s deadline for submitting Knesset lists.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/hatnua-party-list-fleshes-out-ahead-of-election-deadline/

2013: The New York Times list of “100 Notable Books of 2013” includes the following books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers: Dissident Gardens by Jonathan Lethem, The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner, Half the Kingdom by Lore Segal, The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer, Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die Cherish, Perish by David Rakoff, The Two Hotel Francforts by David Leavitt. Woke Up Lonely by Fiona Maazel, After the Music Stopped by Alan S. Blinder, The American Way of Poverty by Sasha Abramsky, The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger and a Forgotten Genocide by Gary J. Bass, The Boy Detective by Roger Rosenblatt, Miss Anne In Harlemby Carla Kaplan, My Promised Land by Ari Shavit, The Riddle of the Labyrinth by Margalit Fox, The Town by Mark Leibovich, and Unthinkable: Iran, the Bomb and American Strategy by Kenneth M. Pollack

2013: In Little Rock, Chabad Lubavitch is scheduled to present “Latkes and Laughter” with Mike Niehaus (and if the Latkes are prepared by Mrs. Ciment, everybody is in for a real treat)

2013: “The Magic Flute” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.

2013: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host an evening of Sephardic songs set to tango entitled “SepharTango.”

2013: “LOX & VODKA the Washington, DC based Klezmer band” is scheduled to perform in Alexandria, VA.

http://www.loxvodka.com/index.html

2013: “The Temple Mount was closed to Jews today after a fight between Jews and Muslim worshippers broke out on the plaza. According to police, the scuffle began after Muslims took exception to a group of Jews at the site singing Hanukkah songs, Israel Radio reported.” (As reported by Lazar Berman)

2013(28^thof Kislev, 5774): Seventy eight year old “French-born American author, publisher and socialist passed away today in Paris. (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/02/books/andre-schiffrin-publishing-force-and-a-founder-of-new-press-is-dead-at-78.html

2013: Israel’s Prime Minister took part in the candle-lighting ceremony at the Great Synagogue in Rome.

2013: The water bill for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upscale Caesarea house amounted to some NIS 72,000 (about $20,435) in 2012, and the cost of gardening services reached NIS 22,000 ($6,245), according to a report published by a government watchdog group today

http://www.timesofisrael.com/pms-houses-water-bill-sky-high-report-finds/

2014: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a screening of “Commissar” followed by a discussion led by Dr Jonathan Brent, Executive Director, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

2016: “British and German tax investigators conducted a search of Ivanov's Fabergé Museum in Baden-Baden” in what appears to be a raid connected to a tax dispute involving the Rothschild egg.

2014: The Crescent City Jewish news is scheduled to co-host Walter Issacson’s reading from his latest book – The Innovators – at the New Orleans Jewish Community Center on St. Charles Avenue.

2014: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to announce his decision on whether or not to “call for early elections” today.

2014: Gaithersburg, MD department store owner Sidney A, Katz, the grandson of Jacob and Rose Wolfson and the husband of Sally Katz began serving as a member of the Montgomery County Council from District 3.

2014: Rudy Wax is scheduled to perform at the UK Jewish Comedy Festival.

2014: Israeli television broadcast a documentary featuring Rafi Etian who covered a wide range of topics of which he had first had knowledge including Adolf Eichman and Jonathan Pollard. (As reported by Mitch Ginsburg)

http://www.timesofisrael.com/eichmanns-final-barb-i-hope-that-all-of-you-will-follow-me/

2014: Labor MK Hilik Bar has proposed the adoption of “the Declaration of Independence with its call for equality for all citizens as part of Israel’s quasi- constitutional Basic Laws.” (As reported by Haviv Rettig Gur)

http://www.timesofisrael.com/labor-mk-seeks-to-make-declaration-of-independence-part-of-constitution/

2014: Yehoshua Lorch, an Israeli woman, was stabbed south of Jerusalem by 22 year old Amal Taqatqa an “affiliate” with the Fatah movement who “tried to stab

a soldier at the same location” in 2011. (As reported by Lazar Berman)

2014: “Sendak’s Estate: Debating Where the Things Go” published today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/02/books/maurice-sendaks-estate-debating-where-the-things-go.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=1

2015: Nolan Altman, Vice President for Data Acquisition and Coordinator of the Online Worldwide Burial Registry project for Jewish Gen. is scheduled to talk about “JewishGen's Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR) and the Importance of Jewish Burial Records.”

2015: An exhibition of new works by Michal Nachmany is scheduled to go on display at the gallery on 14^th Street in New York.

http://www.michalnachmanyart.com/#!events/cmr3

2015: After breaking his leg in a game against the Redskins, Geoff “Schwartz was placed on season-ending injured-reserve” today.

2015(19^thof Kislev): On the Hebrew calendar birthday of Avraham Elimelech ben Yosef Dov

2015(19^thof Kislev): On the Hebrew calendar “Yahrzeit of the Maggid of Mezrech, the successor of the Baal Shem Tov,

2015(19^thof Kislev): The "New Year" of Chassidism

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/335659/jewish/19-Kislev-The-New-Year-of-Chassidism.htm

http://www.jewishcontent.org/cgi-bin/calendar?holiday=chanuka34

2016(1^stof Kislev, 5777): Rosh Chodesh Kislev; for more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/

2016: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host the Phoenix Chamber Ensemble which ”will perform Beethoven’s "Ghost" Trio in D Major, Op. 70, No.1, Schubert’s Fantasie for violin and piano D934, and Brahms’ Piano Quartet in C minor.”

2016: “Philip Sutton, reference librarian at the Schwarzman Building’s Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History, and Genealogy, is scheduled to provide an orientation to family history source materials in the various research divisions of the Schwarzman Building sponsored by the Center for Jewish History.

2016: In New York, “Harmonia” is scheduled to be shown on the opening night of the 10^thAnnual Other Israeli Film Festival.

2016: The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education is scheduled to host a screening of “the Emmy Award winning documentary ‘A Walk To Beautiful.’”

2016: The morning news shows are scheduled to continue discussing Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees including Steven Mnuchin is slated to become Secretary of the Treasury in the new administration.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/29/us/politics/steven-terner-mnuchin-trump-treasury-secretary.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=a-lede-package-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

2017: Rabbi Neil Blumofe and Cantor Magda Fishman are scheduled to lead Kabbalat Shabbat and Maariv as the Conservative Movement begins its Biennial Convention.

2017: As part of Human Rights Shabbat, Stav Shaffir, “the youngest-ever female MK” is scheduled to speak from the bimah” tonight followed by “an extra celebratory oneg.”

2017: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host the last Friday Night Dinner of the term.

2017: Jewish Book Month, an annual event that provides us with a chance to contemplate Jewish books and the lives of authors such as Anita Shapira whose works included the must-read Israel: A History and Ben Gurion: Father of Modern Israel continues today.

2018(23^rdof Kislev, 5778): Parashat Va-yayshev; for more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/

2018: The College Band Winter Concert under the direction of Temple Judah’s own “music man” William S. Carson is scheduled to take place tonight and will include musical tributes to the 100^th anniversary of the War to End All Wars.

2018: The Christine Park Gallery is scheduled to continue displaying the “first New York solo exhibition by Tel-Aviv based artist Yuval Shaul.

https://www.christinepark.net/yuval-shaul

2019: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Becoming RBG: Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Journey to Justice by Debbie Levy and Whitney Gardner and Believers: Faith In Human Nature by Melvin Konner.

2019: The Contemporary Jewish Museum is scheduled to host a “card embossing” workshop “with artists from the Painted Tongue Press.

2019: In Atlanta, the Breman Museum is scheduled to host a workshop offering “photography tips for taking fabulous photos” which considering the large number of famous Jewish photographers is a totally appropriate offering.

2019: The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to participate in “Museum Store Sunday, “an international event with more than 1,000 museum stores participating across all 50 states, 15 countries, and four continents”

2019: The online auction sponsored by the Straus Historical Society is scheduled to begin today.

2019: Jason Alexander, the actor from“Seinfeld” is scheduled to discuss “stories of his life, career and social activism as part of the Jewish Luminaries Series” at the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto, CA.

2019: Participants of the Historic Jewish Tours series are scheduled to visit “The Temple, Atlanta’s oldest Jewish house of worship which was founded in 1867.

December 2

127 CE: In a document drawn up on this date at a government office in Rabbatg, east of the Dead Sea, four date groves in Maoza were registered by their owner as part of a provincial census ordered by the Roman governor. The date groves abutted the property of Tmar, daughter of Thamous (Tamar, daughter of Thomas). Record of this ancient document from an area the Romans called Palestine is proof that women did own property in their own right. Who was Tamar? Who was her father Thomas? These are questions for which, as yet, we have no answers.

499: (Kislev, 4427): Ravina II (Bar Shemuel), the nephew of Ravina passed away. According to tradition Ravina completed the final editing of the Talmud that had been begun by Rav Ashi about one year prior to this time. According to some authorities, Ravina committed the Oral Law (the Talmud) to writing, despite protests that only the Bible should be written down. His death marked the end of the period of the Amoraimushered in the period of the Savoraim.

1264: In Sinsig, Germany, a convert to Judaism was arrested for preaching Judaism. Although tortured he refused to recant his belief in Judaism and is burned at the stake.

1523: Giles of Viterbo, who provided a safe haven for Elias Levita with whom he studied Hebrew and who studied Zohar with Baruch de Benevento was installed as Bishop of Veterbo e Tuscania.

1684: Twenty-six year old Samson Wertheimer, a native of Worms who became the chief rabbi of Hungary and Moravia and “a court Jew “ arrived in Vienna today following which he became an associate of banker Samuel Oppenheimer.

1692: Abraham Oppenheim, the Worms born son of Simon Wolf Oppenhim known as “Abraham zur Kanne” and “Shtadlan whose favorable with German princes did not protect him when he and his fellow Jews were forced to flee to Heidelberg which he died today.

1735: Birthdate of Savannah, GA native Mordecai Sheftall, the husband of Amsterdam native Frances Hart and the father of Shetall, Perla, Elias, Benjamin, Moses and Esther Sheftall.

1763: The Touro Synagogue opened in Newport, Rhode Island. Sephardic Jews in Jamaica, Surinam, London and Amsterdam sponsored the building of this first major center of Jewish culture in America. It is the oldest synagogue in the United States.“The new edifice introduced an important innovation in synagogue design. The women’s gallery of this traditional synagogue featured a low balustrade that offered women an open view of the rest of the sanctuary.Women’s galleries in other “new world” and “old world” synagogues generally were constructed with high or opaque barriers meant to keep women out of the sight of men within the sanctuary. The change in Newport represented less a reform of traditional practice than a reflection of colonial American expectations for female religious expression.The strong presence of women in colonial American churches was an important way in which women demonstrated the religious piety expected of them by their society. Observing the behavior of their non-Jewish neighbors, colonial American Jewish women seemed to understand that it was more important that they be seen in the space of public worship than had been the case in their previous communities. Early American synagogue records suggest that unmarried young women both attended and asserted their presence in the synagogue.The open gallery layout of the Newport synagogue demonstrates a changing consciousness of what women’s synagogue role should be. Moreover, the open plan was imitated by most of the early American synagogues that followed Newport.”

http://jwa.org/thisweek/dec/02/1763/newport-synagogue

1790: In Hungary, “the Diet drafted a bill showing that it intended to protect” the rights of the Jews as they had requested in the petition submitted to King Leopold II.

1790: In Charleston, SC, Frances and Humphrey Mordecai Marks gave birth to Mark Elias, “the physician and educator” who in 1828 founded “the South Carolina Female Collegiate Institute, an institution for the higher education of women located outside of Columbia, SC” which “Marks called ‘Barhamville’ to honor his late wife and teacher Jane Barham.”

1795: In Nashville, TN, Hannah Hays and Benjamin Meyers gave birth to Sarah “Sally” Myers, the wife of Benjamin Etting Hays and the mother of David, Hannah, Michael, Benjamin, Jacob and Esther Hays.

1795: Michael Hart married Sarah Moses at the Great Synagogue today.

1795: In Savannah, GA, Sarah de la Motta and Levi Sheftall gave birth Abraham Sheftall.

1796: Ezekiel Hart, the first Jew to be elected to public office in the British Empire, and his brothers Moses and Benjamin went into partnership to establish a brewery in Trois-Rivières, the M. and E. Hart Company. By the terms of the agreement the three agreed to hold equal shares in the firm. They had the financial backing of their father. Ezekiel Hart later withdrew from the M. and E. Hart Company. Ezekiel sold everything to Moses, apparently soon after their father's death in 1800. Subsequently Ezekiel followed in the footsteps of his father, who was in every respect his model. He went into the import and export trade, kept a general store, never let a good business deal pass, and acquired property. Besides inheriting the seigneury of Bécancour, he bought a great deal of land, mainly at Trois-Rivières and Cap-de-la-Madeleine.

1807: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Jacob Suares officiated at the wedding of Hyam Moise to Cecilia Woolf, “the daughter of the late Solomon Woolf.”

1807: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Jacob Suares officiated at the wedding of Nathan Hart, a Charleston merchant and Rachel Hart, “eldest daughter of Daniel Hart.”

1820: Yitzchak Alter and Feigele Lipschitz gave birth to Nechemya Alter.

1824: Birthdate of Oswald Hönigsmann, the native Rzeszow, Austrian Galicia who “was a member of both the city and communal councils of Lemberg.

1825: Birthdate of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil. An opponent of slavery and a comparatively tolerant man, he was tolerant of both Jews and Muslims. “when asked why there were no laws against” the Jews of Brazil he answered: ‘I will not attack the Jews, as the God of my religion came from their people.’”

1825: In Frankfort, literary critic Karl Ludwig Borne who had converted to Christianity delivered an address in memory of the recently deceased author John Paul Richter.

1834: In Baiersdorf, Erlangen-Hochstadt, Bayern, Germany, David Isaak Seligman and Fanny Steinhardt gave birth to Isaak Seligmann who gained fame as Isaac Seligman, the brother who was in charge of the London branch of the “Seligman banking empire” and a leader in the Anglo-Jewish community.

1834: Fifteen year old Jacques Offenbach’s name was struck from the roll of students at the Paris Conservatoire indicating he had “left of his own free will.”

1837: Birthdate of London native George Joseph Emanuel, “at teacher of English and Latin at Jews’ College,” “a lecturer in Hebrew at Queen’s Theological College in Birmingham,” and staring in 1864, the Rabbi of the “Birmingham Hebrew Congregation.”

1839(25^th of Kislev, 5600): Chanukah

1840: Isaac Phillips married Julia Hyman at the Great Synagogue today’

1844:Salomon Přzibram and Marie Przibram gave birth to Gustav Przibram the husband of Charlotte Przibram.

1846: Michael Nathan married Sarah Green at the Great Synagogue today.

1848: Franz Josef I becomes Emperor of Austria. Born in 1830, Franz Josef reigned until his death in 1916. Most people think of him as the Austrian Emperor who declared war on Serbia in 1914 and started World War I. From the Jewish perspective, the last of the Hapsburg monarchs was one of the better rulers under which to live. Despite the rising tide of anti-Semitism in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Franz Josef saw himself as the protector of his Jewish subjects. At one point he told his ministers, “I will tolerate no Jew-baiting in my empire!” He described anti-Semitism as “an illness” whose “excesses were awful.” He is reliably reported to have publicly walked out of a theatre when performers began a series of anti-Semitic songs. In 1895, he moved to block the anti-Semitic rabble-rouser Karl Lueger (one of Hitler’s early role-models) from becoming burgomeister of Vienna. In 1869, Franz Josef visited Jerusalem where he met with a group of local Jews and contributed to the building of a new synagogue. Austrian Jews spoke highly of the Emperor during his reign and at the time of his death. But his enemies provided the full measure of the monarch’s attitude towards his Jewish subjects. Behind his back, they called him the “Judenkaiser.”

1840: At Camden, SC, Dr. Lawrence L. Cohen of Charleston, SC, married Miriam Louisa De Leon, the daughter of Dr. De Leon of Camden.

1850: In London, Elizabeth Stevens and Benjamin Hurwitz gave birth to Charles Benjamin Hurwitz.

1851: Baron von Königswarter became deputy of the Seine department in the legislature, holding this seat until 1863 when he was defeated by Jules Simon.

1851: French President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte overthrows the Second Republic.

1851: In France, Adolphe Crémieux was arrested and was imprisoned for his opposition to Louis Napoleon.

1852: Louis Napoleon, nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned Napoleon III. In one sense, he was a comic opera figure who used his name to gain power, Napoleon was not as weak as his enemies thought nor as wily a politician as he himself thought. He did not dabble in anti-Semitism and counted Jews among his friends and supporters, especially if they were wealthy and successful. His relations with the House of Rothschild were strained by the fact that the Jewish bankers had supported one of his opponents. But Napoleon overlooked this since he needed their financial support. On the other hand, Louis Napoleon was the sole supporter of reactionary Pope Leo IX who pursued a number of anti-Semitic practices. However, this was more a case of power politics than personally held beliefs. In the end the greatest impact Louis Napoleon had on the Jews was tangential. Louis Napoleon led France to defeat in the disastrous Franco-Prussian War in 1870. The French desire to avenge this humiliation and regain its lost provinces was one of the contributing factors to World War I. And of course, World I begot World War II and the Holocaust.

1852: Today, “Wilhelm Hoffman one of the royal Prussian court preachers at the Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church in Berlin, co-founded Jerusalem's Association (Jerusalemsverein), a charitable organization which helped Samuel Gobat, the second Protestant bishop of Jerusalem who did not spend time trying to convert Jews and Muslims but “spent it proselytizing among Christians of other, mostly Orthodox denominations.” (Gobat and his wife are buried on Mount Zion in Jersualem)

1855: Articles of Incorporation for the Judah Touro Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1856: In Vienna, Gustave and Rosa Freund gave birth to Dr. of Jurisprudence Arthur Freund

1857: The Melbourne Herald described the interment of 4 of the participants in the goldfields uprising at the Eureka Stockade including a German-born Jew, Edward (Teddy) Thoen.

1858: “The Papal Abduction” publication today described the response of the American government to the Mortara Affair.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F05E1DF1E31EE34BC4A53DFB4678383649FDE

1859: Abolitionist John Brown was hung after his unsuccessful raid on the armory at Harpers Ferry that was intended to be the first step in an uprising that would free the slaves. Three Jews – August Bondi, Jacob Benjamin and Theodore Weiner – had fought alongside Brown in his first armed attack that took place at Osawatomie, Kansas.

1861(29^thof Kislev, 5622):Meïir Eisenstädter “one of the greatest Talmudists of the nineteenth century; died at Ungvár” today.

1863: Adolphus Alexander married Julia Cohen at the Great Synagogue today.

1863: In Cincinnati, OH, Moses and Sarah Waldheim gave birth to Aaron Waldheim the St. Louis furniture merchant and philanthropist who raised two children with his wife Hattie Sommers Waldheim

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1938/03/08/98108535.html?action=click&contentCollection=Archives&module=ArticleEndCTA&region=ArchiveBody&pgtype=article&pageNumber=19

1867(5^thof Kislev, 5628): Sixty-four year old German poet Lesser Ludwig upon whom King Frederick William III conferred “the gold medal for art and science and who wrote One thing to Life you owe: Struggle, or seek for rest. If you're an anvil, bear the blow; If a hammer, strike your best” passed away today in Berlin.

1867: Birthdate of Paul Cohnheim, the native of Labes, Pomerania who was educated at the gymnasium at Stettin and went on to become a physician in Germany.

1867: Two days after she had passed away, Maria Lyon was buried today at the “Lauriston Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1868: Disraeli’s first British government resigns. Disraeli’s father may have had him baptized, but Disraeli’s enemies would never let him forget his Jewish ancestry.

1869: Birthdate of Jonas Cohen German-born, English philosopher.

1877(26^thof Kislev, 5638): Seventy-five year old Michelangelo Asson the Verona born “physician and medical” author passed away today in Venice

1877: Over 500 people attended the annual meeting of the Society of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews. Mrs. P.J. Joachimsen, the President of the society, chaired the meeting. The unusually large turnout was precipitated by concerns over financial irregularities combined with the election of officers. In her annual report, the President expressed her concern over financial irregularities involving other officers and the home’s superintendent. Despite request that she serve another term, Mrs. Joachimsen has decided to end her service due to the contention she has had to deal with.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9907EEDC173EE73BBC4B53DFB467838C669FDE

1877: It was reported today that The Board of Delegates of American Israelites and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations have met and agreed to unite their organizations. The new organization will meet every three years. A committee with 30 members from all four sections of the country will be empowered to handle administrative matters.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9E02E0DC173EE73BBC4A53DFB467838C669FDE

1878: The New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals is scheduled to hand down a ruling today in the case of Erie v Dringer which is on appeal from Vice Chancellor Van Fleet. Erie is the Erie Railroad. Dringer is an Austrian born Jew who came to the United States in 1867 and went from driving a junk wagon in New York to owning his own junk yard in Paterson. He invented a unique machine for cutting up old iron which made it possible for him to buy large amount of scrap and made him the largest scrap dealer in the United States. Eventually some of his less successful competitors brought suit against him, claiming among other things that he was effectively stealing scrap metal from the Erie Railroad. The trial court ruled in favor of Dringer and his co-defendants. The Plaintiffs appealed and now that case has been argued, a decision is awaited by all parties.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9405E4D7153EE63BBC4A53DFB4678383669FDE

1880: Plans for Sarah Bernhardt’s final performances New York and opening performance in Boston were published today.

1881: It was reported today that the government in Belgrade will introduce a Jewish emancipation bill in Parliament in March that will conform to the Treaty of Berlin and that will place Serbian Jewish on an equal footing “with Jews who are Austrian subjects.”

1881: The fair sponsored by Temple Israel was suspended for this evening because it was erev Shabbat.

1881: “Riotous Doings In Hungary” described an attack on the Jews of Zalalövő in south-west Hungary.

1882(21^stof Kislev, 5643): Seventy-two year old Leopold Stein, the rabbi at Frankfort-on-the-Main, a leader of the Reform movement who “composed the song "Tag des Herrn," to be sung to the music of "Kol Nidre" on the eve of the Day of Atonement” passed away today.

1883: The Young Men’s Hebrew Association of Hoboken (NJ) hosted an evening of entertainment including singing and recitation entitled “Spartacus” as the Odd Fellow’s Hall.

1883: “Herr Stocker” published today described the hostile reception Adlolph Stocker, the Jew-baiting German clergyman received on his recent visit to England. He was greeted by hostile mobs that were primarily made up German Socialist living in London who regard him “as the typical representative of that military tyranny under which they say the Fatherland is groaning.”

1883: It was reported today that the Adloph Stocker, the anti-Semitic clergyman is disliked by the younger members of the German court including the Crown Prince who has snubbed him on more than one occasion and by Chancellor Bismarck, “who has no sympathy with his Jew hating proclivities” as can be seen by his confidential relationship with Jewish banker Gerson Von Bleichroeder.

1883: “He Has No Such Prejudices” published today contains a denial by Hugo O’Neill that ever told a Jew that “We don’t want any of your people in our employ” using as proof that he employs Jews some of whom were recommended to him by Rabbi D.H. Nieto of the 19^th Street Synagogue.

1883: “Riotous Doings In Hungary” published a report of a pogrom in south-west Hungary that was thwarted when police fired on a mob of thirty peasants armed with axes and guns killing two and arresting two more who gave up the name of their leaders.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9B0DE5DB103BE033A25751C0A9649D94629FD7CF

1883:

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9506E3DB103BE033A25751C0A9649D94629FD7CF

1884: In New York, Jacob Asch, a formerly successful businessman, met an acquaintance, Jacob Starker, coming out of coffee house on the bowery and “complained to him of his bad luck and said he was broke.

1885:Die Königin von Saba (The Queen of Sheba) an opera in four acts by Karl Goldmark premiered in the United States at the Metropolitan Opera.

1885(24^thof Kislev, 5646): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah candle.

1885: Rabbi Kohut delivered a sermon “on the victory of the Maccabees” at the Chanukah service at Ahavath Chesed at Lexington and 55^th Street.

1888: J. Harpman the Treasurer of Temple Shaari Tov in Minneapolis, was reported to have responded to questions about the distribution of money an “unknown New Yorker” sent for the benefits of destitute Jews living in Dakota by saying that “there is no longer any need for the money among the Jews” because their needs have been met but he did object to the fact that when there was need for this money it “was held by the authorities in Bismarck.”

1890: As the cloak manufacturers were reported today to be strengthening their Cloak Manufacturers’ Association, many of the cloakmakers want Joseph Barondess to resume his role as leader of their union.

1890: Birthdate of Bohemian born German-American author Hans Janowitz whose military service in WW I turned him into a pacifist and who gave up his career in movies for the oil business.

1891: Based on information that firs appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette, Joseph Pennell the American artist and photographer attributed his deportation from Russia to his photographing of the Jewish quarter of Kiev and not “his sketching of the Jews and poking about the Jewish quarters” which the authorities didn’t like either.

1892: In Jaffa, Magdalena and Born Plato von Usino gave birth to their old child Jonah Freiherr von Ustinow, the British anti-Nazi agent who was the father of actor Peter Ustinov.

1893: In New York City, “Nathan and Anna (Elson) Malzberg gave birth to Dr. Benjamin Malzberg, the Columbia trained statistician and epidemiologist and husband of Rose Hershberg with whom he raised three children – Judith and the twins Ruth Ellen and Amy Susan Malzberg.

https://www.nytimes.com/1975/04/14/archives/dr-benjamin-malzberg-expert-on-mental-health.html

1893: Birthdate of Russian-born, American composer Leo Ornstein who was one of the leading American experimental composers and pianists of the early twentieth century and who, although he gave his last public concert around the age of forty, continued to compose through his late nineties. He passed away in 2002.

1894: Among the “New Novels” listed today are Jewish Tales by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, translated from the French by Harriet Lieber Cohen.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9903EEDE1231E033A25751C0A9649D94659ED7CF

1894: Rabbi Joseph Silverman delivered a sermon this morning at Temple Emanu-El entitled “Why Do We Still Remain Jews?” in which he “declared that Judaism was a philosophy and not a system of creeds.”

1895: In Vienna, police dispersed an anti-Semitic mob that had gathered in the Prater to protest, in part the Emperor’s rejection of the anti-Semitic Dr Luger as Burgomaster of Vienna.

1895: Birthdate of Harriet Cohen, the native of Brixton who was the niece of Rabbi F. L. Cohen and the cousin of Irene Scharrer who also worked to help refugees from Hitler’s Germany which led to her becoming a Zionist.

1896: At today’s session of the 15^th Biennial Council of the American Congregations, delegates are scheduled to elect officers, discuss the future of the Hebrew Union College and in the evening attend a banquet at the Standard Club followed by a ball.

1897: L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's official newspaper, runs a story on the Dreyfus Affair explaining that Dreyfus' treason is only to be expected from Jews.According to the Catholic paper:"The Jewish race, the deicide people, wandering throughout the world, bearing with it everywhere the pestiferous breath of treason.... And so, too, in the Dreyfus case...it is hardly surprising if we again find the Jew in the front ranks, or if we find that the betrayal of one's country has been Jewishly conspired and Jewishly executed." (As reported by Austin Cline)

1897: Birthdate of Soviet economist Evsei Liberman, the husband of Regina Horowitz and the brother-in-law of pianist Vladimir Horowitz.

1900: Herzl First visit of the Turkish agent Eduard Crespi in Vienna.

1900(10^thof Kislev, 5661): Thirty-two year old poet Ludwig Jacobowski passed away today “in Berlin from the effects of meningitis.”

Oh, our bright days

Glänzen wie wenige Sterne,Shining like a few stars,

Als Trost für künftige Klage As a consolation for future action

Glüh'n sie aus goldener Ferne. Glüh'n them golden distance.

Nicht weinen, weil sie vorüber!Do not cry because it over!

Lächeln, weil sie gewesen!Smile because they have been!

Und werden die Tage auch trüber,And also the gloomy days

Unsere Sterne erlösen! Our star redeem!

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0011_0_09894.html&prev=search

1902: In order to renew the connection with Austrian Prime Minister Ernest von Koerber, Herzl sends him a copy of "Altneuland".

1903: The Philadelphia Inquirer reported today the in Camden, Jews “are asking for contributions for the erection of a synagogue.”

1903: Today, “a non-Jewish lady” who became “interested in the Zionist movement” as a result of “a lecture” she heard “in a town in New York State” contributed “$90 for an entry in the Golden Book of the National Fund as a thanksgiving offering…”

1905: “A Polish Jew” published today provide a review of a “melodramatic” novel Children of Fate: A Story of Passion by Adolph Danziger that “traces the career of a young man named Joseph, a Jew of Jobrzyn, in Poland including his love for a Christian noblewoman.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9907EFDE1438EF32A25751C0A9649D946497D6CF

1905: “What Do the Zionists Want?” which first appeared in London advises that “if the Jews really want to found some sort of Hebrew State” they should the “very needy Sultan…a good sum down and a handsome tribute” for “a portion of Palestine under his suzerainty provided they are prepared to handsomely compensate its inhabitants for the expropriation.”

1905: Birthdate of Moses ("Moe") Asch, the founder of Folkways Records. He was the son of Yiddish language novelist and dramatist Sholem Asch and the younger brother of novelist Nathan Asch.

1905: “German Liberty” published today provided a review of Poultney Bigelow’s History of the German Struggle Liberty, a volume that includes a description of “the arrest in Munich of Saphir, a witty Austrian Jews and his subsequent expulsion from Bavarian territotry.”

1905: “Christians Urged to Contribute” published today included a statement by Samuel Goldstein, who has contributed $10 for the “poor suffering Jews of Russia, that “if every Christian” living in the United States read the recently published letters of Sherva Sandelman and Aaron Sheftshik, two Jewish children trapped in Russia “the amount sent in for the Jewish relief fund will be increased thrice the amount already received.”

1906: Birthdate of award-winning engineer, Peter Carl Goldmark. Born in Hungary, Goldmark came to the United States in the 1930’s. Goldmark is best known for his invention of the l.p. or long-playing record which revolutionized the recording industry. He also help develop the first commercial color television. He passed away in December of 1977.

1908: Daoud Effendi Molho, First Dragoman of the Imperial Divan, Constantinople was nominated to serve as a Senator in Turkey. The functions of the First Dragoman were mainly political; he accompanied the ambassador or minister at his audiences of the sultan and usually of the ministers, and was charged with the core of diplomatic negotiations

1910: A Jew, Jacob Effendi de Vidas, ex-Censor of the Jewish Press at Smyrna is appointed Inspector of Elementary Schools at Mitylene (Lesbos).

1911: Birthdate of Paterson, NJ native and mathematician Abraham “Abe” Gelbart who earned a doctorate from MIT and went on to be “the founding dean of the Belfer Graduate School of Science at Yeshiva University.”

https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/12/obituaries/abraham-gelbart-mathematician-82.html

1911: In the Bronx, Julius and Ethel (née Loewy) Fleischl gave birth to Harriet Fleischl who gained fame as attorney Harriet Fleischl Pilpel “the general counsel for both the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood.”

http://jwa.org/thisweek/dec/02/1911/birth-of-harriet-fleischl-pilpel-pioneer-for-right-to-privacy-and-free-speech

https://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/24/obituaries/harriet-pilpel-79-lawyer-dies-an-advocate-of-women-s-rights.html

1911 Big Jack Zelig, a Jewish gangster murdered Italian gangster Julie Morrell at the Stuyvesant Casino. Zelig believed Jack Sirocco and Chick Tricker had hired Morrell to kill him so he struck first. This killing was part of the fight by the Jewish dominated Eastman gang to control the Five Points section of New York.

1912: Today, at the annual meeting of Isaiah Temple in Chicago, Dr. Joseph Stolz, who spent eight years as the rabbi of Zion Congregation and seventeen years as the rabbi at Isaiah Temple “was unanimously elected Rabbi…for life along with an increase in salary.

1912: “Sarah Bernhardt, the most famous actress in world” and “her French company are scheduled to make their “American debut in vaudeville” at the Majestic Theatre.

1913: President Woodrow Wilson, who appointed the first Jew, Louis Brandeis, to the Supreme Court and supported the Balfour declaration “delivered his first State of the Union address” today

1914: A committee headed by Joseph Barondess of the Board of Education met Solomon Rabinowitz who uses the pen name Shalom Aleichem when he and his wife and two children arrived in New York today from Copenhagen aboard the Frederick VIII.

1914: Lt. Hugo Gutman was awarded the Iron Cross 2^nd class today.

1914: “Appeal For Aid For Jews” published today described the appeal by the American Jewish Relief Committee for aid their co-religionist because “the disaster, in which the whole world shares, fall with disproportionate weight upon the Jewish people more than nine million of whom live in the coutries at war and over six million of these in the actual war zone in Poland, Galicia and the whole Russian frontier.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C04E2D61738E633A25751C0A9649D946596D6CF

1914: It was reported today that the officers of the newly formed American Jewish Relief Committee are Chairman Louis Marshall, Secretary Cyrus L. Sulzberger and Treasurer Felix M. Warburg.

1914: A Committee composed of Joseph Barondess, Charles J. Minikes and Joseph Fallen met Solomon Rabinowitz (Sholom Aleichem) today

1914: Birthdate of composer of Adolph Green. With his partner Betty Comden, he wrote numerous hits, including "New York, New York" (the version from the musical On The Town) and the screenplay for the film Singin' in the Rain.

1915(25^thof Kislev, 5676): Chanukah

1915: Second night of a “fete” featuring historical tableaux held for the benefit of the Spanish and Portuguese Sisterhood which is chaired by Mrs. Mortimer M. Meken.

1915: Albert Einstein published the general theory of relativity.

1915: Representative Meyer London plans on submitting his proposal for a peace resolution to Congress which will include a request for $100,000 to help the neutral nations provide mediation between the belligerents.

1915: It was reported today that of the $229,000 being sent to aid Jews suffering in the war zones, $80,000 will go to Russia, $70,000 will go to that part of Poland under German control, $50,000 will go to Galicia, $25,000 will go to Palestine and $5,000 will go to Turkey.

1916: The Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering through the War whose members include “Leon Kaimaiky, editor The Jewish Daily News; Rabbi Israel Rosenberg, Rabbi Meyer Berlin, Albert Lucas and Harry Fishcel” announced in a report made public today “that it has collected to date $1,455,132.96” with the money coming “from 26,321 separate sources.”

1916:Isaiah "Jacques" Pais married Kaatje "Cato" van Kleeff. This union of a Sephardic Jew and Ashkenazi Jew produced a son named Abraham Pais, the famed Dutch born physicist.

1917: As the Battle for Jerusalem reached its final phase the British began to replace its weary front-line forces with fresh troops including sending in the XX Corps led by the 10^th (Irish) Division to replace the XXI Corps.

1917: In New York Pauline (Weiss) Blagman and Abraham Blagman gave birth to Sylvia Blagman who gained fame as Sylvia Sims “one of the most admired pop-jazz singers of her generation.” (As reported by Stephen Holden)

1917: In Baltimore, MD, two meetings were held at the Hippodrome and Palace Theatres sponsored by the Baltimore Conference for Jewish National Restoration in Palestine heard an address by Jacob De Haas, a former secretary to Theodore Herzl, after which resolutions were “unanimously and enthusiastically approved” expressing support for “the declaration of the British Government, promulgated by Mr. Balfour, favoring the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine.”

1917(17^th of Kislev, 5678): In Shreveport, LA, sixty-eight year old William Winter, a member of the legislature, city council and school board passed away today.

1917: “The campaign by which $5,000,000 is to be raised in New York City by December 16 for the Jewish War Relief Committee and the Jewish Welfare Boarding, working among soldiers and sailors was opened” tonight “with a dinner given at the Astor by Jacob H. Schiff, the Chairman of the committee” for “the Captains and members of the forty-five teams” which will be in charge of raising this sum in the next two weeks.

1917: It was reported today that “the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society, the clearing house through which thousands of Jewish refugees in the war stricken countries and in other lands have received news of their relatives in America has” recently “received hundreds of letters from those seeking word of relatives” in the United States and “in a majority of cases the society” which is led by President John L. Bernstein and Jacob R. Fain, the General Manager “has been able to find those sought.”

1918: Jacob Billikopf of the American Jewish Relief Committee, Dr. I. Edwin Goldwasser of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies and Charles S. Ward of the Y.M.C.A. were among those who attended a dinner at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Felix M. Warburg which “formally inaugurated” “the campaign to raise $5,000,000 in New York City for the relief of Jewish war sufferers.”

1919: Former Kaiser Wilhelm II wrote to Field Marshal August von Mackensen, denouncing his own abdication as the "deepest, most disgusting shame ever perpetrated by a person in history, the Germans have done to themselves... egged on and misled by the tribe of Judah ... Let no German ever forget this, nor rest until these parasites have been destroyed and exterminated from German soil!" Wilhelm advocated a "regular international all-worlds pogrom à la Russe" as "the best cure" and further believed that Jews were a "nuisance that humanity must get rid of some way or other. I believe the best thing would be gas!" (The Kaiser and His Court by John Rohl)

1920: A dispatch from Budapest today said that “the Jews of Hungary will deprived of all rights of suffrage under an understanding reached by the political parties of that country with a view to solving the Jewish problem.” (Editor’s note – the road that led to the Hungarian Jews being sent to Auschwitz began years before the Nazis arrived)

1921(1^st of Kislev, 5682): Rosh Chodesh Kislev

1921: Temple Israel, which is temporarily holding services at the Second Presbyterian Church while its new sanctuary is being built, began the celebration of its Golden Jubilee this evening.

1922(12^th of Kislev, 5683): Parashat Vayetzei

1922” Rabbi Philip A. Langh led Shabbat morning services at Temple Anshe Emes.

1922: Rabbi Julian Gusfield led services at Temple Beth El in Chicago.

1922: Rabbi Abram Hirschberg led services at Temple Sholom in Chicago.

1922: Led by head coach George Levene, Wake Forest defeated Hampden-Sydney in its final game of the season.

1923:Arnold "Arnie" Horween “kicked a 35 yard field goal and his brother Ralph ran for a touchdown as the Chicago Cardinals beat the Oorang Indians 22 to 19.

1923: Birthdate of Meshulam Riklis, chief executive of McCrory Corporation. After serving in the military during World War II, Riklis majored in mathematics at Ohio State University. He worked his way through college as a Hebrew teacher before starting out on his very successful business career.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/27/obituaries/meshulam-riklis-dead.html

1924(5^thof Kislev, 5685): Seventy-one year old Sir Edward Elias Sassoon, 2^ndBaronet, the younger son of Elias David Son and the father of Victor Sassoon passed away today.

1924: “Man Against Man” a silent drama with a script by Adolf Lantz was released today in Germany.

1924: Sigmund Romberg’s operetta “The Student Prince” opened at Jolson’s 59^thStreet where it ran for 608 performances, making it “the longest running Broadway show of the 1920’s.”

1928: In Berlin, world première of Arnold Schönberg’s the Variations for Orchestra, op. 31.

1928: This morning, Rabbi Samuel Schulman delivered a sermon on “Liberal Religion, American Politics and the Jew” at Temple Emanu-El in which he decried “the ‘dragging’ of Judaism into the past political campaign and scoring a ‘certain prominent rabbi’ for explaining from his pulpit why he as a rabbi would vote for a Catholic President.”

1929: Today, Irving Berlin “first published” “Puttin’ On the Ritz” a song he had written in May 1927 and made famous in the movie “Blue Skies.”

1930: “Annie Christie” a German language film based on the play of the same name starring Salka Viertel was released today in the United States by MGM.

1930: Birthdate of economist Gary Stanley Becker, the native of Pottsville, PA who “was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1992 and received the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/becker.html

1931: In the Weimar Republic, premiere of “Emil and the Detectives,” a “German adventure film with a script by Billy Wilder.”

1931: “The Trunks of Mr. O.F.” directed and written by Alexis Granowsky and co-starring Peter Lorre and Heddy Lamar premiered today in Berlin.

1932: “If I Had a Million” an anthology film produced by Emanuel Cohen and whose directors included Ernst Lubitsch, Norman Taurog and Lothar Mendes was released in the United States today.

1932: “Secrets of the French Police” the movie version of an unpublished novel by Samuel Ornitz, produced by David O. Selznick, co-starring Gregory Ratoff and with music by Max Steiner was released today in the United States.

1932: “The Triangle of Fire,” directed by Edmond T. Gréville, who was, based on genetic testing done in 2017 a member of Ashkenazic family from Russia and with music by Casimir Oberfeld was released in France today.

1933: Release of “Dancing Lady,” a musical comedy that showed the Jewish involvement in the movie industry. It featured the Three Stooges (all Jewish) in one of their first film. Louis Silvers provided the music and David O. Selznick coproduced this film that was distributed by MGM.

1934(25^thof Kislev, 5695): Chanukah

1934: “English born American clergyman and newspaper writer” Samuel Parkes Cadman, who would “later called for the U.S. to boycott the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, because of the Nazis' anti-Semitic policies” today “wrote an article condemning the Nazi German government for the firing of theologian Karl Barth from a German university post as a result of the professor's outspoken opposition to the Nazi regime and adamant refusal to sign an oath of allegiance to Adolf Hitler.”

1934: Birthdate of Salomon Gottlob, who at the age of seen boarded Convoy 25 that left Drancy for Auschwitz on August, 28, 1942

1935: Among the things listed as “Verboten” in the official police periodicals is “For a German girl to sit in public with a Jew” and “for ‘Aryans’ to sell real estate to Jews when such real estate is important to he German national wealth.”

1936: “Compliments of Mister Flow” a French mystery directed by Robert Siodmak was released today.

1936: In Berlin, “the public learned further details today of the new exchange law empowering the Exchange Control Service to seize and administer the fortune and property of any citizens suspected of an intention to go abroad permanently” – a law that did not apply to Jews because for some time now, “Jews suspected of a desire to flee the Reich were ordered to deposit a certain percentage of their fortunes with a Reichsbank subsidiary” without the benefit of any legal protection.

1936: At a dinner honoring Dr. Arthur J. Brown, Chairman of the American Committee on Religious Rights and Minorities, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise “declared that the time is come for the public opinion of mankind, expressing itself either through the league of Nations at Geneva or through its great religious organizations to speak earnestly and solemnly with respect to the lawless violation of the rights of many minority peoples in Europe and most especially of Jewish minorities.”

1937: The Palestine Post reported that out of the three Arab constables ambushed and kidnapped by an Arab terrorist gang near Shfaram, two were "tried" and murdered. The third constable was released to inform the authorities of the murder and the "trial."

1937: The Palestinian Post reported that scores of bullets hit the Haifa-Kiryat Haim bus, but no one was wounded.

1938: “Flirting with Fate,” a comedy produced by David Loew and music by Victor Young was released today in the United States by MGM.

1938: “The first Kindertransport arrived in Harwich, Great Britain today bringing some 200 children from a Jewish orphanage in Berlin which had been destroyed in the Kristallnacht pogrom.”

1939: Birthdate of Yael Dayan. This daughter of Moshe Dayan has made a career in her own right including that of an Israeli politician.

1939: “The Return of Doctor X” a science fiction horror film directed by Vincent Sherman and co-produced by Hal Wallis and Jack Warner was released today in the United States.

1940: Prime Minister Churchill replied to General Wavell’s concerns about letting the survivors of the Patria remain in Palestine. Churchill wondered if even the most militant of Arabs could find fault with what Churchill described as a humanitarian gesture. He wondered if the Arab commitment to the cause of the fight against the Nazis was so slender that such an event as this could have such disastrous consequences. At the same time, Churchill assured Wavell that there would not be a repetition of the Patria since all future illegal Jewish immigrants would be imprisoned in Mauritius for the duration of the war.

1940(2nd of Kislev): Fifty-five year old Rabbi Bernard Revel passed away. Born in Lithuania, he came to the United States after the Russian Revolution of 1905, entered NYU and received an MA in 1909. In 1915, he was named the first President of Yeshiva College, a position he held at the time of his death. This blog cannot do justice to his life and contributions to the Jewish people. You can begin to learn more about him at http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/revel.html

1941: Release date for “Ball of Fire,” a comedic treatment of cloistered intellectuals produced by Samuel Goldwyn written by Billie Wilder.

1941: U.S. premiere of “All Through the Night” directed by Vincent Sherman, produced by Hal Wallis and Jerry Wald and based on a story by Leo Rosten with Phil Silvers play the “Waiter” and Peter Lorre as “Pepi.”

1942: Jews in 30 countries hold a day of prayer and fasting for European Jews.

1942: After being screened for the Office of War Information's Bureau of Motion Pictures today, George Cukor’s “Keeper of the Flame” “was disapproved by the Bureau’s chief, Lowell Mellet.

1942: The first self-sustained nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated in Chicago, Illinois. At the University of Chicago, Enrico Fermi and his team achieved the world's first artificial nuclear chain reaction, in a makeshift lab underneath the University's football stands at Stagg Field. Work on the experimental pile had begun on 16 Nov 1942. It was a prodigious effort. Physicists and staffers, working around the clock, built a lattice of 57 layers of uranium metal and uranium oxide embedded in graphite blocks. A wooden structure supported the graphite pile. The chain reaction was part of the Manhattan Project, a secret wartime project to develop nuclear weapons, which initiated the modern nuclear age. This was a discovery that changed the world.

1942: In Los Angeles, “television and film writer Maurice Zimring, better known by his stage name Maurice Zimm, and his wife Molly, a lawyer who passed the California Bar in 1933” gave birth to “American criminologist, law professor, and the William G. Simon Professor of Law at the UC Berkeley School of Law,” Franklin Ester Zimring.

https://www.law.berkeley.edu/php-programs/faculty/facultyCVPDF.php?facID=127

1943: The first RSHA transport reached Birkenau from Vienna.

1943: In Toronto, Ontario MPP Allan Grossman and his wife gave birth to Larry Grossman who would follow his father into Parliament for what would be a 32 year stint of father/son legislative service.

1943: One hundred Jews from Vienna arrive at Auschwitz.

1944: In Budapest, three Jews were killed when gangs attacked the building in which they were living even though it was under Swiss Protection. Some Swiss diplomats, like their Swedish counterparts, used the diplomatic concept of extra-territoriality to provide safe haven for Hungarian Jews. Unfortunately, the various forces of anti-Semitism operating in the Hungarian capital did not always respect the niceties of international law.

1944(16th of Kislev, 5705): Russian born painter and pianist Josef Lhévinne, whose birth name was Joseph Arkadievich Levin passed away in New York City just a few days before his 70^th birthday.

1945: Today No. 342 Squadron in which author Romain Gary had flown over 25 missions as a “bombardier-observer” was transferred from the RAF to the French Air Force.

1946:While meeting in Atlantic City, today, “the United Jewish Appeal's national conference adopted a quota of $170,000,000 for its 1947 campaign for relief and rehabilitation in European countries, for refugee settlement in Palestine and for refugee adjustment in the United States.

1947: First day of a three-day general strike called by the Arab Higher Committee to protest the UN vote for partition.

1947: Birthdate of British businessman Michael Phillip Green who founded Carlton Communication with his brother David.

1947: Today “Joseph and Tilly Newman made their first trip to London their son’s MBE from the king who expressed his pleasure at being to acknowledge Isidore Newman’s gallantry in this way.”

1947: Bands of Arabs engage in violent protests and murderous attacks on the Jewish populace. Three Jews were shot dead in the Old City. Hundreds of Arab youths marched towards Zion Square in the center of Jerusalem chanting “Death to the Jews.” Fighting broke out in Jerusalem’s Commercial Centre between marauding Arab mobs and Jews seeking to protect their property.

1947: On the second day of general strike called by the Arab Higher Committee 200 Arabs broke into the commercial center in Jerusalem, looting and burning Jewish owned shops. The British troops made no effort to intervene. They did prevent a platoon of Haganah troops from coming to the aid of the embattled Jews.

1948: The Iraq government “suggested” to oil companies operating in Iraq, that no Jewish employees be accepted.

1949: It was announced today that “The Workmen’s Circle…would work with the Norwegian Labor party in setting up a village in Israel in memory of the twenty child victims of an airplane crash near Oslo on November 21^st.”

1950: NBC broadcast the last episode of “The Hank McCune Show,’ a sit-com produced by Samuel Z. Arkoff, the Iowa born lawyer turned film producer.

1951(3^rd of Kislev, 5712): Fifty-nine year old lifetime Washingtonian and Georgetown University trained lawyer Lawrence Koenigsberger, “the sole member of the District of Columbia Board of Tax Appeals since 1943 who was a charter member of the new reform congregation Temple Sinai and the husband of “Dr. Irene Diner of New York.”

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1951/12/04/89473273.pdf

1951: "Borscht Capades" closes at Royale Theater in New York City after 90 performances. Mickey Katz and his son Joel Grey both appeared in this short-lived musical.

1952: In Casablanca, Morocco, Elie and Esther Mimran gave birth to fashion designer Joseph Mimran.

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/joseph-mimran/

1952:The Jerusalem Post reported on the new Israeli peace initiative which urged the scrapping of all old UN resolutions and provided for negotiations based on the consideration of all security, territorial, refugee, economic and regional questions, as well as scientific, cultural and technical cooperation.

1953: Eugene Ferkauf opened the first of E.J. Korvette Stores in what had been a Long Island potato field.

1954: The U.S. Senate votes 65 to 22 to censure Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (R-WI) for refusing to cooperate with a Senate subcommittee that was investigating his finances. This was a backdoor way for the Senate to express its displeasure over the abusive investigative tactics of the Senator which many Jews opposed. On the other hand, the Senator’s right-hand man was none other than Roy Cohn, the Jewish lawyer from New York.

1954: “The Other Women” with a script by Hugo Haas who also directed, produced and starred in the film with music by Ernest Gold was released in the United States today.

1956: In Havana Lillian Samson Agostini, a schoolteacher whose father was a Jewish refugee from German and Esteban Echevarria gave birth to Esteban Ernesto Echevarría Samson who gained fame as actor Steve Bauer.

1957(9th of Kislev, 5718): Fifty-seven year old Dr. Manfred J. Sakel passed away. Born in 1900, Manfred Joshua Sakel was a Polish born neurophysiologist and psychiatrist who introduced insulin-shock therapy for schizophrenics and other mental patients in 1927, while a young doctor in Vienna. Insulin-induced coma and convulsions, due to the low level of glucose attained in the blood (hypoglicemic crisis) improved the mental state of drug addicts and psychotics, sometimes dramatically. His findings indicated that up to 88% of his patients improved with insulin shock therapy. His method became widely applied for many years in mental institutions worldwide. He immigrated to the U.S. ahead of WW II. in 1936. "Sakel's Therapy" is still used in Europe, but in the U.S. it has been superseded by electroconvulsive therapy and other means of treatment.

http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n04/historia/sakel_i.htm

1958(20^th of Kislev, 5719): Seventy nine year old Harvard grad and Johns Hopkins trained neurosurgeon Ernest Sachs, the New York City born son of Julius Sachs and Rosa Goldman, and husband of “playwright and poet” Mary Parmly Koues with whom he had three children passed away today.

1959: “Five Finger Exercise,” a play by Sir Peter Levin Shaffer, opened at the Music Box Theatre on Broadway.

1962: Birthdate of David Levi, the native of Tel Aviv who played soccer for Hapoel Ramat Gan before becoming a professional poker player who “has won over $2.6 million in live tournaments.”

1962: Police estimated that a crowd of 25,000 mourners attended the funeral service for Rabbi Aaron Kotler held the synagogue of Congregation Sons Of Israel Kalwarier on Pike Street between East Broadway and Henry Streets.

1965(8^th of Kislev, 5726): Seventy-one year old German born Siegried Ullman, the “husband of Irma Ullman” passed away today in Palm Beach, FL.

https://www.jta.org/1966/08/04/archive/body-of-siegfried-ullman-u-s-philanthropist-reinterred-in-israel

1968: President Nixon names Henry Kissinger security advisor. Kissinger was a surprise choice for the job for two reasons. He had supported Nelson Rockefeller and strongly questioned Nixon’s fitness for the job. And, as we have found out from the Nixon Tapes, Richard Nixon had an anti-Semitic streak that bordered on the paranoid.

1968: In Arcadia, CA, Susan (née Franzblau), a psychology professor, and Martin Sofer, a Conservative Jewish rabbi gave birth to actress Rena Sofer who appears on the soap “General Hospital” and is “a descendant of Baal Shem Tov and of the Chasam Sofer through her father's family.”

1968: Madison Square Garden is scheduled to host one of the events marking the 125^thanniversary of the found of B’nai B’rith

1970: Birthdate of comedic actress Sarah Silverman.

1971: Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Sharjah, Dubai, and Umm Al Quwain form the United Arab Emirates.

1972(26^thof Kislev, 5733): Shabbat Shel Chanukah and Parashat Vayeshev

1972(26^thof Kislev, 5733): Sixty-four year old Max Leonard Rosenheim, the British physician was honored by being named Baron Rosenheim passed away today.

https://renal.org/about-the-renal-association/history/obituaries/max-leonard-rosenheim/

1973: King Hussein of Jordan said that there could no peace in the area until Israeli forces had completely withdrawn from all lands taken in 1967 including all of Jerusalem

1973: French authorities forestalled a terrorists attack when they arrested 2 Palestinians, 1 Algerian and 1 Turk carrying weapons and explosive which had been brought into the country “for unknown purposes

1973: Yonatan Netanyahu wrote to his brother Benjamin: "We're preparing for war, and it's hard to know what to expect. What I'm positive of is that there will be a next round, and others after that. But I would rather opt for living here in continual battle than for becoming part of the wandering Jewish people. Any compromise will simply hasten the end. As I don't intend to tell my grandchildren about the Jewish State in the twentieth century as a mere brief and transient episode in thousands of years of wandering, I intend to hold on here with all my might.”

1974: As the Soviets crackdown on dissidents, including refusniks, author Alexander Solzhenitsyn was arrested in Moscow in the first step to his being deported and stripped of his citizenship.

1976(10^thof Kislev, 5737): Sixty-five year old William Tannen who followed in the footsteps of his father Julius Tannen and pursued an acting career most notable for his reoccurring appearance in the Wyatt Earp television show passed away today.

1977: In the aftermath of Sadat’s visit to Jerusalem, Moshe Dayan and Hassan Tuhami, the Egyptian Deputy Prime minister held a second secret meeting in Morocco. Dayan provided a proposal for the restoration of Egyptian sovereignty over the Sinai. Much to Dayan’s chagrin, Tuhami is less than thrilled with the offer. It is obvious that there is big gap between Sadat’s spectacular flight to Jerusalem and his claims to want piece and the achievement of that stated outcome.

1977: Castle Hill, with a 59 room mansion designed by Chicago architect David Adler was placed on the National Register of Historic Places today.

1978:"You Don't Bring Me Flowers" featuring Neil Diamond & Barbra Streisand makes it to the top spot on the charts.

1981(6th of Kislev, 5742): Hershey Kay, American born composer and arranger, passed away

1981: In what “was seen as a rebuff to the Reagan administration, today Howard “Metzenbaum was one of four senators to vote against an amendment to President Reagan's MX missiles proposal that would divert the silo system by $334 million as well as earmark further research for other methods that would allow giant missiles to be based.

1981: Birthdate of Jaffa, Israel native and Tel Aviv University trained actor Shredy Jabarin whose film credits include “For My Father” and “The Savior,” “where he played Jesus.”

1982(16th of Kislev, 5743): Marty Feldman, the comedic actor featured in the film Young Frankenstein, passed away.

1983: Michael Jackson's Thriller, an American 13-minute music video for the song of the same name with music by Elmer Bernstein was released today,

1983: Birthdate of Flushing, New York native Arian Asllani the American rapper known as Action Bronson

https://www.thejewniverse.com/2017/this-muslim-jewish-rapper-drinks-manischewitz-and-raps-about-his-bris/

1983: Dr. Moisés Carlos Bentes Ruah and Catarina Lia Azancot Korn gave birth to Daniela Sofia Korn Ruah a Portuguese-American Jewish actress best known for playing NCIS Special Agent Kensi Blye in the CBS series NCIS: Los Angeles.

1984: Him With His Foot In His Mouth and Other Stories by Saul Bellowand Lives of the Poets: Six Stories and a Novella by E. L. Doctorow are among the twelve books chosen by the New York Times Book Review as the best books published in the country during the preceding year.

1985: Jean Herly, who was the French Ambassador to Israel from 1973 to 1977 completed his service as the 15^th Minister of State to Monaco

1987(11th of Kislev, 5748):Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich, a Soviet scientist who played a key role in the development of nuclear weapons in the U.S.S.R. passed away.

1988: Bank Leumi, Tel Aviv, named Moshe Zanbar chairman and David Friedman managing director.

1988: A man carrying the passport of a former Israeli official linked to the Iran-contra scandal was killed in a plane crash, Government officials said today. The man was tentatively identified by a passport found on his body as Amiram Nir, said a statement from the Attorney General's office in the state of Michoacan.

1988: “The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!” a police comedy directed by David Zucker, who wrote the script along with Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams was released in the United States today.

1990: The New York Times reported that Israel has undertaken an investment initiative designed to lure high-tech American and European companies to invest in its economy. The program was developed by Moshe Nissim, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Trade.

1990(15th of Kislev, 5751): Ninety year old composer Aaron Copland some of whose best known works include Rodeo, Billy the Kid, Fanfare for the Common Man and Appalachian Spring passed away today.http://www.milkenarchive.org/people/view/all/553/Copland,+Aaron

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/03/obituaries/copland-dean-of-american-music-dies-at-90.html?pagewanted=all

https://www.npr.org/programs/specials/copland/notes.html

1990(15^th of Kislev, 5751): Terrorist conducted a deadly attack on a bus in Tel Aviv.

1991(25^th of Kislev, 5752): Chanukah

1991(25^th of Kislev, 5752): Seventy year old English biochemist Anne Beloff-Chain passed away today.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/beloff-chain-anne-1921-1991

1993: “Slaughter of the Innocents” directed and written by American investment professional James Glickenhaus was released in the United States today by Shapiro Glickenhaus Entertainment.

1994: Jury finds Heidi Fleiss guilty of running a call girl ring

1994:Tonight, “with a rousing encore of Johann Strauss Sr.'s "Radetzky March" that had a stadium audience of 14,000 people chanting for more, Zubin Mehta put the finishing touch to a long-standing ambition: bringing the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra to India, and better still to Bombay, the hometown Mr. Mehta left 40 years ago to begin his musical career.

1997: MCI Center opens in Washington, DC, as the Wizards played the Seattle SuperSonics. The Wizards are owned by Abe Pollin and the MCI Center, which helped to rejuvenate downtown Washington, was the product of this forty year fixture of the basketball and Jewish community.

1998: In Israel, one person was injured in a stabbing attack.

1999(24^th of Kislev, 5760): In the evening, Kindle the first Light of Chanukah

1999(24^th of Kislev, 5760): Eight-eight year old Joey Adams, the Brooklyn born comedian named Joseph Abramowitz and husband of gossip columnist Cindy Adams passed away today.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1999-12-03-9912040035-story.html

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-dec-04-mn-40320-story.html

https://peoplepill.com/people/joey-adams/

2000: As a result of the “Palestinian-Israeli violence that broke out in late September” it was reported today that Egypt’s “tourism boom is on the verge of going bust.”

2001: The New York Timeslist of the Best Books of 2001 contains the following works about Jewish related subjects or by Jewish authors including Austerlitz by W. G. Sebald and Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood by Oliver Sacks a physician and author raised as an Orthodox Jew.

2001(17^th of Kislev, 5762):A suicide bombing on an Egged bus #16 in Haifa shortly after 12:00 kills 15 people. The victims: Tatiana Borovik, 23, of Haifa; Mara Fishman, 51, of Haifa; Ina Frenkel, 60, of Haifa; Riki Hadad, 30, of Yokne’am; Ronen Kahalon, 30, of Haifa; Samion Kalik, 64, of Haifa; Mark Khotimliansky, 75, of Haifa; Cecilia Kozamin, 76, of Haifa; Yelena Lomakin, 62, of Haifa; Rosaria Reyes, 42, of the Philippines; Yitzhak Ringel, 41, of Haifa; Rassim Safulin, 78, of Haifa; Leah Strick, 73, of Haifa; Faina Zabiogailu, 64, of Haifa; Mikhail Zaraisky, 71, of Haifa. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

2001(17^th of Kislev, 5762): One person was killed when terrorist fired on a car “near Elei Sinai.”

2002(27^th of Kislev, 5763): Seventy-eight year old Edgar Sherick the movie and television producer whose most lasting contribution to American culture was his role in the creation of “ABC’s Wide World of Sports, passed away today. (As reported by Bill Carter)

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/07/arts/edgar-scherick-78-producer-for-television-and-movies.html

2003: It was reported today that Israel’s President Moshe Katsav has said “that Syria must stop supporting armed factions that attack Israel if it is serious about restarting negotiations with Israel over the Golan Heights” while “President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, urged the United States to use its muscle to renew talks on the Golan.”.

2004: A Broadway revival of “Pacific Overtures,” a musical written by Stephen Sondheim, opened at Studio 54.

2004: “The Syrian Bride” directed by Eran Riklis, who also co-authored the screenplay, was released today in Israel.

2005(1st of Kislev, 5766): Rosh Chodesh Kislev

2005(1st of Kislev, 5766): American painter Nat Mayer Shapiro passed away at the age of 86.

2005:On this date Haaretzreported that thousands of Ethiopian immigrants gathered along the Sherover-Haas Promenade overlooking Jerusalem's Old City to celebrate Sigad - the Ethiopian Jewish holiday that for 2,500 years in exile marked the yearning for Zion.

2005: Nicholas F Taubman began serving as United States Ambassador to Romania.

2005: “60 years later, Task Force Baum succeeds” published today reminds of the events surrounding the attempt to rescue Lt. Col. John K. Waters, the son-in-law of General George Patton led by its namesake, Major Abe Baum. (Baum was Jewish which was part of the risk for a mission that was going to work behind the Nazi lines)

http://www.utsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051202/news_m1m02tfrbdo.html

2006: After 11 months, Kaddish is recited for the last time by the family of Judy Rosenstein, of blessed memory.

2006: The Economist Magazine of this date reviewed Jonathan I. Israel’s Enlightenment Contested in which he contends that the Dutch led by Spinoza were the real “torchbearers of the enlightenment” and not the English of the time whom he describes as apologists for colonialism and enemies of equality.

20016: Jules Feiffer completed his academic residency “at the Arizona State University Barret Honors College” today.

2007: Jewish Book Month comes to an end.

2007: After 20 years of renovation work that cost US$20 million, and that was overseen by the non-profit Museum at Eldridge Street the Eldridge Street Synagogue reopened today to the public. It continues to serve as an Orthodox Jewish synagogue, with regular weekly services on the Sabbath and Holidays, and is also the Museum at Eldridge Street offering informative tours that relate to American Jewish history, the history of the Lower East Side and immigration

2007: In Kensington, MD, children's author and illustrator Sallie Lowenstein, author of Waiting for Eugene and The Festival of Lights,discusses the evolving state of children's books. Lowenstein, also a keen book collector, will have a number of her treasures on display to help enliven the discussion.

2007: The Sunday New York Times book section features reviews of books on Jewish topics and/or by Jewish authors including A Dangerous Woman: The Graphic Biography of Emma Goldman by veteran underground cartoonist Sharon Rudahl, Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan one of the founders of the Actus Tragicus collective of Israeli cartoonists and I Killed Adolf Hitler by the Norwegian cartoonist known simply as Jason

2007: The Sunday Washington Post book section lists the Books of 2007 including the following books on Jewish topics and/or by Jewish authors including Lost Genius, by Kevin Bazzana, The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein, by Martin Duberman, Einstein, by Jurgen Neffe, Calvin Coolidge, by David Greenberg, Ike, by Michael Korda, Opening Day by Jonathan Eig, Reality Show by Howard Kurtz, The Art of Political Murder, by Francisco Goldman, Power, Faith, and Fantasy, by Michael B. Oren, The Grand Surprise, edited by Stephen Pascal, Musicophilia, by Oliver Sacks, A Tranquil Star: Unpublished Stories,by Primo Levi, Away, by Amy Bloom, Imposture, by Benjamin Markovits and The Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon.

2008: As part of the Oud Festival sponsored by Confederation House, Violet Salameh will perform a program of works dedicated to the three great divas of the classical Arabic music world - Layla Morad, Asmahan and Oum Koulthoum at the Jerusalem Theater

2008: In New York, AFHUS Einstein Award Gala Honoring Bill Gates. Einstein biographer Walter Isaacson will is the guest speaker. Proceeds will benefit pioneering research at The Hebrew University's Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and the Environment, developing innovative solutions to feeding the world through sustainable agriculture.

2008: Hours after voting began this morning, the Labor party postponed the primary elections after computerized voting systems malfunctioned in several locales around the country. Initially party leader Ehud Barak wanted to postpone the primary by eight days, to December 10, but on Tuesday afternoon, the party's secretary general, MK Eitan Cabel, announced that the primary will be held on Thursday, December 4th.

2008: Throngs of mourners packed the funerals of the six Jews killed in last week's terror attack in India. The six died after gunmen struck the Chabad House, the Mumbai headquarters of the ultra-Orthodox Lubavitch movement, last Wednesday. After a two-day standoff, four Israelis, an American Jew and a Mexican woman were dead. The dead included Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, his 28-year-old wife, Rivka, 38-year-old Aryeh Leibish Teitelbaum, 28-year old Bentzion Kruman and 50-year-old Norma Shvarzblat-Rabinovich.

2009: The trial of Heinrich Boere, a man accused of murdering Dutch civilians as a member of a Waffen SS hit squad and has said that he was proud about being chosen to fight for the Nazis is scheduled to resume today.

2009(15^thof Kislev, 5770): Sixty-four year old Eric Wolfson the multi-talented musician who “was born into a Jewish family, in the Charing Cross area of Glasgow and raised in the Pollokshields area” passed away today.

http://www.ericwoolfsonmusic.com/

http://inlog.org/2009/12/03/r-i-p-eric-woolfson-alan-parsons-project-1945-2009/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8392805.stm

2009(15^thof Kislev, 5770): Eighty-one year old “Harold A. Ackerman, a federal judge in New Jersey for three decades whose hundreds of cases included trials of crooked politicians, corrupt union officials and reputed organized crime chieftains, died today at his home in West Orange, N.J. (As reported by Douglas Martin)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/nyregion/10ackerman.html

2009(15^thof Kislev, 5770)L Eight-six year old Samuel Hirsch, the co-founder of the Greater New York Labor Religion Coalition and a life-long champion of civil rights and the rights of American workers passed away today.

2009: David Wessel, the economics editor at the Wall Street Journal and author of the Capital column, discusses and signs his new book, In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic, at the Arlington Central Library in Arlington, VA.

2009: Chabad and JCCNV present “Extreme Makeover: Spiritual Edition” featuring Laibl Wolf, noted Australian Mystic, author of “Practical Kabala” and originator of Mind-Yoga.

2010: Lynda Barry and Maira Kalman are scheduled to “show slides of their work, compare notes and talk about their experiences as creators in many genres” in a program entitled “Words and Pictures” at the 92^nd Street Y.

2010: Jewish children's author Jacqueline Jules is scheduled to read from her book, The Ziz and the Hanukkah Miracle at the Historic 6^th& I Synagogue in Washington, DC.

2010: A huge brushfire was raging across the Carmel Mountains near Haifa this afternoon, resulting in the death of some 40 people and hurting dozens of others, among them prison guards and firemen.

2010: Two Palestinian terrorists were killed on the Gaza border this morning, when IDF troops opened fire on a number of suspects on the northern end of the Strip. The terrorists were apparently trying to infiltrate a kibbutz on the Gaza border.

2010: In Gainesville, FL, The Lubavitch Chabbad Jewish Center celebrated the second of the eight day Hanukah holiday with a twelve foot Menorah filled with toys for hospitalized children

2010: Today marked the 30th anniversary the death of French-Jewish novelist Romain Gary,

2010: As Irving Picard sought to get control of funds related to the Madoff Ponzi Scheme non-profits targeted by clawback suits yesterday and today include the Joseph Persky Foundation, the Miles and Shirley Fitterman Charitable Foundation, and the Melvin B. Nessel Foundation. In all, over 20 charities and foundations were sued.

2011: The Heist Project is scheduled to perform works by Israeli choreographer Idan Sharabi

2011: David Skorton, the President of Cornell accompanied Billy Joel on flute, during Joel's rendition of "She's Always a Woman" at a concert at Cornell University's Bailey Hall

2011:U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called on Israel today to take diplomatic steps to address what he described as its growing isolation in the Middle East.

2011:Roni Fuchs and Zeev Frenkiel, the two Israeli businessmen sentenced to imprisonment in Georgia earlier this year for allegedly offering seven-million-dollars-worth of bribes to the Georgian deputy finance minister, returned to Israel today after being pardoned.

2012: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including A Kosher Christmas: ‘Tis the Season to Be Jewish by Joshua Eli Plaut, Jewish Jocks: An Unorthodox Hall of Fame, edited by Franklin Foer and Marc Tracy, A Ship Without a Sail: The Life of Lorenz Hart by Gary Marmorstein, The Gershwins and Me: A Personal History in Twelve Songs by Michael Feinstein and Ian Jackman and We Killed: The Rise of Women in American Comedy by Yael Cohen

2012: Those attending the ECLC Barnes and Noble Book Fair scheduled to take place in Fairfax, VA, will have a chance to have their picture taken “with a special Chanukah Dreidel.”

2012: In Minneapolis, MN, the Sabes Jewish Community Center is scheduled to sponsor, How Do You Spell Chanukah?? This is “a unique evening of comedy, fun, music and dreidel spinning and a FUNdraiser for the 2013 Minneapolis Jewish Humor Festival.”

2012: Ambassador Richard Schifter is scheduled to “speak about his childhood in Vienna, escape after the Nazi takeover, and his return to Europe as a Ritchie Boy” at today annual meeting of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington

2012:AFIPO is scheduled its annual Family Music Day!

2012:Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz decided today to confiscate the tax revenues that Israel collected for the Palestinian Authority during the month of November, and use it to offset the PA's debt to Israel's Electric Corporation.

2012: “In a game against the Miami Dolphins” Julian Edelman of the New England Patriots “broke his right foot and was placed on injured reserve”

2012:Holocaust survivors gathered in front of the Finance Ministry in Jerusalem this morning to protest the Treasury’s handling of the budget allocated to the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel, which reimburses survivors’ annual medical expenses.

http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=294315

2013: “Jerusalem on a Plate” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.

2013: The Center for Jewish Culture is scheduled to present “Welcome to America: Memories of a Bintel Brief.

2013:The Syrian war continues to spill over into Israel: IDF forces on the Golan Heights near the Syria border were shot at from a Syrian army outpost today. The IDF returned fire and identified a direct hit on a Syrian soldier. No IDF soldiers were injured. (As reported by Ari Yashar)

2013: “Seventy-five years after fleeing Nazi Germany for Britain the children of Kindertransport recall how they were saved from Hitler’s murder machine”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2517072/Children-Kindertransport-recall-fleeing-Hitlers-Nazi-Germany.html

2013: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met this morning with Pope Francis at the Vatican and presented the pontiff with a copy of his late father’s book about the Spanish Inquisition. (As reported by Lazar Berman)

2014(10^thof Kislev): Yarhrzeit for the first mass of Jews who were murdered during the Rumbula Massacre near Riga, Latvia that would ultimately claim the lives of more than 25,000 Jews.

2014: On “Giving Tuesday” the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to seek support for the Opportunity Scholarships program which “helps to ensure that all students, regardless of school means, have the opportunity to learn the Museum’s message of universal tolerance.”

2014: The YIVO is scheduled to present a lecture-concert “Klezmer Influences in American Jewish Music.

2014: The House of Representatives passed the No Social Security Act for Nazis today which ”closed a loophole that had allowed ex-Nazis who lied about their past when immigrating to the United States — and been identified and deported by the Justice Department — to continue receiving Social Security and other benefits.”

2014: “France voted to recognize Palestine as a state, which the Israeli embassy in Paris says sends “the wrong message to leaders and people in the region.”

2014: After overcoming a series of political hurdles the Senate voted to confirm Noah Mamet as the U.S. Ambassador to Argentina.

2014: “The ruling Likud faction has formally decided to vote in favor of opposition-proposed bills on the Knesset docket that would dissolve the Knesset and bring about early elections, party sources told The Times of Israel today.” (As reported by Haviv Rettig Gur and Ricky Ben-David)

2014: In Chicago, the Spertus Book Meetup is scheduled to discuss The Familyby David Laskin.

2015: “Singer-musician Judith Berkson is scheduled to present arrangements of cantorial music from YIVO’s sound archives” at the Center for Jewish History.

2015: The Consulate General of Israel in New York and the Edmond J. Safra Synagogue are scheduled to host a reception and panel discussion commemorating “The Exodus of Jews from Arab Countries.”

2015: In Florida, Boca Raton Synagogue is scheduled to host Jeffrey Goldberg, the National Correspondent for The Atlanticspeaking on “Battleground for Truth: Confronting Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial.”

2015(20^thof Kislev): Day two of the Rosh HaShanah of Chassidus

2015(20^thof Kislev): Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Yitzhak Hutner, the dean of the Chaim Berlin yeshiva in New York.

2016: “Hannah and the moonlit Dress” is scheduled to open at the 14^th Street Y.

2016: “A Basel Appeals Court” “overturned the hate incitement conviction of” David Klein, “a Jewish musician who on Facebook described Muslims as ‘the Nazis of today’” after considering “his apology for words that he wrote about a video showing Arabs assaulting Jews in Jerusalem and the fact that he is the descendant of Holocaust survivors.”

2016: The 10^th Annual Other Israel Film Festival is scheduled to continue this morning at the JCC Manhattan followed this evening by the New Israel Fund’s New Generations and JCC 20s + 30s Shabbat dinner featuring conversations with guest filmmakers.

2016: Marina Rustow, the Khedouri A. Zilkha Professor of Jewish Civilization in the Near East at Princeton University, is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Fatimid State Documents,

Serial Recyclers and the Cairo Geniza” at the Iowa Memorial Union on the campus of the University of Iowa in Iowa City.

2017(14^th of Kislev, 5778): Parashat Va-yishlach

2017: Rabbi David Lerner delivered a sermon “Rabbi Neil Gillman, z”l , and What Do We Believe?” following the death of “one of the premiere theologians of the Conservative Movement.”

https://templeemunah.org/images/sermons/Rabbi_David_Lerner/Previous_Years/5778/12-02-17%20-%20Va-yishlah%205778%20-%20Rabbi%20Neil%20Gillman%20and%20What%20Do%20We%20Believe.pdf

2017: In Atlanta, the second day of the USCJ Convention is scheduled to begin with Barry Mael leading a study session on Leadership Lessons from Pirke Avot.

2017: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a Pirke Avot study session followed by Ma’ariv and Havdallah.

2017: The Maccabeats are scheduled to perform in London today.

2017: Jewish Book Month, an annual event that provides us with a chance to contemplate Jewish books and the lives of authors such as Sholem Asch whose works included the New Testament based trilogy The Nazarene, The Apostle and Mary continues today

2018(24^thof Kislev, 5779): In the evening kindle the first light of Chanukah

2018: The Jewish Museum of London is scheduled to host a “Hanukah Family Day” where Lydia Hardwick will help attendees create their own clay lamp and the Yiddish Choir will perform “traditional holiday songs followed by a candle lighting ceremony.

2018: JW3 is scheduled to host two screenings of “Disobedience” in London.

2018: In Atlanta, “Conductor Juan Ramirez and Cantor Lauren Adesnik as members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Emanu-El Youth Choir” are scheduled to perform a very special Hanukkah concert, From Darkness to Light” which includes “highlights inspiring music from the Holocaust, melodic Sephardic tunes and uplifting Hanukkah favorites.”

2018: “The Israeli police recommended today that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be indicted on bribery, fraud and other charges, accusing him of trading regulatory favors for fawning news coverage, in what is potentially the most damaging of a series of corruption cases against him.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/02/world/middleeast/israel-netanyahu-bribery-charges.html?action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage

2018: The Yiddish Book Center is scheduled to host a screening of the Prince and the Dybbuk.

2018: The Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center, under the leadership of Rosh Yeshiva Joshua Kulp is scheduled to “start a new tractate of Talmud--Kiddushin, which is mostly concerned with the laws of betrothal.”

2018: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including I Might Regret This: Essays, Drawings, Vulnerabilities and Other Stuffby Abbi Jacobson, Beastie Boys Book by Michael Diamond and Adam Horovitz and The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created by Jane Leavy.

2019: The National Council of Jewish Women Executive Committee Meeting is scheduled to take place this evening in New Orleans.

2019: The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience and Dahan Center are scheduled to present the International Conference on “The End of Jewish Communal Life in the Arab Lands.”

2019: The Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players including violinist Itmar Zoran as scheduled to perform the music of “The Great Danes” at the Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church.

2019: The National Museum of American Jewish History Museum Store is prepared to accept on-line orders today as part of its Cyber Monday Sale.

2019: San Francisco State University is scheduled present “Juda, Judaism and Vampirism” during which “Jewish studies lecturer Vered Weiss tells on how Israeli TV uses horror and fantasy to analyze social boundaries and convey social critique.”

2019: “Hip NY rabbi stitches together Hasidic lifestyle with bespoke tailoring business” published today described how “after training on London’s famed Savile Row, Chabad Rabbi Yosel Tiefenbrun has set up shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where he fits clients for their $4,500 suits.” (As reported by Renee Ghert-Zand)

https://www.timesofisrael.com/hip-ny-rabbi-stitches-together-hasidic-lifestyle-with-bespoke-tailoring-business/

December 3

311: Sixty-sixty year old Emperor Diocletian passed away.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0005_0_05240.html

1368: Birthdate of Charles VI, the French king who would order the expulsion of the Jews from his realm in 1394. Unlike the orders of expulsion issued by some of his predecessors this one remained in force with Jews not returning to France until the 17^th century.

1447: Birthdate of Bayezid II the Sultan who in 1492, issued a formal invitation to the Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal and sent out ships to safely bring Jews to his empire.

1656: First entry in the diary of Thomas Burton which recorded the activities of Parliament during the era of Oliver Cromwell and provided a written record of “the assurance of the right of Jews to remain in England. “The Jews, those able and general intelligencers whose intercourse with the Continent Cromwell had before turned to profitable account, he now conciliated by a seasonable benefaction to their principal agent [Carvajal] resident in England.”

1685: King Charles XI of Sweden ordered the governor-general of the capital to see that no Jews were permitted to settle in Stockholm, or in any other part of the country, "on account of the danger of the eventual influence of the Jewish religion on the pure evangelical faith."

1754: In Philadelphia, Tabitha Mears and Mathias Bush gave birth to Samuel Bush.

1771: In a letter written today, Moses Mendelssohn described Johann Jacob Rabe, as a patient, “strong Talmudist” who “has translated into German the first three parts of the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud” which are “ready for the printer” but for which no publisher can be found.

1779: Native New Yorker Zipporah Levy and Benjamin Mendes Seixas, a native of Newport, RI, gave birth to Abigail Seixas.

1791: Based on account that appeared in the Newcastle Courant, today “a marriage was celebrated at Sunderland according to the rites and ceremonies of the Jews between Lyon Hermann, dentist, of Edinburgh and Mrs. H. Pollock, widow of the late Mr. Pollock, a merchant in London.”

1792: One day after she had passed away, “Miriam bat Joseph” was buried today at the “Alderney Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1800: Birthdate of Émile Péreire who along with his brother Isaac were leading French financiers who, among other things created the Crédit Mobilier bank and were considered the Sephardi equivalents of the Rothschilds.

1802: Last will and testament of Emanuel Abrahams, a “Jewish resident of Charleston, SC.”

1807: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Jacob Suares officiated at the wedding of Hyam Moise to Cecilia Woolf, the daughter of the late Solomon Woolf.

1807: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Jacob Suares officiated at the wedding of Aaron Moise to Sarah Cohen the daughter of the late Gershon Cohen.

1807: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Jacob Suares officiated at the wedding of Nathan Hart to the eldest daughter of Daniel Hart.

1809: Birthdate Samuel Adler “a leading German-American Reform rabbi, Talmudist, and author” passed away. He was also the father of Felix Adler, the well-known founder of the Society for Ethical Culture.” Born at Worms in 1809, he came to the United States to serve as Rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in New York; a position he held for seventeen years before accepting the position as Rabbi Emeritus. He was an outspoken opponent of slavery and a staunch supporter of Abraham Lincoln. One of the happiest moments of his life came when saw Major Anderson, the Union officer who had defended Fort Sumter, in his congregation. After service “he laid his hands on the soldier’s head and pronounced…the anciently priestly blessing…”

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FB0A1EFD3C5E10738DDDA80994DE405B8185F0D3

1811: In Berlin, Fanny Eleonore Bendemann née von Halle, a daughter of the Jewish banker Joel Samuel von Halle and banker Anton Heinrich Bendemann gave birth to painter Eduard Julius Friedrich Bendemann

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Bendemann#mediaviewer/File:Eduard_Bendemann_1811_-_1889_Selbstbildnis_1859.jpg

1818: Isaac Gompertz married Charlotte Florence Wattier today.

1818: Illinois becomes the 21^st state admitted to the Union. “John Hays was the first Jewish pioneer in Illinois. He served as county sheriff and collector of internal revenue before the territory became a state. German Jews built the first synagogue in 1851 in Chicago calling it the Congregation of the Men of the West. By the end of the decade Polish Jews had started their own congregation and a group of Reform Jews had split away from “the Men of the West” to form their own synagogue called Sinai Congregation. The Jewish population of Illinois was large enough to provide over 1,100 volunteers to fight in the Union Army.

1819: Birthdate of Daniel Abramovich Chwolson, the native of Vilna who became a distinguished Orientalist and defender of the Jews from the rampant anti-Semitism of Czarist Russia.

1827: Moritz Gottlieb Saphir “founded the Tunnel über der Spree literary society.”

1830: Two days after he had passed away, 72 year old Lyon Phillips, the husband of Elizabeth Phillips and the father of Joseph Phillips was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.

1831(28^th of Kislev, 5592): Shabbat Shel Chanukah; Parashat Miketz

1831(28^th of Kislev, 5592): Forty-eight year old Morocco native Solomon Ben Masud Ben Abraham Sebag, the husband of Sarah Goldsmid and “the father of Sir Joseph Sebag-Montefiore and Jemima Sebag-Montefiore passed away today in London

1831: Birthdate of German humor writer Julius Sttenheim.

1831: Birthdate of James Graham Fair, the Irish born American mining engineer who made a fortune in Nevada silver mines and served as United States and then left a $25,000 bequest “to the Hebrew asylums” in San Francisco.

1833: In Canterbury, Kent, Elizabeth Benjamin and Zvi ben Aharon gave birth to “Henry Jones”

1836: In Vienna, Ignatz Lieben and his wife gave birth to Austrian Chemist Adolf Lieben.

1839: Phillip Fama married Charlotte Lambert at the Great Synagogue today.

1842(30^th of Kislev, 5603): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; 6^thday of Chanukah

1842: Birthdate of Susan Joshua the wife of Edward Ferdinand Sichel.

1842(30^th of Kislev, 5603): Seventy-four year old Samuel Levin Egers, who was appointed the Rabbi of Brunswick in 1809 and who did not “relax his labors” after losing his sight in 1836, passed away today.

1844(22^nd of Kislev, 5605): Fifty-six year old Hamburg native Georg Hartog Gerson, the third generation of German-Jewish doctors and a member of the 5th Line Battalion, King's German Legion who saw action in the Peninsula, in Southern France, the Lowlands and at the Battle of Waterloo” passed away today.

1846: Two days after she had passed away, “Sarah Kate Jacob (nee Simons)” the daughter of Samuel Simons and Rose Moses and the wife of Jacob Jacob wth whom she had had four children, was buried today at the “Falmouth Jewish Cemetery.”

1847(25^th of Kislev, 5608): Chanukah

1850: In Padua, Samuel David Luzzatto and his wife gave birth to Beniamino Luzzatto, the Italian physician who became chief of the propaedeutic clinic of Padua University.

1852: The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Benjamin Disraeli, delivered a major address today in the House of Commons on the subject of taxation. The speech, which was well received, contained proposals to change the Tea Duties and the Income Tax.

1854(12^th of Kislev, 5615: A German-born Jew, Edward (Teddy) Thonen was killed today when troops stormed the stockade during the goldfields uprising at Ballarat, Australia.

1857: Birthdate of Dr. Carl Koller, a Czech-born American ophthalmic surgeon whose introduction of cocaine as a surface anesthetic in eye surgery (1884) inaugurated the modern era of local anesthesia. He was a colleague of Sigmund Freud, who in 1884 was interested in the use of cocaine to cure morphine addiction. Koller noticed cocaine had a numbing effect on the tongue and, after experimenting with animals, introduced it as a local anesthetic in ophthalmology. It was also quickly adopted for nose and throat surgery and for dentistry. He died in 1944. Koller was one of the so-called Vienna Trio made up of three Jewish doctors - Carl Koller (1857-1944), Sigmund Lustgarten (1857-1911) and Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). All three are characterized by several interesting similarities. In their early achievements in medical research they were pathfinders of the first successful local anesthetic: cocaine. All three became later victims of anti-Semitism.

1857: In Neustadt, Prussia, Josef Pinkus and Auguste Fränke gave birth to Max Pinkus, the husband of Hedwig Pinkus.

1858: After purchasing “a considerable number of Arabic and Hebrew manuscripts on behalf of the Bibliothèque Nationale” and being “elected secretary of the Consistoire Central des Israélites de France” today Salomon Munk “was elected a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres” after which “he was appointed professor of Hebrew at the Collège de France.”

1859:At the Green-street Synagogue in NYC, Rabbi S.M. Isaacs “delivered a stirring appeal to his congregation on behalf of the Jews who have fled from Morocco and taken refuge at Gibraltar. Their suffering co-religionist were forced to take flight because of the fighting between the natives and Spain. Issacs acknowledged the help rendered by the British who had provided the refugees with tents and food. He also expressed thanks for support from the local Christian population. But he still urged his congregants and the rest of the Jewish community to come to the aid of the some 29,000 Jews who had been living along the Barbary Coast.

1860: Abraham Jonas “an Illinois businessman and politician” who had first me Lincoln “around 1843” wrote a letter to him today warning of an assassination plot.

1861(30th of Kislev, 5622): Rosh Chodesh Tevet

1862: First Lieutenant Herman Hamburger, who would see action at the Battle of Gettysburg while serving as Assistant-Adjutant General of the First Brigade, of the Third Division began his service today with the 18^thCavalry today.

1863: In Cincinnati, OH, Moses and Sarah Waldheim gave birth to Aaron Waldheim, the manager of St. Louis “outlet of May-Stern, a retail furniture store he started with David May and Harry Stern that was so successful it enable him to become one of the city’s leading philanthropists.

1870(9^th of Kislev, 5631): Parashat Vayetzei

1870(9^th of Kislev, 5631): Seventy-seven year old War of 1812 veteran Levi Charles Meyers Harby, who served in the “Texas Navy” during its war for independence and in the Confederate Navy during the Civil War while finding time to marry “Leonora Rebecca De Lyon, a member of the prominent Jewish family from Savanah with whom he had three children passed away today.

1871: In Martinsburg, W. VA, Newton Diehl Baker Sr. and Mary Ann (Dukehart) Baker gave birth to Newton D. Baker, Woodrow Wilson’s Secretary of War who supported the nomination of Felix Frankfurter to the Supreme Court and was the 1930 recipient of the American Hebrew Medal for the Promotion of Better Understanding Between Christian and Jew in America.

1871: The annual meeting of the B’nai Jeshurun Ladies’ Benevolent Society and Home for Aged Hebrews took place today the 34^th Street Synagogue. Following the reading of the annual report the following officers were elected: Mrs. Henry Leo, President; Mrs. H. B. Hertz, Vice President; Mrs. Zion Bernstein, Treasurer; Judge P.J. Joachimsen, Honorary Counsel; Dr. Simeon U. Leo, Physician

1871(20th of Kislev, 5632): Sixty-four year old Jonas Königswarter who “in recognition of his public services, was decorated with the Order of the Iron Crown of the third class, and elevated to the knighthood; and in 1870 received the decoration of the second class of the same order, and was raised to the baronetage” passed away today.

1871: Charles Hart was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1872: Prime Minister William Gladstone was among those who heard George Smith read “his translation of the Chaldean account of the Great Flood” at today’s meeting of the Society of Biblical Archaeology. Known as the Epic of Gilgamesh, this is another version of Noah’s Flood.

1873: The Oratorio Society, a choral music society founded by Leopold Damrosch gave its first concert today.

1873: Birthdate of Hungarian native Charles Gelman who in 1892 came to the United States where he settled in Glens Falls, NY where owned and operated “the dry goods firm of Merkel and Gelman” while raising his two daughters Elsa and Babette.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1941/04/20/85306832.pdf

1873: In Lithuania Isaac Margolis and Hinde Margolis, the daughter of David Aryeh Leib Zirilstein and Kaila Bernstein gave birth to Bertha Barnett

1874: Birthdate of Vienna native Jacob Leon Wolff who gained fame as “pianist and composer Erich Jaques Wolff.”

1875: Birthdate of Father Bernhard Lichtenberg German clergyman, anti-fascist and outspoken defender of the Jews of Germany. For example, after Kristallnacht while the German churches kept their silence in face of the vicious attack upon the Jews, Lichtenberg was the only Church man to raise his voice publicly and fearlessly against Nazi brutality. “We know what happened yesterday, we do not know what lies in store for us tomorrow. But we have experienced what has happened today: Outside burns the temple. This is also a place of worship.” From that evening until his arrest in 1941, Lichtenberg continued to pray daily from his pulpit in the St Hedwig Cathedral for the both Jews and Jewish Christians as well as other victims of the regime. Following his two year imprisonment, Lichtenberg turned the Gestapo’s offer to leave him alone if he would stop speaking out against the regime. Lichtenberg asked to be allowed to accompany the Jews and Jewish Christians being sent to the Ghetto at Lodz, Poland. The Church refused his request because of his failing health. Instead the Gestapo ordered him to be sent to Dachau. The sixty-seven year old priest died on November 5, 1943 while waiting to be shipped to the concentration camp.

http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/righteous/stories/lichtenberg.asp

1876: It was reported today that the “Czar has written a private letter to” Queen Victoria “in which he does not disguise his resentment at the treatment which he has received at the hands of her Prime Minister” Lord Beaconsfield better known as Benjamin D’Israeli. (One cannot but wonder if part of the ruler of the anti-Semitic realm greatest resentment comes from having to deal with the son of London Jew.)

1876: “Touching the Jew” published today described a visit by an American journalist to the home of “a strict family of the chosen people” (Orthodox Jews) where they discussed the novel Daniel Deronda of which the Jews said the title character was “a weak visionary” and the character “Mordecai was a common madman.” “And as for that wild notion which so many of you Christians entertain about Jerusalem, one of the Jews said let us “disabuse your mind of it. The Jews don’t want to go Jerusalem; they wouldn’t if they could.” “The very idea” of “being compelled to live in Jerusalem…is enough to make one shudder.”

1878:Settlers arrive at Petach Tikvah in what is now Israel. Petach Tikvah is Hebrew for Gateway of Hope. The land was purchased by Jews living in Jerusalem from a Greek landowner after the Sultan of Turkey had thwarted their efforts to buy land near Jericho. The village they built was in an area prone to malaria outbreaks. In 1882, the settlers gave up the village, due in part to poor harvest. At the time only 66 people were living in ten houses.

1880: The Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society “purchase the Devlin property at 10^thAvenue, the Boulevard and 136^th to 138^th Streets for $138,000” with the intention of constructing a facility at this location.

1880: At Gottingen University, a group of students is preparing a statement for the Rector protesting the distribution of Court Chaplain Adolph Stocker’s “petition against the Jews.

1881: “Some Minor Foreign Facts” published today include estimates of the Jewish population that “have been prepared in Rome showing that there are 6,568,000 Jews in the world, 5,500,000 of whom live in Europe, 240,000 in Asia, 500,000 in Africa and 308,000 in America.

1881: After having been closed for Shabbat, the fair sponsored by Temple Israel in Brooklyn reopened tonight.

1882: “Notes On Art” published today described the discovery of a“grotesque wall painting” called ‘The Judgment of Solomon,’ a veritable caricature of the famous Biblical story” in a house at Pompeii that had been built by merchants from ancient Alexandria, a city “well acquainted with Jewish lore” which would have accounted for the artistic creation.

1884: On the day before he committed suicide in the New York park near the Farragut Monument, Jacob Asch, a Jewish native of Prussia who had operated a millinery story in Chicago where he had left his wife and family, met with Adolph Schwab and gave back to him the lace goods which Schwab had given to him sell on commission.

1885(25^thof Kislev, 5646): Chanukah

1885: Birthdate of German born American Chess champion Edward Lasker who had been trained as an engineer and was a close friend of fellow chess champion and distant relative Emanuel Lasker passed away today in New York.

https://www.nytimes.com/1981/03/26/obituaries/dr-edward-lasker-is-dead-at-95-5-time-us-open-chess-winner.html

1885: “Lighting A Candle Each Day” published today described the celebration of Chanukah, a “festival that last eight days” where “at the beginning of each day the orthodox Hebrew family lights a candle until they eight candles burning.”

1886: A wealthy Jew named Altmayer who was serving time for embezzlement has escaped from the Mazas Prison using a “forged letter of release.”

1887: In New York, Judge Barrett has displayed Solomon in deciding “that the child about whose ownership the mulattoes William and Jennie Lee and the Russian Jews Bertha and Harris Brodsky have each been contesting is Nellie Lee and not Yetta Brodsky and has order the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children to deliver her to the Lees. The unanswered question is, what has become of the missing Yetta Brodsky

1888: Supporters of Boulanger rallied in Paris today shouting for an end to the Republic and chanting “Down with the Jews!” (French anti-Semitism was a subset of right-wing hostility towards the Third Republic)

1888: In Łomża, Poland, the son of Liba Miriam (Cyrowicz) and Joel Leib Herzog gave birth to Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog who was the first Chief Rabbi of Ireland, serving from 1921 to 1936 and then began servings as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of the British Mandate of Palestine and of Israel until his death in 1959

1889: “In Wandsbek, which was then a town in the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein (now a district of the city of Hamburg), Julius and Henriette (née Hirsch) Levy gave birth to Paul Levy who gained fame as American screenwriter, director and producer who was an assistant to his fellow co-religionist and movie maker Irving Thalberg.

http://www.moviemoviesite.com/articles/events/only_a_comedy.htm

1889: A party of fifty Jews from several cities including Ogden, Utah and Chicago, Illinois, passed through Pittsburgh, PA today on their way to Jerusalem.

1890(21^stof Kislev, 5651): Leonard Arnheim, the four year old son of Ida and Lewis Arnheim, passed away. Lewis Arnheim served in the Georgia State Legislature as a representative from rural Dougherty County and was the son-in-law of David Mayer of Atlanta. A native of Germany, he made a career in the law before taking an active role in state politics.

1891: The residence of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews are scheduled to enjoy a free evening of musical entertainment.

1891(2^ndof Kislev, 5652): Ninety-year old Abraham Alexander Wolff, the German born Rabbi who spent most of his life leading the congregation in Copenhagen and as “the father of Danish homiletics” delivered approximately 5,000 sermons during his “career of 65 years” passed away today.

1892: The Moscow Chamber Commerce resolved “to exclude all Jews from the list of city merchants unless they” convert and become Greek Orthodox.

1892: In Chattanooga, TN, Harry Clay Adler and Ada Ochs gave birth to Julius Ochs Adler, the publisher of The Chattanooga Timesand general manager of The New York Timeswho had a distinguished military career in both World Wars.

1892: Judith Solis-Cohen began a ten year stint as the editor for “the weekly ‘Womanknd’ column in the Jewish Exponent.” (As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archives)

1893: “A Practical Charity” published today described the work of the East Side Relief Committee whose members included Mr. Spectorsky of the Hebrew Institute and is an example of what can happen when “Catholic, Protestant and Hebrew religious societies” work together.

1893: “Professor Felix Adler spoke” to “the usual large audience” “in Carnegie Music Hall this morning on the idea of God and the futurity as taught in the Old Testament.”

1893: “Jewish President of Each Board” published today described the lack of anti-Semitism in Lexington, KY a city of 30,000 that includes about one hundred Jews where a Jew was chosen to service as the President of the Boards of Alderman and the Boards of Councilmen.

1893: Much to consternation of French anti-Semites, David Raynal began serving as Minister of the Interior.

1894: In Hamburg,Bernhard Bästlein, Sr. of Thuringia and Cornelia Bästlein, née Kock, of East Friesland Bernhard Bästlein a leader of the anti-Nazi resistance who was executed “at Brandenburg-Görden Prison. (He was not Jewish. But we do have an obligation to “Remember” those who stood against the Evil of the Darkest Night.”

1894: In Baltimore, MD, Jacob and Hilda (Kaplan) Sobeloff gave birth to Simon Sobeloff who served as Solicitor General of the United States and Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth District.

1894: Glass dealer Benjamin Rosenthal was assaulted by a gang of boys hollering “Sheeny, sheeny” at 34^th Street and 5^th Avenue in Manhattan.

1894: “A Philosophy And Not A Creed” published today described the views of Rabbi Joseph Silverman on Judaism stating that it “is not a system of creeds but a philosophy” Unlike other religions, “Judaism has no symbol” but maybe it should adopt the question mark as one since “Judaism is an everlasting searcher after truth.”

1895: Birthdate of Anna Freud, Austrian-born English psychoanalyst and daughter of Sigmund Freud.She was the founder of child psychoanalysis and one of its foremost practitioners. She also made fundamental contributions to understanding how the ego, or consciousness, functions in averting painful ideas, impulses, and feelings. She diverged from her father in emphasizing the role of the ego (as opposed to id forces) in psychological functioning. Her book The ego and mechanisms of defense (1936) laid the groundwork for ego psychology. She was one of the first psychoanalysts to work primarily with children. She passed away1982.

1895:”Vienna’s Anti-Semitic Mobs” published today described the response of the ant-Semites to the Emperor’s rejection of Dr. Luger as Burgomaster of Vienna which included “insulting and threatening passers-by and other persons in the cafes and shops whom they regarded as being Hebrews.”

1895: Birthdate of Jaujard Jacques, “the man who saved Mona Lisa.”

http://www.timesofisrael.com/the-frenchman-who-saved-the-mona-lisa/

1896: Birthdate of Mihály Maurice Bergsmann, the son of a practicing physician in Budapest who converted to Unitarian Christianity and gained fame as psychoanalyst Michael Balint.

1897: Starting today and for the next ten years Judith Solis-Cohen “edited the weekly “Womankind” column in the Jewish Exponent. In these columns, which covered such topics as “What Women Can Earn,” “Coeducation,” “Women Zionists,” “The Woman Suffrage Movement,” and “The Council of Jewish Women.” (As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archives)

1898: In “Zhyomyr, Haim Bardinstein and Miryam Bardinstein gave bortj to Shlomo H. Bardin the husband of Roth Bardin, with whom he had two sons – David and Hillel – “who studied at the University of Berlin, University College and Columbia University after which “he founded the Haifa Technical High School and Haifa Nautical School.

https://www.geni.com/people/Shlomo-Bardin/6000000008490121434

https://www.nytimes.com/1976/05/17/archives/dr-shlomo-bardin-77-dies-founded-brandeis-institute.html

1900: In Great Britain, The Court of Appeal has rendered a decision upholding that of a Divisional Court in the suit of the Attorney General vs. the Jewish Colonization Association. The Crown claimed estate and succession duty upon the death of Baron Maurice de Hirsch. This victory means the Crown gains upwards of 1,250,000 English pounds.

1902: Birthdate of American artist Louis Leon Ribak, the husband of artist Beatrice Mandelman, who passed away at Taos, NM in 1979

http://www.mandelman-ribak.org/

1903(14^thof Kislev, 5664): In Vilna, Deborah Romm who “took an active interest in the affairs” of the Romm Publishing House after her husband David died in 1860, passed away today.

1903: Birthdate of mathematician John von Neumann. Born in Hungary, von Neumann brilliant career included work on the project to build the hydrogen bomb as well and development of logical design. This work was critical in the development of the modern computer. He won the Medal of Freedom in 1956 a year before his death.

1903: Birthdate of Abe Pollin future owner of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Washington Wizards, the National Hockey League's (NHL) Washington Capitals and Women's National Basketball Association's (WNBA) Washington Mystics. Pollin would use his own money to build a home for the Wizards that would revitalize a large section of downtown Washington, D.C. He would also support a number of civic and charitable efforts that would do everything from rewarding public school teachers to feeding starving children in Africa. If the first question asked of a soul by the heavenly court is “How did you conduct yourself when doing business?” Pollin will pass with flying colors.

1904(25^thof Kislev, 5665): Chanukah

1904: In St. Louis, MO, Charles and Rose Ellman Weissman gave birth to Ben Weisman, the husband of “Esther Polinsky Weisman” with whom he had two children – Harry and Sandra.

1904 (25th of Kislev, 5665):Rabbi Chaim Chizkiah Medini, the author of the Halachic encyclopedia Sdei Chemed passed away.

1905: In Minsk, “a hooligan disguised as a Jew is” supposed “to fire on a holy image in a religious procession” which is then to be followed by the killing of Jews; an act that will be made easier because the houses of the Jews “are to be marked with white crosses.”

1909: In Russia, Mary Sacks and Zangwell Mednick gave birth to Israel Mednick

1910(2^ndof Kislev, 5671): Parashat Tolodot

1910(2^ndof Kislev, 5671): Forty-seven year old Ida Dolce Foa Ghiron, the daughter of Giuseppe and Annetta Foa and the wife of Pacifico Ghiron passed away today after which she was buried next to her father in Piemonte, Italy.

1911: In Calgary, Canada, those attending a meeting at Tabor Hall there was a “protest against religious education in public schools.”

1912: Mrs. Mark A. Cohen performed a vocal solo accompanied by pianist Mrs. Justin Levin at “the third regular meeting of the Ladies’ Society of B’nai Sholom Temple Israel which took place this afternoon in Chicago.

1913: In New York City, Dr. Alexander Marx, the German born son of Georg and Gertrude Marx, and his wife Hannah Marx gave birth to Jakob (Jack) Marx.

1914: In Boston, George and Charlotte S. Friedman Fine gave birth to composer Irving Gifford Fine.

https://www.irvingfinesoc.org/

https://www.loc.gov/collections/irving-fine/about-this-collection/

1914: The American Jewish Committee appropriates $2,500 for an orphan asylum in Sophia, Bulgaria due to orphans of the Balkan War. This was at the request of the Chief Rabbi, Dr. M. Ehrenpreis.

1914: “Solomon Rabinowitz Here” published today described the arrival in New York of the 54 year old author from Kiev called the “Jewish Mark Twain” who like Twain writes under a pen name which in this case is Sholom Aleichem

1914: It was reported today that Solomon Rabinowitz, who writes under the pseudonym “Shalom Aleichem” “was at a health resort near Berlin when Germany declared war on Russia” following which he was arrested and sent to Berlin under guard along with the Russian Minister of Education” and then 24 hours later was put on a train for Denmark.” (This is event has all of the irony of a Shalom Aleichem tale since the Germans did not see any irony in treat the Jewish author as a Russian – a view of his persona not shared by the Czar who ruled over him,)

1914: Among those listed today as contributor to the American Jewish Relief Committee were the Central Jewish Council of Denver, CO; Congregations Sons of Jacob, Galesburg, Il; Committee of Orthodox Jews, Lafayette, IN; Jewish Conference of Minneapolis MN; Jewish War Veterans Committee of Omaha Nebraska; Temple Mount Sinai, El Paso, TX and Alxxander Joske, San Antonio, TX who may have been related to Julius Joske who founded Joske’s the San Antonio based department store chain.

1915: Seventy year old Theodor Kohn, the seventh Archbishop of Olomouc whose grandfather was Jewish making him the first person of Jewish origins to hold the post passed away today.

1915: “Ford Has A Rival” published today described the plan of Representative Meyer London for mediating a peace in Europe which he will have presented to Congress before Henry Ford’s peace ship can reach Europe.” (Did this loss of face tied to a Jewish legislator help to fuel Ford’s anti-Semitism?)

1915: In describing the hardships and challenges facing Russia’s war effort, Ernest P. Horrwitz wrote today that “it is not feasible to replace coal” with “timber which is abundant in the Russian forests because the timber trade is almost exclusively in the hands of the Jews and they have been decimated by the most cruel pogroms or expelled from the west and northwest which is the great forest land of Russia.”

1916: “The campaign to raise the final half million of the two million dollars need for the work of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies began” tonight “with a rally at the Thirty-ninth Street Theatre” where Dr. Moses Hyamson delivered the opening prayer, music was provided by the Russian Trio of Eugene, Michael and Arthur Bernstein and hundreds of the attendees responded positively “to the appeal of Leo Arnstein who asked for 2,000 volunteer workers to enlist 20,000 more subscribers in the course of this week.”

1916: Following three years of fundraising, the new annex on St. Mark’s Place of the National Orphan House opened today with a dedication ceremony that included remarks by Judge Gustave Hartman, President of the Israel Orphan Asylum who said that while Jews appreciated the efforts of Christians to care for Jewish orphans “it was incumbent upon the Jews to care for their own people and bring them up in the Jewish faith.”

1916: General Joffre, the commander-in-chief of the French army, who had “raised to the rank of corps commander, two Jewish generals, Cohen and Hyman” and conferred upon General Cohen, who had been wounded 27 times since the start of the war, the order of the Legion of Honor was replaced today by General Robert Nivelle.

1917(18^th of Kislev, 5678): In Pine Bluff, AR, eighty-two year old Gabe Meyer who had served on the City Council and the School Board passed away today.

1917(18^th of Kislev, 5678): Fifty-five year old Justine Dreyfus Levy passed away today after which he was buried in the Jewish Cemetery at Natchitoches, LA.

1917: In Austria, Rudolf and Helena Brasse gave birth to Wihlelm Brasse, the unwilling creator of the part of the photographic record of the Holocaust.(As reported by Dennis Hevesi)

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/25/world/europe/wilhelm-brasse-dies-at-94-documented-auschwitz.html?hpw&_r=0

1917: At Temple Emanu-El, Dr. Joseph Silverman, assisted by Rabbi Simon Shlager and Dr. H.G. Enelow officiated at the funeral of “Dr. Henry M. Leipziger, “the founder of the public school lecture courses” in New York City” during which Daniel P. Hayes delivered the eulogy followed by an internment in Bayside Cemetery.

1917: Contrary to some reports the Ottomans had not abandoned their positions outside of Jerusalem as could be seen when the British suffered 300 casualties and were forced to withdraw from the Wadi Zeit because the Turks held the high ground.

1917: “The members of the forty-six teams of men and women who are working to obtain five million dollars before the end of next week for Jewish war relief in Europe and welfare work in the army and navy met at tea” this “afternoon in the Berkeley Arcade” on West 44^th Street to review the two days of effort which has raised $1,120,418.50.

1918: Felix Warbrug, the chairman of the Campaign Committee of the Joint Distribution Committee of the American Fund for Jewish War Sufferers announced tonight that the “official information gathered in Europe by the Food Administration is to be turned over to the Jewish War Relief for use in apportioning the fund of five million dollars now being” raised in New York City.

1919: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, the French artist who painted “Alice and Elisabeth Cahen d’Anvers” (most commonly referred to as Pink and Blue) passed away. The painting portrayed the 2 daughters of the banker Louis Raphael Cahen d'Anvers, the blonde, Elisabeth, born in December 1874, and the younger, Alice, in February 1876, when they were respectively six and five years old. The artist produced many portraits for the families of the Parisian Jewish community at the time. Renoir was commissioned to paint many portraits for this family, which he had met through the collector Charles Ephrussi, proprietor of the "Gazette des Beaux-Arts."

1920: Sir Mathew Nathan, the second son of Jonah and Miriam Nathan began serving as the 13^thGovernor of Queensland (Australia)

1920: Premiere of “Anna Boleyn” German historical film directed by Ernst Lubitsch starring Henny Porten who would refuse to divorce her Jewish husband when the Nazis came to power, as Anne Boleyn

1921(2^nd of Kislev, 5682): Parashat Toldot

1921: Samuel Greenbaum, a Justice of the Supreme Court was among the speakers at a banquet tonight marking a continuation of the Temple Israel’s celebration of its golden jubilee held at the Hotel Astor where an additional $400,000 was raised for the congregation’s building fund.

1922: Birthdate of Henry Anatole Grunwald, an Austrian-born Jewish-American journalist and diplomat perhaps best known for his position as managing editor of TIME magazine and editor in chief of Time, Inc.

1922: Birthdate of Len Lesser, a veteran character actor best known for his recurring role in the 1990s as Uncle Leo on the hit NBC-TV comedy "Seinfeld."

1922: Ethel Jacobs is scheduled to present a paper on Upstream by Ludwig Lewinsohn followed by Aileen Paradise’s piano solo at the meeting of the Young Peoples Congregation of Temple Mizpah’s Studay circle this afternoon.

1922:Silent movie, Hungry Hearts produced by the Goldwyn Company and based on a book of the same name written by Anzia Yezierska opened in Los Angeles. In her short stories and novels, author Anzia Yezierska focused on the challenges faced by young Jewish women trying to navigate between their immigrant families and their desire to become part of America. After a long period of struggling to attain a public voice, Yezierska published Hungry Hearts, a book of short stories, in 1920. Once the book found public attention, it attracted interest from Hollywood. The Goldwyn Company paid $10,000 for the film rights and brought Yezierska to Los Angeles as a $200 per week screen writer. This was the first financial security Yezierska had ever experienced. Despite the excitement of finally being rewarded for her work as a writer, Yezierska was overwhelmed by her portrayal in the popular press as a “sweatshop Cinderella.” She also felt unable to draw upon authentic immigrant experience while ensconced in Hollywood luxury. She returned to New York after a few months. The film Hungry Hearts is notable for its attempts to portray the struggle of immigrant life and for its street scenes that were actually filmed on the Lower East Side. Still many reviewers and Yezierska, herself, objected to the sentimentality of the final script and to a tacked-on happy ending (described by the New York Times as “incredible and mushy”). In Hungry Hearts and her later stories and novels (e.g. Breadgivers, 1925), Yezierska was the first author to present the struggles of immigrant women to a broader American audience. Persea Books began publishing reprints of Yezierska's work in 1975.

1923: In Pittsburgh, PA, Rabbi Wolf Leiter and his wife gave birth to photographer Saul Leiter.

http://www.gallery51.com/index.php?navigatieid=9&fotograafid=15

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/28/arts/saul-leiter-photographer-with-a-palette-for-new-york-dies-at-89.html

1923(25^th of Kislev, 5684): Chanukah

1923(25^th of Kislev, 5684): Seventy-five year old French historian and academic who was a professor of Roman history at the Faculté des lettres in Paris” and the father of historian Marc Bloch passed away today.

1923: Today President Calvin Coolidge “remitted the sentence of Controller Charles L. Craig who had been sentenced to “imprisonment for sixty days in jail for contempt of court by Judge Julius M. Mayer” whose ruling was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

1924: Today, “the United States and Great Britain entered into a convention with respect to Palestine” that “provided that no modification should be made in the League of Nation Mandate unless such modification had been assented to by the United State” and that “the mandate recited ‘the solemn pledge…to facilitate the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine.

1925: George Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F is premiered at Carnegie Hall.

1926(27^th of Kislev, 5687): Third Day of Chanukah

1926(27^th of Kislev, 5687): Forty-five year old “German writer and theatre critic Siegfried Jacobsohn passed away today.

1927: Birthdate of “Canadian novelist, humorist and lawyer” whose works include The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick and who is the father of actress of Sarah Torgov.

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/morley-torgov/

1927: Flyweight Pinky Silverberg lost a ten round unanimous decision in a non-title bout at the State Armory, in Bridgeport, CT shortly after which the NBA stripped of his Flyweight Championship making it “the only time that in boxing history that a champion was short of a legitimately won championship do to a poor performance in a non-title bout.”

1928: In Atlantic City, it was Jew versus Jew as featherweight Harry Blitman scored a victory over Wilbur Cohen’

1928: It was reported today that the Schuberts are the producers for “Make Boom Boom” a musical comedy that will begin its pre-Broadway tryouts in Wilmington, Delaware.

1929: In London, Moe Mizler fought his 35^th bout which he won by KO’ing his opponent.

1930: Rodgers and Hart's musical "Evergreen" premiered in London.

1932(4^thof Kislev, 5693): Parashat Tolodot

1932: In Lwow, Poland, following a series of anti-Semitic outbreaks, Colleges in the city were reopened today, “but Jewish students did not attend classes.”

1932: Thirty four students were arrested in Lwow today following “the smashing window panes in several newspaper offices and Jewish shops.”

1934: In what is said to be the first clinical conference in medical history devoted to chronic diseases opened this morning at the Montefiore Hospital for Chronic Diseases, Gun Hill Road, the Bronx, and will continue through the week. The conference is the chief scientific feature of the observance of the hospital's fiftieth anniversary. The hospital was named in honor of the great British born Jewish philanthropist and the original funding was largely raised by the Jewish community.

1935: “Two more ‘German-blooded’ men – to use the new Nazi term for ‘Aryan’” – were sentenced to prison today “for intimate relations with Jewish women.”

1936: “Thomas Mann, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929…was deprived of his citizenship tonight by Dr. Wilhelm Frick, Minister of Interior because “he has repeatedly cooperated in demonstrations of international, generally Jewish-influence, societies whose attitude of enmity to Germany is well known…”

1936: In Atlanta, GA, social worker Arlene (Fox) Uhry and “furniture designer and artist” Ralph K. Uhry gave birth to Brown University alum Alfred Fox Uhry, who “received an Academy Award, two Tony Awards and the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for dramatic writing for Driving Miss Daisy.”

1937: Birthdate of British attorney and businessman Stephen Rubin. The founder of Pentland, he struck it rich with Reebok and Adidas.

1937: The Palestine Post reported that a large police unit accompanied by a detachment of Transjordanian Frontier Force, scoured Galilee in pursuit of Arab terrorists that had murdered two Arab policemen and apparently sought to escape to Syria. In London, Major C.S. Jarvis, the former British governor of Sinai, said that after he had seen what the Jewish settlers had done in various arid areas of Palestine, he would strongly recommend a large Jewish settlement of the entire Negev, which ought to be included in the Jewish state in any partition negotiations.

1937: The Palestine Post reported that the total official population of Palestine was given at the end of September 1937 as 811,347 Moslems, 389,504 Jews, 108,433 Christians and 11,588 others.

1938: The German government decrees that all Jewish industries, shops, and businesses must be forcibly "Aryanized."

1938: At the Ambassador Theatre, the curtain came down on “You Can't Take It with You” a comedic play in three acts by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart that won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Drama after 838 performances.

1939: In Brooklyn, “Jack and Sylvia Israel” gave birth to Leonore Carol Israel who gained fame as forger Lee Israel.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/08/arts/lee-israel-a-writer-proudest-of-her-literary-forgeries-dies-at-75.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

1939: Among the patents issued this week was one issued to Rudoph Feige of Tel Aviv for “a tropical hat with a crown separated from the brim to provide and air circulating slot around the hat…”

1940: Heads of educational institutions and other prominent persons were among the 3,000 attending a funeral service for Rabbi Bernard (Dov) Revel, one of the founders of Yeshiva College which became Yeshiva University.

1940: Debut of Bugs Bunny with the voice supplied by Mel Blanc. Bugs Bunny was not Jewish but Mel was.

1941: Amidst the misery of the Lodz Ghetto, a newly arrived Viennese Pianist, Leopold Birkenfeld held a concert for his fellow Jews. He played Shubert, Liszt and Beethoven brilliantly.

1942(24th of Kislev, 5703): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah candle.

1942(24th of Kislev, 5703): The Nazis shot three young girls who had escaped from Poznan labor camp

1942(24th of Kislev, 5703): One thousand Jews from Plonsk, Poland, are killed at Auschwitz.

1942(24th of Kislev, 5703): Salomon Malkes, an official of the Lódz Ghetto, commits suicide after becoming despondent over the deportation of his mother.

1942: Herbert Henry Lehman completed his service as the 45^th Governor of New York.

1942: An unknown photographer took a picture of Jews in the Drancy assembly and detention camp which was the departure point for sending French Jews to Auschwitz. The picture is part of the Yad Vashem Photo Archives.

http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/december/07.asp

1942: Birthdate of David K. Shipler “an American author who won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-fiction in 1987 for Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land

1943: At a meeting with the German ambassador Francisco Franco said, “’Thank God a clear appreciation of dangers caused by Jews led our catholic Kings to insure ‘we have for centuries been relieved of that nauseating burden.’” Oddly enough, Franco actually protected that ‘nauseating burden’ from the clutches of the Final Solution.

1943: Popular American singer Dinah Shore (Frances Rose Shore) the graduate of Vanderbilt University where she was a member of AEPhi, the Jewish sorority, married her first husband today.

1944:Hungarian death march of Jews ends

1944: Beginning of the Greek Civil War in which pro-Soviet Communist forces attempt to destroy the pro-Western government.

1945:Abdul Azzam Bey, Arab League secretary general, announces that member states will boycott all Jewish-produced goods from Palestine beginning January 1, 1946.

1946: Today “The Joint Committee of Jewish Organizations, whose membership includes representatives of nine groups, praised the adoption of clauses by the Council of Foreign Ministers insuring restoration of rights and restitution of property to Jews in Hungary and Rumania in the proposed peace treaties.”

1947(20th of Kislev, 5708): While Jewish workers were evacuating undamaged goods from the Centre a group of Arabs attacked them, killing Yitzhak Penzo,

1947: Broadway Premiere of “A Streetcar Named Desire” which would be revived in London in 1974 with Claire Bloom playing “Blanche DuBois” – a portrayal that led the play’s author to state “I declare myself absolutely wild about Claire Bloom.”

1947: Arab violence continues with an attack on a synagogue in the Old City. Following threats by Arab gangs to burn their dwellings, “Eight Jews living in a house in the Musrara Quarter outside the Damascus Gate were forced to leave their homes”

1947: The Motion Picture Association of America issued The Waldorf Statement, a response to the contempt of Congress charges against the so-called "Hollywood Ten" drafters of which included Louis B. Mayer, Harry Cohn, Nicholas M. Schenck, Barney Balaban, Samuel Goldwyn, Albert Warner, William Goetz, Dore Schary and Mendel Silbergberg.

1948: Mission of the UN Mediator on the Palestine Disaster Relief Project meets with volunteer agencies. Dr. Pierre Descooeudres, chief of mission, reports that refugees in camps do not have good living conditions. More supplies are needed as well as a better system of transporting them. Refugees tend to feel frustrated and isolated, although the goal of the camps is to build a sense of social consciousness.

1949(12^th of Kislev, 5710): Parashat Vayetzei

1949(12^th of Kislev, 5710): “Yiddish actor, director and producer” Misha Fishzon, who was associated with “Maurice Schwartz’s Yiddish Art Theatre” passed away today in New York

1950: Bessarabian born Opera singer Isa Kremer who included Yiddish songs in her repertoire appeared for the last time at Carnegie Hall today before retiring to Argentina to be with her husband, Buenos Aires psychiatrist Dr. Gregorio Bermann.

1951(4^th of Kislev, 5712): Sixty-four year old Kovno born and JTS trained rabbi, C. David Matt, “the former president of the Philadelphia Board of Rabbis” and “former associate editor of The American Jewish World” who was the husband of Lena Matt and the father of J. Leonard, Joseph, Hershel, Zelda and Beulah Matt passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1951/12/04/89473281.pdf

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/matt-c-david

1952: At Rutgers University, “the Special Faculty Committee issued a reported stating that there should be no charges” brought against Moses Finley who had invoked the Fifth Amendment when called to testify before the House Un-American Activity Committee (HUAC) “and that the university should take no further action.”

1952(15th of Kislev, 5713): Rudolph Slansky, former secretary-general of the Czech Communist Party, Rudolf Margolius and 9 of their co-defendants were hanged after a show trial aimed at purging alleged Zionist conspirators.

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported the Israeli denial that its troops crossed the armistice lines in the vicinity of Jerusalem and tried to lay mines in Jordanian-occupied territory. The Israeli spokesman complained, however, that Jordan failed to control the scores of infiltrators who crossed the armistice lines every night in order to rob and murder. Only a week earlier, infiltrators killed two Israeli watchmen in the Jerusalem 'corridor' and escaped over the lines to Jordan. At the UN Mexico urged Arab states to consider seriously the recent Israeli peace offer. The Mexican delegate, Dr. Luis Quintamilla, pointedly asked why the Arabs always 'see evil' and automatically reject any Israeli proposal in which there might be at least some good for all concerned.

1953(26^th of Kislev, 5713) Second Day of Chanukah

1953(26^th of Kislev, 5713): Seventy-two year old Charleston native and U. of West Virginia graduate and the Naval Academy Commander Hugo Frankenberger who was a classmate of Admiral Chester Nimitz and a veteran of both World Wars passed away today.

1954: Birthdate of Bronx native and New York State Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz

1956: As part of the end of the Suez Crisis England and France pull troops out of Egypt. Israeli forces remain in the Sinai.

1956(29^th of Kislev, 5717): Fifth day of Chanukah

1956(29^th of Kislev, 5717): Sixty-five year old “painter, sculptor, designer and photographer” Alexander Rodchenko passed away today.

http://www.all-art.org/art_20th_century/rodchenko1.html

1956(29^th of Kislev, 5717): Seventy-eight year old German Jewish mathematician Felix Bernstein who went to the United States during the Hitler period passed away today in Zurich.

1957: “The Naked Truth” a British comedy co-starring Peter Sellers with music by Stanley Black was released in the United Kingdom today by J. Arthur Rank Film Distributors.

1958: Rabbi Ya’akov Moshe Toledano was appointed Minister of Religions.

1958(21^st of Kislev, 5719): Terrorist killed one and injured thirty-one others in an attack on Gonen, a kibbutz in northern Israel in the Upper Galilee.

1959: “I Married A Woman” an American comedy directed by Hal Katner with a script by Goodman Ace was shown for the first time in Sweden.

1960: Lerner and Loewe’s musical hit Camelot opens for the first of 873 performances at the Majestic Theatre in New York City

1961(25^th of Kislev, 5722): Chanukah for the first time during the Presidency of JFK.

1961: The Beetles meet their future agent Brian Epstein.

1962: “25,000 Mourners At Kotler’s Rites” published today described the funeral for Rabbi Aaron Kotler.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9402E4DF123DE63BBC4B53DFB4678389679EDE

1964: Three days after he had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held this morning for ninety-four year old pediatrician Sidney Valentine Haas, the Columbia trained doctor who made great strides in the treatment of celiac disease.

https://www.nytimes.com/1964/12/01/dr-sidney-valentine-haas-dies.html

1966(20^th of Kislev, 5727): Parashat Vayeshev

1966(20^th of Kislev, 5727): Eighty-six year old Morton David Cahn, the son of Joseph and Miriam Cahn and the husband of Julia Elizabeth Cahn passed away today in his native Chicago.

1967: Surgeons in Cape Town, South Africa, led by Dr. Christian Barnard, performed the first human heart transplant. Louis Washkansky lived 18 days with the new heart. Washkansky was a Jew who had been born in Lithuania.

1968: Hunter Hawker Jets of the Royal Jordanian Air Force attack IAF craft as they bomb PLO terror camps in Jordan.

1970: The world of detectives took on Jewish look when The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, written by I.A.L. Diamond and directed and produced by Billy Wilder appeared in theatres in the United Kingdom for the first time.

1974(19^thof Kislev, 5735): Rosh Hashanah of Chassidism

1974(19^thof Kislev, 5735): Netherlands native Cecile J. Seiberling, the daughter of Jacobus and Alice Berlage and the wife of Maurice Wertheim passed away today.

1974: As to the Soviet crackdown on all dissidents including refusniks, Alexander Solzhenitsyn was deported from the U.S.S.R. and stripped of his citizenship.

1974: Birthdate of “French journalist and television personality” Marie Drucker the daughter of television executive Jean Drucker and the niece of television journalist Michel Drucker.

1975(29^thof Kislev, 5736): Fifth Day of Chanukah

1975(29^thof Kislev, 5736): Ninety-two year old Solon De Leon, the son of labor leader Daniel De Leon, whose “most lasting contribution was The American Labor Who's Who which is a registry or directory of people involved in the American Labor Movement” passed away today in Ellenville, NY.

http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/tamwag/tam_092/

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=De%20Leon%2C%20Solon%2C%201883-

1976: After premiering in New York in November, “Rocky” the boxing movie produced by Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff was released in the United States today.

1977: Six people were injured when terrorists set off a bomb in a Jerusalem market.

1977: President Tito of Yugoslavia began a two day tour of Romania during which he said "Israel exists for many years as a genuine fact, is recognized by the UN and is a member of it; any other view would be unrealistic. Thus, all the Arab states must recognize Israel as a state."

1979(13^thof Kislev, 5740): Seventy-three year old of Minnesota trained physician and WW II veteran Stewart Theodore Ginsberg, the St. Paul born son of Jacob and Mollie (Balkind) Ginsberg who was the “Clinical professor of psychiatry at Emory University and husband of Ada Leach Leach with whom he raised three children – Barbara, Janet and Mark – passed away today.

1981:Birthdate of Plainfield, NJ native and Brown University graduate Stephen Levin, a distant relative of Michigan political leaders Carl and Sander Levin who began serving as a New York City Councilman in 2010.

1983(9th of Kislev, 5745):Vladimir Abramovich Rokhlin one of the leading Soviet mathematicians, working in the fields of topology, geometry and ergodic theory passed away.

1984(9^thof Kislev, 5745): Sixty-five year old Soviet mathematician Vladimir Abramovich Rokhlin passed away today

1985: Michael Dekel and Weizman Shiry began serving as Deputy Ministers of Defense.

1985: Jack Anderson described the work of Zwi Kanar, a mime who survived 6 concentration camps.

http://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/03/arts/mime-zwi-kanar.html?pagewanted=print

1985(20th of Kislev, 5746): Eighty-four year old Rabbi Phillip S. Bernstein who worked to settle displaced Jews after WW II, passed away today.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1985-12-05/news/8503240224_1_rabbi-emeritus-jewish-institute-golda-meir

1988: Five Soviet hijackers seized a bus full of schoolchildren, exchanged their hostages for a cargo plane and more than $3 million in ransom, then flew here today and surrendered to Israeli authorities. No one was hurt in the episode, either in the Soviet Union or in Israel. The hijackers, four men and a woman, were apparently not Jews, and their reason for choosing Israel as a destination was unclear. After a long day of tense anticipation, Israeli officials sent away the dozens of ambulances, sharpshooters and army commandos stationed at Ben-Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, and openly wondered how five common ''robbers,'' as Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin called them, could have caused such an incident. Money Traded for Children ''I can only express astonishment how authorities of a major power like the Soviet Union allowed five simple criminals with four pistols and a hunting rifle to leave the U.S.S.R.,'' Mr. Rabin said on the airport tarmac after the hijacking ended. In Moscow, the Soviet press agency Tass said that Soviet authorities decided to provide the Aeroflot cargo plane and the money to save the lives of the hostages, 30 fourth-graders and a teacher. The Soviet flight engineer, Yuri N. Yermilov, insisted that the hijackers ''were just people who wanted to fly out of the Soviet Union,'' and added, ''They demanded a plane to Israel, and the Soviets gave them this one.'' On landing, he said, the hijackers demanded to know if they were in Israel or Syria, and added, ''If this is Israel, we'll stay.'' After the plane was parked and the door was opened, the hijackers requested evidence but could not read the Hebrew on the soldier's identity card they were shown. So they asked to see something with a Star of David on it, or to hear someone speak Yiddish. Finally they were convinced they had actually landed in Israel. After 20 minutes on the ground the hijackers released the eight-member crew and surrendered a few minutes later. But the hijackers may not stay here for long. Israel is eager to re-establish diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, and Mr. Rabin said Israel would return them ''if there is a proper request to extradite them.'' This evening, the hijackers were being held by the police ''like anyone else who enters the country illegally,'' said Maj. Gen. Amram Mitzna of the Israeli Army. Mr. Yermilov said the flight crew wanted to return home as soon as possible. And almost as soon as the hijackers were taken away on a bus, technicians were checking the plane's tires to see if the jetliner was in condition for a return flight. The Israeli Army radio called the incident ''a parody of a skyjacking.'' The drama started Thursday in the Caucasus town of Ordzhonikidze. The hijackers, armed with the pistols and rifle, seized the bus, which carried the children and a teacher. The Soviet authorities, who in the past have refused to negotiate with hijackers, this time acceded to the request for the plane and the money, and in exchange the hijackers let all of the hostages go. Moscow has been criticized for its decision to have troops storm a plane commandeered in March by a family of jazz musicians. Nine people, including three passengers and a flight attendant, were killed in the cross-fire. Israel first learned of the hijacking early this morning, when aviation authorities received a telex in from the Soviet Union warning that the plane, taken ''by a group of armed aggressors,'' was on the way. At first Israel though it was a hoax but later confirmed that the situation was real. Ambulances and TroopsIn Moscow, Soviet officials said the hijackers named several countries as possible destinations, including Turkey, Egypt and Israel. Although Israel and the Soviet Union do not have diplomatic relations, each country has a consular delegation in the other, and consular officials were used to pass information back and forth through the afternoon. When Israel learned that there were no hostages on board aside from the plane's crew, officials said at first that they would turn the plane away. But they said the Soviet Union asked Israel to let the plane land, so Israel agreed. Not sure what was coming, the authorities sent more than 60 ambulances and hundreds of troops to the airport. The Transporation Minister, Defense Minister, and senior army commanders came to the scene. Mr. Yermilov said that on board the plane, the three-hour flight ''was normal, and we weren't frightened.'' When the jetliner approached Israeli airspace, an air force attack fighter was sent to escort it. And when the plane approached Ben-Gurion Airport about 5:45 P.M., all runway lights were turned off except one set that led to a remote military portion of the airfield. Commercial service at the airport continued uninterrupted, and people waiting for flights crowded to the windows, though from the terminal they could see no sign of the Soviet plane. After the plane landed without incident, flight controllers asked ''to speak to the person in charge of the plane.'' A crew member radioed back: ''Just a minute.'' But then flight controllers heard nothing more. Surrender After Persuasio But almost immediately after the plane came to a stop, uniformed Soviet crew members climbed out and asked for a translator, which was provided right away. After a short series of conversations, the five hijackers surrendered, without condition. They had made no demands. It took ''a bit of persuasion,'' General Mitzna said. But the hijackers climbed down, several of them still wearing fur hats, handed over their weapons and stood on the tarmac for a few minutes before they were taken away. They left the money on the plane. When Defense Minister Rabin asked to board the plane a few minutes later, the crew refused. They asserted that it was ''Russian territory.'' The Israeli authorities made public no identifying information about the hijackers. And they were clearly perplexed about why the hijackers came here. ''I still don't know why,'' General Mitzna said. ''They checked several other possibilities, other countries in the region, and in the end somehow decided on Israel. They probably understood it would be safe to go to Israel.'',As for the hijackers, an Israeli Army radio reporter who saw them as they were taken away reported that they looked ''a little perplexed and confused.''

1989: Billy Bathgate by E. L. Doctorow, Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution by Simon Schama, From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas L. Friedman, A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East 1914-1922 by David Fromkin and The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick are among the thirteen books chosen by the New York Times Book Review as the best books published in the country during the preceding year

1990(16th of Kislev, 5751): One Israeli was killed and five were wounded today in a stabbing attack aboard a bus in Israel, officials said. The police said three West Bank Palestinians climbed aboard the bus just outside Tel Aviv this morning, rode a few stops sitting in the back, then got up screaming "Allah Akhbar," or God is great, as they drew knives and stabbed four Jewish passengers.

1990: Birthdate of Canadian professional tennis player Sharon Fichman.

1992: The SEC filed a complaint against Salomon Brothers trader Paul Mozer “for filling false bids.”

1993: “A Dangerous Woman” a film version of the novel of the same name with a screenplay by Naomi Foner, co-starring Debra Winger and Barbara Hershey and featuring Maggie Gyllenhaal and Jake Gyllenhaal was released in the United States today.

1994(30^thof Kislev, 5755): Rosh Chodesh Tevet and Shabbat Chanukah – three Torah scrolls

1994(30^thof Kislev, 5755): Seventy-three year old German born Anglo-Jewish historian Sir Geoffrey Elton who specialized in the Tudors passed away today.

http://www.ucc.ie/chronicon/elton.htm

1995(10th of Kislev, 5756): Matityahu Shmuelevitz, a close aide to the late Prime Minister Menachem Begin, passed away today at the age of 75. Yehiel Kadishai, a longtime Begin spokesman, said that doctors at Tel Aviv's Tel Hashomer Hospital, where Mr. Shmuelevitz was taken after he collapsed on Saturday, reported that the cause of death was a blood clot. From 1980 to 1983, Mr. Shmuelevitz served as chief of the Prime Minister's office under Mr. Begin. The Polish-born Mr. Shmuelevitz immigrated to Palestine, then ruled by Britain, in 1938 and joined the Lehi, a right-wing Jewish underground group that was also known as the Stern gang. He was imprisoned by the British in 1940, escaped in 1943 and was wounded and recaptured in 1944. He was sentenced to death for firing at a British officer and carrying illegal arms. His sentence was commuted to life, but he escaped from jail in February 1948. He was a businessman for many years afterward.

1995:Zola: A Life by Frederick Brown, Sabbath’s Theatre by Philip RothOvercoming Law by Richard A. Posner are among the twelve books chosen by the New York TimesBook Review to the best books published in the country during the preceding year.

1995(10^thof Kislev, 5756): Seventy-year old Max Posin, the owner of Posin’s Delicatessen, a Washington, DC landmark whose bagels, bialys and fresh baked onion rolls were an integral part of the author of this blog’s childhood, passed away today.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1995/12/05/max-posin-dies/44e332e0-bf0d-4725-8266-bde007ca684f/

http://jewishfoodexperience.com/posins-legen-dairy-dc/

1997(4^th of Kislev, 5758): Eighty-eight year old CCNY all-star basketball player Louis “Lou” Spindell who went onto play professionally in the American Basketball League in the 1930’s passed away today.

1997(4^thof Kislev, 5758): Eighty-eight year old Russian-born American “social activist” Abraham Bluestein, who finally married his longtime “companion” Selma Cohen, passed away today. (As reported by Robert McG. Thomas, Jr.)

https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/14/nyregion/abraham-bluestein-88-dies-an-advocate-of-anarchism.html

1997:Michael Abraham Levy, Baron Levy made his maiden speech in the House of Lords.

1998: U.S. premiere of “Shakespeare in Love” co-produced by Harvey Weinstein and Edward Zwick and co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow.

1999(24th of Kislev, 5760): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah

1999: “The End of the Affair” a cinematic version of the novel by the same name featuring Jason Isaacs with music by Michael Nyman was released today in the United States.

1999(24th of Kislev, 5760): Actress and comedian Madeline Kahn passed away.

http://jwa.org/discover/infocus/comedy/kahn.html

1999(24^thof Kislev, 5760): Sixty seven “Lebanese Brazilian Jewish banker” Edmond J. Safra passed away in Monaco.

http://www.edmondjsafra.org/

2000: The New York Times list of the Best Books of 2000 contains the following works about Jewish related subjects or by Jewish authors including The Human Stain by Phillip Roth and One Palestine Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate by Tom Segev.

2001(18^thof Kislev, 5762): Ninety year old Gerhart Moritz Riegner the“World Jewish Congress official who was the first to warn an incredulous world that Nazi Germany had formally decided at the highest levels to annihilate Europe's Jews” passed away in Geneva today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/05/obituaries/05RIEG.html

2001: After having received information about an impending government raid on the Holy Land Foundation, Judith Miller telephone the organization for a comment following which the New York Times published an article about it in the late edition.

2001: In the wake of bombings that killed 26 Israelis, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared war on terror.

2003: A party was held in honor of Abe Pollin's 80th birthday at the Verizon Center. A slideshow was presented about the history of Abe's career as owner of the Bullets/Wizards. Tony Bennett also performed there as the guest entertainer.

2004: “The Merchant of Venice” a cinematic version of the famous play directed by Michael Radford was released today in the United Kingdom.

2004(20th of Kislev, 5765): Chaim Madar the chief rabbi of Tunisia's Jewish community, passed away today in Jerusalem. His funeral services were held at the Beit Mordekhai Synagogue in La Goulette, Tunis, and the El Ghriba synagogue on the island of Djerba where he lived for most of his life. Among those extending their condolences was Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. According to some, the Jewish community dates back to the time of the destruction of the First Temple.

2005: Sharon Fichman was the runner-up in today’s tennis tournament at Rama HaSharon, “home to the Israel Tennis Center.

2005: Today, Israel reiterated threats made last week to block Palestinians from access to the Karni and Erez crossings if the flow of terrorists into Gaza continues. The threat came as the Palestinian Authority ordered an urgent investigation into several border officials at the Gaza-Egypt crossing. Israel was outraged that terrorists, including the brother of Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar, were allowed to enter Gaza, and threatened to declare its other borders with Gaza international crossings, a move that would sever a customs deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

2006: (12 Kislev): Yahrzeit for Rabbi Solomon Shechter. Schechter’s life is too richly textured to do more than just hit the highlights in this short blurb. He was born in 1847 and died at the age of 68 in 1915 in New York City. He gained fame in 1896 because of his work with the opening of the Genizah attached to the ancient Egyptian Ben Ezra Synagogue. In 1902 he moved to the US to head the new Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, which became the home of Conservative Judaism. He turned the struggle Rabbinic school into a first rate academic institution. In 1913, he founded the United Synagogue of America, the umbrella organization of the Conservative Movement. By the time he died in New York in 1915, he had changed the face of American Judaism in attempting to find a middle road between Reform and Orthodox while raising the educational and cultural level for all Jews regardless of their level of observance or involvement.

2006: The Washington Post’s selections for best non-fiction in 2006 include: Sweet and Low: A Family Story, by Rich Cohen, The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977, by Gershom Gorenberg, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East, by Sandy Tolan, Prisoners: A Muslim and a Jew Across the Middle East Divide, by Jeffrey Goldberg,The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, by Daniel Mendelsohn; Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland After the Holocaust, by Jan T. Gross, My Father Is a Book: A Memoir of Bernard Malamud, by Janna Malamud Smith.

2006: The Israel Cancer Research Funds’ “Celebration of Life-Tower of Hope Ball” is held at the Pierre Hotel.

2007: An exhibition styled “The Art of Rabbi Shnoi Labowitz” presented by The Jewish Museum of Florida comes to an end.

2007: “The Farnsworth Invention” a play by Aaron Sorkin about how David Sarnoff stole the original invention that made possible the transmission of television signals opened on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre with Hank Azaria in the role of Sarnoff.

2007: Sixty one years after he was buried at a cemetery in southeast Washington, the exhumed remains of Stephen Theodore Norman, the only grandchild of Theodor Herzl will be flown to Israel following services at Adas Israel in Washington, D.C.

2008: Nicholas F. Tabman completed his service as the United States Ambassador to Romania.

2008:At Princeton. N.J., The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs presents "Israel and Palestine at a Crossroad" - A panel discussion with Sari Nusseibeh, president of Al-Quds University; former US ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer of Princeton University; and Itamar Rabinovitch, former Israeli ambassador to the US.

2008: In New York, The American Sephardi Federation presents a showing of Jews of Lebanon (Le Petite Histoire des Juifs du Liban) a film that recounts the demise of the Lebanese Jewish community over the last four decades when it went from a community of 8,000 in the 1960’s to a mere 60 at the start of the of the 21^st century with most of its members now in “exile to many countries.”

2008:Rabbi Emanuel Rackman, a leading Orthodox thinker and an early champion of women's rights, who passed away on Monday at the age of 98 was buried in Jerusalem.

2009:Activist Greg Mortenson, author (with David Oliver Relin) of "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time," reads from and discusses his new book, "Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan," at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue.

2009: The Israel-America Chamber of Commerce presents “US & Israel: Confronting Challenges,” a daylong “symposium” that will identify current challenges in order to secure our economic future.”

2009: The Israel-America Award is presented to Kenneth J. Bialkin, Chairman, America-Israel Friendship League, for his continuous support of the State of Israel and his outstanding contribution to the economic growth between the US and Israel.

2009: Opening of the 20^th Washington Jewish Film Festival.

2009: Alan Gross was taken into custody by Cuban authorities. Although not formally charged, the Cubans reportedly are claiming that he is linked to espionage activities involving the Cuban Jewish community.

2010: As part of the 21^st Washington Jewish Film Festival British filmmaker Rex Bloomstein is scheduled to present a program entitled “Humor, Identity and the Holocaust”

2010: At the 92^nd Street Y Light the menorah and Shabbat candles, eat latkes and challah, and celebrate Hanukkah and Shabbat at the same time!

2010: “Is Greed Godly?” published today, David E.Y. Sarna examines the relationship between white-collar crime and Jewish law.

http://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/is-greed-godly/

2010: As Alan Gross prepares to mark the first anniversary of captivity at the hand of Cuban authorities, the leaders of Cuba’s two main Jewish groups both denied having worked with a jailed American contractor whose family says he was on the island to hand out communication equipment to Jewish organizations. Cuban authorities have accused Alan Gross of espionage, though they have not pressed charges despite keeping him in custody since he was detained on December 3, 2009

2010: The Carmel fire was spreading late tonight from the direction of Haifa University towards the neighborhood of Denya in the city.

2010(26^thof Kislev, 5771): Eighty-one year old “Elaine Kaufman, who became something of a symbol of New York as the salty den mother of Elaine’s, one of the city’s best-known restaurants and a second home for almost half a century to writers, actors, athletes and other celebrities” passed away today (As reported by Enid Nemy)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/nyregion/04kaufman.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

2010: A Princeton student referendum on whether to ask the university’s dining services to provide an alternative brand of hummus to Sabra was defeated. Some 1,014 students voted against the referendum and 699 students were in favor during the three days of voting last week, according to results announced today. The Princeton Committee on Palestine initiated the referendum seeking other brands in university stores besides Sabra. The campaign reportedly was the brainchild of Philly BDS, which calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions against companies that support the Israel Defense Forces. Sabra is half-owned by The Strauss Group, which has publicly supported the IDF and provides care packages and sports equipment to Israeli soldiers.

2010: After having served 43 months of six year sentence for “mail fraud, conspiracy to bribe public officials and tax evasion,” Jack Abramoff was released from prison today after which “he wrote the autobiographical book Capitol Punishment: The Hard Truth About Washington Corruption From America's Most Notorious Lobbyist which was published in November 2011.

2011: The first weekend of this year’s Hamshoushalayim is scheduled to come to an end.

2011: “Kaddish for a Friend” is one of four movies scheduled to be shown tonight at the 22^nd Washington Jewish Film Festival.

2011: The JNF is scheduled to present “Modifying Afforestation Practices in Adaptation to Climate Change,” a program that demonstrates the techniques of JNF and Israel use to keep forests healthy in semi-arid regions, particularly when the regions encounter disasters such as last year’s Carmel fire.

2011: The traditional minyan at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, IA is to celebrate “Jewish Book Month Shabbat” with special honor to Living Jewish Literary Legends – Sir Martin Gilbert and Herman Wouk.

2011: Israel Police and the Knesset Guard assigned Meretz MK Zehava Gal-On a bodyguard today, following threats on her life. Yesterday, Knesset Guard informed Gal-On that intelligence reports received by the police include threats from right-wing extremist in the West Bank. Gal-On said today that she has not received direct death threats in recent days, and that the information she has is based solely on intelligence reports.

2011: Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said today that Iran is getting closer to developing a nuclear bomb, and that new and more crippling sanctions should be imposed on the Islamic Republic.

2012:The Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation is scheduled to sponsor a speech by Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post columnist and Professor of Public Affairs and International Relations at George Mason University entitled “ The Voters Have Spoken: What Is Our Economic Policy Now?”

2012(19^thof Kislev, 5773): Yud-Tet-Kislev sometimes referred to as the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidism” celebrating the release Rabbi Schneur Zalman Liadi, the found of Chabad Chassidism from the prison of the Czar

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/335659/jewish/19-Kislev-The-New-Year-of-Chassidism.htm

2012(19^thof Kislev): Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Dov Ber ben Avraham, the Maggid of Mezeritch who followed the Baal Shem Tov as the leader of the Chassidim.

2012: Bob Filner begins serving as the 35^th Mayor of San Diego, CA.

2012: The Broadway cast of Stephen Sondheim’s “Assassins” “reunited for a special benefit performance.

2012: 2012: Australia’s largest natural gas and oil company, Woodside Petroleum, has taken a 30 percent stake in Israel’s Leviathan off-shore gas drilling operation, it was announced today. Located in the Mediterranean 130 km. west of Haifa, Leviathan is estimated to contain up to 17 trillion cubic feet of usable natural gas, making it one of the largest fields in the world.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/top-australian-company-buys-into-israeli-natural-gas/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=3aaf7afb20-2012_12_03&utm_medium=email

2012: Israeli security forces continue to foil Arab road terror attempts, including an attempted axe-murderer and a briefcase bomb under a bridge.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/162797

2012: Collaboration in Gaza Leads to Grisly Fate

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/03/world/middleeast/preyed-on-by-both-sides-gaza-collaborators-have-grim-plight.html?hp

2013(30^th of Kislev, 5774): Rosh Chodesh Tevet

2013: “New Israeli ambassador to America Ron Dermer presented his credentials this afternoon to US President Barack Obama, officially taking over the role as the Jewish state’s top US envoy.” (As reported by Lazar Berman)

http://www.timesofisrael.com/new-envoy-ron-dermer-presents-credentials-to-obama/

2013: A letter was written today to Ontario MPP Peter Shuman admonishing him “for claiming mileage from his Niagara-on-the-Lake home to Toronto as an expense, something specifically cleared by the Legislative Finance Department.”

2013: Rabbi Yonah Grossman of the Chabad Jewish Center of North Dakota shows that he takes the appellation “lamplighter” literally at Grand Forks where he is scheduled to lead the community in the lighting of a Menorah in the Lincoln Drive Park Warming House.

2013: “Life of the Jews in Palestine: 1913,” documentary about First and Second Aliyah, is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.

2013: French forensic tests have concluded that former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat did not die of poisoning, as had been suggested by an earlier report, a source who saw the conclusions of the report said today.

http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/French-forensic-experts-find-Arafat-did-not-die-of-poisoning-source-says-333862

2013(30^th of Kislev, 5774): Sixty-six year old actor and comedian Sefi Rivlin passed away today.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/174778#.Up5uaJuA2po

2014: Dr. Brian Horowitz, the chairman of the Tulane University Jewish Studies Department is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Jabotinsky: The Final Years” tonight in New Orleans.

2014(11^thof Kislev, 5775): Eighty-four year old psychotherapist Nathaniel Branden who was a partner of Ayn Rand’s in more ways than one passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/09/us/nathaniel-branden-ayn-rands-collaborator-and-paramour-dies-at-84.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

2014: The Museum of the City of New York is scheduled to host Jeffrey Shandler speaking on “Coming of Age in Poland: Jewish Life Stories from the 1930’s.”

2014: “Palestinian teen stabbed two people and was shot by an off-duty security guard at a West Bank supermarket this afternoon in what Israeli police said was an apparent terror attack.” (As reported by Lazar Berman)

http://www.timesofisrael.com/two-stabbed-in-attack-at-west-bank-supermarket/

2014: “Knesset members voted overwhelmingly in favor of dissolving the current Knesset in a premliminary vote today.”

http://www.timesofisrael.com/new-elections-called-for-march-17-2015/

2014: “Congress was poised to give its final approval this afternoon to a bill that supporters say will create a unique status for Israel and serve as a framework for increased partnership in a number of key sectors, particularly energy and defense

2014: The bris and baby naming ceremony for the son of Arik and Samarya Shalom is scheduled to take place at the Chabad Jewish Center in Little Rock under the leadership of Rabbi Pinchas Ciment.

2015: Toronto Blue Jays President and CEO Mark Shapiro selected the sixth person to serve as the team’s general manager.

2015: Sixty-year old Monte Hanson a Jewish Montana man who had pleaded guilty to shoot a bartender and killing his dog because he was served a non-kosher drink (a beverage containing clam juice) was sentenced to 20 years in state prison today. (JTA)

2015: A trio consisting of “pianist Evgeny Kissin, violinist Itzhak Perlman, and cellist Mischa Maisky” is scheduled to perform at Carnegie Hall in Manhattan.

2015: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host “Chronicling a Dead City: The Fate of the Dubovo Shtetl in 1919” in which” Elissa Bemporad (Queens College, CUNY) examines the fate of the Ukrainian shtetl of Dubovo during the Russian Civil War in a micro study of one shtetl that sheds light on future conditions for Soviet Jewry, and the Holocaust in Ukraine.

2015: In New York, the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is scheduled to host a lecture by Dr. Jehuda Reinharz on “Statesman Without a State: The Case of Chaim Weizmann.”

2015: In New Orleans, LA, the Jewish Children’s Regional Service, one of the most worthwhile agency of its kind in the United States, is scheduled to host “Latkes With a Twist” featuring the cooking of Chef Daniel Esses and the singing of Israeli Eleanor Tallie.

2016(3rd of Kislev, 5777): Shabbat Toldot;

2016(3^rdof Kislev, 5777): Eighty-eight year old U.S. Federal Judge Leonard B. Sand passed away today in Sleepy Hollow, NY.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/nyregion/judge-leonard-sand-dead-yonkers-housing.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

2016: In Atlanta, GA, The William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum is scheduled to celebrate its 20^th anniversary with a gala dinner honoring Jarvin Levison “whose work with Elinor and Bill Breman was instrumental in the founding of the Breman Museum.”

2016: The 10^th Annual Other Israel Film Festival is scheduled to host a panel discussion on “The Power of Film at the JCC Manhattan followed by a screening of “The Writer.”

2016: The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to host “an Educator Workshop on Elie Wiesel’s Night from the internationally-renowned Holocaust education curriculum, Echoes and Reflections.”

2017: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Leonardo Da Vinci by Walter Isaacson, Annie Leibovitz: Portraits 2006-2016 by Annie Leibovitz, Ali by Jonathan Eig, Sense of Occasion by Harold Prince, Bad Rabbi And Other Strange but True Stories from the Yiddish Press by Eddy Portnoy and Jewish Comedy: A Serious History by Jeremy Dauber.

2017: In Coralville, IA, Dr. Robert Cargill is scheduled to lecture on “The Wisdom of Ben Sira:

Ethnical Reflections in Early Judaism” as part of the series examining “ancient books dropped from the Tanakh ‘in peer review.’”

2017: Fiona Murphy, the director of “Remember Baghdad” and Edwin Shuker a member “of Baghdad’s once flourishing Jewish community are scheduled to participate in “a Q and A at the Phoenix Cinema in East Finchley.

http://rememberbaghdad.com/

2017: The Jewish Genealogical Society of Georgia is scheduled to meet at the Breman Museum,

2017: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present The Jew of Malta, by Christopher Marlowe, “performed in a staged-reading version, adapted by and starring David Serero as Barabas and featuring Sephardi songs sung by the baritone opera star.”

2017: Jewish Book Month, an annual event that provides us with a chance to contemplate Jewish books and the lives of authors such as Frederic Raphael whose works included A Jew Among Romans: The Life and Legacy of FlaviusJosephus continues today.

2018(25^thof Kislev, 5779): First Day of Chanukah

https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/recipes-for-chanukah-orange-dreidel-biscuits/

https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/recipes-for-chanukah-crispy-avocado-wedges/

https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/recipes-for-chanukah-mini-cheese-arancini-balls/

2018: According to a “poll conducted by the Jewish People Policy Institute,” “73% of Israeli” Jews will be lighting their Chanukah menorahs.

2018: The Center Jewish History, the Jewish Studies Program of Cornell University and YIVO are scheduled to present a musical adaptation of I.L. Peretz’s “Monish” with “a score created by Sanford Margolis.

2018: In Chevy Chase, MD, Ohr Kodesh is scheduled to host the first session of “Well Red-Hebrew Poetry and Wine” where attendees “will discuss poems by Agi Mis'hol and Yehuda Amichai,”

2019: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a “Dine and Discuss led by the Chaplains” who will lead a discussion on “Tikkun Olam.”

2019: In Metairie, LA, the Chabad Jewish Center is scheduled to offer the class “Worrier to Warrior: Jewish Secrets to Feeling Good However You Feel.”

2019: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Marriage Story” directed by Noah Baumbach.

December 4

771: King Carloman dies, leaving his brother Charlemagne King of the entire Frankish Kingdom. Following the death of their father, King Pepin the Short, the two brothers had each ruled a portion of the realm. The sharing was not a peaceful process. For once the consolidation of political power in the hands of one monarch worked to the advantage of the Jewish people since Charlemagne was favorably disposed to his Jewish subjects even to the point of willingly defying the edicts of powerful prelates.

1075: Anno II, the Archbishop of Cologne passed away, an event reported to have been lamented by the Jews who lived in a Jewish Quarter first mentioned during his episcopate.

1110: The Syrian harbor city of Saida (Sidon) surrendered to Crusaders. The Crusader success would prove to be only temporary. Sidon was one of the original Phoenician trading cities and it is the same Sidon from which Hezbollah launched rockets into Israel in the summer of 2006.

1197: During the Third Crusade, the wife and daughters of Rabbi Eleazar ben Judah ben Kalonymous of Worms were murdered and his was mortally wounded. Born in 1165 in Germany, Rabbi Eleazar was “a Kabbalist, Halachic scholar and religious poet. In Sefer ha Hokhmah (The Book of Wisdom) he described the loneliness he felt after the death of his family and his teacher Judah he-Hasid. He passed away in 1230, leaving behind a body of writings that has influenced Kabbalists down to our own times.

1259: Kings Louis IX of France and Henry III of England agreed to the Treaty of Paris, in which Henry renounces his claims to French-controlled territory on continental Europe (including Normandy) in exchange for Louis withdrawing his support for English rebels. There was nothing positive in this for the Jews in this. Louis IX attacked the financial well-being of his Jewish subjects, going so far as to expel them as a way of financing the Seventh Crusade. He also burnt 12,000 Jewish books including copies of the Talmud. Henry also attacked the financial well-being of his Jewish subjects, milking them for all they were worth. When the Jews sought to leave his kingdom, he stopped them as a way of protecting a valued source of tax revenue.

1334: John XXII, the second of the Avignon Popes passed away. Sangisa, the sister of John XXII, urged her brother to ban the Jews from Rome. At first he ignored her. But finally, in 1321, He gave in and issued an order of expulsion. The Jews responded with fasting and “fervent prayers. At a more practical level, they turned to King of Robert of Naples for support and sent a delegation to Avignon with 20,000 ducats for the Pope. This combination of divine and temporal intervention worked since the Jews were allowed to remain in Rome.

1489: The Spanish army captured Baza from the Moors. The Battle of Baza was part of the lengthy conflict between the Catholics and the Moors. Slowly but surely, they were driving the Moslems of Spain back across the Mediterranean to North Africa from whence they had come over seven hundred years before. Within 3 years, the Moors would be driven from the Iberian Peninsula and Spain would be united as a Catholic Kingdom. This would lead to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain.

1539(13^th of Kislev, 5300): On December 4, the Ottoman Sultan known as Suleiman the Magnificent occupied Baghdad which meant an improvement for the condition of the Jews who had suffered during the Mongol period. During his reign Suleiman welcomed the Jews fleeing from the effects of expulsion from Spain and Portugal and encouraged them to settle in Palestine. His rebuilding program in Jerusalem showed a sympathy and respect for Jewish history and culture. His willingness to employ a Jew as his personal physician and to use Don Joseph Nasi and Gracia Mendes Nasi as advisors demonstrated the extent to which Jews had found a haven and home in the lands of Suleiman, who for the Jews, was truly magnificent.

1629(19^thof Kislev, 5390): Madeira island native Jacob Israel Belmont, who along with “Jacob Tirado and Solomon Palache” was “one of the founders of the Portuguese-Jewish Community of Amsterdam and husband of “Simḥah (Gimar) Vaz” passed away today,

1642: Cardinal Richelieu, the “power behind the throne” during the reigns of Louis XIII and Louis XIV passed away. The decrees issued in their name were probably the product of this churchman turned “chancellor” including Louis XIII reaffirmation issued in April, 1615 of the ban on Jews living in France and Louis XIV’s declaration granting the Jews of Metz the right to conduct business after the French took the city in 1632.

1655: Today, “following the arrival in London of Rabbi Menasseh ben Israel from Amsterdam and his petition to the Council of State on behalf of the ‘Hebrew Nation,’ a conference was begun at Whitehall to discuss the readmission of Jews to England after a supposed absence of 365 years.”

1655: Oliver Cromwell convened a gathering of English notables at Whitehall to decide if the Jews should be readmitted to England. Cromwell was a strong proponent of readmission as were most of Cromwell’s military and government leaders. Members of the Millenarian and Sabbatarian sects also favored readmission. Opposition came from the merchants and the mainline Christian clergy. When realized that he would be unable to gain the complete support for his plan to readmit the Jews to England so he dissolved the Council rather than suffer defeat. The conferees did agree that that there was no legal reason not to re-admit the Jews since they had been expelled by royal decree and not by an act of Parliament. In the meantime, Cromwell accomplished his goals through a round-about manner and by 1657 there were enough Jews in London who felt confident in being able to practice their faith in public that they purchased a private home to be used as a synagogue.

1655: Middelburg, Netherlands forbade the building of a synagogue.

1674: French Jesuit missionary Jacques Marquette erected a mission on the shores of Lake Michigan, in present-day Illinois. His log cabin became the first building of a settlement that afterward grew to become the city of Chicago. Chicago is of course, the home of one this country’s largest and most vibrant Jewish communities as well as some of the finest Jewish families around including that of my aunt and uncle, Dr. Jacob and Betty Levin and that renowned photographer and alum of the College of Jewish Studies, Harvey Luber and his wife.Just think, if it had not been for Marquette, there would not have been a home for Chagall’s Windows (the Art Institute) Sarah Lee Bakery or a Crate & Barrel (the latter two were founded by Jews in Chicago).

1679: Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher, passed away. Born in 1588, “Thomas Hobbes was foremost among the seventeenth century political philosophers who led the Western world across the fault line separating classical from modern political philosophy. In doing so, he, like his other colleagues, had to confront not only classical political philosophy but the Bible. From the first of his writings to the last he consistently confronted Scripture. Reading Hobbes reveals both the ambiguity and the ambivalence of his confrontation with the Bible. Hobbes wished to assault orthodox or conventional Christian belief but at the same time is drawn to the Hebrew Scriptures, not only because it is necessary for him to confront it for the sake of his argument or because of the Bible's own elemental and compelling power. His struggle foreshadows and is even paradigmatic of that of modern man. The most neglected aspect of Hobbes's attempt to solve the theological-political problem is his reliance on divine punishment of the iniquitous sovereign.” He uses the murder of Uriah by King David to discuss this part of his political philosophy. In his writings, Hobbes elaborates a conception of the Messiah in his political treatises that is unusual because it seems to combine Jewish and Christian elements. He asserts that Jesus is the Messiah in the sense of being the earthly king of the Jews as well as the Son of God and king of heaven. To clarify Hobbes's position and to highlight its strangeness, it is compared with the views of Moses Maimonides and Blaise Pascal. Hobbes emerges from this comparison as a spokesman for a kind of "Jewish Christianity," whose purpose is not to return to the early Jewish sects that embraced Jesus as a new Moses but to humanize the Messiah and to redefine Christianity for a new age of secular happiness. Hobbes thereby inaugurates a new kind of biblical criticism which the Deists of the enlightenment era developed and which continues today. This incomplete entry about Hobbes reinforces the many different ways in which Jewish Culture as opposed to Jewish people influenced the development of Western Civilization.

1748: Birthdate of German native Judith Haimann, the wife of Moyses Einstein and the mother of Basilika, Elias, Vernoika, Leopold and Simon Einstein.

1750: Birthdate of Henri Grégoire who as Abbé Grégoire who was “considered a friend of the Jews” because during the French Revolution “he argued that in this anti-Semitic society the supposed degeneracy of Jews was not inherent but rather a result of their circumstances.”

1755(30^thof Kislev, 5516): Rosh Chodesh Kislev; Sixth Day of Chanukah

1762: Catherine II of Russia permitted foreigners to settle and travel in Russia "Kromye Zhydov." However Jews were still forbidden to settle there. Catherine II may have been the Great to some Russian nobles but she certainly was certainly.

1772(OS): Birthdate of Dov Ber of Mezeritch, known as the Maggid, the leading disciple of the Baal Shem Tov and his successor as leader Chassidic Judaism.

1773: Reyna Levy and Isaac Moses gave birth to Moses Levy Moses who passed away in New York in 1843.

1779(25^thof Kislev, 5540): Chanukah

`1787: Reyna Levy and Isaac Moses gave birth to Sarah (Sally) Moses, the sister of Moses Levy Moses

1790: The citizens of Trnava, addressed a petition to the Diet in Hungary at the same time as the Jews did asking that their rights be upheld. The Diet approved the petition of the Jews and sent word to King Leopold II.

1791: In London, the first edition of The Observer, the world's first Sunday newspaper was published. In 1891, Rachel Sasoon Beer, the granddaughter of David Sasoon and daughter of Sasoon David Sasoon was named editor of the Observermaking her the first female editor of a national newspaper. During her tenure as editor “The Observer achieved one of its greatest exclusives: the admission by Count Esterhazy that he had forged the letters that condemned innocent Jewish officer Captain Dreyfus to Devil's Island. The story provoked an international outcry and led to the release and pardon of Dreyfus and court martial of Esterhazy.”

1795: One day after he had passed away, 52 year old “Jacob Yechiel” was buried today at the “Lauriston Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1800: Solomon Levien married Harriet Salomons at the Hambro Synagogue today.

1802: In Bavaria, “Jacob Hirsch Kann and Jetta Kann gave birth to Jennette Kann who became Jeannette Goldschmidt when she married Benedict Hayim Salomon Goldschmidt.

1804: Birthdate of London native Elias Mocatta who married Rachel Goldsmid after the death of Augusta Goldsmid the mother of Constance August Mocatta.

1805(13^th of Kislev, 5566): Sixty-two year old German banker Philipp Samson, the founder of the Samson School in Wolfenbuttel passed away today.

1811 (18th of Kislev, 5572):Rabbi Baruch Mezhibuzher the son of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov’s daughter, Adel, and her husband, Rabbi Yechiel Ashkenazi passed away. He was born in 1753 in Mezhibuz, the town from which his illustrious grandfather led the Chassidic Movement. He was one of the Rebbes (Chassidic masters) in the 3rd generation of Chassidism, and had thousands of followers.

1816: Three days he had passed away. “Nachman bar Aaron” was buried today at the “Colby Gate Jewish Burial Ground in Great Yarmouth.”

1817(25^th of Kislev, 5578): Chanukah

1826: In London Frances Cohen and Joel Benjamin gave birth to George Benjamin.

1829: A fired destroyed the building housing Congregation Mikveh Israel in Savannah, Georgia. The building had been consecrated in 1820 making it the first synagogue to be built in “The Peachtree State.” Fortunately, the congregation’s Torah Scrolls were saved from the fire.

1830; “The Alsatian Deputy Pierre Andre stated that before the Revolution had not been allowed to open vocational schools” – a statement that was challenged by those who said that “before the Revolution…Berr-Isaac Berr of Nancy had founded agricultural colonies in order to mitigate the charge that Jews were not productive.”

1836(25^th of Kislev, 5597): Chanukah is celebrated for the last time during the Presidency of Andrew Jackson.

1836: Two days after he had passed away, “Alexander Schomberg” was buried at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery” today.

1839: Moses Joseph married Esther Samuel at the Great Synagogue today.

1839: In Charleston, SC, Jacob I. Moses of Columbus, GA married Rina Ottolengui, the daughter of Abraham Ottolengui.

1846” In Furth, Bavaria, Louis Loew Leopold Affelder, the Bavarian born son of Samuel Lazarus Affelder and Nanni Affelder, and his wife Regine Rosalia Affelder gave birth to Moritz Affelder

1847: In New York, Abigail and Asher Kursheedt gave birth to Grace Eloise Kursheedt.

1847: In London, Hester and L.M. Rothschild gave birth to Emma Dinah Rothschild, the wife of Ludwig Goldschmidt.

1849: In Canterbury, Fanny Nathan and Joel Abrahams gave birth to Benjamin Abrahams

1852: Today’s edition of the Times of London devoted sixteen columns to the speech given by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Benjamin Disraeli, on the subject of taxation. The speech, which was well received, contained proposals to change the Tea Duties and the Income Tax. The lengthy article also included copies of the tables that Mr. Disraeli used.

1853:The "Shaare Zedek Hebrew National School," erected in the rear of the Henry-street Jewish Synagogue, was consecrated this afternoon. The congregation to which the School is attached has been in existence about sixteen years. The ceremonies began at 3 pm with religious services that included a sermon by Rabbi H.A. Henry who has been chosen to serve as the school’s superintendent. Services were followed by a “banquet” in one of the school’s room. Mr. Mendel Joseph, President of the Building Committee, addressed the attendees. The meal included the recitation of the proper Hebrew prayers both before and after eating.

1858: A crowd of 2,500 Christians and Jews gathered tonight in New York City to express their indignation over what has come to be called the Mortara Affiar. The event was chaired by Jonas Phillips, the ex-President of the Board of Common Councilmen. Among the resolutions passed were ones that recalled the response of the United States government to the Damascus Affair in 1840. The speakers all separated the actions of those involved in taking of the Mortara family from the Roman Catholic religion and stated their respect for their fellow citizens who were adherents of that religion. Among those in attendance was Mr. A.M. Phillips Levi from Montreal who had traveled from Canada to express that Jewish community’s solidarity with the other Jewish communities that had expressed their outrage and called for a return of the Mortara child to his parents. The speakers included leaders of the Jewish community as well as prominent non-Jews including Chauncey Shaffer, Esq. and Reverend Blair, a Methodist clergyman.

1860: Birthdate of actress and singer Lillian Russell, the native of Iowa who married the Anglo-Jewish composer Edward Solomon in 1884, two years before he was arrested for bigamy.

1861(1st of Tevet, 5622): Rosh Chodesh Tevet

1861: Today, Sir George Grey, who hired Samuel Joseph, an Anglo-Jew from London as his interpreter” began serving his second term as Governor of New Zealand

1864: Romanian Jews were forbidden to practice law.

1864: A meeting was held today in Philadelphia, PA that resulted in the establishment of Maimonides College, “the first Jewish theological seminary in” the United States. The school which was designed to train rabbis for the numerous synagogues opening this country began operating in 1867. It closed its doors 6 years later in 1873 due to a lack of support.

1865: Birthdate of Edith Louisa Cavell, the British nurse who was defended by Sadi Kirschen when the Germans arrested her and charged her with treason. There was little that her Jewish defense lawyer, who would flee the Nazis when they invaded Belgium in 1940, could do for her since she confessed to helping British and French soldiers escape and the Kaiser’s army was in no mood to show leniency.

1866(26th of Kislev, 5627:Evelina Gertrude de Rothschild passed away during childbirth. She was a member of the prominent Rothschild banking family of England. Her father Lionel assumed sponsorship of the first school for girls in Israel, opened in Jerusalem in 1864, renaming it the Evelina de Rothschild School.

1868: Two days after he had passed way, 93 year old “Henry Mordecai,” the father of “David Mordecai,” was buried today at the “Lauriston Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1873: It was reported today that last month’s overflow of the Tiber River created a novel situation in Rome. Some of the Jews whose homes were flooded have been temporarily lodged in the Covent of Ara Caeli one of the religious orders recently disbanded by the new, republican government of Italy. In the new Italy, including the formal Papal States, there is no distinction of citizenship based on religion.

1875: Mr. Emanuel B. Hart appeared before a special meeting of the Board of Police to request that anti-lottery laws not be enforced in matters pertaining to the Hebrew Benevolent Fair. Hart told the board that if the laws were strictly enforced the fair would not be able to raise the funds to support local charities. The members of the Board denied the request saying that the police would halt any drawing that violated the lottery laws.

1876: Three days after she had passed away, “Priscilla Rees,” the daughter of Moses and Phoebe Davis and the wife of Daniel Rees was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.

1877: Birthdate of Morris Alexander, the Cambridge University educated native of Zinn, Germany who was “admitted to practice as an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Cape Colony where lectured on law, served on the city council and participated in Jewish communal life as an officer of the New Cape Town Congregation and the Jewish Philanthropic Society.

1878: Birthdate of Dr. Alwin M. (Max) Pappenheimer the Columbia trained pathologist who was on the faculty at Columbia and who was the father of Dr. Anne P. Forbes, Dr. John R. Pappenheimer and Dr. Alwin M. Pappenheimer, Jr. of NYU who followed in his father’s footsteps.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1955/02/22/96627378.pdf

1878(8th of Kislev, 5639): Fifty two year old Danish banker and political leader David Baruch Adler was a partner in Martin Levin & Adler in London and D.B.Adler & Company in Copenhagen as well as the husband of Jenny Raphael the daughter of banker John Raphael, passed away today.

1878: It was reported today that Romanian leaders continue to oppose granting Jews full rights as citizens as promised by the Treaty of Berlin. As non-citizens, Jews are not allowed to own land which means Romanian nobles can borrow money from Jews without fear of losing their estates when they default on the loans. If Jews were citizens were made citizens, the nobles could no longer swindle them out of the money owed.

1880: It was reported today that in Germany, “The Jewish question continues to attract much public attention. Newspapers are debating it, pamphlets are pouring forth, tumults are taking place among the students and an occasional fracas still occurs in the streets.”

1880: It was reported from Berlin that in light of the wave anti-Semitic agitation sweeping German, a large number of “eminent Jews” are meeting to consider ways of defending themselves including the establishment of a newspaper to support their position.

1880: It was reported that an article published in the Grenzboten seeks to refute that Chancellor Bismarck is sympathetic to the anti-Semitic movement championed by Court Chaplain Stoecker.

1880: Sarah Bernhardt is scheduled to give her last two performance in New York – a matinee during which “Hermani” will be repeated followed by an evening featuring “Frou-Frou,” “La Dame aux Camelias” and “En Passant.”

1881: The first edition of the Los Angeles Timesis published. Sam Zell bought the Tribune Company, including the LA Times, in 2007 making him the first Jewish owner of the paper.

1881: For unknown reason, the fair sponsored by Temple Israel in Brooklyn which opened on November 30 was scheduled to be closed this evening and to reopened tomorrow.

1882: U.S. Army Major Alfred Mordecai, Jr. a West Point graduate and hero of the Civil War was promoted to the permanent rank of Lt. Colonel. He was brevetted to the rank of Lt. Colonel in the last months of the Civil War “for distinguished served in the field…” For those of you who know anything about the U.S. Army, this means the rank was “temporary” and that for official purposes he returned to the rank of Major when peace arrived. Promotion in the peace time army was much slower. This promotion does reflect the high esteem in which Mordecai was held as will be seen when reaches the rank of full Colonel.

1882(23rd of Kislev, 5643): Twenty-three year old Mortiz Zuckerman, a Jewish immigrant from Russia, hanged himself today apparently because he had lost his job and was unemployed.

1882: In Aurich, German, Moses Jakob Cohen and Minkel Minka Cohen gave birth to Jakob Moses Cohen ,the husband of Hanna Cohen with whom he had five children and who died in the Minks Ghetto during the Holocaust.

1884: Mrs. Mandelbaum, the “fence” who disappeared from New York arrived at Oelan at three o’clock this afternoon with a package of lace that she tried to sell to several local “rich people.”

1884(16^thof Kislev, 5645): An unidentified 5’9” Jew approximately 48 year in age committed suicide at 7 p.m. when he shot himself while sitting on a bench near the Farragut monument.

1888: In Romania, the lower house of the legislature defeated the bill which would have granted citizenship to businessman, banker and philanthropist Jacob Noisotz.

1888: Aline Caroline, daughter of Gustave Samuel de Rothschild and Sir Edward Albert Sassoon gave birth to Sir Philip Albert Gustave David Sassoon, 3rd Baronet, the grandson of Albert Abdullah David Sassoon.

1888: In Brooklyn the weeklong fair that is a fundraiser for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum will come to an end this evening.

1889: Commissioner Hermann von Wissmann, the leading German official in East Africa met the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition and took it to Bagamoyo where a banquet of welcome was held. Emin Pasha was a Silesian born Jew named Isaac Edward Schnitzer who converted to Christianity and then to Islam so that he could further his career in the Ottoman Empire.

1889: In Johannesburg, Solomon Barnato Joel and Ellen (Nellie) Ridley gave birth to Doris Irene Kathleen Joel the wife of Arthur Walter.

1889: Members of a party of fifty Jews passing through Pittsburgh on its way to Jerusalem would not comment on the possible outcome of their “pilgrimage, saying that the future depends entirely upon the laws of the country, concessions which may be secured” and the desire for future settlement.

1890(22^ndof Kislev, 5651): Fifty-six year old Isaac Shapira, the husband of Beyla Shapira and the son of Joshua Shapira passed away today in Petah Tikva.

1891:The Jaffa-Jerusalem Railway line reached Deir Aban (today's Beit Shemesh) as it made its way from the seacoast to the City of David.

1892: It was reported today that the Monetary Conference at Brussels is debating the plan presented by Albert de Rothschild.

1892: It was reported today that Charles Frohman will not be producing Lady Windermere’s Fan “the play of the season last year in London and has transferred it to another production company.

1892: It was reported today that those Jews who convert to Greek Orthodoxy in compliance with the Moscow Chamber of Commerce’s requirement for them to be able to do business in the city “will still be placed on probation for three years” and required to live in village five miles from Moscow.

1892: Birthdate of Francisco Franco. Whatever his other short-comings, Franco has a surprisingly positive record when it comes to the Holocaust. For most of the war, he did not close the border with France to escaping Jews. He did not return Jewish refugees to the Nazis and allowed many of his foreign legations to provide letters of transit making it possible for thousands to escape Hitler’s Henchmen.

1893(25^thof Kislev, 5654): Chanukah

1893: It was reported today that Hebrew will be one of the languages the Professor Hughes will be teaching at the University of New York in a class “especially designed for missionaries intending to go to Turkey.”

1893: “God and Futurity “published today provides the views of Professor Felix Adler

1893: It was reported today that the German chancellor said that “anti-Semitism was the most dangerous form of Socialism” because “while pretending to attack only Jewish capitalists, it would menace eventually all capitalists.

1893: It was reported today that in Germany, Dr. Foerster interrupted a debate on the budget “to say that Anti-Semitism is not a passing phenomenon and would endure as long as the Hebrew race.”

1894: Alderman “Silver Dollar” Smith was arrested between 2 or 3 o’clock this morning on charges that he had attacked a saloonkeeper named August J. Gloisten. During his arraignment this morning Smith said that he had been born in Germany at which time he was named Charles Finkelstone. He got his nickname of “Silver Dollar” came from the fact that 1,000 silver dollar pieces were embeeded in the floor of his saloon at Essex Street. “Silver Dollar” Smith was Charles R. Solomon a Tammany Hall leader of the 10^th District. His saloon “was one of the sites of operation for the Eastman Gang, run by Jewish gang leader Monk Eastman…and a member of the Max Hochstim Association, also known as the Essex Market Court Gang.” Besides the silver dollars, Smith was known for hosting Passover celebrations at the saloon.

1894: In New Orleans, Leo Levi of Galveston delivered the annual oration “at today’s meeting of the American Hebrew Congregations.

1894: “Among the passengers on the steamship Spree which is due here today is the noted German anti-Semitic agitator Dr. Ahlwardt of Berlin.”

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C02E6DD1E3DE433A25757C0A9649D94649ED7C

1894: “Assaulted In Open Daylight” published today described an attack by a group of boys who beat up Benjamin Rosenthal on Fifth Avenue who hollered anti-Semitic epithets as they beat him.

1895: Hermann Ahlwardt the German anti-Semitic agitator from Berlin is scheduled to arrive in New York today aboard the SS Spree.

1895: Birthdate of Syracuse, NY native Nathan Wesley Markson, the husband of “Maybelle Grody Markson” and the father of Lois and Audrey Markson who served as the “director of the Jewish Home for the Aged.”

1897: Today, at Temple Israel of Harlem, Rabbi Maurice H. Harris delivered a sermon that responded to the negative sermon delivered by Dr. Savage in which he attacked the “Old Testament” in general and “the God of the Old Testament” in particular.

1897: The merit examination for the position of official Supreme Court reporter in the First Judicial District, which requires a fluency in “Hebrew jargon” is scheduled to be given today. (Hebrew jargon refers to Yiddish)

1898: The Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Orphan Asylum Band is scheduled to perform a fund raiser sponsored by the Ladies Aid Society at the Lexington Avenue Opera House.

1899: Dr. Isaac M. Wise, President of the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati praised the late Baron Hirsch as ranking “among the greatest philanthropists of the century equaled only by his wife Baroness Hirsh. He did all the good one millionaire could possible do, or ever did do, for the poor, neglected and persecuted.” Wise was speaking in support of plans to build a statue in New York honoring Baron Hirsch.

1899(2^ndof Tevet, 5660): Eighth of Chanukah, the end of the last celebration of the holiday during the 19^th century.

1899(2^ndof Tevet, 5660): Seventy-three year old Leopold Ullstein the founder and publisher of several successful German newspapers, including B.Z. am Mittag and Berliner Morgenpost passed away today. The Nazis would take over his publishing empire in 1934 and his son Hermman Ullstein would flee the country in December of 1938.

1900: Birthdate of Waldemar Levy Cardoso, the Algerian-Moroccan Jew born in Rio de Jenerio who became a Field Marshall in the Brazilian Army.

1900: Forty-seven year old Jacob Treiber, the German born son of Morris Trieber and the former Blume Brodek was nominated “to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas” by President McKinley.

1902(4th of Kislev, 5663): Eighty-one year old Austrian Poet Heinrich Landesmann whose “first important literary production, Abdul, the Mohammedan Faust legend, in five cantos” was completed in 1843 and who was the brother-in-law of Berthold Auberbach, passed away today at Brno.

1903:Herzl reports in his diary: "The Russian members of the A. C., particularly Usshiskin, Jacobson, etc. are in open rebellion."

1903: In New York, Rabbi M.H. Harris preached a Friday night sermon on “Zionism and East Africa.”

1903: Birthdate of New York native Aaron Siskind, the school teacher turned documentary photographer.

http://m.theartstory.org/artist-siskind-aaron.htm

1905: “The New York Board of Jewish Ministers and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of the United States and Canada have set aside” today “as a day of general mourning for the Jewish victims of the massacres in Russia.”

1905: Rabbi Joseph Silverman, Rabbi F. de Sola Mendes, Rabbi M.H. Harris, Rabbi Rudolph Grossman, Oscar S. Straus and Louis Marshall are scheduled to speak tonight at the memorial service being held at Temple Emanu-El.

1905: Rabbi Samuel Greenfield, Rabbi Henry S. Morais and Albert Lucas are scheduled to speak at tonight’s memorial service at Congregation Mount Zion on East 113^thStreet.

1905: Rabbis Joseph M. Asher, Bernard Drachman and M.M. Kaplan are scheduled to speak at the memorial service at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on East 85^thStreet.

1905: The Cantors’ Association of Mount Zion Congregation and Congregation Mickveh Israel are scheduled to take part in services held to honor the Jews who have been murdered in Russia.

1905: Rabbis Phillip Klein, H. Periera Mendes, Harris Maslinasky and Isidor Herschield are scheduled to speak at the memorial service being held at Congregation Ohav Zedek on Norfolk Street.

1905: The parade organized by the Jewish Defense Association in memory of the Jews murdered in Odessa is scheduled to start at noon today with Joseph Barondess serving as Marshall.

1905: Services memorializing the Jews who have perished in the Russian Massacres are scheduled to take place this afternoon and this evening at several locations on the Lower East Side.

1905: In Camden, NJ, Rabbi Gordon of Philadelphia and William spoke at the memorial services “for the murdered Jews of Russia” being held at the Synagogue of the Sons of Israel.

1905: Because the reports of the massacres of the Jews Russia have underestimated the suffering of their co-religionists, those attending a meeting a Temple Emanu-El tonight decided to issue an appeal for an additional million dollars in aid to go along with the one million dollars already raised.

1906: Birthdate of Manchester, UK native Sir Maurice Pariser, the Solicitor, WW II veteran and Laborite member of the Manchester City who was vice president of the Institute of the Jewish Studies and Knighted in 1965.

1908: Birthdate of Alfred Hershey, an American biologist who, along with Max Delbrück and Salvador Luria, won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1969. The prize was given for research done on viruses that infect bacteria. This was the famous "blender experiment" (1956). Hershey used an isotope- labeled phage to infect a bacterial colony and begin to inject their genetic material into the host cells. Then he whirred them in a blender to tear the phage particles from the bacterial walls without rupturing the bacteria. Upon examining the bacteria, Hershey found that only phage DNA, but no detectable protein, had been inserted into them. This showed that the DNA was sufficient to transfer to the bacteria all the genetic information needed to produce more phage. He passed away in 1997.

1910: The New York Times features a review of The Life of Benjamin Disraeli: The Earl of Beaconsfield by William Money. This is the first volume of a multi-volume work covering the years 1804 through 1837. The book sold for three dollars.

1910: Birthdate of Chester, PA native Isadore Soifer who gained famed as Alex North, the often Oscar nominated composer who wrote scores for such films as Spartacus and “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/11/arts/alex-north-a-film-composer-80-had-40-year-hollywood-career.html

1911: The trial of the owner’s Triangle Waist Company, Max Blanck and Issac Harris who were represented by Max Steuer on charges of First and Second Degree Manslaughter began today.

1912(24^thof Kislev, 5673): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah light

1912: Birthdate of Brooklyn native Edward Fields, the Manhattan rug designer and manufacturer.

https://www.nytimes.com/1979/04/19/archives/edward-fields-carpet-designer-and-manufacturer-is-dead-at-66.html

1912: Fifty-year old Archibald Gracie IV, the last survivor to leave the Titanic who spent much of his time on the cruise discussing the Civil War with Isidor Strauss passed away today.

1912: Jacob A. Cantor of New York City was a delegate to the Ninth Convention of Rivers and Harbors Congress opening today in Washington, DC.

1912: Birthdate of David Amato, second son of Abraham Amato and father of Leah Amato Franco. A graduate of George Washington University, Amato had a successful career the U.S. Department of Labor and the National Board before accepting a position with the American diplomatic corps to help the Mexican government in the field of vocational rehabilitation.

1913: Birthdate of Mark Robson the Montreal native who began his career as an editor in Citizen Kane and went on to direct thirty-four films including two war movies with a strange twist – The Bridges at Toko-Ri and Von Ryan’s Express.

http://www.nytimes.com/1978/06/22/archives/mark-robson-film-director-dies-did-champion-and-earthquake-praised.html?_r=0

1913: Birthdate of journalist Jesse Zel Lurie who wrote for the Palestine Post and the Jerusalem Post before spending 35 years as the editor of Hadassah Magazine “turning it from an 8 page newsletter into a nationally known Jewish” publication.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/jesse-lurie-longtime-hadassah-magazine-editor-dies-at-103/

1914: U.S. State Department informs American Jewish Committee that it will not expel Russian Jews who sought refuge in Turkey, but will permit them to become naturalized citizens.

1914: According to a report supplied by “Dr. Arthur Levy, a rabbi serving with the German Army,” this evening during Friday evening Sabbath services, the Russian “Governor appeared in Petrikau (Piortikow) with the police, ordered that the Scrolls of the Law be removed from the Holy Ark, and the Ark be searched for secret telephones which the Jews were charged with hiding there.”

1914: “Victim of Yellow Journalism” published today provided the views of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle of the case of Leo M. Frank of which it said “the state of public feeling being what it was he never had a chance for a fair trial. His case was for all practical purposes tried in the newspapers anda verdict of guilty assured before the first witness was sworn.”

1914: “In Glescow, 150 Jews were arrested as spies and dragged to Warsaw” by Russian authorities.

1915: It was reported today that “a new Jewish theological seminary” which will train Orthodox rabbis, making it the first of its kind in the United States will be opening in Manhattan.

1915: Lt. Hugo Gutmann was awarded the Iron Cross 1^st Class today.

1915(27^th of Kislev, 5676): Third Day of Chanukah; Parashat Miketz

1915(27^th of Kislev, 5676): Fifty-five year old New York political leader Andrew Freedman passed away today.

1915: In Bayonne, NJ, The Bayonne Zionist is scheduled to hold a Chanukah Ball this evening at the Bayonne Opera House Hall, “the proceeds of which will be used to build up the Zionist library.

1916: It was reported today that an additional $2,500 has been raised “for further work at the Hebrew National Orphan House” on Seventh Street with an annex on St. Mark’s Place.

1916: Judge Julian W. Mack’s description of the success enjoyed by the Federation plan used by the Jewish community in Chicago for the last 17 years was published today.

1917: British forces under General Allenby “launched an assault on Turkish positions all around Jerusalem.”

1917: Birthdate of Olympic fencing champion Daniel Bukantz, the decorated WW II combat veteran who also had a successful career as a dentist and who was one the five members on the U.S. foil team at the 1956 Olympics which was made up entirely of Jews

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/sports/olympics/31bukantz.html

1917: The Jewish Ministers’ Association of American which was organized in March and is led by President Aaron Yudelowitz of Boston held the opening session of its first annual convention in New York City.

1917: A total of $389, 941.50 was raised today on the “second day of the campaign to raise five million dollars for Jewish war relief and welfare work in the army and navy” meaning that in just two days, the campaign had raised $1,509,910.00.

1917: Today, while addressing “an assembly of Orthodox rabbis at the convention of the Jewish Minister’s Association of America the Young Men’s Hebrew Association Building, Nathan Strauss “condemned a resolution adopted by the rabbis in which they had expressed their gratitude to the British Government for ‘publicly declaring its sympathy with the Zionist movement and pledging itself to use it best endeavors to facilitate the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine” because he feared that “any Zionist agitation at the present time would tend to stimulate antagonism against Jews in any of the enemy countries” i.e. Germany and the Ottoman Empire

1917(19th of Kislev, 5678): Seventy-one year old Rabbi Jacob David Kallen passed away in Roxbury, MA.

1918: In Atlantic City, NJ, Rhea and Alfred Ettigner, 2 immigrant Jews, gave birth to Robert Chester Wilson Ettinger, a science fiction writer and physics instructor whose idea of freezing the dead for future reanimation repelled most scientists…and persuaded at least 105 game humans to pay $28,000 each to have their bodies preserved in liquid nitrogen at his Cryonics Institute in suburban Detroit…” (As reported by Paul Vitello)

1918: Birthdate of Milton Charles Calechman, the “brother of Harold Calechman.”

1919(12^th of Kislev, 5680): In Chicago, Paul Bittermann, the husband of Jessie Bitterman and the father of Pauline and Dorothy Bitterman passed away today.

1920(23^rd of Kislev, 5681): Parashat Vayeshev

1921: It was reported today that Dr. Maurice H. Harris who has been the rabbi at Temple Israel for forty years of the fifty year old congregation said that he hoped his desire to see the new building fully paid for would not be seen as a lack of humility on his part but rather as what he would consider “the crowning glory” of his four decades of service.

1922: Birthdate of Isaac Neuman, the native of Zdunska Wola, Poland who survived the Holocaust who served as the rabbi at Sinai Temple in Champaign, Illinois and served as “spiritual leader for the Jewish community for 40 years.

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2013-01-13/longtime-local-rabbi-remains-forever-grateful-sparks-holiness-during-dark-time

1922(14th of Kislev, 5683): Centenarian Abraham Manning “the oldest Jewish resident of” Utica New York and a 25 year veteran of “the Russian Army” who “gained the unusual distinction of being made a member of the Russian Emperor’s body guard” passed away today.

1923: Sixty one year old anti-Semitic journalist August-Maurice Barres who wrote “That Dreyfus is guilty I deduce not from the facts themselves but from his race” passed away today.

1923:Premiere ofCecil B DeMille’s original version of the "Ten Commandments."

1923: The Eveready Hour, which starred Nathaniel Shilkret as the conductor premiered today.

1924:”Greed” a silent film directed and co-produced by Erich von Stroheim who also co-authored the script and also co-produced by Irving Thalberg was released in the United States today.

1924: In the Bronx, “Harry Weinberg and Helen Jordon Weinberg” gave birth to Melvin Weinberg, the conman who was a key player in the Abscam Scandal.(As reported by Robert D. McFadden)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/06/obituaries/mel-weinberg-dead-abscam-informant.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

1926: Einstein sent Max Born a letter today in which he said, Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the 'old one'. I, at any rate, am convinced that He is not playing at dice” (This is often paraphrased as “God does not play dice)

1927: Birthdate of John McCandlish Phillips Jr, The New York Times reporter who wrote one of the most famous articles in the newspaper’s history — exposing the Orthodox Jewish background of a senior Ku Klux Klan official, Daniel Burros. (As reported by Margalit Fox)

1927: In Poughkeepsie, NY, “Philip Morowitz, a newspaper and magazine distributor, and the former Anna Levine” gave birth to biophysicist Harold Joseph Morowitz. (As reported by Sam Roberts)

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/02/science/harold-morowitz-biophysicist-who-tackled-enigmas-big-and-small-dies-at-88.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

1928, Goldman Sachs launched the Goldman Sachs Trading Corp. a closed-end fund with characteristics similar to that of a Ponzi scheme. “The fund failed as a result of the Stock Market Crash of 1929, hurting the firm's reputation for several years afterward.

1928: Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn's musical "Whoopee" premiered in New York. Kahn was one of a number of Jewish lyricists who created hit songs for Broadway and Hollywood

1928: Members of "Kvuzat HaHugim" and members of "Tnuat HaMahanot HaOlim" from Haifa and Jerusalem founded Beit HaShita, the kibbutz named after the biblical town of the same name, where the Midianites fled after being beaten by Gideon. Eleven members of this idyllic Jewish community were killed during the Yom Kippur War meaning it lost “the largest number as a percentage of the population than any other community in Israel.”

1932: “Flying Gold,” a crime film directed by Steve Sekely who moved to Hollywood to escape the rise of fascism in his native country, was released today in Hungary.

1933(15th of Kislev, 5694): Emile Meyerson passed away. Born in 1859, Meyerson was Polish-born French chemist and philosopher of science whose concepts of rational understanding based on realism and causalism were popular among scientific theorists in the 1930s. An anti-positivist, he argued, for example in Identity and Reality (1908) that scientific knowledge attempts to reach beyond mere descriptive and predictive laws to an understanding of the nature of the reality beyond appearances. The human mind seeks the permanent behind phenomenal change, the identity within diversity as exemplified in conservation laws, such as the law of inertia and the law of conservation of energy. And yet this identity which our reason apprehends (or perhaps constructs) cannot embrace the totality of reality, for there is also change.

1935: “With the implementation of the Nuremberg Laws,” eighty-five year old historian Ernst Bernheim lost his German citizenship today.

1936: The Palestine Post reported on the daily work of the Peel Commission and included the rumor that one or two of the Commissioners were starting to feel the pressure of their continuous and arduous work.

1936: “A list of 650 legal books by Jewish authors which are to be removed from all libraries in Germany and boycotted in the future has been withdrawn” because “several authors listed as Jews were found to be members of the National Socialist party” and “many writers who are really Jewish were not included.”

1937: In Norwich, CN, Asher and Annette Libo gave birth to Kenneth Harold Libo “a historian of Jewish immigration who, as a graduate student working for Irving Howe in the 1960s and ’70s, unearthed historical documentation that informed and shaped “World of Our Fathers,” Mr. Howe’s landmark 1976 history of the East European Jewish migration to America” (As reported by Paul Vitello)

1938: Ghalib Budairi, a member of a prominent Arab family was found by British troops tonight lying wounded on a street in Jaffa, the apparent victim of Arabs who, as part of their uprising, have been attacking Jews, Englishman and Arabs who are not supporting their efforts.

1938:Father Charles Coughlin gave a national radio address in which he attacked the "Jewish international banking houses." (As reported by Austin Cline)

1938: Tehilla Lichtenstein first took the pulpit as the leader of the Society of Jewish Science in New York City, giving a sermon entitled “The Power of Thought.” Her topic reflected the Society’s idea, borrowed from Christian Science, that God’s healing power lies within each individual. With this service, Lichtenstein became the spiritual leader of the Congregation of Jewish Science in New York—the first woman to serve as the spiritual leader of any American Jewish congregation. Born in Jerusalem in 1893, Lichtenstein had left doctoral work in English at Columbia University to marry Morris Lichtenstein, a Reform rabbi, in 1920. Together, the Lichtensteins established the Society of Jewish Science in 1922. The Lichtensteins hoped to create a variant of Judaism that could offer the spiritual sustenance that they believed too many Jews were finding within Christian Science. They showed that through Judaism, as through Christian Science, one could emphasize spirituality, the goodness of God, and the effectiveness of prayer. Unlike Christian Science, Jewish Science did not deny the benefits of modern medicine. Rather, it attempted to harmonize Judaism with science. They believed that their program of meditation, affirmation and visualization would reveal that in its essence, Judaism was the highest of healing sciences. During the early years of the Society, Tehilla Lichenstein ran the Society religious school where she taught Hebrew and Bible and edited its monthly journal, the Jewish Science Interpreter. When Morris Lichtenstein died in 1938, Tehilla became the spiritual leader of the Society. Illustrating her view of Judaism as a practical religion, Lichtenstein’s early sermons included the topics “Seven Rules for Happy Living” and “When is War Justified?”. Although some of Lichtenstein’s teachings drew on her own experiences as a wife and mother and focused on interpersonal relationships, she also gave sermons taking up such issues as Soviet foreign policy and anti-Semitism in post-war America. In addition to her regular sermons, Lichtenstein continued to edit the Interpreter, taught classes in Jewish Science, and trained members of the Society to become spiritual healers. In the 1950s, she hosted a weekly radio program. She continued to preach from

1939: In Washington, DC, “the creation of an army of 200,000 Jews to be recruited in the United States, Palestine and other countries was urged tonight in a series of resolutions adopted at a conference called by Dr. Samuel Harden Church president of the Carnegie Institute and chairman of the new committee for a Jewish Army.”

1940:August Marian Kowalczyk, was arrested today while trying to cross the border with Czechoslovakia so he could join the Polish Army in France and sent to Auschwitz. (He would become the last survivor of the breakout attempt from that camp in June of 1942.

1941: Nazi ordinances placed the Jews of Poland outside protection of courts

1941: Himmler issued strict instructions to Frederich Jeckeln that no mass murders of deported German Jews were to occur without his express orders: "The Jews deported into the territory of the Ostland are to be dealt with only according to the guideline given by me and the Reich Security Main Office acting on my behalf. I will punish unilateral acts and violations.

1941: Betty Warner, the daughter of movie mogul Harry Warner and Milton Sperling gave birth to their first child Susan, today.

1942(25^thof Kislev, 5703): Chanukah

1942(25^thof Kislev, 5703): Fifty-nine year old Austrian “librettist, lyricist and writer” Fritz Löhner-Beda was murdered in Auschwitz III Monowitz concentration camp

http://holocaustmusic.ort.org/places/camps/central-europe/buchenwald/lhner-bedafritz/

1942: During the Holocaust, two Christian women, Zofia Kossak and Wanda Filipowicz risked theirlives by setting up the Council for the Assistance of the Jews in Warsaw.

1942: “Thunder Rock” a movie version of the 1939 play of the same name featuring Lilli Palmer with music by Mutz Greenbaum was released today in the United Kingdom today.

1943: During World War II, in Yugoslavia, resistance leader Marshal Tito proclaims a provisional democratic Yugoslav government in-exile. Originally there had been two resistance movements in Yugoslavia – Tito’s which was multi-ethnic and included Jewish partisans and the Chetniks, led by a Serbian named Draza Mihailovich who would become an ally of the Axis and a practitioner of ethnic cleansing.

1943: In Manhattan, the former Bernice Landau and her husband, both of whom were “Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe” gave birth to Paul Jonathan Novograd the last owner of New York’s Claremont Riding Academy.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/27/nyregion/paul-novograd-dead-ran-claremont-riding-academy-in-manhattan.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

1944: The Kasztner transport carrying 1,361 Jews left Bergen Belsen heading for the Swiss border. For more see Gaylen Ross’ “Killing Kasztner” http://www.killingkasztner.com/

1945: By a vote of 65 to 7, the United States Senate approves United States participation in the United Nations. This was a sign that the United States would not retreat into Isolationism as it had at the end of World War I. More importantly, by joining the UN, the United States was able to support measures that ended the British Mandate in Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel.

1946: Guy M. Gillette, the former U.S. Senator from Iowa who is president of the pro-Zionist American League for a Free Palestine, denied charges by Rabbi Judah Magnes that “A Flag Is Born,” a play sponsored by the league, “makes an open appeal for funds for the purchase of arms for terrorist groups in Palestine.” Gillette insisted that all funds raised by the Ben Hecht play go the Reparation Fund chaired by Hecht, Will Rogers, Jr. and Louis Bromfield.

1947: “The Judges' Trial ended in Nuremberg” with “10 of the 15 German jurists and lawyers on trial being found guilty of Nazi war crimes and given prison sentences of varying lengths, including life for four of them.”

1947: “The Egyptian government banned public demonstrations in Cairo after police clashed with 15,000 marchers protesting against the partition of Palestine.”

1948:The UN General Assembly Political and Security Committee passes a British-Canadian plan for a council commission on Palestine to negotiate a final peace settlement. The plan calls for (1) commission members to be appointed by Big Five; (2) an international Jerusalem; (3) a small UN guard to protect commission; and (4) aid to refugees. (The plan will be dead on arrival since it does not recognized the realities on the ground and the continued unwillingness of the Arabs to accept the creation of the Jewish state,)

1949: “Aubrey S. Eban, permanent delegate of Israeli to the United Nations, declared today that the economy of Israel was basically sound, otherwise it never could have sustained the simultaneous burdens of military defense and mass immigration.

1949: In Norwalk, CT, Barbara Freedman Berg and Dick Berg gave birth to Pulitzer Prize winning biographer Andrew Scott Berg.

1950(25^thof Kislev, 5711): During the first winter of the Korean War, Chanukah

1950: In Passaic, New Jersey, Morris Goldberger and Edna Kronman gave birth to architect and Vanity Fair editor Paul Goldberger.

1951: Having survived the ghetto in Kielce, Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen, seventeen year old Thomas Buergenthal “emigrated from Germany to the United States” today where he pursued a legal education which led to him serving as a Judge of the International Court of Justice from 2000 to 2010.

1951: AaronCopland’s “Pied Piper," premieres in New York City.

1952: “Two’s Company” a musical revue with lyrics by Sammy Cahn, directed by Jules Dassin and choreographed by Jerome Robbins did not open on Broadway as scheduled due to the illness of one of the leading stars.

1952: “Million Dollar Mermaid” a biopic directed by Mervyn LeRoy was released in the United States today by MGM.

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the cabinet approved the resignation of Lt.-Gen Yigael Yadin, the second chief of General Staff, and appointed Maj.-Gen. Mordechai Makleff as his successor. Yigael Yadin was one of those amazing figures who helped to form Israel in the early days of the Jewish state. A sabra, born in 1917, Yadin was the son of the famed Eliezer Sukenik of Dead Scrolls fame. Just prior to, and during the War for Independence, Yadin was the acting chief of staff of the Jewish military forces. After the war he was the first chief of staff of the IDF and created the mold for the military that is followed to this day. After leaving the military, Yadin pursued a career in archaeology which was so successful that almost overshadowed his military successes. He passed away in 1984.

1953: Eighty year old Russian born NYU Law School graduate Alice Petluck, “the first woman lawyer to practice in the Federal District Court in the Southern District of New York and the first of her sex to argue a case in the Appellate Division, First Department who co-founded the Bronx Women’s Bar Association after the Bronx Bar Associated rejected her “because she was a woman and who was the husband of Dr. Joseph Petluck with whom she had three children – Charles, Ann and Robert – all of whom became lawyers passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1953/12/11/92769131.pdf

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/petluck-alice-s

1956(30^thof Kislev, 5717) Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah

1956(30^thof Kislev, 5717): Eighty-four year old Charles Garfunkel, the husband of Lina Adler Garfunkel and he father of Sylvan and Benjamin Garfunkel passedawat tidat,

1956: A month after opening on Broadway at the Majestic Theatre, “Fanny” a musical with lyrics and music by Harold Rome and a book co-authored by S.N. Behrman transferred to the Belasco Theatre.

1959: “The Stranglers of Bombay” a horror movie written by David Zelag Goodman was released today in the United Kingdom.

1960(15^thof Kislev, 5721): Seventy-four year old Austrian born City College alum and WW I Army veteran Jacob Field “a tax consultant, former I.R.S. revenue officer” and “regional director of the American Joint Distribution Committee in Minsk” who was the husband of “Mrs. Minna Field, the author of Patients Are People: A Medical-Social Approach to Prolonged Illness passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/12/05/99827816.pdf

1960(15^thof Kislev, 5721): Fifty-seven year old composer and conductor Walter Goehr who was forced to leave Germany, like so many of his contemporaries because he was Jewish passed away today “in City Hall, Sheffield, United Kingdom, today immediately after conducting a performance of Handel's Messiah.”

http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Goehr-Walter.htm

1967(2^ndof Kislev, 5728) Ninety-year old Columbia graduate and American diplomat Lewis Einstein, the New York born son of the former Caroline Fatman and “wool magnate David Lewis” who counted Judah P. Benjamin among his relatives passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/12/05/82164138.pdf

1967(2nd of Kislev, 5728): Bert Lahr, the Cowardly Lion from “The Wizard of Oz” passed away. The famed actor changed his from Lahrheim to Lahr. He was the last of the Jews in his family line.

1968: “Where Eagles Dare” the film version of the novel produced by Elliot Kastner and Jerry Gershwin was released today in the United Kingdom.

1970: “The Garden of the Finzi-Continis” a film version of the novel by the same name produced by Arthur Cohn and Artur Brauner was released today in Italy.

1971: Birthdate of American screenwriter and producer Adam Horwoitz, creator of the “ABC fantasy series “Once Upon a Time.”

1972(28^thof Kislev, 5733): Seventy-seven year old Israeli political leader Kadish Luz passed away at Degania Bet.

1973: Funeral services are scheduled to be held today at Temple Emanu-El for seventy year old “apparel manufacturer” whose philanthropic activities were of such a magnitude he was awarded the Medal of Merit by President Truman.

https://www.nytimes.com/1970/11/29/archives/irving-geist-benefactor-dead-manufacturer-and-developer-70-promoter.html

1974: Birthdate of Irish cricketer Jason Molins the Dublin native who is a right-handed batsman

1975(29th of Kislev, 5736): Hannah Arendt passed away.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/29/movies/hannah-arendt-with-barbara-sukowa-and-janet-mcteer.html?_r=0

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/misreading-hannah-arendts-eichmann-in-jerusalem/

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/arendt.html

1976: In Israel, “three young Palestinian killed themselves while building a bomb.”

1976: In New York City, novelist Fred Waitzkin, the author of Searching for Bobby Fischer: The Father of a Prodigy Observes the World of Chess and his wife gave birth to chess prodigy Joshua Waitzkin.

1977:Neil Simon's "Chapter Two" premiered in New York City.

1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that President Anwar Sadat and the Egyptian government were disappointed by what they regarded as an insufficiently forthcoming Israeli response to Sadat's historic visit to Jerusalem. Sadat was reported to be still expecting a 'dramatic' Israeli concession at the planned Cairo meeting which he hoped would advance the success of the reconvened Geneva peace conference. Prime Minister Menachem Begin arrived in Britain for a five-day official visit 'to renew the covenant signed by the British people and the Jewish people 60 years earlier on that unforgettable Lord Balfour Day, of November 2, 1917.'

1977: After 22 performances the curtain came down on Uncommon Women and Others the first play by Wendy Wasserstein.

1978: Dianne Feinstein is named the 1st female mayor of San Francisco.

1978(4th of Kislev, 5739): Samuel Abraham Goldsmithpassed away. Born in 1902, Goldsmith was a Dutch-born U.S. physicist who, with George E. Uhlenbeck, a fellow graduate student at the University of Leiden, Netherlands, formulated (1925) the concept of electron spin. It led to recognition that spin was a property of protons, neutrons, and most elementary particles and to a fundamental change in the mathematical structure of quantum mechanics. Goldsmith also made the first measurement of nuclear spin and its Zeeman Effect with Ernst Back (1926-27), developed a theory of hyperfine structure of spectral lines, made the first spectroscopic determination of nuclear magnetic moments (1931-33), contributed to the theory of complex atoms and the theory of multiple scattering of electrons, and invented the magnetic time-of-flight mass spectrometer (1948).

1982(18^thof Kislev, 5743): Parshat Vayishlach

1982(18^thof Kislev, 5743): Eighty-one year old Harry Mordecai Freedman, the Russian born son of Barnett Freedman and Beila Henah and husband of Rebecca Ginsberg who served as a rabbi in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States while establishing a reputation as a great Hebrew scholar passed away today in Melbourne.

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/freedman-harry-mordecai-12510

1983: “Baby” the David Shire musical opened on Broadway today at the Ethel Barrymore Family.

1983:The Anatomy Lessonby Philip Roth, The Price of Power by Seymour M. Hersh and The Rosenberg File by Ronald Radosh are among the twelve books chosen by the New York Times Book Review to the best books published in the country during the preceding year.

1985: “Les Misérables” a musical version of the French novel with lyrics and book by Alain Boublil “transferred to the West End’s Palace Theatre” today where it became “the longest-running musical in West End history.

1986: Neil Simon's "Broadway Bound" premiered in New York.

1988(25th of Kislev, 5749): The First Day of Chanukah; in the evening, kindle the second light

1988: The five Soviet citizens involved in the hijacking of an Aeroflot plane to Israel on Friday were sent back to the Soviet Union today in two Soviet planes. Four men and a woman, who was originally thought to be a hijacker but was later identified by Soviet officials as a victim of the hijacking, were escorted aboard the hijacked plane and a second Aeroflot plane sent today from Moscow to collect them. The Soviet authorities dispatched a team of 19 police investigators and doctors to Israel on the second passenger jet after officially requesting that Israel return the four hijackers and the woman to the Soviet Union. Early in the day, a Foreign Ministry spokesman made it clear that Israel intended ''to send the hijackers back as soon as possible, as we have no reason whatsoever to hold them here.'' He said the five Soviet citizens, who were in police custody near Tel Aviv, would be released after the ministry's legal advisers finished examining the extradition procedures. No Extradition Treaty ''We have signed international agreements regarding the extradition of hijackers and we want to be sure to keep up with them,'' the spokesman, Alon Liel, said. There is no extradition treaty between Israel and the Soviet Union, which have not had diplomatic relations since 1967. In the end, the Government decided to return the Soviets under Israel's Law of Entry, which empowers the Interior Minister to deport individuals who enter the country illegally. This method was apparently chosen to avoid the 30-day waiting period required by a court-ordered expulsion. The eight-man crew of the hijacked jet spent Friday night in the same Tel Aviv hotel as a Soviet consular delegation now working in Israel. When they tried to leave the hotel to stroll on the Tel Aviv seashore today, they were mobbed by people. The crew was taken to the airport shortly before two Soviet planes were scheduled to depart. On the tarmac, the Israeli authorities handed over to Soviet officials several sacks containing approximately $2 million in various currencies, including rubles, that the hijackers had taken as ransom and brought with them on the plane. The Israelis also gave the Soviet authorities four pistols and a hunting rifle the hijackers had carried. The Soviet officials signed receipts for the money and guns. Events Not in Question Mr. Liel said the Israeli Government had no doubt about the authenticity of the Soviet Union's description of events leading up to the hijacking of the plane and its subsequent landing in Israel. ''The picture we got from the Soviets and from the criminals themselves is almost identical,'' he said. ''There was some doubt about the woman at first but the Soviets made it clear she was brought against her will. We are sorry we first spoke of five hijackers.'' The bizarre hijacking began on Thursday in the south Russian town of Ordzhonikidze, where the four men commandeered a bus full of children and demanded money and a plane to fly them to a Western nation. K.G.B. officials brought the woman, Tamara Mikhailova, who is the ex-wife of a gang member, Pavel Yakshiyants, to the scene to implore him to surrender. Instead there was a stand-off that lasted 22 hours. Mr. Yakshiyants, whom the Soviets described as a drug addict with a criminal record, took some of the children and Miss Mikhailova onto the Aeroflot plane given them by the authorities. They also received sacks of money in different currencies, which Israeli officials later said was worth $2 million. Children Released According to the K.G.B., Mr. Yakshiyants and the other hijackers released the remaining children minutes before the plane took off. Miss Mikhailova was forced to fly with the hijackers and the aircraft's crew to Israel. The news that the unidentified hijackers had demanded to be flown to Israel caused confusion and some alarm here. Hundreds of police and soldiers were deployed at Ben Gurion airport to cope with the possibility that the plane bore terrorists. But once the aircraft landed, the hijackers surrendered to the army after brief discussions, during which they were mostly concerned with making sure they were in Israel and not Syria. Israeli police today identified the other hijackers as Vladimir Morbalov, Volodiya Anastasev, and Germand Vishnikov. They said Mr. Vishnikov is 22 years old, but the ages and occupatons of the other men are not known.

1988: Israel's stock market in Tel Aviv was hit by a 24-hour strike by employees today, and share trading was halted. Israeli news reports said the market was expected to reopen today. The strike was called after contract negotiations stalled over who would arbitrate a dispute about seniority benefits, the Haaretz daily said.

1989: Today, The Baltimore Evening Sun published excerpts from the “previously secret diary” of H.L.Mencken in which he “discloses virulent anti-Semitism, racism and pro-Nazi leanings…”

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-12-05-mn-198-story.html

1990: An Israeli military court sentenced 12 Palestinian guerrillas today to 30 years in prison for a foiled seaborne raid in May that prompted Washington to sever its contacts with the Palestine Liberation Organization. Israeli forces killed 4 Palestinians and captured 12 in the attempted speedboat raid on beaches near Tel Aviv. The captured men were convicted last month of membership in a terrorist group, illegal possession of arms and attempted murder. The Palestine Liberation Front, a P.L.O. faction led by Abul Abbas, was behind the assault.

1993: Daniel Schorr delivered the eulogy for the late composer Frank Zappa today on NPR.

1993:Talal al-Bakri's living came from selling vegetables in Hebron. His death came from traveling past this neighboring Jewish settlement. Someone in a group of Israelis waving submachine guns here today put a bullet in his head. Five Israelis have been arrested in connection with the case.

1994: Tony Kushner’s "Angels in America-Millennium Approaches" closes after 367 performances.

1995(11^thof Kislev, 5756): Seventy-seven year old Jack Rotman, who played at Boston University from 1938-1940 where he was a two-time All-New England selection passed away today.

1995:The confessed assassin of Yitzhak Rabin suggested today that one of the slain Prime Minister's bodyguards had been an accomplice in the shooting. The killer, Yigal Amir, asserted that if he told everything he knew, it "would turn the country upside down." Mr. Amir spoke to reporters before the start of a hearing at the Tel Aviv Magistrate Court, where he was ordered held in custody for four more days. Police officers and the presiding judge, Dan Arbel, cut Mr. Amir off, as they have several times in the past, to prevent him from using the courtroom as a platform for his opinions. Israel Radio did not even carry Mr. Amir's voice in its news roundups today, referring to his statements only as "abusive language."

1996: “Oui” a French comedy costarring Dany Boon as “Wilfried” was released today in France.

1997:"Diary of Anne Frank" opens at Music Box Theater New York City.

1997(5th of Kislev, 5758): Joseph Wolpe passed away. Born in 1915, Wolpe was aSouth African-born American psychotherapist who helped usher in cognitive behavioral therapy during the 1960s; he devised a treatment to help desensitize patients with phobias by exposing them to their fears incrementally. He worked on systematic desensitization with a methodology designed to treat people with extreme anxiety about specific events, situations, things, or people. His approach involved developing a hierarchy of anxiety-provoking situations, learning relaxation techniques, then associating these situations with relaxation, beginning at the bottom, or least anxiety-provoking, part of the hierarchy. He founded the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy and the Journal of Behavior Therapy.

1999(25^thof Kislev, 5760): Chanukah

1999: Shanghai Jews were permitted to use Ohel Rache Synagogue for Chanukah services.

2001: The United States froze the financial assets of organizations allegedly linked to Hamas, the group that claimed responsibility recent deadly suicide attacks in Israel.

2001: Today’s search of the Home Land Foundation’s offices by the government led to a lawsuit with prosecutors claiming that the Judith Miller had queried the Islamic charity in such a way that it made the members aware of the planned searches.

2002:On the morning of the second Hanukkah lighting and party President Bush met with Jewish leaders in the Roosevelt Room. Jay Lefkowitz, an observant Jew who was chief of the president's Domestic Policy Council, remembered that one participant stood up and said that some 60 years earlier, his father had been part of a delegation of Jewish leaders who sought to meet with President Franklin D. Roosevelt to urge that the U.S. bomb railroad tracks to impede the Nazis' ability to kill Jews in concentration camps. The Jewish leaders never got a meeting, and Roosevelt never took action to thwart Hitler's genocide. He said it would divert resources from the effort to win the war. "Mr. President," the man said to Bush, "I think I can speak for everyone in this room when I say that if you had been president, there would be millions more of us alive today."

2004: After only a week on the Job, Victor Bailovsky lost his job as Science and Technology Minister when his party left the governing coalition.

2004: Avraham Poraz completed his term as Minister of Internal Affairs.

2004: “Christmas at Water’s Edge” co-starring Tom Bosley was released today in the United States.

2004: Eliezer Sandberg completed his term as Minister of Energy and Water Resources.

2004: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ousted Avraham Poraz from his position as Interior Minister. Poraz was a member of the Shinui party. When Shinui voted against Sharon’s budget, he removed all members of the party from his government.

2005: During his talk SPORT show today Charles Wolf described Rachel Corrie, an American peace activist who had been killed by an Israeli military bulldozer, as "scum." Ofcom would later rule this comment to be in breach of the "Generally Accepted Standards" section of the Broadcasting Code and stated it was "seriously ill-judged".

2005(4th of Kislev, 5766): Eighty-eight year old “German born Israeli woodcut artist and art collector” Jacob Otto Pins passed away today.

2005: Opening session of the Conservative movement’s biennial convention in Boston, MA where leaders will be unveiling a more a liberal and aggressive outreach program.

2005: In an interview with Time Magazine, movie director Steven Spielberg said his new film "Munich," the story of Israel's revenge for the killing of its athletes by Palestinian guerrillas at the 1972 Olympics, is "a prayer for peace." The man who brought the world “Schindler’s List” and the “Shoah Project” is very proud of the fact that "Munich" doesn't demonize either the Israeli or Palestinian side. Spielberg says that “the biggest enemy is not the Palestinians or the Israelis. The biggest enemy in the region is intransigence." Such an evenhanded treatment does not seem to jibe with the facts. Palestinian terrorists invaded the Olympic Village, seized the Israeli Olympic team and later murdered them.

2006(13th of Kislev, 5767): Arthur Shimkin, Grammy Award winning producer of children’s records passed away at the age of 84. In one of those cultural ironies that are part of Jewish History, Shimkin produced the Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer album sung by Jimmy Durante.

2006: While appearing on his late night television show, comedian Stephen Colbert jokingly took credit for the recent nuptials of two Jewish Democratic congressmen – Brad Sherman of California and Steven Rothman of New Jersey. Sherman married Lisa Kaplan, a State Department anti-Semitism expert. Rothman found his new wife, Jennifer Beckenstein on JDate.com. Jewish love- isn’t it grand?

2006: The Hebrew Free Burial Association (HFBA) “launched a Russian edition of their website to further reach out to members of that community. The HFBA was established in 1888 as a free burial society for Jews living on the Lower East Side. As Jews moved into other communities, the association widened its service area and today it is the largest burial society outside of the state of Israel.

2006: Dennis Prager continued to defend his contention that Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress should be allowed to take the oath of office using a Koran because “the act undermines American Civilization”

2007: Michael Korda appeared at the 92^nd Street Y in New York City. Michael Korda has written the first major single-volume biography of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, exploring a great general and an important president—a man who won the war and kept the peace. Korda’s previous books include Charmed Lives: A Family Romance, Queenie,Ulysses S. Grant: The Unlikely Hero and Journey to a Revolution: A Personal Memoir and History of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.

2007: The Center for Jewish History presents a special screening of “The Year My Parents Went on Vacation”, Brazil's Official Selection for the 2008 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

2007: The Jewish Aggies, a student group at Texas A&M, lit the largest menorah in the state of Texas.

2008: Final night of the 2008 Oud Festival sponsored by Confederation House.

2008: At the Chabad House in Iowa City a genuine Simchah – the Brit Milah of the son of Avremel & Chaya Blesofsky

2008: The Labor Party is scheduled to hold its primary which was postponed after computerized voting systems malfunctioned in several locales around the country on December 2.

2008: A Kassam rocket landed near Sderot, causing no casualties or damage.

2009: “1943, A pause during the Holocaust” a film based on Angelo Donati’s rescue of 2,500 Jews trapped in Nice was “shown for the first

http://www.filmsdocumentaires.com/films/949-1943-a-pause-in-the-holocaust

2009: The 20^th Washington Jewish Film Festival features a matinee presentation of A Matter of Size (Sipur Gadol).

2009: At Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, IA, Friday Night Services mark the start of the Third Season of Musical Shabbat.

2009: Police arrested a man from Baka al-Gharbiya for orchestrating an extorition attempt aimed at McDonald's of Israel.

2010:Shalshelet’s 4th International Festival at Congregation Ansche Chesed, New York City.

2010: “Gruber’s Journey,” “The Debt,” “Mary Lou” and “Phovidilia” are scheduled to be shown tonight at the 21^st Washington Jewish Film Festival.

2010: Gabe Finn was called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, IA.

2010: The 12^th Jerusalem Film Festival opened at the Jerusalem Cinematheque

2010:Jerry Herman was among the five 2010 Kennedy Center Honorees who were feted at tonight's gala in Washington, D.C.

2010: In “'Candlelight': 2010's Hanukkah anthem” Monica Hesse traces the rise of the Maccebeats

The field of Chanukah music was wide “open for the harmonizing Maccabeats, whose YouTube video of "Candlelight" (jauntily sung to the tune of Taio Cruz's "Dynamite") reached nearly 1 million views in less than eight days.

How a 14-Man A Cappella Group from Yeshiva University Created the Hanukkah Anthem of 2010:

Step 1: Flip your latkes in the air (sometimes)

"The whole message of Yeshiva University is that you can be an Orthodox Jew andparticipate in secular society," says Immanuel Shalev, who wrote the song's lyrics. The group had already covered Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," replacing the lyrics with Hebrew scripture. When Shalev found himself listening to Cruz singing "I throw my hands up in the air sometimes" and mentally replacing them with "I flip my latkes in the air sometimes, singing ay-oh, spin the dreidel," he knew he was onto something.

Step 2: Be resourceful

Uri Westrich, a medical student and Yeshiva grad, had made a video for the Maccabeats before - a rendition of "One Day" that reached a modestly successful 100,000 hits. The group asked him if he could direct their new idea. "I said, 'Let's add a reenactment! And let's add a Hanukkah party!'" He recruited three beefy friends to play the Greeks who battled the ancient Maccabees and rustled up some greenery for the Greeks' laurel wreaths.

"We basically wanted to hit our target audience of the Orthodox Jewish community in New York," Westrich says - the people who normally hired the Maccabeats for live performances. (From the Maccabeats Web site: "Having the Maccabeats is the perfect way to energize and enhance your Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Sheva Brachot, or simcha of any kind.")

Step 3: Achieve local, then national, fame

After the song was uploaded, Shalev was in the library when he noticed that everyone around him seemed to be whistling the song. He went to grab a slice of pizza, and the cashier congratulated him.

The video was widely blogged online, hitting influential ones like BoingBoing.net. The Maccabeats were invited on CBS's "Early Show," and the video appeared on "Today." The chief rabbi of London phoned to see about a possible video collaboration. They heard from Jay Leno's people, but that's still up in the air.

Meanwhile, "Every four minutes, I'm getting another request," says Maccabeat director and singer Julian Horowitz. "They keep asking, 'When are you going to be in Israel on tour,' or 'When are you going to be in London?" says Horowitz, pointing out that the group won't be going anywhere but to final exams. "It's like they think we're the Rolling Stones."

Step 4: Win your elders' respect

"Last night, we opened up for Matisyahu, you know, the first celebrity Orthodox reggae artist," Shalev says. The Maccabeats are all fans, so this was a huge honor.

And although the Maccabeats were supposed to be just the opening act, "It was obvious," Shalev says modestly, "that the crowd was very, very excited about us."

2011: “The Kissinger Saga: Walter and Henry Kissinger, Two Brothers From Feurth,” is among the films scheduled to shown on the second day of the Washington Jewish Film Festival.

2011: The Temple Sinai Sisterhood Chanukah Bazaar is scheduled to take place a New Orleans’ largest Reform congregation.

2011: Soccer player Camille Levin, a graduate of the Tarbut V’Torah Community Day School in Irvine, CA set up the winning goal scored by her teammate which finally led to Stanford University winning the NCAA College Cup.

http://jwa.org/thisweek/dec/04/2011/camille-levin

2011: “A commemorative plaque to Władysław Szpilman in Polish and English was unveiled at 223 Niepodległości Avenue in Warsaw in the presence of his wife, Halina (Grzecznarowski) Szpilman, son Andrzej and Wilm Hosenfeld's daughter Jorinde Krejci-Hosenfeld

2011: As a sign of the vibrancy of the Cedar Rapids Jewish community Diane Handler and Robert Becker are scheduled to host Temple Judah’s first annual adult congregational cocktail party.

2011: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Howard Cosell: The Man, the Myth and the Transformation of American Sports” by Mark Ribowsky, “Balzac’s Omeltte” by Anka Mulstein (the great-great-granddaughter of James de Rothschild) and “MetaMaus” by Art Spiegelman as well as three children’s books about Chanukah: “The Golem’s Latkes” by Eric A. Kimmel, “Chanukah Lights” by Michael J. Rosen and “The Story of Hanukkah” by David Adler.

2011: The epicenter of an earthquake felt across northern Israel today was in the Hula and Sea of Galilee (Kinneret) area, the Geophysical Institute of Israel stated.

2011: Israel’s decision to release frozen public funds to the Palestinians last week came after Germany insisted it did so as a condition for the completion of the sale of a submarine, a German newspaper reported today.

2011: A commemorative plaque to pianist and Holocaust survivor Władysław Szpilman in Polish and English was unveiled at 223 Niepodległości Avenue in Warsaw in the presence of his wife, Halina (Grzecznarowski) Szpilman, son Andrzej and Wilm Hosenfeld's daughter Jorinde

2012: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to honor Baron David de Rothschild at its 87^th Annual Benefit Dinner.

2012: Professor Jonathan Sarna is scheduled to discuss “When General Grant Expelled the Jews with Jonathan Karp, Executive Director, American Jewish Historical Society at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. (A book and an evening not to be missed)

2012: Rabbi Bruce Aft of Congregation Adat Reyim is scheduled to lead a discussion of “A Century Catholic-Jewish Relations” under the auspices of the JCCNV.

2012(20^thof Kislev): For Chabad Chasidim “the 20th of Kislev is like the second day of Rosh Hashanah. Just as the two days of Rosh Hashanah are considered a single “long day” (יומא אריכתא ) so the 19th and 20th of Kislev are considered a single long day marking the redemption of the Alter Rebbe and a turning point in the history of Chassidut. The 19th of Kislev was the day on which the Alter Rebbe was released from prison and acquitted of the charges against him. But, what happened on the 20th of Kislev? Historically, after the Alter Rebbe was released, he was taken to S. Peterburg to the house of a wealthy local Jew. It seemed all good and well, but that house was the house of one of the greatest mitnagdim, those who opposed the Chassidic movement and were responsible for the Alter Rebbe’s incarceration in the first place. And so, the Alter Rebbe had to stay with this Jew and his family for a few hours until he left his house on the 20th of Kislev. (From the teachings of Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh)

2012: “Insular and Torn, Straight From Hasidic Brooklyn” published today provides a review of ‘My Name Is Asher Lev’ playing at the Westside Theatre.

http://theater.nytimes.com/2012/12/05/theater/reviews/my-name-is-asher-lev-at-the-westside-theater.html?adxnnl=1&hpw=&adxnnlx=1354665583-RbTgbfAMtciUo0m8rSGgdA

2012: French police toda announced that they had arrested a man and a woman in connection with the Toulouse shootings in March, in which Mohammed Merah, a French-Algerian Islamist, killed a rabbi and three children at a Jewish school, several days after gunning down four French paratroopers in two separate attacks.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/french-police-arrest-two-in-connection-with-toulouse-killings/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=81eed89c4d-2012_12_04&utm_medium=email

2012: Tzipi Livni, the head of the Hatnua (The Movement) party, today lambasted the government for its handling of the fallout from the Palestinians’ successful UN status-upgrade gambit, saying that its apparently punitive decision to construct thousands of housing units in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, including in the controversial E1 corridor between the capital and the settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim, was detrimental to Israel’s security interests.

2013: In Coralville, Iowa, Agudas Achim is scheduled to host its annual Chanukah Party.

2013(30^thof Kislev, 5774): Ninety-two year old Lila Perl, “the award-winning children’s book Four Perfect Pebbles: A Holocaust Story” passed away today.

http://www.slj.com/2013/12/industry-news/lila-perl-childrens-book-author-dies-at-92/#_

2013: The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia is scheduled to sponsor Light Up the Night: Community Menorah Lighting at Mosaic District

2013: “The Art of Spiegelman” and “Through the Eye of a Needle,” a film about Holocuast survivor and artist Nisenthal Krinitz is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.

2013: Hezbollah accused Israel of assassinating Hasan al-Laqis “a top operative” and“one of the main commanders of its rocket division. Hezbollah did not say how it had eliminated Suunis who are upset with its involvement in the Syrian Civil War or other Moslem groups with which it is at odds.

2013: A group of more than 20 Christian leaders from Norway will be coming to the Knesset today to ask for forgiveness for the diplomatic process between Israel and the Palestinians that began in their capital.

2013: NGO Monitor will be awarded the prestigious Begin Prize, "For the organization's efforts exposing the political agenda and ideological bias of humanitarian organizations that use the discourse of human rights to discredit Israel and to undermine its position among the nations of the world." Founded in 2002 by Professor Gerald Steinberg and the Wechsler Family Foundation, NGO Monitor is an independent research institute based in Jerusalem and the primary source of expertise on activities and funding of political non-governmental organizations (NGOs) involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict

2013: Today Warner Bros. revealed that Israeli actress Gal Gadot was cast in the role of Wonder Woman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.”

2013: In “Degenerate Hart and the Jewish Grandmother” published today Walter Laqueur described the events that led up to the discovery of an art collection that belonged to Cornelius Gurlitt, the son of Hildebrand Gurlitt, “one of four dealers commissioned by the Nazis to sell their looted art abroad…”

2014: “Three FREE masterclass conversations for everyone interested in comedy: The Joys of Podcasting with Helen Zaltzman (Answer Me This) and Stuart Goldsmith (The Comedian’s Comedian) Understanding the Industry with Steve Bennett (Chortle) and a top comedy agent Comedy Formats: TV, Theatre and Social Media with Dan Patterson (Mock The Week) are scheduled to take place at the UK Jewish Comedy Festival

2014: Today marks the 70^th anniversary of 1,361 Jews of the Kasztner transport release from Bergen Belsen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAb71ZqswDA&feature=youtu.be

http://www.killingkasztner.com/

2014: The Discovery Channel is scheduled to broadcast “Biblical Mysteries Explained” which will examine “new scientific theories that support the extraordinary tale of Exodus.”

2014: “After only a two-month hiatus from politics, former interior minister Gideon Sa’ar is reportedly considering running against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the Likud party leadership next month, party sources said today.”

2014: “Over 80 people were treated for respiratory problems on both sides of the Israel-Jordan border this morning, amid warnings of an ecological disaster following a major oil spill overnight that flooded the highway leading into Eilat.” (As reported by Avi Lewis)

2015(22^ndof Kislev, 5776): Seventy-five year old “long-term MK Yossi Sarid” passed away today.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/journalist-and-former-meretz-minister-yossi-sarid-dies-at-75/

2015: In Olney, MD, Shaare Tefila is scheduled it annual “Taste of Chanukah.”

2015: In Cedar Rapids, Shir Yehuda will lead Temple Judah in a “Musical Shabbat.”

2016(2^ndof Kislev, 5777): Ninety-two year old Jacob “Jack” Rudin, the New York City born son of the former May Cohen and Samuel Rudin, who was a Bronze Star winning WW II veteran, real estate developer and member of Congregation Sheartih Israel passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/nyregion/jack-rudin-patriarch-of-family-of-new-york-developers-dies-at-92.html'

2016: Israeli-born composer and musician Eyal Vilner is scheduled to return “to Eldridge Street with his swinging sixteen-piece band which will perform Vilner’s new compositions, original versions of jazz classics and music from the Big Band’s new project “Sacred Swinging Sounds!”

2016: The New York Times features books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Last Girl Before Freeway: The Life, Loves, Losses and Liberation of Joan Rivers by Leslie Bennetts, The Daily Show (The Book): An Oral History by Chris Smith, Let There Be Laughter: A Treasury of Great Jewish Humor and What It All Means by Michael Krasny, The Menorah: From the Bible to Modern Israel by Steven Fine, Moses: A Human Life by Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg and Jerusalem: 1000-1400 Every People Under Heaven edited by Barbara Drake Boehm and Melanie Holocomb

2016: “Holy Zoo” and “Forever Pure” are scheduled to be shown at the 10^thAnnual Other Israel Film Festival.

2017: “LA folk singer Cindy Paley will perform with Issac Sadigursky on accordion, Miamon Miller on violin, Zinovy Goro on clarinet, and guest artist from Poland Menachem Mirski are scheduled to perform this evening at Valley Beth Shalom.

2017: The Leo Baeck Institute is scheduled to present a lecture by historian Jeremy Adelman on “Pariahs and Prophets: How Outsiders Help Insiders Think About the Wordl.”

2017:Global Jewish singer, superstar Yaakov Shwekey is playing live for one night only in London tonight as Mizrachi UK launch their “Israel 70 programme”

2017: Rabbi David Wolpe is scheduled to present the first session of “Lessons on Lust and Love From the Bible: Torah As A Dating and Relationship Manuel” at the Streicker Center.

2017: Jewish Book Month, an annual event that provides us with a chance to contemplate Jewish books and the lives of authors such as Deborah Pessin whose works included History of the Jews In America, one of the first Jewish history books I ever read, continues today.

2018(26^thof Kislev, 5779): Second Day of Chanukah

2018(26^thof Kislev, 5779): Ninety-six year old Selma Wynberg one of the last two survivors of the Sobibor uprising passed away today. (As reported by Katharine Q. Seelye)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/07/obituaries/selma-engel-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

2018: The Temple Emanuel Streicker Center is scheduled to host “Jewish Lives, Jewish Legacies” during eight biographers discuss the lives of several prominent Jews including Rabbi Akiva – Sage of The Talmud; Barry W. Holtz, Professor of Jewish Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America; Barbra Streisand who redefined Beauty, Femininity and Power;Neal Gabler, award-winning journalist and historian; David Ben-Gurion – Father of Modern Israel; Anita Shapira, winner of the Israel Prize for History; Louis D. Brandeis – American Prophet; Jeffrey Rosen, President & CEO of the National Constitution Center; Emma Goldman for whom Revolution was a Way of Life; Vivian Gornick, celebrated critic and essayist; Hank Greenberg, America’s leading Jewish athlete; Mark Kurlansky, award-winning author of 32 works of fiction and nonfiction; Peggy Guggenheim;Francine Prose, award-winning author of 20 novels; Yitzhak Rabin – Soldier, Leader, Statesman and Itamar Rabinovich, Rabin’s ambassador in Washington and president of the Israel Institute

2018: Thousands of women are expected to take to the streets today to protest government inaction in addressing violence against women; cities including Tel Aviv, Haifa, Be'er Sheva and Jerusalem and many companies and organizations pledge support to campaign. (YNET)

2018: The Yiddish Book Center is scheduled to host Gerri Chanel in an “author talk” in which she talks about “Saving Mona Lisa.”

http://support.yiddishbookcenter.org/site/Calendar?id=7777&view=Detail

2019: In New Orleans, The Hillel at Tulane University, of which the author of this blog was once President, is scheduled to hold its board meeting. (“History is what the people writing the history say it is.” Anonymous):

2019: In San Francisco, at Green Apple Books, Jewish author Michael Franks is scheduled to discuss his new novel What is Missing.

2019: In Oakland, CA, Temple Sinai is scheduled to present “Teaching Israel on Campus: the Cal Experience” during which “UC Berkeley professor Ron Hassner discusses Israel, Zionism and anti-Semitism at U.S. colleges, with a focus on his campus.”

2019: The American Sephardi Association, the World Jewish Congress and JIMENA are scheduled to co-host “Jewish Refugee Commemoration at the United Nations,” “Israel’s official day to commemorate Jewish refugees from North Africa and the Middle East.”

2019: The Oxford Univsersity Jewish Society is scheduled to host a “Toast the Term” celebration.

2019: The Streicker Center is scheduled to present “Rebecca Traister on the Power of Women’s Anger.”

December 5

63 BCE: Cicero read the last of his Catiline Orations which exposed Cataline’s conspiracy to overthrow the government of Rome. There is no record of how Cataline felt about Jews, but Cicero said that Judaism was a barbarous superstition whose adherents were born to be slaves.

220 (22^nd of Kislev, 3981): On the secular calendar Rabbi Judah Hanasi or Judah the Patriarch passed away. Born in Eretz Israel in 138 (three years after the last rebellion against Rome) Judah, as the Nasi and head of the Sanhedrin, was both the religious and political leader of the Jewish community. His greatest claim to fame was his role as the compiler of the Mishna. The Mishna is a compilation of Oral Law which would serve as the basis for both the Babylonian Talmud and Jerusalem Talmud. The Mishnah is divided into six "orders": Zeraim - Seeds, Mo'ed - Festivals, Nashim - Women, Nezikim - Damages, Kedushim - Holy Matters, Taharot - Purity. There are a total of 63 "tractates." It was compiled in Hebrew and intended to be memorized. It served and still serves as a code for regulation of all Jewish life. Some of his more famous sayings include: “Be as punctilious in observing a light as a weighty commandment, for your do not know their relative reward.” “Contemplate three things and you will avoid transgressions: above you (in Heaven) is an eye that sees, an ear that hears and all your deeds are faithfully recorded.” And the favorite of all those who teach, “I have learned much from teachers, more from my colleagues, but most from pupils.”

663: Fourth Council of Toledo takes place. Among the other things the council adopted stringent measures that should be used against baptized Jews who had relapsed into their former faith.

1349: During the Black Death Riots 500 Jews were massacred at Nuremberg.

1443: Birthdate of Pope Julius II, the prelate who commissioned Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel. Julius entrusted his health to a Jewish physician named Samuel Sarfatti. “More importantly for Jews at large, the pope’s mind-set…did not include attacking Jews. Benevolent neglect was indeed welcome.”

1484: Pope Innocent VIII issued the Summis desiderantes, a papal bull that deputizes Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger as inquisitors to root out alleged witchcraft in Germany and leads to one of the most oppressive witch hunts in European history. Innocent VIII seemed to have a penchant for Inquisitions since he was successfully in getting the King of Portugal to establish one aimed at the Jews and Marranos who had fled Spain. Those caught suffered long imprisonment or death by fire.

1496: King Manuel expelled the Jews from Portugal Manuel of Portugal befriended the Jews during his first year of reign, but his desire to unite the Iberian Peninsula through marriage to the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella changed all that. Four years after the expulsion of Jews from Spain, he ordered them expelled from Portugal within 11 months.

1497: King Manuel I proclaimed an Edict which demanded the Jews convert to Catholicism or leave the country. However, fearing most Jews would leave rather than convert, the Crown closed the ports, thus halting any potential Jewish sea escape.

1590: Niccolò Sfondrati was elected Pope and as Gregory XIV followed the comparatively benevolent policies of his predecessor Sixtus V including “allowing Jews to settle in the Papal States.

1633: In Bohemia, an order was issued “to the head of the administrative of the castle of Reichenberg: “The Bassewi Jews, who have the privilege to direct their business affairs in your town without any hindrance and a copy of whose privilege is in your possession, shall be supported and protected in the best way and shall have any support that they require to ensure their freedom.” (The Bassewi Jews refers to the family or followers of the “Prague banker and merchant Jacob Bassewi” who “was the first Jew in the former Austria to achieve the status of nobility.)

1678: Josel (Joseph) Witzenhausen and Joseph Athias defied warnings from powerful secular and religious leaders and today began printing their version of “a Judaeo-German edition of the TaNaCh.”

1755(1^stof Kislev, 5516): Rosh Chodesh Kislev

1757: “In Berlin, the head rabbi delivered a patriotic sermon of thanksgiving: following the victory of “the glorious King of Prussia over the united and far superior forces of the Austrians in Silesia.”

1768(25^thof Kislev, 5529): Chanukah

1776(24^thof Kislev, 5537): For the first time the Chanukah candle is kindled in the newly independent United States.

1776:Phi Beta Kappa, the first and most prestigious American scholastic fraternity was founded at William & Mary College. Some of the Jewish members of the honor society include Bernard Baruch, Felix Frankfurter, Walter Lippmann, Jonas Salk, Daniel Boorstin, Betty Friedan, Henry Kissinger, Arlen Specter, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Gloria Steinman, Robert Rubin, Nadine Strossen, Joseph Lieberman, Ben Bernanke, Eliot Spitzer and Daniel Pearl.

1782: Birthdate of Martin Van Buren, eighth President of the United States, who intervened in the so-called Damascus Affair, seeking to use the good office of the Presidency to protect the lives and well-being of a group of Syrian Jews who had been falsely accused in another round of the “blood libel.”

1792: William Moultrie began his second term as Governor of South Carolina. Moultrie may have been the first Governor to attend the consecration of a synagogue. In 1794, he was present for the consecration of the new synagogue housing Beth Elohim in Charleston, SC.

1792: Samuel Raphael married Charlotte Levy at the Great Synagogue today.

1792: In New York City, Leah Nathan and Joseph Naphtali Hart best birth to Esther Hart, the wife of Alexander Marks with whom she had fourteen children.

1792: Moses Jacobs, “a self-described bachelor” was buried today at the “Alderney Road (Globe Rd) Jewish Cemetery.

1797: In Darmstadt, Germany, Sara Haas and Alexander ben Moses Billstein gave birth to Baruch Sender Billstein, the husband of “Beilie Wertheim” with whom he had eleven children.

1799: In Frankfurt am Main, Gutle Schott and Moses Yantoff Oppenheim gave birth to “Sebastian Oppenheim,” the husband of Henriette Strauss with whom he had eight children

1805: Today, “was proclaimed a day of general thanksgiving for Trafalgar” during which “All the Churches and Chapels were crowded, all distinctions of sects were done away and Christian and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, all united in the expression of one feeling of piety and gratitude to the Almighty.” “The Chief Rabbi, Solomon Hirschell, and the Haham (spiritual leader of the Sephardim), Raphael Meldola, jointly prepared “The Order of Service and Special Prayer of the Hebrew Thanksgiving”, recited in all London synagogues. Hirschell, whose normal vehicle was Yiddish, preached a commemorative sermon at the Great Synagogue that was subsequently translated into English and printed; Meldola delivered one at the Sephardi synagogue, Bevis Marks.”

1807: In London, Matilda de Metz and Levy Salomons gave birth to Esther Salomons.

1819: Joshua Poland married Esther Isaacs at the Great Synagogue today.

1820: In the UK, Emma Lyon and Abraham Henry gave birth to Julia Henry.

1824: Jacob Mandelbaum, a native of “Sachsen-Weimar” and Bella Epstein gave birth to their sixth and youngest child Vogel Mandelbaum today.

1832: Birthdate of Hamburg native Ernst Jacob Oppert, the merchant who traveled to Hong Kong in 1851, founded a business in Shanghai and traveled to Korea before returning to Hamburg, the hometown of his brother Jules Opert.

1844: Birthdate of Penrose Felisher, who upon passing away in 1931 would be buried at Mt. Sinai Cemetery in Philadelphia.

1832: Birthdate of Hamburg native Ernst Jacob Oppert, a German merchant who “went Hong Kong in 1851…founded a business in Shanghai…and traveled through Korea” in the 1860’s.

1839: In Charleston, SC, Jacob I. Moses of Columbus, GA, married Rinah Ottolengui, the daughter of Abraham Ottolengui.

1849(20^thof Kislev, 5610): Baruch ben Judah Lob Lindau the native of Hanover who gained fame as a German mathematician passed away today in Berlin.

1850: Birthdate of Bernhard Baron, the Russian born husband of Rachel Baron and the father of Louis Baron.

1854: Solomon and Jane Green were married today at the Great Synagogue.

1859: Birthdate of Solomon Lazarus Lee, who gained fame as Sir Sidney Lee, the graduate of Balliol College, Oxford where he majored in modern history and rose to be the editor of the Dictionary of National Biography.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclopædia_Britannica/Lee,_Sidney

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Times/1926/Obituary/Sidney_Lee

https://archive.org/details/alifewilliamsha04leegoog

1860: Herman W. Hellman who arrived with his brother Isias in Los Angeles in 1859, today left the “forwarding and commission business of General Banning” and went to work in the “book and stationary business.”

1861: The Grand Jury of Monmouth County returned a bill of indictment charging a man named Radski with the murder of a German Jew named Sigismund Fellner.

1861: Birthdate of Benjamin J. Kohlman who was interred at the Springhill Avenue Temple Cemetery in Mobile when passed away.

1861: A detachment of Union troops reportedly under the command Gabriel Netter, a French born Jew who had settled in Kentucky, seized a railroad bridge at Whippoorwill, KY that was held by Confederate forces and burned it.

1862: Four days after he had passed away, 55 year old Solomon Joseph, the husband of Priscilla Samuel with whom he had had five children, was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1868: “La Périchole an opéra bouffe in three acts by Jacques Offenbach” was first seen outside of France when it was performed today in Brussels.

1868: Isaac Phillips and his second wife Miriam Trimble Phillips gave birth to Naphtali Taylor Phillips a lawyer he held various political offices, e.g.: he was member of the New York state legislature, served on the judiciary and other committees and as a member of the Joint Statutory Revision Commission of that body (1900); and deputy comptroller of the city of New York (from 1902). He also was a trustee of the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, and a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and of the New York Historical Society. He served as treasurer of the Jewish Historical Society and has contributed several papers to its publications. For fifteen years he was clerk of Congregation Shearith Israel. In 1892 Phillips married Rosalie Solomons, daughter of Adolphus S. Solomons. Mrs. Phillips was an active member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

1869: In Memphis, TN, Sarah and Jacques Gaisman gave birth to multi-talented inventor Henry Jacques Gaisman, whose patented safety razor made him a wealthy man and who married his former nurse, Catherine “Kitty” Gaisman when he was eighty years old

https://www.nytimes.com/1974/08/07/archives/hj-gaisman-104-inventor-is-dead-philanthropist-credited-with.html?searchResultPosition=2

1871: Birthdate of Pittsburgh, PA, native Louis J. Affelder, the U. Pittsburgh educated civil engineer, “assistant division manager of the American Bridge Co, civic leader and husband of Estelle May Affelder with whom he had one son and two daughters.

1875: An interview of the three men waiting to be hung for the murder of Abraham Weissburg, a Jewish peddler, was published today.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9500E6DD103BEF34BC4D53DFB467838E669FDE

1875: It was reported today that an English missionary named Dr. Stern appeared before the Jews of Yemen claiming “that he was the bearer of happy tidings.” The Yemini Jews accepted him as a co-religionist until he attempted to convince them that Messiah was the founder of the Christianity at which point they told him to leave their community. The missionary complained to the Sultan who told the Jews “Listen ye Jehuds, you are a miserable people. You pray in your synagogues that Allah may send you the Messiah and now when the good tiding is brought to you that he has come long ago, you ridicule the report as you have ridiculed and slandered our nebbi (prophet). In punishment for your conduct you shall pay double the head tax this year.” [The nebbi refers to Mohammed] This episode an unnamed Jewish teach to proclaim that God had ordered him to gather all the Jews and lead them Jerusalem. Large numbers of Jews across Arabia flocked to his leadership and viewed him as the Messiah promised in the TaNaCh. At the same, Yemen was conquered by Turkey and this unnamed Messiah gave up his leadership role rather than face the Ottomans.

1875(7^thof Kislev, 5636): Abram Kurtz, William Lasser, William Meyers, Abram Dietz and Aaron Dietz were among the 278 people who perished in the Brooklyn Theatre Fire.

1875: Birthdate of Chicago native Edwin Frank Mandel, the chairman of the family business – Mandel Brothers Department Store – and philanthropist who donated untold millions to Michael Reese Hospital.

http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/2755.html

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/07/18/80452377.pdf

1877: In Kensington, London, Florence Justina Cohen and Abraham de Mattos Mocatta gave birth to Effie Bertha Mocatta.

1878: In Boston, founding of the Hebrew Women’s Sewing Society which was “affiliated with the Federation of Jewish Charities.

1880: It was reported today that the library of the late Baron James De Rothschild of Paris will soon be sold at auction.

1880: It was reported today that Trubner & Co has just published Early Hebrew Life: A Study in Sociology by John Fenton

1881: It was reported today that Russian Jews are excited by the prospect of Count Schovaloff replace General Ignatieff as Minister of the Interior given the former’s enlightened attitude towards deal with the Jewish population.

1882: It was reported today that “five soldiers of a regiment of dragoons…have been condemned to 15 years at hard labor in the mines…for taking part in riots against the Jews.”

1882: A warrant procured by Bernard Jaworower of the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society for the arrest of Hahal and Abraham Bronstein, two Jewish immigrants from Russia living at Ward’s Island was given to the Harlem Police so they could take them into custody.

1832: Birthdate of German-Jewish banker Ernst Jakob Oppert, the Hamburg native who opened up trading opportunities in Korea and other parts of the Orient

1884: “Virchow and Herr Stoecker” published today described the electoral contest between liberal democrat Rudolf Virchow, the renowned pathologist and “the Jew baiting Court Chaplain Adolph Stoecker” in which Virchow appears to have won thanks to the support of the Socialists.

1884: Mother Mandelbaum, the noted “receiver of stolen goods” and her son Julius arrived in Montreal tonight where they are staying with a Jewish family that used to live in Brooklyn.

1884: Customers at Kaplan’s Coffee House identified the man who shot himself in the park last night as Jacob Asch a native of Posen who came to the United States 20 years ago where he went into the millinery business, married, had four children and moved to Chicago. He had come back to New York in what proved to be a futile attempt to improve his fortune; a failure that apparently led to his death.

1887: Reverend E. D. Simons of New Bloomfield, NJ, is scheduled to read a paper today entitled “Why the Jews Crucified Christ”

1889: The Hebrew Free School Association held its annual meeting today at the house of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association

1889: It was reported today that Mayor Hugh Grant will preside at the official opening of the upcoming Hebrew Educational Fair in New York City.

1890: In Vienna, Anton Lang and the former Pauline Schlesinger, a Jew who had convert to Roman Catholicism gave birth to director Fritz Lang whose trouble with the Nazis stemmed as much from his art as did the fact that under the Nuremberg Laws he was Jewish.

1890: Plans were published today for the upcoming meeting of The Hebrew Free School Association in Manhattan.

1890: In Birmingham, “Polish Jewish immigrant leatherworker Abraham Bomberg and his wife gave birth to Painter David Garshen Bomberg, one of the “White Chapel Boys” who received assistance from “The Jewish Educational Aid Society which enabled him to go to the Slade 1911-13, winning the Tonks Prize for a drawing of fellow student Isaac Rosenberg and who in the 1920’s lived in Palestine where he worked for the Zionists and furthered his painting career

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/david-bomberg

http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/the-whitechapel-boys

1892: Birthdate of Al Boasberg, the native of Buffalo career who began his career doing vaudeville with Jack Benny before pursuing a career writing scripts for films, the most of which might have been the Marx Brothers, “A Night at the Opera.”

https://travsd.wordpress.com/2010/12/05/al-boasberg/

http://www.buffaloah.com/h/boasberg/index.html

1892: Jacob Gerber arrived back in Omaha, Nebraska after having spent the last 18 months in Siberian Exile to which he had been condemned when he returned to Russia to help his family leave the Czar’s domain.

1892: The secret documents that had been presented in camera at the libel trial of Hermann Ahlwardt which showed the 520 of the 939 Loewe rifles tested required repairs were read in open court today.

1892: Pasot Hermann Ahlwardt, an avowed anti-Semite, who is “on trial for slandering Herr Loewe, the Hebrew small arms manufacturer” was elected to Germany's Reichstag.

1894: The Young Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s League of the Montefiore Home held its first annual reception in the recital chamber of the Music Hall. The League’s purpose is to aid in raising funds for the Montefiore Home.

1894: “An enthusiastic and appreciative audience” representing some “of the best elements” of Jewish society attended the fundraiser hosted by the Monte Relief Society tonight at the Lexington Avenue Opera House.

1894: In New Orleans, LA, today’s session of the convention of American Hebrew Congregations (Reform) a group of rabbis led by Rabbi Isaac M. Wise, the President of the Hebrew Union College protested the opening speech by Leo Levi Galveston in which he asserted that “reformed Judaism” was “endangering the very edifice of the Israelite faith.”

1895: Birthdate of David-Zvi Pinkas, the native of Sopron who was active in Zionist youth groups before making Aliyah in 1925 which led him to a political career that included service in the First Knesset and as the first Minister of Transport.

1895: Hermann Ahlwardt, a member of the Reichstag who is about to commence a speaking tour in the United States said that he stands “on the grounds of racial, not religious anti-Semitism” and the he is “striving to unite the working people and the artisans against the Jews” who “achieve nothing through their own honest efforts.”

1895: Dr. S. Solis Cohen of Philadelphia is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Judaism a Living Force,” the second in a series of talks sponsored by the Young Men’s Hebrew Association followed by a performance of the Amateur Philharmonic Orchestra.

1896: Oscar Altman and Rose Wachtel became engaged according to information she later included in her breach of promise suit filed against Altman.

1897: Birthdate of Gerhard Scholem, the German born Israeli-Jewish philosopher and author who gained fame as Gershom Scholem who served as the firs t Professor Of Jewish Mysticism at Hebrew University where he pursued his ground-breaking academic study of the Kabbalah.

1896: Birthdate of Dr. Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori who was the first American woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology, in 1947, which was shared with her husband, Dr. Carl F. Cori, and Dr. B.A. Houssay of Argentina. Austrian born biochemist.

1898: “Gen. Porter and the Dreyfus Case” published today contains Henri Rocherfort’s accusation that General Horace Porter, the United States Ambassador “recently said England had financed the Dreyfus syndicate with a view of dividing and weakening France” followed by Porter’s response that “that the statement was a fabrication, pure and simple.”

1901: In Chicago, Illinois, Elias and Flora Disney, gave birth to father of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck – Walt Disney whom some have accused of being an anti-Semite despite the fact that he “donated regularly to Jewish charities and “was named 1955 Man of the Year by the B’nai B’rith Chapter in Beverly Hills.”

https://web.archive.org/web/20080607073752/http://disney.go.com/disneyatoz/familymuseum/collection/insidestory/inside_1933d.html

1902: In Miskolc, Hungary, Kálmán Pressburger, estate manager, and his second wife, Kätherina (née Wichs gave birth to Imre József Pressburger who gained fame as movie director Emeric Pressburger who won his only Oscar in 1942,for Best Writing for the original story of The Forty-Ninth Parallel.

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/447372/index.html

https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp71284/emeric-pressburger-imre-josef-pressburger

1903: Leopold Greenberg and Herzl hold consultations about the line of activity to be pursued in England. Herzl has the impression that the British government is withdrawing the East African offer. Greenberg is to press once more for Sinai and El-Arish.

1905: Representative Goldfogle of New York introduced a resolution in the United States House of Representatives condemning the massacre of the Jews of Russia, expressing the sorrow of the House over these killing and asking the President to intervene with the Russian government.

1905: “In Perth Amboy, NJ, “at a meeting at Temple Shaarey Tefiloh, fifteen hundred friends of the victims of the Russian massacres became so wrought up by the addresses made that they threw watches and jewelry into the contribution basket when relief funds were asked for.”

1905: It was reported today that Louis Marshall told those attending a mass memorial service for the Jewish victims of Russian violence that “how in 685 communities within the Russian pale, 25,000 human beings had been trampled into the soil on which for five centuries their ancestors had dwelt, and 100,000 unfortunates had been maimed, disfigured and disgraced.

1905: It was reported today that in addition to all of the memorial services that had been held in synagogues in New York, the actor Jacob P. Adler spoke to those attending the Grand Theatre about the plight of Russian Jews.

1905: Mr. Simon Wolfe, the Jewish communal leader, sent a letter today to the National Committee working to relieve the suffering of the Russian Jews from Carl Schurz in which the famous German born American reformer wrote, “Let me congratulate you on the word you are doing for the Jews in Russia. Nothing in modern times has been more terrible than their situation and to save them a fight has to be carried on not only against the barbarism of the Russian government, but, what is far worse, the barbarism of the populace.”

1905: “Camden Hebrews Memorial Service” published today described the service held the Sons of Israel Synagogue at 8^th and Sycamore Streets to honor the Jews who had been murdered the Odessa Pogrom.

1905: It was reported today that the Sons of Israel in Camden, NJ has raised over $700 to be sent to the Jews in Russia who have suffered from a wave of pogroms.

1905: In “Wiznitz, Austria-Hungary (present-day Vyzhnytsia, Ukraine),” “Josefa (née Fraenkel) and Markus Preminger” gave birth to producer/director Otto Preminger whose credits include “Luara” and the film adaptation of Leon Uris’ best-selling novel, Exodus.

https://www.biography.com/people/otto-preminger-9446387

1907: “Aaron and Esther (Enteen) Rabinowitz” gave birth to Brooklyn trained attorney and Democratic Party activist Samuel G. Rabinor.

1908: Birthdate of Estelle Strossman, the wife of Brooklyn native Samuel L. Multer and the mother of Rhode Island basketball star Barry Multer.

1908: Birthdate of”Shobha Magdolna Friedmann Nehru, a Hungarian Jew who narrowly escaped the Holocaust, married into India’s leading political family.” (As reported by Ellen Barry)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/28/world/asia/shobha-nehru-death.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

1909: Birthdate of New York native Harold Joseph Huberman who gained fame as Harold Huber the NYU graduate and began his career on Broadway with an appearance in “A Farewell to Arms” in 1930.

1909: Many of New York City’s most prominent Jewish leaders took part in a memorial meeting this afternoon in honor of the Rabbi Joseph Mayer Asher, Professor in the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and rabbi of the Orach Chaim Synagogue, who passed away unexpectedly at the age of 37 on November 9. It was held under the auspices of the Jewish Community of New York City in the auditorium of the Hebrew Charities Building, at Second Avenue and Twenty-First Street.

1910: In New York City, “Russian Jewish immigrants, Henry and Rebecca (née Rosoff) Polonsky gave birth to Abraham L Polonsky, an American born writer and director, whose political views led to him being blacklisted following World War II. After being “rehabilitated” he made one of his most famous works, “Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here.”

1911(14^thof Kislev, 5672): Eighty year old Leopold Seligman, seventh of the eight Seligman brothers and co-founder of the Anglo-Californian bank and “who with his brother Isaac” headed “the well-known banking firm in London of Seligman Brothers” passed away today in the English capital city.

1911:Birthdate of Polish pianistWładysław Szpilman. He worked as pianist for Polish radio in Warsaw until 1939. He was sent to the Warsaw Ghetto where continued playing while helping to smuggle weapons into the ghetto. When the rest of his family was sent to Treblinka, Szpilman escaped. Eventually he was captured by the Germans. However, thanks to Wilm Hoseneld, a Wermacht Captain who had become disillusioned with the Nazis, Szpilman survived the war. His autobiography became the source for the script of the 2002 film entitled “The Pianist.”

1911: Forty-six year old Russian born painter and portrait artist Valentin Alexandrovich Serov passed away. For a display of his work including his self-portrait seehttp://www.tanais.info/art/en/serov.html

1912(25^thof Kislev, 5673): Chanukah

1912(25^thof Kislev, 5673): Forty year old Hoboken, NJ philanthropist A.E. Solomon passed away today at Jacksonville, FL.

1912: In Warsaw, “David Grobsmith, a shoe designer, and Lonia Grobsmith née Babicz, a corsetiere” gave birth to Kaila Grobsmith, who gained famed as Hunter College graduate and author Kate Simon who married Robert Simon after the death of Stanley Goldman.

1912: Two days after he had passed away, 70 year old Sigmund Pollitzer, the husband of Rebecca Pollitzer with whom he had had four children was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1912: Today, “Rabbi Schanfarber addressed the Jews of Michigan City” today “and “urged the formation of Sabbath School.

1912: The ninth convention of the Rivers and Harbors Congress which Jacob A. Cantor is attending as a delegate from New York continued for a second day in Washington, D.C.

1912: Birthdate of Senetta Punfud, the native of Fürth, Germany who gained married Giroa Yoseftal and gained fame as Israeli political leader Senetta Yoseftal, a founder of Kibbutz Galed and Knesset Minster.

1913: According to a report published in “La America” after the sisterhood’s old Neighborhood House “became inadequate” the facility was moved to Orchard Street.

1914: “War Hits Zionism, Says Zangwill” published today provides the views of the Israel Zangwill of the war on the Jewish people. Among other things he believed “that the present war will for some years make it impossible to have German, English, Austrian and Russian Jews meet on a common basis, that the establishment of a national home in Palestine will not solve the problems of discrimination faced by most Jews and that at this time he will work to have Lord Gray, the British Foreign Secretary, pressure the Russians to improve the conditions of Russian Jewry.

1915: “A new Jewish theological seminary which is to be called the Rabbinical College that has been established by the Yeshibath Etz Chaim and the Rabbi Isaac Elchana Seminary” for the purpose of training Orthodox rabbis located at 9 and 11 Montgomery Streets” is scheduled to be formally dedicated this morning in New York City.

1915(28^thof Kislev, 5676): Fourth Day of Chanukah

1915: A hoped for 5,000 volunteers were scheduled to take part in Zion Flag Day which was supported by numerous organizations including David Wolfsohn Zion Club in Manhattan, the Young Men’s Hebrew Association in the Bronx and the Young Judean Club in Brooklyn

1915: The New York Chapter of Hadassah is scheduled to host a Chanukah celebraton this eveing at the Hotel Majestic to raise money for the Emergency Fund providing aid to the suffering Jews of Palestine which will feature “a program of Hebrew and Yiddish Songs” and “a dramatic reading by Miss Jennie Mannheimer of Cincinnati.

1915: As previously decided by the Executive Committee of the Federation of American Zionists, Flag Day is scheduled to be celebrated today.

1915: It was reported today that in Russia “it is not feasible to replace coal with timber, which is abundant in the Russian forests, because the timber trade is exclusively in the hands of the Jews and they have been decimated by the most cruel pogroms or expelled from the west and the northwest which is the great forest land of Russia. (Given a choice between anti-Semitism or winning the war, it looks like the Czar preferred the former to the latter.)

1915: “Four hundred members of New York’s police force headed by Commissioner Arthur Woods attended the annual service in memory of their departed brothers of the Jewish faith at Temple Emanu-El where they were greeted by Chaplain Blums, heard music from the police band and the temple choir and listened to an address by Rabbi Joseph Silverman on “Our Duty to the City.’”

1915: “At the opening session of the seventh annual convention of the Federation of Jewish Farmers of America held in the auditorium of the Education Alliance Building” tonight “Jacob H. Schiff predicted that after the war there will be a tide of immigration of European Jews to” the United States “because of the persecutions they are undergoing in Russia and Poland” and “plans must be made to accommodate these people in” rural areas because the cities are already overcrowded with immigrants.

1915: Among those listed today as having made contributions to the American Jewish Relief Committee to provide funds for those living in the war zones include $104 from the Fargo, North Dakota, Association of Jewish Charities, $200 from the Calgary, Canada Jewish Relief Fund, $1,000 from the Des Moines, Iowa Jewish Community and $100 from the Jewish Conference of Minneapolis, MN.

1916: Birthdate of Hilary Koprowski the Polish-born Jewish virologist and immunologist, and inventor of the world's first effective live polio vaccine. (As reported by Margalit Fox)

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/us/hilary-koprowski-developed-live-virus-polio-vaccine-dies-at-96.html

1917: As Imperial forces battled their way to Jerusalem, the advanced guard of the 53^rd (Welsh) Division also known as Mott’s Detachment moved three miles north of Hebron under the cover of darkness.

1917: At a time “when the Turks under German control are deporting Jews wholesale from Palestine,” The Frankfurter Zeitung published an account supplied by Count Ernst Graf zu Reventlow “of a secret anti-Semitic movement which is collecting funds for a violent German campaign against Jews” which is “to open directly after peace is concluded.” (Reventlow was an anti-Semite who joined the Nazis)

1917: Rabbi Joel Blau of Rochester, NY delivered an address on “Israel After War” at the meeting of the Menorah Society in which he declared that “Jewish freedom can mean only one thing: not merely freedom everywhere, but a free Israel in its own land, Palestine.”

1917: The convention of the Association of American Jewish Rabbis that has been meeting at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association adjourned today after reaffirming its previously adopted motion express thanks to the British government for the promulgation of the Balfour Declaration.

1918: Lord Curzon chaired a meeting of the Cabinet Eastern Committee attended by General Jan Smuts, Lord Balfour, Lord Robert Cecil, General Sir Henry Wilson, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, T. E. Lawrence and representatives of the Foreign Office, the India Office, the Admiralty, the War Office, and the Treasury at which the status of Palestine was discussed. (Editor’s Note – This list of attendees should prove that the issue of the future of Palestine was one of major concern to the British as they prepared to deal with the post-war world.)

1919(13^th of Kislev, 5680): Clara S. Kraus, the wife of Louis Kraus and mother of Muriel Kraus passed away today in Chicago where she was a member of Temple Sholom.

1919: Mortimer L. Schiff, Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Jewish Welfare Board was among the passengers on board the SS Mauretania that set sail for Great Britain today. Schiff was accompanied by George W. Perkins, Chairman of the Finance Committee of the War Work Council of the YMCA. The trip which representative of kind of inter-religious harmony unique to the United States, was the first step in assessing how the funds collected by these two organizations could best be used to alleviate the suffering in post-war Europe.

1919: A delegation of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) including Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, Mrs. Joseph Fels, Louis Robinson and Bernard Flexner set sail from New York for London where they will meeting with leaders of other Zionist organizations, including the Zionist Political Committee.

1919: The Turkish Minister of War issues a decree releasing all Jews (as well as Greeks and Armenians) from obligation in the military.

1920: “Captain Anthony de Rothschild unveiled the War Memorial in the churchyard of All Saints Church at Wing, Buckinghamshire honoring his brother” “Evelyn who died of combat injuries suffered at the Battle of Mughar Ridge” “and his Wing comrades killed in World War I.”

1921(4^thof Kislev, 5682): Eighty-nine year old Austrian feminist Ottilie Bonday, the daughter of Johanna and Dr. Aloys Isidor Jeitteles passed away in Munich.

1922: At the Conference of Lusanne, Russia pursued its goal to control the Dardanelles which has had a long running effect on the Middle East, by demanded “the closure of the straits, in peace and war, to the warships and aircraft of all nations except Turkey.

1922: In London, Major Harry Louis Nathan, 1st Baron Nathan and Eleanor Joan Clara Nathan gave birth to Captain Roger Carol Michael Nathan, 2nd Baron Nathan

1922: Birthdate of Lois Ruth Mell, who would become known as Casey Ribicoff, the wife Abraham Ribiccoff a great liberal Democrat and decent man who served as U.S. Senator from Connecticut and Secretary of HEW.

1922(15th of Kislev, 5683): Benjamin Levinsky was shot and killed this morning “by William Lipshitz while entering a Broadway loft building where he was employed as a cutter for the Levinson Brothers.

1923: American Jews absorbed the warning reported yesterday that Chaim Weizmann said “a wave of anti-Semitism sweeping over Eastern Europe is endangering the lives of eight million Jews.”

1924: In Baltimore, MD, “the former Florence Decker, an amateur painter” and her husband Gustave gave birth “comic-book artist” Samuel Joseph Glanzman. (As reported by Richard Sandomir)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/books/sam-glanzman-dead-comic-book-artist-of-combat.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

1925 After 319 performances on Broadway, the curtain came down on “Louis XIV” featuring the music of Sigmund Romberg.

1925(18th of Kislev, 5686): Yehuda Leib Levin, oldest of the Hebrew poets in Russsia, known for more than half a century under his pen name ‘Jahalel,’” passed away today in Kiev. Born in Minsk in 1844, Levin studied Talmud, worked as a teacher before serving as a treasurer for local flour and sugar mills. The first collection of his poetry was published in 1871 under the title Sifte Raananim.” In 1877, “Kishron Massech” his poem “devoted to a description of the social conditions of Russian Jews” was published. In a case of Jew meets Jew, Levin translated Disraeli’s Tancred into Hebrew.

1926: Sergei Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin," debuted. Eisenstein was a famed Russian director whose father was a Jewish architect. As a “child of the Russian Revolution,” Eisenstein did not profess a belief in any religion.

1928: “According to a Jewish Telegraphic Agency dispatch sent today from Warsaw “an anti-Jewish boycott has been started in Upper Silesia threatening 6,000 Jewish peddlers with economic ruin.” (Editor’s note – so much for the myth that the treatment of the Jews by the Poles during the Holocaust was because “the Germans made them do it.”

1928: At the opening meeting of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, Dr. S. Parkes Cadman said “that he considered himself radio minister to Jews and Gentiles as the committee in charge of the programs was not confined exclusively to Christians.”

1929: “Jewish Honor Roll Lists 4 Christians” published today reported that the soon to be published “annual Who’s Who issue of the American Hebrew will list four Christians” – Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia; Dr. A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard; Dr. W.H.P. Fuance of Brown and John D. Rockefeller, Jr – “among those listed as having performed outstanding work the Jewish people in 1929…”

1930: The Baltimore Jewish Times reported that Cantor Abba Yosef Weisgal’s Adolph Coblenz was his “first rabbi in Baltimore, MD.”

1930: In Los Angeles, “a jeweler and an actress” gave birth to Frederick Lawrence Kert who gained fame as singer Larry Kert, best known for playing the lead in Leonard Bernstein’s Broadway hit “West Side Story.”

https://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/07/obituaries/larry-kert-60-a-romantic-lead-in-the-original-west-side-story.html

1930: “The Blue Angel,” a tragi-comedy directed by Josef von Sternberg who also co-authored the script with music by Friedrich Hollaender and Franz Waxman was released in the United States today.

1931(25^thof Kislev, 5692): Chanukah

1932: Birthdate of Farhat Ezekiel Nadira, a member of a prominent Baghdadi Jewish family who gained fame as Nadria, a leading Indian movie actress.

1932: “German” physicist Albert Einstein was granted a visa. Einstein was the kind of German who had to use his visa to flee to the United States where he could continue his work and, more importantly, continue to stay alive. To history he may have been a “German” but to the Germans he was one more candidate for the Final Solution. As those who studied Jewish History on Monday nights at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids learned, “who writes history often determines what the history is.”

1932: In New York, Jewish immigrants Bella (Rubin) and Lewis Gluchovsky, a plumber gave birth to Sheldon Glashow who developed the Electroweak Theory and won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1979.

1933: Edith Frank-Holländer and her daughter Margot join their father Otto in Amsterdam. Her sister Anne will leave Germany and join them in February of 1943

1933(17^th of Kislev, 5694): Fifty-eight year old 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” passed away today.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/1176548

https://library-archives.cumc.columbia.edu/obit/alfred-fabian-hess

1933: Utah becomes the 36^th State to ratify the 21^st Amendment marking the end of Prohibition at the federal level in the United States.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/books/review/jews-and-booze-becoming-american-in-the-age-of-prohibition-by-marni-davis-book-review.html?_r=0&pagewanted=print

http://americanjewisharchives.org/publications/journal/PDF/1991_43_02_00_sprecher.pdf

http://forward.com/articles/143791/prohibition-tells-changing-story-of-jews-in-americ/

1934: In response to questions from Labor MP Colonel Josiah C. Wedgwood, “Colonial Secretary Sir Phillip Cunliffe-Lister” told the House of Commons “that between January 1 and November 24, 627 Jews were deported from Palestine” at cost unknown to him at this time.

1935: Birthdate of Auckland, New Zealand native Maxwell Harold “Max” Gimblett the American artist and the husband of Canadian born scholar Barbara Kirsheblatt-Gimblett.

http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/230087/barbara-kirshenblatt-gimblett-elected-member-of-american-academy-of-arts-and-sciences?utm_source=tabletmagazinelist&utm_campaign=7cd5e06fb4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_04_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c308bf8edb-7cd5e06fb4-206644398

http://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2016/04/28/max-gimblett-and-the-art-of-remembrance/

1935: In Kansas City, MO, Edythe and Abe Trillin gave birth to Calvin Trillin, the journalist, humorist novelist and creator of comic verse, best known for his writing about cooking and food. A few of his famous one-liners include: “Following the Jewish tradition, a dispenser of schmaltz (liquid chicken fat) is kept on the table to give the vampires heartburn if they get through the garlic defense.” “The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.”

https://www.thenation.com/authors/calvin-trillin/

1936: It was reported today that Dr. Wildhagen, an Aryan who “sits on the bench of the Leipzig Supreme Court” was among those whose books were banned the National Socialist Party because they erroneously identified him as being Jewish.

1937:The Palestine Post reported that Sir Alfred MacMichael, governor of Tanganyika since 1934, had been appointed to replace Sir Arthur Wauchope as the High Commissioner and Commander-in-Chief of Palestine and the High Commissioner for Transjordan.

1937: The Palestine Post reported that in Jerusalem Abraham Perlman, 20, was shot dead and two young girls were wounded when they strolled together towards the King David Hotel.

1937: An article published today entitled "A Trio by the Thames" described the opening of a four week season of the Habima Players in London. By November 19, at the end of the first of the four weeks, the Palestinian troupe had displayed "the Habima Method" in a faultless performance of the Dybbuk.

1938: Following Kristallnacht, 18 year old Helmut Newton fled Germany today with the intention of going to China but ended up in Singapore where he pursued his career as a photographer :first for the Straits Times and then as a portrait photographer”

http://www.helmutnewton.com/

1938: Birthdate of Stepney native and “footballer” Mark Lazaurs whose career reached a high point “when he scored the final goal for QPR against West Bromwich Albion in the 1967 League Cup Final at Wembley Stadium.”

1938: As the Arab uprising intensified, Abd el Bader Abu Saleh, an Arab leader was shot dead by Arab terrorists. Snipers attacked Jewish settlements as well as military and police installations in Gaza. Damage done to the railroad running between Lydda and Tel Aviv was repaired within hours after having been discovered.

1938: The following article entitled “Germany: Ad Nauseam” published today proves the world was not ignorant of the fate of German Jewry.

How 62 prosperous German Jews were forced to run a bloody gantlet at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp was reported last week in the Liberal News Chronicle of London. Two long ranks of Adolf Hitler's personal Schutzstaffel formed the gantlet, down which the 62 Jews were forced to run. "As they approached between the ranks, a hail of blows fell on them," said the News Chronicle. "As they fell, the Jews were beaten further. The orgy lasted half an hour. . . . Twelve of the 62 were dead, with skulls smashed. All the others were unconscious, some with eyes out and faces flattened in. ... Police, unable to bear the cries, turned their backs." This nauseating atrocity, whether or not the honest News Chronicle was correctly informed as to exactly what happened, is undoubtedly the truth in the sense that such atrocities do occur today in many parts of Germany, especially the countryside. The case for antiSemitism, as it appears to strong-stomached Nazis, was taken last week before the bar of German public opinion. It is to be kept there for many weeks, with more than 1,500 major anti-Semitic mass meetings, scheduled throughout Germany, plus countless anti-Semitic lectures—all under the showmanship of Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels. Dr. Goebbels is sometimes described in print as a barking, brawling, screaming propaganda maniac. Actually the Minister for Propaganda & Public Enlightenment is one of the great political orators of this century. He opens suavely, is restrained most of the time, mellifluent, knows how to whip a point over with the sting of humor, a trifle crude at times—or very crude if Dr. Goebbels is radiorating to the masses. The importance in Dr. Goebbels' mind of the "educative campaign" he was starting last week caused him to summon 2,000 of his picked Nazi stooge-orators to meet him in the Kroll Opera House. "I have never made anti-Semitic propaganda in the outside world," said Orator Goebbels softly. "The dear Jews have done that for themselves. . . . Anti-Semitism is latent among all peoples. The Jews awaken it. ... All we have done is to eliminate Jews from public life in Germany. Let the English say what they will, what we do is our business! . . . After five-and-one-half years of National Socialism, the Jews still have in Germany proportionately four-and-one-half times as much wealth as the Aryans!" From this Dr. Goebbels proceeded to an economic attack on the Jewish Question. According to him, if the average German owned as much as the average German Jew still owns today, the national wealth of the Reich would be not as at present some 200 billion marks but over 900 billion marks. As though for a Liberty Loan Drive, the Ministry for Propaganda and Public Enlightenment rushed to German "educative meetings" Dr. Goebbels' brand new "educational film" prepared weeks ago—Jewry Without The Mask. This was not all, by any means. With typical German thoroughness, Dr. Goebbels forced the Jewish Theatre of Berlin, which wished to remain closed, to re-open last week and ordered a Jewish director Fritz Wisten brought directly from a concentration camp to put on a comedy, The Wind And The Rain—or else. A policeman then noted in his little book and reported back to his Nazi superiors what was also noted by the Associated Press correspondent: The bedraggled Jewish audience "occasionally applauded" this comedy which they were obliged to sit through by Dr. Goebbels so that his 2,000 orators can "truthfully" tell the German people such things as this: "There is right now a Jewish theatre going full blast in Berlin and playing comedies at which the rich Jews laugh and applaud while poor Jews are starving!" Such despotic acts of State are the most effective form of 1938 streamlined propaganda, but Orator Goebbels of course uses many first-rate German orators—as well as his 2,000 regimented speakers. First-rate Orator Dr. Robert Ley, führer of the Labor front of 20 million German workers (who have to take him as their trade union boss whether they like him or not), declared last week: "The resurgence of the German people had three stages: first, unification under a Führer; second, the bursting of the Versailles bonds; third, exposure of the Jewish enemy and the battle with him."* Dr. Ley did not forget that he was addressing, among other German workers, many more or less devout Catholics, all of whom know that Pope Pius XI has taken the strongest stand against anti-Semitism and inferentially against Naziism (TIME, Aug. 14). Attacking His Holiness directly, Labor Front Ley blasphemed: "The Pope is wrong because he recognizes only one Catholic race. But Almighty God was not so papal as the Pope. He made differences among races! There are positive and negative elements in the human race and the negative can exist only as parasites—as witness the Jews!" Herren Hitler, Goebbels, Ley et al. are the remorseless leaders and directors of the Nazi program to liquidate the Jews. But the merciless hand of 185,000 who eagerly carry out their orders to the hilt and then some are the 185,000 bullyboys of the Reich—the Schutzstaffel, the vicious elite of the Nazi storm troops. Their organ, and that of the Gestapo (secret police) is Das Schwarze Korps. This Party paper recently stated it as a fact that international Jewry had declared war on Germany. Last week Das Schwarze Korps, descended from appalling generalities to particulars. It proposed this program to destroy Germany's Jews as follows: first impoverish them; this will end in the Jews' having no other means of livelihood than to descend to criminality; "at this stage of development we should therefore face the hard necessity of exterminating the Jewish underworld in the same fashion in which ... we exterminate criminals generally—by fire and sword. "Because it is necessary, because we no longer hear the world's screeching and because, after all, no power on earth can hinder us, we will now bring the Jewish question to its totalitarian solution," declared Das Schwarze Korps. "The program is clear. "The Jews must be quartered in streets and housing blocks where they will be among themselves and come into touch with Germans as little as possible." No one of the ghettos which would be Stage 1 of the Schtitzstaffel's plan had yet been set up in Germany last week. But the laws to put Jews outside Germany's social and economic life were being promulgated daily. No German Jew may enter any non-Jewish place of entertainment or education. No Jew may conduct any commercial business or service. The professions had not been entirely closed to them. That would come later. Meantime, blustering Reich Master of the Hunt Hermann Göring withdrew all Jewish hunting licenses. *Newshawks who few weeks ago reported that Germany's famed folk song, Heinrich Heine's Lorelei, had been banned because its author was a Jew, discovered that Dr. Ley had nonetheless named his newborn daughter Lore Ley.

1939: German authorities seize Jewish property in Poland. Items that are appropriated include businesses, homes, furniture and other household goods, currency and bank accounts, art, jewelry, and other valuables. Now economically helpless, the Jews have virtually nothing with which to sustain themselves.

1940: British government official Sir John Schuckburgh wrote that "the Jews have no sense of humor and no sense of proportion."

1940: “The Thief of Bagdad” a fantasy produced by Sir Alexander Korda, with contributions by Vincent and Zotlan Korda, the other two siblings of this fascinating trio of Hungarian born Jews was released in the United States today.

1941: “Jewish Army Urged To Win Just Peace” published today described plans for a volunteer force of 200,000 Jews that would be trained in Canada and receive equipment under lend-lease that was supported by, among others, Colon John H. Patter, the English Commander of the Jewish Legion in World War I who “had long advocated the formation of a Jewish army because he knew it would help win the war and second because he believe that that without such an army there will be no just peace, no any true democracy after the war.”

1941: The Nazis collected 7,000 Jews in the town courtyard at Nowogrodek, Poland. After a night in the court yard, the Jews were selected to the left for work, or to the right for death. Five thousand of the Jews went to the right.

1941: Two days before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, “Mr. Bug Goes to Town,” the film that ended the partnership between Max and Dave Fleischer had a limited release.

1942: Four days after his 38^th birthday Czech journalist Josef Taussig and his parents – Otto and Frederike, née Federer, Taussig – and “at least five of his other relatives” were shipped to Theresienstadt.

1943: The New York Times reported today that 34 of the Jews arrested by the British during their search for arms at Ramat HaKovesh were released during the last weekend in November, 1943.

1944: In “Bids Jews of U.S. Take Judaism Lead” published today, it was reported that Dr. Ignacy Schwartzbart of the Polish National Council told the American Jewish Conference “the destiny of the Jewish people throughout the world now rests with active and responsible leadership from the American Jews.”

1945(1^stof Tevet, 5706): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah

1945: “1,000 at Hanukah Dinner” published today described a dinner at the Hotel Commodore sponsored by the JNF where each of the attendees have given enough money to purchase one dunam or a quarter of an acre of land in Palestine.

1945: Birthdate of Moshe Katsav, future President of Israel.

1946: “Till The Clouds Roll By” a musical biography of Jerome Kern, produced by Arthur Freed and featuring Dinah Shore was released in the United States today by MGM.

1947: Cartoonist and Chairman of Marvel Comics Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) married Joan Clayton Boocock today.

1947: The U.S. State Department announced that no arms will be sent to the Middle East. [This American arms embargo worked to the advantage of the Arabs who had standing, well-armed militaries the best of which was the Arab Legion, the Jordanian Army supplied by the British with equipment and officers.]

1947: “The Jewish Agency announced the call-up of all men and women between the ages of seventeen and twenty-five for national service.” This was part of the Yishuv’s response to the immediate increase in Arab violence following the vote to adopt the UN back partition plan.

1948: “An Act of Murder” based on a novel by Ernst Lothar, an Austrian Jew who escaped the Nazis and a screenplay by Michael Blankfort was released in New York City today.

1948: At its meeting in Tel Aviv, the Knesset publicly declared the Jerusalem was the capital of the new Jewish state.

1948: First day of Operation Assaf, a campaign by the IDF to secure the western Negev by dislodging the Egyptians who had invaded the area out the outbreak of the war. The first day was a success for the IDF which captured several Egyptian positions without sustaining serious casualties.

1949: “Prime Minister proclaimed Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.”

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that it was decided to proceed with the release of accounts held by Arab refugees in banks in Israel. Arab states made no such offer of releasing funds of Jewish refugees held in Arab banks in such places as Morocco or Yemen. At the UN Britain joined Canada in urging the Arab states to enter into direct peace negotiations, without any preconditions, with Israel.

1954: Birthdate of music promoter Ruth Polsky,

https://www.commdiginews.com/entertainment/death-and-the-limelight-the-tragedy-of-gurl-nineteen-ruth-polsky-91723/

http://thejewniverse.com/2017/this-jewish-punk-heroine-died-tragically-young/

1956: During the Suez Crisis, Golda Meir addressed the General Assembly. In part of her speech Mrs. Meir compared Israeli treatment of Jews who had been forced to flee from Arab countries with the pitiful conditions under which Arab nations forced the refugees in Gaza to live. “While Israel ‘fed those babies and cured their diseases, the fedayeen were sent in to throw bombs at children in synagogues and grenades in baby homes.’”

1957: “Sayonara” a film adaption of the novel produced by William Goetz, with music by Franz Waxman and co-starring Red Buttons was released in the United States today Warner Bros.

1957:New York City passed the Fair Housing Practices Law making it the first city to legislate against racial or religious discrimination in the housing market. A decade after the Holocaust, it was still legal to keep a people from buying a house because they were Jewish.

1958(23^rdof Kislev, 5719): Sixty-five year old Frampol, Russia native Aaron Maiberg who served with the 39^th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers and “was one of the first settlers of Shechumat Borochov” and who established his home at Idofit passed away today.

1959: “Operation Petticoat” a comedy with a script co-authored by Stanley Shapiro, co-starring Tony Curtis and music by David Rose was released today in the United States.

1960: Jewish Ministers Cantor Association of America & Canada held its 60^thAnniversary Concert at Madison Square Garden.

1962: Comedian Lenny Bruce “was arrested at the legendary Gate of Horn folk club in Chicago.

1962(8^thof Kislev, 5723): Thirty-six year old author Edward Lewis Wallant, whose best-known work may have The Pawnbroker which was made into moving film starring Rod Steiger, passed away today.

1963(19^thof Kislev, 5724): “New Year of The Chassidim”

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/335659/jewish/19-Kislev-The-New-Year-of-Chassidism.htm

1963(19^thof Kislev, 5724): Eighty-five year old Herbert H. Lehman, the former governor of New York passed away today.

https://www.jta.org/1963/12/06/archive/herbert-h-lehman-dies-in-new-york-mourned-by-jewry-funeral-sunday

https://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/mep/displaydoc.cfm?docid=erpn-herleh

1963” “Charade” a film based “The Unsuspecting Wife” by the screenwriter Peter Stone, directed and produced by Stanley Donen and co-starring Walter Matthau was released today in the United States.

1965(11th of Kislev, 5726): Joseph Erlanger passed away. Born in 1874, Erlangerborn was an American physiologist who discovered that fibers within the same nerve cord possess different functions. In 1910 he accepted the chair of physiology at Washington University in St. Louis, which he held until his retirement in 1946. While his department became one of the major research centers in physiology in America, Erlanger continued his work on cardiovascular physiology. During WW I, he carried out research on the problem of shock. In 1921 he shifted his interests to neurophysiology, and began joint work, with colleague Herbert Gasser, on the amplification and recording of nerve action potentials with the cathode ray oscilloscope, for which they were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1944.

1967: PoetAllen Ginsberg was arrested protesting Vietnam War

1968: “Jimmy Shine,” a play with music written by Murray Schisgal and starring Dustin Hoffman in the title role opened on Broadway today at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.

1969: Four mid-eastern terrorists were arrested thwarting an attack on a plane the London airport

1969: In landmark case involving “Dr. – Patient Confidentiality” Dr. Joseph Lifschutz who had “refused a court order to testify about one his patients” was cited for contempt of court “and sent to the San Mateo Jail.

1969: Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark, the mother of the Duke of Edinburgh and the mother-in-law of Queen Elizabeth II passed away. During World War II, “After the fall of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in September 1943, the German Army occupied Athens, where a minority of Greek Jews had sought refuge. The majority (about 60,000 out of a total population of 75,000) were deported to Nazi concentration camps, where all but 2,000 died. During this period, Princess Andrew hid Jewish widow Rachel Cohen and two of her five children, who sought to evade the Gestapo and deportation to the death camps.[40] Rachel's husband, Haimaki Cohen, had aided King George I of Greece in 1913. In return, King George had offered him any service that he could perform, should Cohen ever need it. Cohen's son remembered this during the Nazi threat, and appealed to Princess Andrew, who with Princess Nicholas was one of only two remaining members of the royal family left in Greece. She honoured the promise and saved the Cohen family.”

1973: U.S Premiere of director Sidney Lumet’s crime classic “Serpico” co-produced by Martin Bergman with a script co-written by Norman Wexler and filmed by cinematographer Arthur Ornitz.

1975(1^stof Tevet, 5736): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah

1975(1^stof Tevet, 5736): Eighty year old pioneer Zionis and five time member of the Knesset passed away today.

https://jwa.org/people/idelson-beba

1976: “Bound for Glory” a cinema adaption of the autobiography of the same name produced by Harold Leventhal, filmed by cinematographer Haskell Wexler and featuring Bernie Kopell was released in the United States today.

1976(13^thof Kislev, 5737): Seventy-three year old Bessie Bassok Warshawsky, the Russian born daughter of Nathan Bassok, the wife of Samuel Warshawsky whom she married in 1923 and the mother of Irving Warshawsky passed away today in Lowell, MA after which she buried in the Montefiore-Israel Brotherhood Cemetery in Pelham, N.H.

1977(25^thof Kislev, 5738): First Chanukah during the administration of Pres. Jimmy Carter.

1977:The Jerusalem Post reported Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's warning that if Israel wanted the previous month's mutual non-aggression pledge to stand, it had better bring a softened negotiating position to the planned Arab-Israeli talks in Cairo.

1977: “Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?” a documentary film narrated by Henry Winkler was released in the United States today.

1977: In response to the Declaration of Tripoli Egypt breaks diplomatic relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South Yemen. The Declaration of Tripoli was part of an Arab attack on Sadat for his visit to Israel and his willingess to recognize the Jewish state.

1979(15th of Kislev, 5740): Sonia Delaunay, one of the foremost painters of her day and one of the last survivors of the Parisian art world before 1914 died today in Paris at the age of 94. (As reported by John Russell)

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F00617F6385A12728DDDAF0894DA415B898BF1D3

1982: Rabbi Louis Stein officiated at the marriage of Debra Michele Freedman and Andrew William Sideman at the Westbury Hotel.

1982(19th of Kislev, 5743): Eighty-year old English critic, novelist, and journalist Carly Brahms passed away.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/invisible-ink-no-74-caryl-brahms-and-s-j-simon-2273984.html

1982: Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally and Years of Upheaval by Henry A. Kissinger are among the twelve books chosen by the New York Times Book Review to the best books published in the country during the preceding year.

1983: For the first time NBC broadcast “Choices of the Heart” starring Melissa Gilbert as a nun who was brutally murdered “by a Salvadoran death squad.”

1986(3^rdof Kislev, 5747): Seventy year old Moshe Baram who first served as an MK for Mapai and who served both as Minister of Labor and Minister of Welfare, passed away today.

1984: Beverly Hills Cop an American action comedy film directed by Martin Brest, co-produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and featuring Paul Resier as “Jeffrey” was released in the United States today.

1989: “Mencken Was Pro-Nazi, His Diary Shows” published today described the negative views author and columnist H.L. Mencken had where it came to Jews and Blacks.

1990: Responding to growing fear over a rash of Palestinian knife attacks on Jews, the police broadened surveillance of Arab workers in Israel today with spot checks, searches and a new network of roadblocks along the West Bank. More than 20 Israelis have been stabbed over the last two months. Five of the victims died of their wounds

1991: "Catskills on Broadway" a comedic celebration of a slice of Jewish culture, opens at Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in New York City for the first of452 performances.

1991(28^thof Kislev, 5752): Eighty-four year old Sir Raphael "Roy" Welensky whose father was a Jew from Lithuania and was “the second and last prime minister of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland” passed away today

1993(21st of Kislev, 5754): David Mashrati, a reserve soldier, was shot and killed by a terrorist attempting to board a bus on route 641 at the Holon junction. The Islamic Jihad Shekaki group claimed responsibility for the attack.

1993:Shylock: A Legend and Its Legacy by John Gross is among the twelve books chosen by the New York Times Book Review to the best books published in the country during the preceding year.

1994(2nd of Tevet, 5755): Jacob Kaplan, the former Grand Rabbi of France, died in his home in Paris today. He was 99 years old. Rabbi Kaplan was known both for his openness to dialogue with the Christian churches of France and for his staunch support of Zionism. He spoke out during World War II against anti-Jewish measures adopted by the collaborationist Vichy Government. Rabbi Kaplan, who was born in Paris on Nov. 7, 1895, was wounded in action during World War I and received the Croix de Guerre. He completed his rabbinical studies after the war and served as a rabbi in Mulhouse in eastern France from 1922-29 and then in Paris. He became the Grand Rabbi of Paris in 1950, and was elected Grand Rabbi of France in 1955, serving as spiritual leader of France's 700,000 Jews until his retirement in 1981.

1994(2nd of Tevet, 5755): 8^th day of Chanukah

1994(2^ndof Tevet, 5755): Eighty-four year old “Academy Award-winning film designer” Harry Horner the father of Oscar winning composer James Horner, scenic designer Christopher Horner and pediatric immunologist Anthony Horner, M.D., passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/08/obituaries/harry-horner-84-designer-of-films-plays-and-operas.html

1995: “Bush v. Vera” a voting rights case in which Edward Blum was one of six plaintiffs “challenging 24 of the State of Texas’ 30 congressional districts as racial gerrymanders” was argued before the Supreme Court Today.

1997: “Dedication of the Hanns Sachs Library at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society “on the 50^th anniversary of his death” which “was also the 65^thanniversary of his invitation to become” the society’s “first permanent training analyst.”

http://openvault.wgbh.org/exhibits/boring_and_sachs/article

1999: The New York Times list of the Best Books of 1999 contains the following works about Jewish related subjects or by Jewish authors including Reading the Holocaust by Inga Clendinnen and An Affair of State: The Investigation, Impeachment, and Trial of President Clinton
by Richard A. Posner.

1999: ABC broadcast “Tuesdays with Morrie” the movie version of Mitch Albom’s book based on “the time he spent with Professor Morrie Schwartz of Brandies University.

2000:In Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum began serving as “Secretary of the Environment of the Federal District” today.

2001: A suicide bomber exploded a powerful bomb shortly after 7:30 AM on King David Street in Jerusalem. A number of people waiting at a nearby bus stop were lightly injured. The terrorist was killed in the blast. Police are investigating whether the bomb, packed with nails and shrapnel, went off prematurely. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.

2001: A Villager article published today about Grand Street co-ops selling briskly after going market rate noted that Harold “Heshy” Jacob “prided himself on having operated the complexes without increasing carrying charges for nine years.”

2002: In what would prove to be one of the most destabilizing statement in modern history for the Middle East and the World “The White House…said President Bush has ‘solid’ evidence (that) Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction.”

https://nypost.com/2002/12/06/prez-ive-got-goods-on-saddam/

2003:The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington (JHSGW) joins Adas Israel in honoring the memory of synagogue member Arthur Welsh (z'l), an aviation pioneer who flew for the Wright Brothers. The presentation in the Kogod Chapel will feature a rendition of “the relatively unknown story of Arthur Welsh's role as an aviation pioneer, his relationship with the Wright Brothers, and his life as a member of Washington, DC's Jewish community.” Welsh is buried in the synagogue's Alabama Street cemetery in Southeast Washington. The evening’s presentation will also “include a discussion of Welsh's life as a Jewish Washingtonian as well as the milieu of early aviation. Several never-before- seen photographs and mementoes of Welsh's work from the JHSGW archives, including a small black and white photograph depicting Welsh preparing for a two-hour test of the Wright military planes on June 3, 1912, will be on display.”

Welsh became interested in aeronautics after he observed Orville Wright's flights at Ft. Myer, VA, in 1909. In 1910, Orville and Wilbur Wright accepted him into their first flying class, where he worked closely with them, first as a student and, subsequently, as a pilot and instructor at the Wright Flight School in Dayton, OH. Among the people Welsh trained were Henry H. (Hap) Arnold, who later became a five-star general and U.S. Army Air Chief of Staff during WWII. In 1912, the Wrights sent Welsh to the U.S. Army Signal Corps in College Park, MD, to serve as a civilian test pilot for a new plane for the War Department. On June 11, 1912, Welsh, accompanied by Signal Corps Lt. Leighton W. Hazelhurst, was attempting to complete final military tests of the Wright Model C airplane when the airplane buckled under its 450- pound load. Both men were killed instantly, the first-ever fatalities at College Park. The Washington Times, Jewish Forward, and various aviation publications, including Fly and Aero: America's Aviation Weekly, covered Welsh's death.

2004: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Jews of Oudtshoorn, South Africa, celebrated the 120th anniversary of their town, which was known as the "little Jerusalem of Africa."

2004: The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with commentary by Robert Alter appears on the New York Timeslist of "100 Notable Books" of 2004 and the Washington Post listing of the "best books of 2004." The Cedar Rapids Gazette had previously published a review praising this volume describing at as a great gift for either Christmas or Chanukah. Considering the text itself and the nature of the commentary this is another reminder that despite oft repeated reports of the demise of the Jewish people, Am Yisroail Chai.

2005(4th of Kislev, 5766): Five people were killed and 50 wounded after a suicide attack at a Netanya shopping mall. The five known dead are Eliyah Rozen, 39, of Bat Hefer, Daniel Golani, 45, of Nahariya, Haim Amram, 26, of Netanya, Keinan Tzoami, 20, of Petah Tikva and Alexandra Zarnitzki, 65, of Netanya. Islamic Jihad proudly took credit for the attack on the northern seaside town.

2005: Frits Phillips, the former head of the Dutch electronics giant Philips, who helped save the lives of hundreds of Jewish workers during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in World War II, passed away at the age of 100. During the war years, when Philips supplied electronics to Germany, he secured positions at his factory in the Vught prison camp for as many Jews as possible, delaying their deportation to the Auschwitz death camp. Frits Philips was imprisoned by the Nazis after a strike during the war. He was awarded the Yad Vashem medal by Israel in 1995 for his efforts to save Jewish workers - almost 380 prisoners survived out of 496 who started work. He said he was no hero and that many others had helped to save lives. According to the staff at Yad Vashem, "Frits Philips, in risking his life to save Jews during the Holocaust, showed extraordinary courage in the face of terrible circumstances."

2005: A London production of “Once in a Lifetime” by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman opened at the Royal National Theatre.

2006: Haaretz reported on the development of new flavors and styles of sufganiyot. The original red jam filling has been replaced by a variety of baked and deep-fried “delicacies including ones filled with Roquefort cheese, chocolate and halva cream. (Can chocolate chip latkes be far behind?)

2006(14th of Kislev, 5767): Chess grandmaster David Bronstein passed away at the age of 82.

https://en.chessbase.com/post/shattered-illusions-genna-sosonkos-the-rise-and-fall-of-david-bronstein

2007: The Maymana dance troupe produces “Adraba” for its seventh Chanukah celebration at Heichal Hatarbut in Rishon Letzion.

2007: Eli Nissman and Ashdod’s municipal cultural organization put on the children’s song festival, “Yeled Pele” (Wonder Child) as part of the Chanukah celebrations in Ashdod.

2007: Sixty one years after he was buried at a cemetery in southeast Washington, the exhumed remains of Stephen Theodore Norman, the only grandchild of Theodor Herzl will be buried on Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem, thus finally joining his famous grandfather in his famous resting place.

2007(25th of Kislev, 5768): First Day of Chanukah

2007: “The Golden Compass,” directed and written by Chris Weitz was released today in the United Kingdom.

2008: At the Ma’ariv service being reciting הכרבל רטםו לט (Dew and rain) for a blessing. Normally this is done at Ma’ariv on December 4, but when it is leap year on the civil calendar, then the change is made on December 5. [Editor’s Note: I have not been able to find out why this change is tied to the civil calendar instead of the Jewish calendar.]

2008: Lital Levy, assistant professor of comparative literature at Princeton presents "Israel, Interrupted: When Arabs Write Hebrew and Jews Write Arabic as part of the Friday lunch works-in-progress seminar sponsored by the Princeton University Program in Judaic Studies.

2008: Palestinian rocket fire on the western Negev continued today, with five Kassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip throughout the day. One rocket landed in Sderot, and the other four landed in open areas near the city. No casualties or damage were reported in the attacks. Also today, two mortar shells fired from the northern Gaza Strip landed in the Eshkol region. No casualties or damage were reported.

2008 (8 Kislev 5769): Richard Topus, a pigeon trainer in World War II, passed away at the age of 84.

2008 (8 Kislev 5769): A. Bernard Ackerman, a founding figure in the field of dermatopathology who trained a generation of doctors to recognize skin diseases under the microscope passed away today at his home in Manhattan at the age of 72.

2009: In Cedar Rapids, Saturday morning traditional minyan at Temple Judah is dedicated to Jewish Book Month.

2009(18^thof Kislev, 5770): Levi Yitzchak Horowitz, the second Rebbe of the Bostoner Chasidim (Boston Chassidic Sect) passed away today in Israel. According to some sources the Bostoner Chasidim are the first Chassidic organization to have started in the United States as opposed to having here from Europe.

2009: Mark Eliyahu and percussionist/clarinetist Daniel Yaakov Zol will be accompanying Wieder-Magen and the TCJ when they perform at Mishkenot Sha'ananim at 9 p.m.

2009: In Washington, D.C., the 20^th Washington Jewish Film Festival includes screenings of “Camera Obscura,” a film about life among a colony of 19^thcentury Argentinean Jews and “My Mother’s Courage,” in which the renowned Hungarian Jewish playwright, director and actor George Tabori who passed away in 2007, tells the true story of what happened to his mother Elsa (Pauline Collins), 50 years earlier during the deportation of the Hungarian Jewish community.

2009: Opening of the 24th Annual New York Israeli Film Festival. The opening gala honors Elliott Gould with 2009 IFF Lifetime Achievement Award; Donald Krim with the 2009 IFF Visionary Award; Paul Schrader with the2009 IFF Achievement in Film Award.

2010: "My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish, and I'm Home for the Holidays!," is scheduled to have its final performance in Charlotte, NC.

2010: Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to presents its “Chanukah Extravaganza!”

2010: After the Cup: Sons of Sakhnin United is scheduled to have its DC premier at the 21^st Washington Jewish Festival. “In 2004, Bnei Sakhnin was the king of Israeli soccer as the first team from an Arab town to win the country’s Cup and represent Israel in the European competition. Owned by an Arab and coached by a Jew with Arab, Jewish and foreign-born players, the team became a symbol of coexistence and a potential bridge between Israel and its 1.4 million Arab citizens.” This is but one in a day long series of films and events that range from a Chanukah celebration to Jews and Baseball that are scheduled at this major Beltway event.

2010: The LA Times includes a review of Job by Joseph Roth, translated from the German by Ross Benjamin. “Here are the tribulations, the Angela's ashes of Mendel Singer, a God-fearing man, a poor teacher in Russia at the precipice of World War II. You can picture him like a folded crow, his black frock coat flapping as he hurries home to his suffering wife and their four children. The two oldest, who are boys, go off to war—one defects, however, to America, where he becomes wealthy and writes for his family to join him. The third, a daughter, runs off with a Cossack and ends up in an insane asylum. The fourth, Menuchim, is crippled. His mother believes what the rabbi told her, that she must never leave him. When she goes with her husband and daughter to join their son in America, leaving Menuchim wailing on the threshold, she believes her sin has destroyed them. Like the story of Job, Mendel's life is one endless test, with a twinkling possibility for miracles. His god's capriciousness beats like black wings through the novel, driving the characters, scattering their fates. Yes, there is a moral here, but not necessarily the one on the marquee in the biblical tale.”

2010: The Washington Postfeatures reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Scorpions:The Battles and Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices by Noah Feldman and The Witness House: Nazis and Holocaust Survivors Sharing a Villa During the Nuremberg Trials by Christiane Kohl.

2010: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including They Live by Jonathan Lethem

2010: The New York Times“100 Notable Books of 2010” list includes the following works by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Ask by Sam Lipsyte, Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick, Freedom by Jonathan Franzen, Great House by Nicole Krauss, The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer, The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems, 1975-2010 by Edward Hirsch, The Long Song by Andrea Levy, The Three Weissmanns of Westport by Cathleen Schine, To The End of The Land by David Grossman, Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff, Finishing The Hate: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) With Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes by Stephen Sondheim, Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic by Michael Scammell and The Sabbath World: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time by Judith Shulevitz

2010: Cuban President Raul Castro celebrated Hanukkah today with Cuba's tiny Jewish community, a heavily symbolic act at a time when his government is holding a Jewish-American subcontractor on suspicion of spying.

2010: Shalshelet’s 4th International Festival at Congregation Ansche Chesed, New York City came to an end today.

2010(28^thof Kislev, 5771): Ninety-one year old “Heda Margolius Kovaly, a Czech writer and translator whose memoir, “Under a Cruel Star,” described her imprisonment by the Nazis during World War II and her persecution by the Communists in the 1950s and became a classic account of life under totalitarianism, died today at her home in Prague.” (As reported by William Grimes)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/books/09kovaly.html

2010: Evelyn Selig, 64, a Laredo retailer and widow and Irving Greenblum, an 81-year-old investor and retired furniture store owner plan to enjoy a Chanukah party with 50 other co-religionists at the conservative synagogue in Laredo, Texas.

2011: Tony Kushner, the Jewish Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and screenwriter, and polarizing political voice, is scheduled to be awarded $100,000 for “Creative Citizenship” at The Nation Institute’s Annual Gala in New York.

2011: The Tulane University Hillel Executive Committee is scheduled to meet at the Goldie & Morris Mintz Center for Jewish Life.

2011: Today “Kraft announced that Irene Rosenfeld would stay on as chairperson of the $31 billion global snacking company, which will be called Mondelēz International, Inc.”

2011: “Through the Eye of the Needle,” “The Art of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz,” “Letters Home” and Yizkor are four of the films scheduled to be shown today the Washington Jewish Film Festival.

2011: Lebanon filed a complaint in the United Nations against Israel today for its retaliation to Katyusha rockets fired into Israel late last month, Lebanese newspaper the Daily Star reported

2011: Israel's Education Ministry issued an unusual order today forbidding any school trips to take place around the southern Israeli city of Eilat, following warnings against a possible terror attack on the Israel-Egypt border, Channel 10 reported.

2011(9^thof Kislev, 5772): Muriel Kadoorie, the widow of Lawrence Kadoorie, Baron Kadoorie passed away today.

2011: Today Kraft announced that Irene Rosenfeld would stay on as chairperson of the $31 billion global snacking company, which will be called Mondelēz International, Inc. making her one of the most powerful Jewish businesswomen in the world.

2012(21^stof Kislev, 5773): Eighty-four year old Felix Weinberg, who survived the death camps to eventually become Emeritus Profess or Combustion Physics at Imperial College London passed away today.

http://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/117808/tribute-felix-weinberg/

2012: Dalia Itzik announced she was “taking a break from politics.”

2012: Ya’akov Erdi, a member of Kadima, announced he would not be taking part in the upcoming elections.

2012: Professor Bob Moore of the University of Sheffield is scheduled to deliver an address entitled “Integrating Self-Help into the History of Jewish Survival in Western Europe´ at the Weiner Library. Moore is the author of 'Survivors: Jewish Self-Help and Rescue in Nazi-Occupied Europe'.

2012: The Joint Distribution Committee is scheduled to sponsor “Una Noeche: An Inside Look At Cuba’s Jewish Community” at the Maritime Hotel in New York City.

2012: Rabbi Marvin Hier, Dean & Founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, is scheduled to introduce “It’s No Dream: The Life of Theodore Herzl” before it is shown at The Jewish Center on West 86^th Street.

2012: United Nations forces based inside Syria to monitor a longtime ceasefire between Syria and Israel will bring in armor to reinforce their security because of a threat posed by an influx of Syrian rebels, the UN peacekeeping chief said.

2012: Police appealed to the public today to help in locating a missing soldier amid fears he may take his own life. Liraz Benbenishti, 20, left his base near Gedera yesterday and police said he was seen on Medinat Hayehudim Street in Herzliya later that day. However, since then he has vanished without a trace.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/police-appeal-to-public-to-help-find-missing-soldier/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=3d4caa81f2-2012_12_05&utm_medium=email

2012: With polls indicating “Kadima either barely getting into the Knesset or not even passing the threshold” in the upcoming elections Marina Solodkin announced that she would not be a candidate.

2013(2^ndof Tevet, 5774): 8^th Day of Chanukah

2013(2^ndof Tevet, 5774): Eighty-five year old General Danny Matt, the native of Cologne who made Aliyah in 1934 and fought in five wars starting with the War for Independence and climaxing with the Yom Kippur War passed away today

2013: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to present a lecture by Dr. Peter Hayes entitled “Antisemitism and Homophobia in Nazi Germany: Commonalities and Differences”

2013: The Holocaust Education Program & Adult Jewish Education is scheduled to host the opening reception of “Raoul Wallenberg: Modern Day Hero.”

2013: Ohad Meromi is scheduled to present his recent video Worker! Smoker! Actor! (2012), for its debut screening in NYC, followed by a conversation with curator and artist Naomi Lev at the ICI Curatorial Hub.

2013: The Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to present “Joy of Israel with Jamie Geller.”

2013: NPR’s Larry Abramson is scheduled to moderate a panel discussion “Discovery and Recovery: Eyewitness Accounts” that looks at the retrieval “of water-logged treasures from Baghdad’s Jewish past.”

2013: Nelson Mandela passed away today.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/nelson-mandela-was-close-to-jews-resolutely-loyal-to-palestinians/

2013: The Houston Rockets’ Omri Casspi, the first Israeli hoopster to ever play in the NBA, relished the honor of meeting US President Barack Obama today (As reported by Spencer Ho)

2013: A wet and cold winter storm hit Israel this morning, bringing welcome rain to much of the country and raising the Sea of Galilee by one centimeter in a matter of hours.

2014: Lewis Black is scheduled to appear at the Music Box in Atlantic City, NJ.

2014(13^thof Kislev, 5775): Sixty-two year old “culinary historian” Gil Marks passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/11/books/gil-marks-historian-of-jewish-food-and-culture-dies-at-62.html?hpw&rref&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

http://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-food-historian-gil-marks-dead-at-62/

2014(13^thof Kislev, 5775): Ninety-six year American photographer Arthur Leipzig passed away today.

http://www.arthurleipzig.com/

2014: The UK Jewish Comedy Festival is scheduled to host “Friday Night Supper Club” where attendees “will learn how to improve their joke-telling skills and learn gags they'll be dining out on for months to come.”

2014; Gal “Mekel signed a two-year, non-guaranteed contract with the New Orleans Pelicans

2014: “Starting today, when Digital Einstein is introduced, anyone with an Internet connection will be able to share in the letters, papers, postcards, notebooks and diaries that Einstein left scattered in Princeton and in other archives, attics and shoeboxes around the world when he died in 1955.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/05/science/huge-trove-of-albert-einstein-documents-becomes-available-online.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

2014: “Reports indicated today that the Labor Party headed by Isaac Herzog and the Hatnua party led by former justice minister Tzipi Livni were considering running together in the March 2015 elections.”

http://www.timesofisrael.com/labor-hatnua-parties-consider-alliance/

2014: “Frenchman Mehdi Nemmouche, suspected of killing four people at Brussels’ Jewish Museum in May, was remanded in custody for another three months today, judicial officials said.”

http://www.timesofisrael.com/brussels-jewish-museum-suspect-killer-remanded-in-custody/

2014: Talya Lavie’s “Zero Motivation” is scheduled to be shown at the Film Forum in New York.

2015: In Alexandria, Beth El Hebrew Congregation is scheduled to host “Songs in the Key of Light” an evening of song with Cantor Jason Kaufman, Eric Schnobrick and Leo Morris.

2015(23^rdof Kislev, 5776): Shabbat Va-yayshev

2015(23^rdof Kislev, 5776): Eighty-eight year old literary agent Timothy Seldes passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/books/timothy-seldes-literary-agent-dies-at-88.html

2016: “A.K.A. Nadia” and “Nazareth Cinema Lady” are scheduled to be shown at the 10^thAnnual Other Israel Film Festival.

2016: The Center for Jewish History, Forward, American Jewish Historical Society, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and Jewish Book Council are scheduled to host “Have I Got a Story for You: More than a Century of Fiction from the Forward,

2016: The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to host “Jewish Voice, “an annual event with readings by prominent Jewish poets and writers.”

2016: Today, “Gimlet Media announced” that Arnold Stephen “A.J.” “Jacobs would be the host of Twice Removed, a podcast focused on genealogy.”

2016: “Atlanta Collects” which celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Breman Museum by highlighting diverse pieces from Jewish collectors in and around Atlanta” is scheduled to open today.

2016(5^thof Kislev, 5777): Yahrtzeit of Talmudic commentator Rabbi Shmuel Eliezer Edeles (MaHaRSHA) who passed away on the 5^th of Kislev, 5392

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/111910/jewish/Rabbi-Shmuel-Eliezer-Edeles.htm

http://www.jewishhistory.org.il/history.php?startyear=1550&endyear=1559

2016: The Marcus Foundation, established by Bernard Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot and his wife Billi said today “it would make a $38 million donation to a new Hillel staffing initiatives – Talent Grants.”

2017: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to offer the third part of Yitzhak Lewis’ “Introduction to Gershom Scholem”

2017: Jewish Book Month, an annual event that provides us with a chance to contemplate Jewish books and the lives of authors such as Rufus Learsi whose works included The Jews In America: A History one of the first Jewish history books I ever read, continues today.

2017: The USCJ Convention is scheduled to come to an end today in Atlanta.

2018(27^thof Kislev, 5779): Third Day of Chanukah

2018: Fifty-six year old Claudia Sheinbaum, “the second daughter of chemist Carlos Scheinbaum Yoselevitz and biologist Annie Pardo Cemo and a graduate of UNAM began serving as “head of the Government of Mexico City.”

2018: “Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London are scheduled to speak tonight at “this year’s Chanukah in the Square celebrations in London.”

2018: 85^th Anniversary of the repeal of prohibition which among other things put an end to Welch’s ill-fated attempt to sell grape juice as “kosher unfermented wine” and provided the Bronfmans, with “a unique marketing opportunity because, unlike most of its American competitors, their Seagram Distilleries had large supplies of aged whiskeys on hand” with which to quench the thirst of those in “the lower 48.”

2018: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Disobedience.”

2018: Beit Avi Chai is scheduled to host a performance of “A First Candle Tale,” “a play inspired by Nathan Alterman’s poem, ‘This Happened in Hanuka’.”

2019: Pianist Yefim Bronfman is scheduled to join the New York Philharmonic in a performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4.

2019: In San Francisco, the Herbst Theatre is scheduled to host a performance of Handel’s “Judas Maccabaeus.”

2019: In Berkley, CA, Congregation Beth El is scheduled to host “Israel’s Elections: An Endless Cycle? “during which Koret visiting scholar Tomer Persico and J. editor-in-chief Sue Fishkoff discuss what has shifted in Israeli society/politics, what hasn’t and what the future might hold.”

2019: In New Orleans, “at historic St. Augustine Hight School,” “the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans” is scheduled to host “the Federation's second annual Alex Schoenbaum Jewish Scholarship Fund award ceremony and assembly.”

2019: The Yeshiva University Museum and the American Sephardi Federation are scheduled to host “Elad Kabilio and the MusicTalks ensemble featuring Ariella Edvy” in a celebration of “the music of Yemenite Israeli singers including Ofra Haza, Izhar Cohen and Gali Atari.”

2019: The US Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to host “Reconsidering the Catholic Church and the Holocaust” including a “special film screening followed by discussion.”

Special Film Screening and Discussion

2019: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host the last screening of Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story.”

2019: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host “Anita Hill: Speaking Truth to Power.”

2019: Today “in this year's Pfeffer Family Forum, leading 20th-century political propaganda scholar David Welch, Director of the Center for the Study of Propaganda and War at the University of Kent (England) is scheduled to speak to the power and perils of propaganda throughout history, and why combating hateful rhetoric today is so critical.”

2019: In La Jolla, CA, Congregation Beth El is scheduled to host “Crying Hands: The Deaf Experience under Nazi Oppression.”

DECEMBER 6

1060: Béla I of Hungary is crowned king of Hungary. In 1061 Bela changed the Market Day from the traditional Sunday to Saturday which may have been part of an attempt to remove the Jews from the commercial activity of the kingdom. Given the anti-Jewish decrees of his immediate successors, there is reason to believe such was the case.

1185: Alfonso I the Conqueror, king of Portugal passed away at the age of 76. Alfonso’s connection with Jewish history is indirect. Until he proclaimed himself king, Portugal was part of Spain. Alfonso’s successful secession came only after bitter fighting between him and the Spanish. This delayed the attempts by the Spanish monarchs to drive the Moors from the Iberian Peninsula. Also, Portugal offered a haven for Jews and Conversos in 1492. This haven proved to be short-lived but sometimes any port in a storm is better than no port at all.

1285: Birthdate of King Ferdinand IV of Castile who would earn the enmity of the Dowager Queen for employing a Jew as his treasurer and close advisor.

1352: Pope Clement VI who in 1342 had had a portion of Sefer Milhamot Ha-Shem, ("The Wars of the Lord") by Levi ben Gershon (Gersonides) containing “an elaborate survey of astronomy” translated into Latin passed away today.

1424: Don Alfonso V of Aragon grants Barcelona the right to exclude Jews.

1496: Isaac Abravanel completed "Ma'yene ha-Yeshu'ah" (Sources of Salvation)

1570: The Council of Worms issued ordinances “regulating Jewish affairs” today.

1576: “King Stephen Bathori relieved the Jews of Brest from all taxes on account of serious losses sustained by them through fires.”

1672: King John II Casimir of Poland passed away. King John allowed the Jews to continue living in the fortified city of Kamnets where they had taken refuge during Khmelnytsky (Chmielnicki) Uprising. He also granted the Jews of Szydlowiec several privileges including the right to make and sell whiskey.

1675: Seventy-three year old John Lightfoot, the English minister who studied with Hebraist Sir Rowland Cotton “and became the best Hebrew scholar in his nation without speaking to a Jew” passed away today.

1766: Sampson Gideon , the grandson of West India merchant Rowland Gideon and the son of Sampson Gideon, the successful financier who had “ceased all connection with the Portuguese synagogue at Bevis Marks in 1753 but never join the Christian church,” married “the daughter of Chief-justice Sir John Eardley Wilmot” whose surname he assumed so that he could be elevated to a peerage.

1776(25^thof Kislev, 5537): As Washington’s army freezes in Pennsylvania having escaped across the Delaware River from the British, first day of Chanukah

1785: In Buchau, Germany, Johanna Ullmann and Jacob Dreifus gave birth to Marianne Miriam Dreifus, the wife of Israel Mayer with whom she had seven children.

1786: In Baltimore, MD, Hannah Levy and Eleazar Lyons gave birth to Esther Lyons, the husband of Isaa Lazarus.

1792: In The Hague,King William I of the Netherlands and Wilhelmine of Prussia gave birth to William II who followed in his father’s footsteps when became king of not abrogating the rights of the Jews gained while the French ruled the Netherlands.

1793(3^rdof Tevet, 5554): 8^th Day of Chanukah

1794: Newport, RI native Hannah Isaacks and London born Jacob Phillips gave birth Esther Phillips, the wife of Isaac Hendricks with she had six children.

1797: In Baden Germany, “Judel Loew” and Moses Herz Wimpfheimer gave birth to Amalie Wimpfheimer, the wife of Samuel Ottenheimer and mother of Lazarus Ottenheimer.

1798: In Bonfeld, Germany, Schoenle Lazarus and Lazarus Ruben gave birth to “Sara Lazarus Ottenheimer” the wife of Lamle Strausburger with whom she had ten children.

1806(25^thof Kislev, 5567): Chanukah and Shabbat

1808: Issachar ben Baruch married Sarah bat Ephraim Gumprich today at the Western Synagogue.

1812: Birthdate of Hezekiah Linthicum Bateman, the Baltimore born American actor and manager. Bateman was the manager of Henry Irving when the British actor gained his greatest success by playing Mathias in “The Bells” a play based on a translation of “The Polish Jew.”

1815: Emperor Frederick William III of Prussia closed the first Reform Temple in Berlin.

1817: In London, Rebecca Levy and Victor Abraham gave birth to Joseph Abraham, the husband of Sara De Youn

1817 (27th of Kislev, 5578): Rabbi Chaim of Tchernovitz, a disciple of the Maggid of Mezritch and of Rabbi Yechiel Michel of Zlotchov passed away on the third day of Chanukah which was also Shabbat Shel Chanukah. He authored Be'er Mayim Chayim("Well of Living Waters"), a commentary on Torah.

1818: In Hanover, Germany, Gershon Hirsch Treuenfels and Rachel Treuenfels gave birth to Abraham Treuenfels the husband of Bertha Budge.

1820: US President James Monroe re-elected. In 1850, a U.S. Senate Committee investigated the role played by Chaim Solomon during the American Revolution. According to a report issued by the committee James Monroe was one of several leaders of the Revolution who received financial assistance from Solomon. Like the other leaders listed, Monroe did not repay Solomon proving that while some may have talked about “pledging their fortunes” to the cause of liberty, Solomon actually did give his fortune.

1823: In Dessau, Germany, lyric poet Wilhelm Muller and the former Adelheid von Basedow gave birth to German linguist and Oriental scholar Friedrich Max Müller who challenged the claim of Nicolas Notovitch, a Russian Jew, that the Life of Issa” was a legitimate work depicting the life of Jesus (Issa) which had Him leaving the Galilee and studying with Buddhists and Hindus in India before returning to Judea.

1827: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi S.C. Peixotto officiated at the marriage of Hyam Cohen and Mrs. Esther Moise.

1832” Amsterdam natives Adelaide and Jacob Cohen – De Solla gave birth to Benjamin De Solla.

1834(4th of Kislev, 5595): Dutch lawyer Jonas Daniel Meyer passed away at the age of 54. In Amsterdam, the Jonas Daniel Meyer Square was the center of the Jewish religious life.

1834: Birthdate of Dr. Hermann Senator the medical professor who was a native of Gnesen.

1840: Birthdate of S.H. Friendly, the New York who moved to California in 1863 before settling in Eugene, Oregon where his success in business led to his being chosen President of the Board of Trade, Mayor and eventually a member of the Board of Regents for the University of Oregon.

1843: Jacob Hyman married Fraces Phillips today at the Great Synagogue.

1844(25^thof Kislev, 5605): Chanukah observed for the last time during the Presidency of John Tyler, the first Vice President to take office after the death of the President.

1849: Simon Hyam married Rebecca de Pass today at the New Synagogue.

1850: Birthdate of Russian native Simon Marcus, the husband of Ellen Albertine Kann.

1852(25^thof Kislev, 5613): Chanukah

1852: In Jersey City, Jersey, the committee that had been appointed to make arrangements for the lectures of Mr. Matthew A. Berk on “The Conditions of Jews” decided that they would begin this week. There will be no charge for admission but a voluntary collection will be taken to support the lectures. In 1846, Berk published The History of the Jews from the Babylonian Captivity to Present the Present Time.

1854: Birthdate of Jacob Aaron Cantor, New York attorney and political leader who served in the U.S. Congress for one term from 1913 through 1915.

1854: In Australia, three days after the Eureka Stockade Massacre, Charles Dyte and Henry Harris both of whom are members of the Ballarat Hebrew Congregation took part in drafting “the Eureka Resolution.”

1855(28th of Kislev, 5616): Amschel Mayer Rothschild, the second child and eldest son of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, passed away. On the death of Mayer Amschel in 1812, Amschel Mayer succeeded as head of the bank at Frankfurt-am-Main, which was the original Rothschild house in the House of Rothschild.

1855: Birthdate of Nina Morais Cohen—the daughter of Sabato Morais, a prominent Orthodox rabbi and a leading exponent of traditional Judaism— who established her own strong voice as an advocate for women's rights within Judaism and American society. Born in Philadelphia where her father served the congregation Mikveh Israel, Nina Morais grew up very involved in her father's work and concerns. As a young woman she published widely on the subject of women's rights and roles in Judaism in both the Jewish and secular press. After her marriage to attorney Emanuel Cohen in 1885, she moved to Minneapolis, where she became a leader in the woman suffrage movement and in the Jewish community. She participated in the 1893 Jewish Women's Congress in Chicago and returned to Minneapolis to found a local section of the newly formed National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) in 1894. She served as section president until 1907. For 13 years she drew upon her extensive Jewish education to lead study sessions for local NCJW members in her home on Saturday afternoons (As reported by Jewish Women’s Archives)

1856: In Navahrudak, Hrodna Province, Belarus, Tsvi Hirsch Lamport and Esther Lamport gave birth to Nathan Lamport, the husband of Sarah Lamport and the father of Arthur Lamport.

1858: The second session of the 35^th United States Congress in which Philadelphian Henry Myer Phillips served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives opened today in Washington, DC.

1858: Birthdate of Ferdinand A. Weil who was buried in Savannah when he passed away.

1859: Rabbi A. Fishcell presented a paper entitled “The History of the Jews in America” at tonight’s regularly scheduled monthly meeting of the New York Historical Society. He traced their history from the expulsion from Spain in 1492 to their settling in New Amsterdam. He concluded by reading the letter from George Washington to the Jews of Newport Rhode Island in which he praised the Jews for their patriotism.

1861: Birthdate of Sigmund Berliner, the husband of Paula Berliner with whom he had eight children before passing away in 1919.

1862: In Davenport, IA, the members of Congregation B’nai Israel which had been formed in 1861 accepted and approved a constitution and by-laws.

1863: Eide and Ephraim Leib Moshewitz gave birth to Max Moshewitz.

1864: A meeting was held in Philadelphia “which resulted in the establishment of the first Jewish theological seminary in America. The need of such an institution was strongly felt, as there were numerous synagogues in the country, but few persons capable of filling the rabbinical office. The seminary was established under the joint auspices of the Hebrew Education Society and the Board of Delegates of American Israelites, and was named Maimonides College." The school began operating in 1867 with Isaac Leeser as its provost. The school ceased operations in 1873 due to lack of support and funds.

1864: In Chicago, the former Joseph Brumer and Abram Lipman, “a loan broker” gave birth actress and playwright Clara Lipman, the wife of fellow thespian Louis Mann.

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/lipman-clara

https://www.loc.gov/item/2014637220/

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1952/06/23/84326976.html?pageNumber=19

1870: Birthdate of New York native Rudolph Block, the “editor of the comic supplements of the Hearst newspapers” who under the pen name Bruno Lessings helped to create “The Katzenjammer Kids” and raised two sons Rudolph Jr and Arthur with his wife Verda.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1940/04/30/109345942.pdf

1870: It was reported today that the Hebrew Fair has raised $75,000 so far and the sponsors are sure that they will reach the goal of $100,000. Over 450 items have been raffled off so far including a $200 silver service. Mrs. Joseph Steiner won a canvas on which Constant Meyer will paint the winner’s portrait.

1871: “In Schweinfurt, Germany, Philipp Salzer and Lina Fuchs gave birth to Gustave Salzer, the husband of Hedwig Gtunbaum.”

1873: According to a report published today there were 73,265 Jews living in the United States in 1870 as compared with 34,412 living in the U.S. in 1860 and 18,871 living in the U.S. in 1850. These figures come from a religious census that reported on the religious preferences of 21,665,062 people living in the United States in 1870 out of a total population of 38,555,983 as tabulated by the U.S. Census Bureau.

1873: In Paris, Alfred and Jeanne Neymarck gave birth to Auschwitz victim Henriette Neymarck who became Henriette Mayer when she married Germain Lucien Mayer.

1874: The annual meeting of the Hebrew Free School Association was held today at Metropolitan Hall in New York. The association supports five afternoon and evening schools with 519 students, 375 of whom were boys and 144 were girls.

1874: In Chattanooga, TN, Bernard and Theresa (Ehrman) Stern gave birth to Western Reserve University trained surgeon Walter G. Stern, the assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at the Cleveland College of Physicians and Surgeon and an orthopedic surgeon at the Jewish Orphan Asylum in Cleveland.

1874: Mrs. P.J. Joachimsen was elected President at today’s annual meeting of the Society of the Home for the Aged and Infirm Hebrews located on Lexington Avenue. The number of residence has increased from 300 to 700 in the last year. The total assets of the society are $18,361.39. The President expressed the hope that before the lease has expired on the current facility the society will have built a suitable building of its own.

1875: A fund raiser for the benefit of Mount Sinai Hospital is scheduled to be held today at Gilmore’s Garden.

1875: The Hebrew Charity Fair, a fund-raiser for Mt. Sinai Hospital opened tonight at the Hippodrome, the pleasure palace erected by P.T. Barnum in Manhattan.

1875: The sister of Abram and Aaron Dietz identified their burned bodies at the City Morgue today. The two Jewish men were among the victims of yesterday’s Brooklyn Theatre Fire which claimed the lives of 278 people.

1876(20^thof Kislev, 5637):Isaac Elijah ben Samuel Landau who began serving as a rabbi and a dayyan at Wilna in 1868 passed away today.

1876: In London, the former Adelaide Soman and Herman Klein gave birth to composer Manuel Joachim Klein whose “five brothers included Max, a violinist; Charles, a playwright; Herman, a music critic and music teacher; Alfred, an actor; and Philip.

1877: First publication of The Washington Post. In 1933, The Post would be purchased in a bankruptcy auction by Eugene Meyer, who restored the paper's health and reputation. Philip L. Graham, Meyer's son-in-law, would work his way up to become publisher upon Graham's death in 1959. After Graham’s death, his widow Katherine would take over the paper and the communication conglomerate that would include Newsweek Magazine the Washington affiliate of CBS.

1877: Birthdate of New York native and surgeon Dr. Henry M. Kalvin, the husband of Pauline Kalvin with whom he had one son who served “as a physician in the Army induction center at Grand Central Station” and “who hobby was capturing wild animals with a lariat.”

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/10/05/80554814.pdf

1877: Fifty-nine year old German poet and historian Theodore Creizenach, who converted to Christianity in 1854 passed today in Frankfurt.

1878: At 11:30 this morning, a fire broke out in the basement of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in New York. The fire was quickly extinguished by the staff. None of the 50 children in the building at the time were in any danger and little damage was sustained to the structure.

1878(10^th of Kislev, 5639): Sixty-four year old Dutch born French economist Louis Jean Königswarter who founded the "Prix Königswarter" (1,500 francs), to be given every three years by the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques for the best work on the history of law” passed away today in Paris.

1880: It was reported today that at a meeting hosted by Socialists in New York City where the speakers were all refugees from political oppression in Germany, Carl Welki enumerated a list of grievances including Prince Bismarck’s support of the attacks on the Jews.

1880: Sarah Bernhardt is scheduled to begin performing at the Globe Theatre in Boston, MA.

1880: It was reported today that in Germany, “the Provincial School Commission has recommended the Government to dismiss two teachers for displaying animosity against the Jews.”

1880: “The German Anti-Jewish War” published today described the decision of the Provincial School Commission in Germany to recommend the dismissal of two Jews “for displaying animosity against the Jews.”

1880: In New York, “Max Mansfeld, editor of the Hanover Tageszeitung, delivered a lecture” this evening at Steinway Hall on the modern persecution of the Jews in Germany.”

1881: Today “Diamond broker” Ernest David Leverson married Ada Esther Beddington who gained fame as the author Ada Leverson.

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/leverson-ada

1882(25^th of Kislev, 5643): Chanukah

1882: Mrs. Abraham Bronstein remained in the custody of the Harlem Police today after having been arrested yesterday. Her husband, whom the police were still seeking, remained at large. The Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society had requested the police take the couple into custody because they refused to leave the barracks at Ward’s Island despite the fact that Mr. Bronstein had a job and could have provided for his family without further assistance from the Jewish charity.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F05E7DA1530E433A25755C0A9649D94639FD7CF

1883: Among the organizations receiving funds today to cover expenses for the month of October were The Hebrew Shelter - $2,628. 29 and Ladies’ Deborah - $2,047.14

1884: Rabbi Louis Grossman gave his inaugural sermon at Temple Bethel in Detroit, a congregation he would serve for 14 years.

1884: Mother Mandelbaum, the New York “fence” who has fled to Montreal is trying to reach Germany

1884: Birthdate of Rose Schneiderman who served as New York State Department of Labor Secretary from 1937 through 1944.

1885(28^thof Kislev, 5646): Sixty-four year old German physician and political reformer Wolfgang Strassmann passed away.

1886: Birthdate of Chicago native and member of the Hyde Park High football and basketball teams, Robert S. Harris who played under legendary coach Amos Alonzo Stagg at U. of Chicago before join the Army in WW I where he served “as captain with the Rainbow Division” and retired as Colonel after WW II.

1887: Sigismund Schloss, the husband of Rebecca Mocatta with who he had three children and the husband of Catherine Elkin with whom he had two children was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemtery.”

1888: Rabbi Henry S. Jacobs was among the clergymen who met with New York Mayor Hewitt to plan the religious component of next year’s celebration of the Centenary of the Innauguaration of George Washington as President of the United States.

1889: Jacob Adler and Dinah Shtettin gave birth to Celia Feinman Adler “an American Jewish actress known as the ‘first Lady of the Yiddish Theatre.’”

1890(24^thof Kislev, 5651): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah light

1890: Birthdate of Boston native and New York University educated teacher Harold Fields the WW I Army veteran whose activities in the field of immigration including helping “to frame the National Origins Act of 1924,” participating in two conferences of Governor Roosevelt on immigration and working as a “consultant” on the topic for the famous trial lawyer Clarence Darrow.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/03/31/83493361.pdf

1890: Plans for the upcoming performance of “Ein Konigreich um ein Kind” sponsored by the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Orphan Asylum were published today.

1890: The New York Times reported that Baron Hirsch is considering a plan to settle Russian Jews in agricultural settlements in Argentina. Hirsch has sent a commission to the South American republic to investigate the feasibility of the plan to which he is reportedly willing to spend $20,000,000 to bring it to a successful conclusion.

1891: In Eisenheim, Bavaria, Karoline and Leopold Scholoss gave birth to Bruno Henry Sloss

1891: Twenty-eight year old Maurice Enriquez, a native of Smyrna and the son of Joseph Enriquez married to Wilma Fuchs, the daughter of Hermann Fuchs and Charlotte Mandel.

1891: “Some Tales of Two Cities” published today described common threads between New York City and Charleston, S.C. including the move of New York literary critic Rufus Griswold following his second marriage to Charlotte Myers, a wealthy and prominent Jewess with whom he “enjoyed” a tempestuous relationship.

1892: The trial of Pastor Hermann Ahlwardt, the leading anti-Semite who is charged with slandering Herr Loewe, the Jewish arms manufacturer, continues today. A representative of the army testified that while some the new Loewe rifles required repair, the number was not unusual for such weapons contrary to Ahlwardt’s charge that the Jews had bribed the army to accept faulty weapons.

1893: “The Walsh School Plan” published today described a proposal that would have allowed a certain amount of the funds intended for the public schools to be diverted to parochial schools where the money would be used to fund the teaching of secular subjects.

1894: According to reports published today the fund raiser at the Lexington Avenue Opera House raised $2,000 for the Monte Relief Society.

1894: Today the twelve Jewish members – Max J. Lessauer, Jacob H. Schiff, Simon Sterne, James Speyer, Isaac H. Klein, Julius Sternberg, Julius J. Frank, E.W. Bloomingdale, A.C. Bernheim, Dr. A. Jacobi, Henry Rice and Professor E.R.A. Seligman - of the Committee of Seventy, a political reform group that took on the Tweed Ring, “sent regrets to the Committee of the Union League Club which had invited them to attend tonight’s reception for the Governor-elect and the Mayor-elect.

1895: “Young Men’s Hebrew Association” published today described the latest lecture sponsored by the Jewish organization delivered by Dr. Solis Cohn on “Judaism, a Living Force.”

1895: Birthdate of Max Kadushin, the native of Minsk who became a successful American Rabbi in the Conservative Movement.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F10C16FC355D11728DDDAD0A94DF405B8084F1D3

1895: Two days after he had passed way, Abraham Abraham, the son of Victor Abraham and Rebecca Levy was buried today at “The Walnut Hills Jewish Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio.”

1895(19^thof Kislev, 5656): Abraham Frederick Ornstein, the son of Phineas Ornstien and the father of Philip Ornstein who was the rabbi at the Portsea (Portsmouth) Congregation and the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation passed away today in Cape Town, South Africa.

1895: Today, New Yorkers displayed “no excitement over the fact that” Hermann Ahlwardt “the zealous anti-Semitic agitator had come to their city where “he has awakened no interest and cause no stir.

1895: In his sermon today, Dr. W.W. Rainsford of St. George’s Church preached a sermon in which he sought “to correct some grave misconceptions as to the condition of the Jews at the coming of Christ” saying they “were not a nation of ignorant, irreligious and immoral people” and that they “were always religious and patriotic” “given to high ideals of morality and civic virtue.”

1896: Birthdate of Ira Gershwin. The brother of George Gershwin, Ira carved out his own career as a lyricist for Broadway and Hollywood musicals. He passed away in 1983.

1897: The defense by Dr. Maurice H. Harris of Harlem’s Temple Israel the concept of God presented in what Christians called the Old Testament published today ended with the statement that “the essential idea of God as against the earlier beliefs – that He is just and not partial, that He is the ‘power making for righteousness’ and that therefore, morality is inseparable from religion – these vital truths were caught and for all time by the prophets of Israel.”

1898: In Richmond, VA, Simon Wolf “delivered the oration” at today’s meeting of the “Sixteen Council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations

1898: When the Reichstag convenes today it will have to deal with several contentious issues and factions including “the anti-Semites” who “are clamoring for measures against the Jews.”

1898: Birthdate of Alfred Eisenstaedt, “father of photojournalism." Born in West Prussia, he was one of the first to use the 35mm camera. He came to the United States in 1935 where he became

http://www.cctvcamerapros.com/Alfred-Eisenstaedt-Camera-Photography-s/392.htm

http://life.time.com/alfred-eisenstaedt/

h

1899: Birthdate of Vilna native Joseph Buloff, the Yiddish actor and husband of Luba Kadison whose American career began when he was brought to the United States in 1927 as a replacement for Paul Muni.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1985/02/28/issue.html

1900: Birthdate of New York native and Columbia University trained economist Asher Achinstein who married Martha Levitsky after the death of his first wife, Betty Comras.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1998-09-23-1998266065-story.html

1904: Birthdate of Regina Alsterova, who was transported from Prague to Terezin in 1942 and then to Auschwitz in 1944 where she was murdered at the age of 39.

1905: It was reported today that the Jews of Perth Amboy, NJ, have raised more than $1,200 for the relief fund that is provided assistance to the Jews suffering from the most recent wave of anti-Semitic attacks in Russia.

1905: The resolution aimed at seeking relief for the Jews of Russia introduced by Congressman Goldfogle which was published today ended with “Be it further resolved that the President of the United States is hereby respectfully requested, if he finds it not incompatible with the public interests, to use such good and friendly offices with the Russian Government as the traditional and unbroken friendship between the two nations may justify as may secure such by the Russian Government as may tend to prevent recurrence of such outrages in the future.”

1906: Abraham “Abe” Reuef the political boss of San Francisco was indicted today.

1908: In Milan, Ing. Nino Sacerdoti and Margherita Donati, daughter of Lazzaro Donati, gave birth to “Italian insurer and university professor” Piero Sacerdota.

1909: Morris and Rose Gershwin gave birth to Frances “Frankie” Gershwin, the younger sister of George, Ira and Arthur Gershwin and the wife of Leopold Godowsky, Jr.

1909: In response to the complaints by the Alliance Israelite Universelle on behalf of the Jews in Fez, the Sultan calls for the chief rabbis, then tells them the Jews will never again have to suffer injustice again, and that Sabbaths and festivals will be respected.

1910: Birthdate of Jersey City native Mortimer Taube, the holder of a B.A. from U. of Chicago and Ph.D from UC, Berkley the innovator in the field of information who was listed as one the “100 most import leaders” in his field during the 20^th Century.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1965/09/07/96717746.pdf

1911: With the passing of Leopold Seligman, it was reported today that Isaac Seligman, the head of the London branch of the family business and James Seligman of J & W Seligman & Co. are the two surviving brothers of the banking clan that played a key role in helping the Union afloat financially during the darkest days of the Civil War.

1911: Birthdate of Jersey City native Walter “Walt” Wallace Singer who played football and baseball at Syracuse University with is twin brother Milton before going to a career in the NFL with the New York Giants.

1912(26^th of Kislev, 5673): Second Day of Chanukah

1912(26^th of Kislev, 5673): Rabbi Abraham J. Schiff passed away today in New York.

1912: In Washington, DC the Ninth Convention of Rivers and Harbors Congress which Jacob A. Cantor has been attending as a delegate from New York came to a close.

1912: Rabbi Rappaport is scheduled to deliver the sermon tonight at services at the Chicago Hebrew Institute led by Cantor Millard with the assistance of “a trained choir.”

1915(29^th of Kislev, 5676): Fifth Day of Chanukah

1915(29^th of Kislev, 5676): Sixty-nine year old Sarah (Sally) Maness Ritterband, the fifth child of Benvenida Solis and Leon Ritterband passed away today in New York City.

1915: A Denial of charges there is discrimination against Jews at the West Point Military Academy was made in a letter written by Secretary Garrison to Representative Walter M. Chandler of New York.

1915: The evening, an open forum will be held in the auditorium of the Educational Alliance on “The Second Generation in Jewish Farming.”

1916: Dr. Cyrus Adler who had succeeded Dr. Solomon Schechter as head of the Jewish Theological Seminary after his unexpected demise in 1915, “delivered as short address” after Kaddish had been recited in Schechter’s memory at a synagogue located at JTS on West 123^rdStreet.

1917: “A contribution of $100,000 from the Rockefeller Foundation topped the list of pledges turned in” today by those “who are raising the five million dollars fund for Jewish war relief and welfare work among Jewish soldiers and sailors.

1917: During World War I, British forces entered Hebron as Allenby continued his advance on Jerusalem.

1917: Birthdate of ice cream mogul Irvin Robbins, the back part of Baskin & Robbins. According to family legend the Canadian born entrepreneur used money from his Bar Mitzvah to fund the start of the legendary “31 Flavors.”

1917: Finland declares independence from Russia. With the establishment of an independent state of Finland, Jews living in Finland were finally granted rights of full citizenship, something that had not been possible under Swedish and Russian rule.

1918: Based on reports received by the Jewish Press Bureau today in Stockholm, so far “956 victims of the anti-Jewish outbreak in Lemberg, Galicia have been buried.

1918: The committee of inquiry appointed by the Polish Liquidation Committee to examine the events surrounding the riots in Galicia “has arrived at a full agreement with the Jewish Council as regards” to the procedures it will follow.

1918: Today, the government order 17,000 “Galician war refugees to leave Bohemia,.

1919(14^th of Kislev, 5680): Parashat Vayishlach

1919: In Albany Park (Chicago), the bazaar sponsored by the Sisterhood of Temple Israel is scheduled to begin this evening.

1919: Birthdate of Philadelphia native television producer Jerome Toobin, the husband of television news anchor Marlene Sanders and the father of CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin.

http://www.nytimes.com/1984/01/23/obituaries/jerome-toobin-64-channel13-s-chief-of-news-programs.html

1919: Birthdate of Paul de Man, the Belgian born literary critic who, after his death, we found to have been a Nazi collaborator and an anti-Semite.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/books/review/the-double-life-of-paul-de-man-by-evelyn-barish.html?ref=books&_r=0

1920(25^th of Kislev, 5681): Chanukah

1920(25^th of Kislev, 5681): Eighty-eight year old Ottilie Bondy, the wife of Ignaz Israel Bondy and daughter of Alois and Johnanna Jeiteles passed away in München, Bayern, Deutschland.

1920: Twenty-two year old Edwin Herbert Samuel, the eldest son of Sir Herbert Samuel, the British High Commissioner to Palestine married Hadassah Grosovsky who was born and educated in Palestine.

1920: Birthdate of American Jazz great Dave Brubeck, the non-Jew who created “The Gates of Justice.”

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/reviews/Brubeck.html

1921: Birthdate of George Frederick Beurling, Canada’s leading pilot during WW II, who lost his life in a plane crash in 1948 while flying as a volunteer for the Israeli Air Force.

1922: Birthdate of Benjamin Gilman of New York who served in the House of Representatives from 1973 through 2003.

1922: The Sinai Center Players are scheduled to perform “The Magic Touch,” a two act play this evening at the Sinai Social Center accompanied by the Sinai Symphony Orchestra.

1922: Birthdate of Abdallah Hay Simon, the Baghdadi born Jew who became the longtime chairman of the Seagram Chateau & Estate Wines Company was a commanding figure in the American wine trade and a leading importer of fine Bordeaux to the United States.

1923: Calvin Coolidge, who while Vice President had supported the Congressional endorsement of the Balfour Declaration, gave his first State of the Union Address today.

1923: Winston Churchill whose relationship with the Jewish people is well documented by Sir Martin Gilbert lost his seat in Parliament in today’s General Election.

1923: In today’s General Election, Liberal MP Edward Albert Lessing won his seat in the Commons.

1927: Birthdate of 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

1928:Sir Harry Charles Luke completed his service as the acting Chief Secretary to the Government of Palestine.He had previously served as Assistant Governor of Jerusalem and was appointed a member of the Haycraft Commission which was established by Herbert Samuel to investigate the cause of the riot which started in Jaffa in May of 1921.

1929: In Brooklyn, garment workers Julius Silverstein and the former Lee Lastfogel gave birth to “Emmy Award-winning documentarian” Morton Silverstein. (As reported by Anita Gates)

http://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=1

1929: “The annual Who’s Who issue of the American Hebrew” that lists those who have performed outstanding for the Jewish People in 1929 includes names you would expect including Henry Morgenthau, Jr, Bernard Baruch, Sidney Hillman and David Sarnoff and others you would not expect like John D. Rockefeller who was “cited for his activity in financing a School of Religion at the University of Religion at the University of Iowa where Professorships of Protestantism, Catholicism and Judaism have been established.”

1931: A World Islamic Conference opened in Jerusalem under the Mufti who had succeeded in characterizing the Jews as the enemy of Islam in Jerusalem.

1931: In its Sunday edition, the New York Timesreported on plans by Jews throughout the world to celebrate the upcoming 100th anniversary of the birth of Baron Maurice de Hirsch on Wednesday, December 9.

1932: Today Herman G. Handmaker, the Louisville born son of Julius Handmaker and Agnes (Jacobstein) Handmaker, the lawyer and member of the Kentucky State House of Representatives married Esther Marie Jacobson

1933: Amid waving Nazi flags, Dr. Hans Luther, the German ambassador to the United States addressed 20,000 people in Madison Square Garden attending a Nazi propaganda event “German Day.”

1933: U.S. federal judge John M. Woolsey rules that the novel Ulysses by James Joyce was not obscene. The novel features Leopold Bloom a Jewish advertising agent.

1934: As a result of decision made today in Geneva, Germany agreed that any Jews living in the Saar Basin Territory as of December 3 would be able to “leave the territory within a year after the establishment of a definitive regime by the plebiscite after giving six months’ notice of that intention” and that during the coming year Germany promised that that there would be no “discrimination because of race or religion.” (They must have had their fingers crossed because they sure did not mean it)

1935: “The Synagogue Council of America, representing practically all shades of Jewish religious thought in” the United States, appealed today "to the moral forces of the world to defend the rights of religious minorities in Germany against the forces that seek to destroy them.”

1936: Nearly one thousand people attended the at the Hotel Biltmore celebrating the 90^th anniversary of the Central Synagogue where Governor Herbert H. Lehman told the attendees that he deplored “the present age as one of ‘expiring faith and religious indifference’” and “called upon American Jewry to take a leading part in a revival of faith in God that, couple with the scientific advances of today, would ‘effect a solidarity in human society expressed in terms of universal justice and peace.’”

1936: “Hats Off” which marked Samuel Fuller’s “first credit as a screenwriter” was released in the United States today.

1936: While speaking at a dinner tonight “marking the 25^th anniversary of the Mizrachi Organization of America” Senator Royal S. Copeland “sharply criticized” Great Britain “for failing to suppress Arab demonstrations against Jews in Palestine.”

1936: Seventy year old to John Dickson-Poynder, the first Baron Islington who in 1922 and 1930 condemned the mandate in Palestine because he said it favored the Jews whom he described as “undesirable” passed away today.

1937(2^nd of Tevet, 5698): Eighth Day of Chanukah

1937(2^nd of Tevet, 5698): Eighty seven year old clothing merchant Charles David Axman, the New York born son of David and Savina Axman and the husband of social activist Sophie Cahn Axman passed away today.

1937: The Palestine Post reported on the visit to Damascus of the Nazi German youth leader Baldur von Schirach, accompanied by a large entourage. There was little doubt that the Syrian Arab youth seemed to be particularly vulnerable to this latest Nazi effort to spread their propaganda throughout the entire Middle Eastern area. Shots were fired at the Beit Alfa and Kfar Baruch settlements.

1937: The Jerusalem Post’s leading economists found it rather strange that while the Palestine government's highly satisfactory yearly budget of £6,900,000 was due in most part to the participation of Jewish capital and investment, the official policy was marked by apathy and an almost total lack of encouragement for further progress in investment and economy. On the contrary, the government was slowing down further successful development by a continuous curtailment of the Jewish immigration and a half-hearted struggle against the Arab terror.

1938:William Cooper of the Yorta Yorta tribe and members of the Australian Aborigines League were denied entry to the German Consulate where they had come to protest the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis.

1938: Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe, Foreign Minister Hachirō Arita, Army Minister Seishirō Itagaki, Naval Minister Mitsumasa Yonai, and Finance Ministry Shigeaki Ikeda decided to prohibit the expulsion of the Jews in Japan, Manchuria and China despite the growing alliance with Nazi Germany.

1938: Fourteen year old Ernest Stock and his ten year old sister left Frankfurt to stay with friends in Alsace, France. Ernest’s mother sent the children out of the country following Kristallnacht, a night which was made double horrific for the Stocks because Ernest’s father was arrested and taken to Buchenwald. In response to the worsening situation in Germany following Kristallnacht, the mother of 14 year old Ernest Stock sent her son and his 10-year-old sister Lotte to family friends who lived in Alsace, France.

1939: As an example of its policy of blocking all Jewish escape routes in Central Europe, the British Foreign Office warns Bulgaria that if it ships its Jews to Palestine, the British will "expect the Bulgarian government to take the immigrants back."

1939: Ernest Gruening began serving as the 7^th Governor of the Alaska Territory; a job he would hold for fourteen years.

1939: Israeli pioneers including members of “Kvutzat Krit” enjoyed a holiday to celebrate Kibbutz Kfar Menahem.

1940(6^thof Kislev, 5701): Seventy-one year old artist and author Ernest Peixotto, the scion of San Francisco Sephardic Jews who used his artistic skills while serving with the AEF during WW I passed away today.

https://bancroftlibrarycara.wordpress.com/ernest-clifford-peixotto-1869-1940/

https://unwritten-record.blogs.archives.gov/2015/12/01/world-war-i-artist-ernest-peixotto/

1940: In ChicagoHyman Reznick and Sheindel Reznick gave birth to Naomi (nee Reznick) Blumberg

1941(16^thof Kislev, 5702): Jews read Parshat Vayishlach on what would prove to be the last Shabbat before the United States entered WW II and the world changed forever.

1941: The Final Solution comes to Tunisia as French President Petain allows the Germans to take control of this section of North Africa.

1941: As a Japanese task force steams towards Pearl Harbor Jews gather in their synagogues to hear Parashat Vayishlach

1941: At West Side Institutional Synagogue, Rabbi Emanuel Lifschitz reassured his congregation that although “World society is standing at the crossroads in the grip of a titanic struggle raging between the forces of good and evil, it is most heartening to know that in the midst of such tension throughout the nation, men and women and children of every faith, color and creed from every walk of life will rededicate themselves – their very souls – to the Bible.”

1941: At Temple Rodeph Sholom, Rabbi Hyman J. Schachtel “asserted that the finding of the Gallup poll that interest in religions was declining was ‘misleading, because many are religious who are uninterested in the institutions of religion.’” But they would also hear sermons relating to the war being fought in the rest of the world; but a war in which the United States was not involved, because as the isolationists told us, we were protected by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans which created a giant moat.

1941: At Shaare Zedek, Rabbi Morris Goldberg asserted, “We must not pause in our struggle until we ourselves are willing to be a blessing unto those very forces against which we are fighting. While at the Montefiore Synagogue Rabbi Jacob Katz forecast, “From the present world war will come equality of nations and there not be too much difference in the standards of living amongst all the nations of the world. Judeo-Christian ethics will not be the object of destruction because they will have become the object of international social legislations.

1941: At Temple Ansche Chesed, Rabbi Joseph Zeitlin spoke approvingly of the economic sanctions on Japan:

1941: At the West End Synagogue Rabbi Louis Newman stuck a strident note when he declared that “to restore the ‘good old days’ ‘we must work and if need be, die in the combat to protect and regain the liberties of freeman, the people of Israel included, if not for ourselves, then for our posterity.”

1942: Today, “. A group of villagers from around Ciepielów near Radom including Piotr Skoczylas and his 8-year-old daughter Leokadia were burned alive by a police battalion” because they had sheltered Jews.

1942: Today, “another barn full of people was set on fire in nearby Rekówka, and 33 Poles saving Jews were burned alive including the families of Obuchiewicz, Kowalski, and 14 Kosiors”

1942: The Germans locked 23 Poles suspected of helping Jews in a cell. They then burned it to the ground.

1942: In Parczew, Poland, the Germans undertook a four day manhunt for hidden Jews.

1942: Germans in Salonica steal all the marble tombstones so they can line a swimming pool for their soldiers.

1942: In New York City, premiere of “Cat People,” a horror film produced by Val Lewton whose Jewish parents had converted to Christianity and edited by Mark Robson.

1943: Birthdate of Richard Anthony Goldman, the adopted son of Charles and Tillie Goldman, “whose investor’s eye for spotting battered neighborhoods prime for rejuvenation led him to help revive SoHo in Manhattan in the 1970s and South Beach in Florida in the ’80s.” (As reported by Leslie Kaufman.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/nyregion/tony-goldman-real-estate-visionary-dies-at-68.html?_r=1&hpw

1943: In one of the last major Italian deportations, 212 Jews from Milan and Verona were sent to Auschwitz. In all, out of a population of 35,000 before the war, approximately 8500 Jews were killed. An estimated 2000 Jews fought with the partisans, five of them winning Italy’s highest medals for bravery.

1944: A Liberty ship bearing the name of the late Isaac Mayer Wise was launched this afternoon at the St. John's River Shipbuilding Company yards, with his son, Rabbi Jonah B. Wise of the Central Synagogue of New York City, as the principal speaker on the christening program.

1944: Birthdate of Arnon Milchan, the native of Rehovot, Israel whose multi-faceted career led him to become one of Hollywood’s leading movie producers.

1945: In London, premiere of “The Rake’s Progress” a comedy starring Lili Palmer

1945: In a speech delivered at the commencement exercises of Hebrew University, Dr. Judah B. Magnes, president of the university, “declared that the aims of Jews in Palestine, namely the establishment of a national home, could not be achieved by acts of terrorism. He urged passive resistance rather than the resort to force.”

1945: Former Iowa Senator Guy Gillette, Judge William S. Bennet of New York and Representative Andrew L. Somers of Brooklyn, leaders of the American League for A Free Palestine held a press conference during which they expressed the belief that the committee’s approach to solving the problem of displaced Jews in Europe and the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine had had a positive effect on changing British policy. In discussing their aims they stated that “The Hebrews of Europe must be saved at once.”

1946: Birthdate of Asbury Park, NJ native and Goddard College, JTS and Columbia University trained historian of religion Daniel Boyarin

http://nes.berkeley.edu/Web_Boyarin/BoyarinHomePage.html

1946: “Kings County Judge Samuel S. Leibowitz” left by plane today for Basle, Switzerland where he will be attending the 22^nd World Zionist Congress.

1947: Members of the Haganah and Arab soldiers clash

1947: “Usually informed sources expressed today the hope that Britain would use her influence with Bong Abdullah of Trans-Jordan to help bring about a partition of Palestine without an outbreak of serious fighting.”

1948: On the second day of Operation Assaf Israeli forces captured another important position, thus completing all the operation's objectives. However, the Israelis met stronger resistance at another position (which was not captured) and were forced to stop their advance when they hit a minefield in another location. On the same day, the Egyptians counter-attacked the captured positions from their main positions in the west, with an infantry battalion, a tank company and some accurate artillery. The attack came very close to breaking the Israeli defenders, but broke off at dusk. The IDF’s Operation Assaf was designed to clear Egyptian troops from the Western Negev.

1948: Representatives of Israel and Iraq sign a cease-fire agreement. The Iraqi troops were the largest contingent of troops from an Arab state with no contiguous border with Israel to take part in the war aimed at crushing the Jewish state. The Iraqi failure to defeat the Jews of Israel led to their attacking their own Jewish population forcing them to flee. Most of the refugees came to Israel.

1949: Demobilised Palmach soldiers founded Gan Yoshiya, a moshav near the Green Line. It was named in honor of the Anglo-Jewish leader Josiah Wedgewood.

1951(7^thof Kislev, 5712): Forty-seven year old Joseph Edward Bromberg, the movie and stage actor passed away today “not long after the Hollywood blacklist had destroyed his career.

http://web.archive.org/web/20070611201736/http://www.nypl.org/research/lpa/the/pdf/thebromb.pdf

1953: Laura Kugler, the wife of Victor Kluger – one of those who helped who helpd to hide Anne Frank and her family – passed away today

1953:Mordechai Maklef completed his service as Chief of Staff of the IDF.

1953: After five years, “Nabokov finished” his masterpiece Lolita which Baron George Weidenfeld, “a life-long Zionist” published in the United Kingdom.

1953: At Ben-Gurion’s insistence, Moshe Dayan was appointed Chief of Staff of the IDF.

1953: Thanks to a “major addition” the Hebrew Home for the Aged expanded its capacity to 165 while the “medical panels provides care at no charge to residents.”

1954: In Highland Park, Illinois, Newton Minow, and his wife, Josephine (Baskin) Minow gave birth to Martha Minow the 12^th Dean of Harvard Law Schol.

1955: New York psychologist Joyce Brothers won "$64,000 Question" on boxing

1956(2^ndof Tevet, 5717): 8^th day of Chanukah

1956: In Chattanooga, TN, the former Ruth Sulzberger “the Jewish daughter of long-time Times publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger and granddaughter of Timesowner and publisher Adolph Ochs” and Ben Hale Golden, who was not Jewish and who was President and Publisher of the Chattanooga Times, gave birth to Harvard and Columbia trained writer Arthur Sulzberger Golden, the author of Memoirs of a Geisha, husband of Trudy Legg and father of Nays and Tess Golden.

1956(2^ndof Tevet, 5717): Eighty-two year old French economist Albert Aftalion who co-founded the academic journal Revue économique in 1950 passed away today.

1956: “Hollywood or Bust” a comedy produced by Hal B. Wallis, starring Jerry Lewis and featuring Maxie Rosenbloom was released today in the United States.

1961: “El Cid” a sweeping historic epic set in medieval Spain produced by Samuel Bronston with a screenplay premiered in London this evening.

1962: Birthdate of journalist and professor of communications Anya Schiffrin the wife of Nobel Prize-winning economist and author Joseph E. Stiglitz.

1964(1^stof Tevet, 5725); Rosh Chodesh; Eighth Chanukah

1964(1^stof Tevet, 5725): Eighty-year old “stove manufacturer and philanthropist” Bertrand Berthelot Kahn passed away today in his home town of Cincinnati, OH.

1965(12^thof Kislev, 5726): Sixty-nine year old “Rose Pesotta (1896–1965) was an anarchist, feminist labor organizer and vice president within the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union passed away today.”

http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/KCL05928.html

1966: Zvi Dinstein was appointed Deputy Minister of Defense.

1967: In Flushing, Queens, real estate developer Maury Aptatow and the former Tamara “Tami” Shad, the daughter of music producer Bob Shad gave birth to director/producer Judd Apatow.

1967: In Eugene, Oregon Danna (née Wilner), a writer and instructor at Portland Community College, and Dr. Benson Schaeffer, a child psychologist gave birth to actress Rebecca Lucile Schaeffer.

1967: When Dr. Adrian Kantrowitz removed the heart of a brain-dead baby and implanted it into the chest of a baby with a fatal heart defect, he became the first doctor to perform a human heart transplant in the United States.

1968(15^thof Kislev, 5729): Eighty-eight year old Rabbi Eliezer Premesky, the Lithuanian born son of Yaakov and Pearl Predmesky and husband of Esther Premesky with whom he had three children who had been the “spiritual leader of the Bronx Tremont Hebrew School, a member of the presidium of the Rabbinical Board of New York” and executive vice President of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada passed away today. Most important of all, he was among those who marched in Washington in 1943 in a public demonstration demanding government action to “help save the Jews of Europe.”

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/12/09/76914705.pdf

1973: Gerald Ford, who as President promised Prime Minister Rabin that he would honor all commitments that had been made to Israel, became Vice President of the United States today.

1974(22^ndof Kislev, 5735): Two Israelis were injured when terrorists raided Rosh Hanikra Kibbutz.

1977: The Jerusalem Post reported Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s declaration that as peace with Israel was forthcoming, he was not concerned about being isolated in the Arab world. Consequently Egypt had severed diplomatic ties with Syria, Iraq, Libya, Algeria and South Yemen.

1977: In London, Prime Minister Menachem Begin announced that while Israel would refuse to consider the establishment of a PLO-dominated state on the West Bank, it wished to solve the problem of the Palestine Arabs “in justice and dignity.”

1981: Philip C. Habib, President Reagan's special envoy to the Middle East, arrived in Israel tonight from Saudi Arabia. The Government said he would meet Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir in Jerusalem on Monday.

1981: Birthdate of Haifa native and mentalist Lior Suchard.

1981: Prisoner Without A Name, Cell Without A Number by Jacobo Timerman and Zuckerman Unbound by Philip Roth are among the twelve books chosen by the New York Times Book Review to the best books published in the country during the preceding year.

1982: It was reported that “The U.S. failure to start negotiations for the withdrawal of Israeli, Syrian and Palestinian forces from Lebanon is worrying senior Reagan Administration officials. They said that because of the impasse it was now virtually impossible that the troops would leave by the end of the year, the date set by the State Department.”

1982: It was reported that “Israel cleared a close Lebanese ally of any involvement in the massacre of hundreds of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps near Beirut last September. The state commission investigating the massacre said it had no evidence that forces of Maj. Saad Haddad, leader of a Lebanese Christian militia, had participated in the killings.”

1983(30th of Kislev, 5744): Rosh Chodesh Tevet

1983: A bomb planted on a bus in Jerusalem explodes, killing 6 Israelis

1985:In Santa Monica, California to Jody and Taylor Kasch film and t.v. actor Joseph Maxwell “Max Kasch.

1985: “Spies Like Us,” a comedy directed by John Landis, co-produced by Brian Grazer, with a screenplay by Lowell Ganz and music by Elmer Bernstein was released in the United States today by Warner Bros.

1987: “On the eve of a Gorbachev-Reagan summit 250,000 marched in support of Soviet Jews. Among themr were 50,000 Jews from the Washington area’s Jewish community. (As reported by Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington)

1987: The Counterlife by Philip Roth, The Embarrassment of Riches An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age by Simon Schama and More Die of Heartbreak by Saul Bellow are among the twelve books chosen by the New York Times Book Review as the best books published in the country during the preceding year

1988(27^thof Kislev, 5749): Yigal Cohen, the native of Tel Adashim and a member of the Palmach’s first brigade who was a Likud MK passed away today.

1988: Yassar Arafat meets with “prominent American Jews” in Stockholm, Sweden.

1990: “The End of Innocence” directed by Dyan Cannon who co-starred in the film along with Rebecca Schaeffer was released in the United States today.

1990: In Los Angeles, premiere of “Edward Scissorhands” co-starring Winona Ryder and Alan Arkin with music by Danny Elfman

1991(29^thof Kislev, 5752): Seventy-four year old Hungarian political leader György Aczél (born Henrik Appel) passed away today in Vienna.

1991: “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” directed by Nicholas Meyer who co-wrote the screenplay and co-starring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy was released in the United States today.

1991(29th of Kislev, 5752:Charles A. Levine, who became aviation's first trans-Atlantic passenger in 1927 when he sponsored an attempt to beat Col. Charles A. Lindbergh to Europe, died today at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington. He was 94 years old and had moved to Washington from New York City this fall. Mr. Levine flew into history with Clarence D. Chamberlin at the controls of a monoplane designed by Giuseppe Ballanca and owned by Mr. Levine, then a millionaire businessman. Their 225-horsepower craft, named Columbia, had been ready for weeks. But the race to be the first to fly the Atlantic was lost to Colonel Lindbergh when a suit filed by one of Mr. Chamberlin's would-be co-pilots, Lloyd Bertaud, marooned the Columbia in its hangar at Roosevelt Field on Long Island. Mr. Levine got a sheriff's attachment quashed hours after Lindbergh, in the Spirit of St. Louis, lifted off from the same airfield. Lindbergh's arrival in Paris on May 21 astounded the world and overshadowed the Chamberlin-Levine venture. (As reported by Wolfgang Saxon)

1991: Four months after premiering in the United Kingdom, “Young Soul Rebels” a film that marking the acting debut of future Oscar nominee Sophie Okonedo was released in the United States today.

1992: Kissinger: A Biography by Walter Isaacson is among the nine books chosen by the New York Times Book Review as the best books published in the country during the preceding year

1993(22nd of Kislev, 5754): Mordechai Lapid and his son Shalom Lapid, age 19, were shot to death by terrorists near Hebron. Hamas publicly claimed responsibility for the attack

1995(13^thof Kislev, 5768): Seventy-eight year old Georgia Tech Melvin Krazenberg who specialized in the history of technology passed away today. (As reported by Lawrence Van Gelder)

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/09/us/melvin-kranzberg-78-historian-of-technology.html

http://www.vqronline.org/essay/technology-history-and-culture-appreciation-melvin-kranzberg

https://www.library.gatech.edu/archives/finding-aids/view?docId=ead/MS157-ead/MS157-ead.xml;query=;brand=default

1995:Today, Dennis Ross, the chief Middle East mediator in the United States State Department, held talks with President Hafez Assad of Syria to assess his reactions to initiatives for peace talks made by Prime Minister Shimon Peres. Mr. Ross returned to Jerusalem later in the day to talk with Mr. Peres. Details were not immediately known, though the Israeli coordinator of talks with the Arabs, Uri Savir, cautioned at the outset that "there is curiosity, but I wouldn't say any great expectations at this stage."

1995:Prosecutors filed charges of premeditated murder against Yitzhak Rabin's confessed assassin today as Israel marked the end of the 30-day mourning period for the slain Prime Minister. In addition to the murder charge against Yigal Amir, indictments filed by the District Attorney at Tel Aviv District Court also charged Mr. Amir's brother Hagai and their friend Dror Adani with conspiring to kill Mr. Rabin and to attack Palestinian Arabs. The only other charge brought so far was against a soldier, Sgt. Arik Schwartz, who was indicted by a military court on Monday for supplying stolen arms and ammunition to the Amirs.

1996(25^thof Kislev, 5757): Chanukah

1996(25^thof Kislev, 5757): Eighty-one year old Alex Schoenbaum, the Ohio State University football player who founded Shoney’s Restaurant chain passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/15/us/alex-schoenbaum-81-founder-of-shoney-s-restaurant-chain.html

1998: The New York Times list of the Best Books of 1998 contains the following works about Jewish related subjects or by Jewish authors including Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow and To End A War by Richard Holbrooke.

1998: The New York Times book section featured a review of Hot Seat: Theater Criticism for the New York Times-1993 by Frank Rich.

1999: Ninety-four year old Martha Dickie Sharp Cogan “the guardian angel of European children” during WW II and one gutsy lady, passed away today.

http://web.archive.org/web/20060226072617/http:/www.brownalumnimagazine.com/storydetail.cfm?ID=2628

2000: Emmy award winner Werner Klemperer passed away. Oddly enough, Klemperer gained his greatest fame as Col. Klink, the German head of a POW Camp on the television hit Hogan’s Heroes.

2001:A fire and subsequent fire-fighting efforts severely damaged the roof, ceiling, mural paintings and decorative plasterwork of the Beth Hamedrash Hagadol in New York City.

2001(21^stof Kislev, 5762): Ninety-five year old Brooklyn native Alexander Sidney “Sid” Roth, the “All-American guard” on the 1938 Cornell football team and varsity lacrosse player who is the namesake for “the Sid Roth Award” given annually to Cornell’s “most valuable lineman” passed away today.

2002: Actress Winona Ryder (born Winona Laura Horowitz) was sentenced to community service as part of a probationary term for stealing more than $5,500 worth of merchandise from a Saks Fifth Avenue store in Beverly Hills.

2002: U.S. premiere of “Analyze That” directed by Harold Ramis, co-produced by Barry Levinson and co-starring Billy Crystal and Lisa Kudrow.

2003: “Responding to criticism from Jewish groups, European lawmakers and others, a European Union institute has made available the text of a previously withheld report that lays a major share of the blame for the much noted rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Europe with Arab and Muslim extremists.”

2004: As a result of a law suit growing out of the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, a federal jury ruled in favor of developer Larry Silverstein giving him an additional $1.1 billion from nine insurers, declaring the attack to be two "occurrences"

2004: “In Good Company” a comedy in which experience triumphs over youth directed, produced and written by Paul Weitz was released today in the United States.

2005: Malcolm Rifikind completed his service as Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

2005: Today, t

he United States Ambassador to the United Nations announced that Algeria prevented the release of a statement by the UN Security Council condemning Monday's suicide bombing in Netanya. Algeria objected reportedly because the proposed condemnation mentioned that the instructions for the attack came from Damascus. Earlier in the day, a senior Islamic Jihad figure in Gaza City denied that the organization had offices in Syria, claiming that their secretary general Ramadan Shalah left the country months ago. However, the Islamic Jihad, who took responsibility for the bombing openly admitted that it received its orders from Syria.

2006: A panel of rabbis gave permission today for same-sex commitment ceremonies and ordination of gays within Conservative Judaism, a wrenching change for a movement that occupies the middle ground between orthodoxy and liberalism in Judaism.

2006(15th of Kislev, 5767): Photojournalist Leonard Freed passed away at the age of 77. Born to immigrant parents in Brooklyn, Freed often chose subjects related to his Jewish ancestry, including a study of Orthodox Jews around the world published in 1980.

2006(15th of Kislev, 5767): Robert Rosenblum, an influential and irreverent art historian and museum curator known for his research on subjects ranging from Picasso to images of dogs, passed away at the age of 79 at his home in Greenwich Village.

2006: Jerry Stiller entertains at the Center for Jewish History’s Board of Overseers and Board of Governors dinner.

2006: The New York Times publishes Alex Witchel’s latke recipe.

http://www.marthastewart.com/348886/potato-pancakes

2006: CBS broadcast the 1^st episode of the 9^th and final season of “The King of Queens” co-starring Jerry Stiller.

2007: As part of Chanukah festivities, the Givatayim Theatre stages a festival of children’s plays including “Stories of Itamar and of Ruthie” and a new musical, “Puss in Boots” directed by Adi Leviathan

2007(26th of Kislev, 5768):Eighty-four year old “Murray Klein, who helped transform Zabar’s from a typical Jewish delicatessen on the Upper West Side of Manhattan into a culinary and cultural landmark, died today in Manhattan. (As reported by Julia Moskin)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/07/nyregion/07klein.html?_r=0

2007: Israel’s Radio Kol Chai reported today, that in response to a request by France’s Chief Rabbi Yosef Sitruk, Shimon Peres has agreed to keep Shabbat this week (for the first time in his life) as part of an outreach campaign by European rabbis. The initiative was started by Rabbi Yosef Sitruk to try and unite Jews all over the world to preserve that Sabbath day. Even more incredibly, Peres announced he will officially call upon all Jews worldwide to observe Shabbat preceding Israel’s Independence Day, and to pray for peace.

2008: In Cedar Rapids, Jewish Book Month Shabbat at Temple Judah is usurped by a gas leak that causes those who braved the snow flurries and frigid temperatures to go home early. It was the first time in the history of Cedar Rapids that more than a minyan gathered and the Torah was not read.

2008 (9 Kislev): Yahrzeit of Rabbi Dovber of Lubavitch, the son of and successor to the founder of Chabad Chassidism, Rabbi Schneur Zalman·of Liadi.

2008: In Washington, D.C., Itzhak Perlman performs with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center.

2008: Tonight Arabs fired rockets into Ashkelon and Sderot. Over 20 Kassam rockets and mortar shells pounded the western Negev over the weekend as Palestinian terror factions in the Gaza Strip intensified their attacks on Israel.

2008: Today, Egyptian police found a massive arms cache in Sinai, according to the Falastin al-Youm news Web site. .

2008: Today, The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund warned that Gaza's severe cash shortage might cause local banks to collapse. The cash shortage means thousands of Palestinian civil servants may not be able to withdraw their salaries before the Id el-Adha holiday this week. Monetary officials estimate Gaza banks hold less than a quarter of the cash needed to pay government wages.

2009(19^thof Kislev): Ninety-seven year old attorney and WW II veteran Leonard Rubenfeld passed away today.

https://web.archive.org/web/20110927133217/http:/www.nyjnews.com/obits/Obit1.php?pid=2878926fulldate=12-09-2009

2009 (19 Kislev): The 19th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev is celebrated as the "Rosh Hashanah of Chassidism." It was on this date, in the year 1798, that the founder of Chabad Chassidism, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1812), was freed from his imprisonment in Czarist Russia. More than a personal liberation, this was a watershed event in the history of Chassidism, heralding a new era in the revelation of the "inner soul" of Torah. For more about the Lubavitch view of their leader see http://www.arjewishcenter.com/library/article_cdo/AID/63817

2009 (19 Kislev):Yom Hillula (יום הילולא‎) of the Maggid of Mezritch, the successor of the Baal Shem Tov. Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezeritch passed away in December of 1772. For more see www.JewishEncyclpolida.com orhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggid_of_Mezritch

2009: The 20^th Washington Jewish Film Festival includes screenings of a documentary entitled “Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist” and “Filmed by Yitzhak,” a documentary composed of hitherto unseen 8mm movies filmed by Yitzhak Rabin during the 1960’s that include images from his years as Israel’s Ambassador to the United States.

2009:The 24th Annual New York Israeli Film Festival includes screenings of “A History of Israel Cinema, Part I” and “Adam Resurrected” starring Jeff Goldblum.

2009:Ensemble a la Carte, featuring bassoonist Robin Gelman, holds its fifth annual concert, at Congregation Sha'are Shalom, in Leesburg, Virginia.

2009: Writer, composer, actor, director, and producer Mel Brooks is among those who receives 32^nd Annual Kennedy Center Honors this evening in Washington, D.C.

2009: The Israeli Cabinet voted to appoint Yehuda Weinstein as the next Attorney General of Israel.

2009: David Mamet's "Race" opened tonight at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York.

2009: After 12 previews and 65 performances a revival production of David Mamet’s two character play “Oleanna”closed at Broadway’s John Golden Theatre.

2010:The American Sephardi Federation and Yeshiva University Museum in collaboration with the Sephardic Music Festival are scheduled to present a program entitled Sepharad: Voices From Across the Strait as part of the Sephardic Music Festival Scholar Series.

2010:Ezra Klein, The Washington Post and Newsweek economics and domestic affairs columnist, is scheduled to speak at Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation in Reston, VA.

2010: The Jewish Study Center of Washington is scheduled to offer a course entitled “Biblical Themes in Literature, Opera, Art and Film” which will trace the use of biblical themes across a wide variety of Western cultural masterpieces, old and new, with examples including John Milton's poetic drama "Samson Agonistes" (1671), Rembrandt's painting "The Binding of Isaac" (1635), Arnold Schoenberg's opera "Moses und Aron" (1932) and Cecil B. DeMille's movie "The Ten Commandments" (1956).

2010(29^th of Kislev, 5711):Lester Ziffren, 85, an attorney and civic leader who was devoted to his alma mater, UCLA, and many other causes, died today of natural causes at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his family said.

2010(29^th of Kislev, 5711): In Cedar Rapids, IA, Rose Becker passed away at the age of 92.

2010(29^th of Kislev, 5711):Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav said "you were always on the front line," in remarks at Tomer's funeral in the military cemetery in Haifa . "It's unbelievable that I'm standing here, saying farewell," continued Yahav. "You were assertive and you showed love, living up to your name Ahuva (beloved)." The Israel Police are in mourning over Haifa Police Chief Asst.-Cmdr. Ahuva Tomer, who succumbed to her severe burns injuries on Monday morning, 4 days after rushing into an inferno in the Carmel mountains to try and rescue passengers on-board an Israel Prison Service bus that had been trapped in the flames near Kibbutz Bet Oren

2010:A 14-year-old resident of Usfiya was arrested today on suspicion of throwing a piece of charcoal from a water pipe into a forest clearing near the village on Thursday morning, witnessing the ignition of a large fire and running away. Police suspect the boy’s actions led directly to the Carmel forest inferno.

2010; At Temple Reyim in Newton, MA, Amy Eilberg met for the first time with Sally Priesand, the first Reform female rabbi, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, the first Reconstructionist female rabbi, and Sara Hurwitz, considered by some to be the first Orthodox female rabbi. They and approximately 30 other women rabbis lit Chanukah candles and then spoke about their experiences in an open forum

2010: Brian Emanuel Schatz begins serving as the 11^th Lt. Gov. of Hawaii.

2011: The New Orleans Jewish community is scheduled to kick off Jewish Book Month today with a noon-time program at the Uptown JCC.

2011: “Who Shot My Father? The Story of Joe Alon” a documentary about the Israeli Air Force Attaché who was murdered in 1973, is scheduled to be shown at the 22^nd Washington Jewish Film Festival

2011: Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz welcomed an announcement that discussions between medical residents and the Finance Ministry had produced positive results and a final draft agreement had been drawn up.

2012: The Center for Jewish History and the Jewish Book Council are scheduled to present “Culture Brokers: Publishing – The Book Trade” in which a distinguished panel explores “Jewish participation in the dramatic changes that transformed the book publishing industry in the post-War era from a sleepy "gentlemen's club" into a dynamic and tumultuous industry.”

2012:The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to present a speech byNoted Holocaust scholar and Northwestern University faculty member, Dr. Peter Hayes entitled "What Took So Long? The Wrangle Over Holocaust Restitution Since 1945."

2012: The JCC of Northern Virginia is scheduled to sponsor “Wine While We Wrap,” a fundraiser that lowers the holiday stress level by allowing shoppers to enjoy a l’chaim while Chanukah helpers wrap their gifts.

2012: Sources in the European Union today played down a report in the Hebrew daily Maariv that Europe was seeking to pass a series of harsh sanctions against Israel following Jerusalem’s announcement last week of plans to expand settlement construction.

2012: Coming out of a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she and Netanyahu had “agreed to disagree” on the issue of West Bank settlements.

2013: The Edent-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host a noon-time concert featuring the Young Master Pianists of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance Conservatory.

2013: The day after he passed away, eighty-five year old Major General Danny Matt “was buried at Kiryat Shaul Cemetery in Tel Aviv.”

2013: “Strudel in Tehina” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.

2013: Temple Judah hosts its popular Musical Shabbat featuring Shir Yehuda.

2013: Submission deadline for The #MakeItHappen micro-grants initiative (As reported by JTA)

2013: Ninety-five year old Irish cricketer Louis Jacobson who was “a right-handed batsman from Dublin” passed away today.

http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Players/26/26789/26789.html

http://www.cricketireland.ie/news/article/death-of-louis-jacobsen

2013: Both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas are committed to continuing peace talks, despite grumblings over a lack of visible progress in almost five months of negotiations, US Secretary of State John Kerry said today

2014: The Jewish Folk Arts Festival Chanukah Concert Dedicated to Human Rights is scheduled to take place at Temple Beth Ami in Rockville, MD.

2014: Lewis Black is scheduled to perform at the Music Box in Atlantic City, NJ.

2014: The Hava Nagiggle & JW3 Jewish Comedian of the Year Competition 2014 are scheduled to take place this evening at the UK Jewish Comedy Festival.

2014: Shabbat Va-yishlach

2014: According to a poll published today by Channel 2 “almost two-thirds of Israelis do not want Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to lead the next government.

2014: “A plane flying from Tel Aviv to Philadelphia was forced to make an emergency landing in Rome today after two passengers and 11 members of the crew were taken ill.”

2015: The funeral for “former Mertz leader, long-term MK and journalist Yossi Sardi” is scheduled to take “place at 3 p.m. at the cemetery in Kibbutz Givat Hashlosha, on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.”

2015: The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia is scheduled to host The Ruth Spector Memorial Maj Jong Tournament.

2015: The Leo Baeck Institute is scheduled to present a lecture by theatre scholar Wendy Arons on “Exile in the Spotlight: Kurt Hirschfeld and German- Language Theater at the Schauspielhaus Zurich.”

2015: The Chicago YIVO Society is scheduled to celebrate “the memory of music teacher Sarah Lazarus with a concert featuring multi-instrumentalist Michael Alpert.

2015: For the second time in two days, today, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fired at an IDF vehicle along the strip between the Jewish state and the “Hamas-controlled territorty.”

2015: Jewish Book comes to and end for 5776/2015

2015: In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah light.

2015: In Cedar Rapids, members of Temple Judah are scheduled to gather this evening to usher in Chanukah by eating the creations of the “Latke King” – Brian Cohen

2015: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The 613 by Archie Rand, Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik and Dietrich & Riefenstahl: Hollywood, Berlin and a Century in Two Lives by Karin Wieldand

2015: The New York Times list of the 100 most notable works for 2015 published today included The Complete Works of Primo Levi, edited by Ann Goldstein, The Crime and the Silence: Confronting the Massacre of Jews in Wartime Jedwabne by Anna Bikont, Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America by Ari Berman, Jonas Salk: A Life by Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs and Killing a King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel by Dan Ephron

2016: In cooperation with the Center for Jewish History, the American Joint Distribution Committee is scheduled to host “The Flavor of Jewish Life: An Exploration of Cooking, Culture and International Connection” featuring Danielle Rehfeld, the chef and founder of The Inherited Plate.

2016: “The 90 Minute War” and “Land of the Little People” are scheduled to be shown at the 10th Annual Other Israel Film Festival.

2016: Despite the objection of some Jewish groups and leaders, “Richard Spencer who recently railed against Jews at an alt-right conference in Washington, DC during which audience members gave Nazi salutes” is scheduled “to speak at a private event on the Texas A&M Campus today” – an event that the school said it had no choice but to allow to take place even though a spokesman “said that the university did not agree with Spencer’s views.

2016: Today, the Israeli military “posted a map of southern Lebanon to Twitter on which it marked Hezbollah positions, infrastructure and armaments along a section of the Israeli border.”

2016: In Memphis, TN, Temple Israel is scheduled to host “We’re All In This Together: The Art of Embracing Life While Preparing for the End of Life” which will include a discussion of Jewish burial and mourning customs as well as views on reincarnation, resurrection and the afterlife.

2017: In Cedar Rapids, IA, the Hadassah Book Club is scheduled to discuss Don’t Ever Look Back by Daniel Friedman.

2017: In Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum completed her service as Mexico’s “Chief of delegation of Tlalpan” today.

2017: Today “WNYV” which had launched the Jonathan Channel in 2013 “announced that Jonathan Schwartz” was “being on leave pending investigations in allegations of inappropriate conduct.”

2017: Lisa Heineman is scheduled to lecture “on the subject of Holocaust memorials in German, Polish and Israeli settings” at the University of Iowa.

2017: The URJ Biennial is scheduled to open today in Boston, MA.

2017: The Maccabeats are scheduled to appear at Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood, NJ.

2017: Jewish Book Month, an annual event that provides us with a chance to contemplate Jewish books and the lives of authors such as James Kugel whose works included the innovative How to Read the Bible and In The Valley of The Shadow, continues today.

2018(28^thof Kislev, 5779): Fourth Day of Chanukah

2018: “Yiddish New York, an annual, month-long celebration of Yiddish music, language and culture, is proud to collaborate with City Lore on this year’s art exhibition, which is scheduled to begin today.

2018: Authors Lauren Groff and Jonathan Lethem are scheduled to talk about new books tonight at the 92^nd Street Y.

2018: “The Young Friends of the Gershman Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival and award-winning

filmmaker Yoni Brook are scheduled to host “an evening of shorts, latkes, and vodkas” featuring screenings of “The Love Letter,” “The Outer Circle,” “Shabbos Kallah” and “Who Sank Your Ships?”

2018: The Sidney Krum Young Artists Concert Series is scheduled to present “Sweet Is Thy Voice: The Song of Songs in Concert.”

2018: In Iowa City, Rabbi Avremel and Chaya Blesofsky are scheduled to host Chabad’s Community Chanukah Party.

2019: The USCJ Convention is scheduled to open today in Boston.

2019: In Los Altos, CA, Congregation Beth Am is scheduled to host “Argentinian Rabbi Shabbat” with a service led by “Rabbi Robert Graetz and Hernán Rustein of the IberoAmerican Institute for Reform Rabbinical Education” followed by a community dinner.

2019: In San Francisco, Congregation Emanu-El is scheduled to host a dinner and discussion with “Rabbi Jill Jacobs of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights.”

2019: In Atlanta, the Bremen Museum is scheduled to present “The Role of Influence in Photography” during which “Phillip Mosier, one of Atlanta’s leading photographers will share how the work and influence of Lisette Model, an Austrian-born American who taught photography at the New School for Social Research, shaped the direction of two of the greatest photographers of the twentieth-century, Diane Arbus and Vivian Maier.”

2019: German Chancellor Angela Merkel is scheduled to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau for the first time, tor the first time today at which time she will “participate in a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, whose purpose is to preserve the authenticity of the site.”

DECEMBER 7

43 BCE: The famous orator Marcus Tullius Cicero died. Cicero was a Patrician, member of the Senate and opponent of Julius Caesar. Following Caesar’s assassination, Mark Anthony and Octavian executed those whom they viewed as enemies of the state. Cicero fell into that category. Based on his public utterances, Cicero had no use for the Jews. "The Jews belong to a dark and repulsive force. One knows how numerous this clique is, how they stick together and what power they exercise through their unions. They are a nation of rascals and deceivers." While serving as defense counsel at the trial of Flaccus, a Roman pro-consul accused of diverting one hundred pounds of gold bound for the Temple in Jerusalem, Cicero described the Jews as a people born to slavery who had become far too intrusive in the affairs of Rome. Was Cicero an anti-Semite? Or was he merely a member of the old order who resented the changes in society (sort of a Roman version of Henry Adams or Gore Vidal); a person who demonized Jews because they were different? Regardless of the cause, the statements speak for themselves.

1158: Abraham Ibn Ezra, under the influence of an inspiration or vision he had on that Shabbat day, decided to defend the traditional reckoning of the Jewish holidays and Sabbaths against the trend to begin them only at day break rather than the previous night. Immediately after the Sabbath he began to write his Iggeret Shabbat ("Shabbat Letter") in which he used both religious and astronomical sources to defend his position. He wrote it while visiting England, making it one of the few Hebrew works composed there prior to the expulsion of the Jews in 1290.

1237(Kislev, 4998):Abraham ben Moses ben Maimon the son of Maimonides aka the Rambam who followed his father as the leader of the Egyptian Jewish community passed away.

1254: Pope Innocent IV passed away. During his papacy, Innocent “denounced the Blood Libels as unfounded.” In 1247, Innocent agreed to grant a request from the Jews by issuing a declaration stating “that the Talmud was an absolute necessity for the Jews, if Judaism were to continue to exist as a separate religion, and that the burnings of the Talmud were to cease.” These actions certainly make him stand out from many of those who served as the Vicar of Christ in Rome.

1383: Wenceslaus IV who as Emperor failed to continue the Imperial protection of the Jews of Luxembourg led to their expulsion in 1391 began his reign as Duke of Luxembourg today.

1626: In Stockholm, Gustavus Adolphus and Mary Eleanora of Brandenburg gave birth to Christian Augusta the philo-semitic Queen of Sweden.

1279(O.S.): King Boleslaus V of Poland passed away. In 1264, Boleslaus V issued a charter that allowed for Jewish residence and protection, hoping that Jewish settlement would contribute to the development of the Polish economy. This charter was similar to one that had been granted to the Jews of Austria in 1244. While Jews were not granted the same degree of protection as other citizens and while Jews were excluded from privileges afforded Christian merchants and burghers, the charter did include recognition of legal testimony of Jews, fines for harming Jews or Jewish property, prohibition of blood libels, and equal commercial rights. Even though the charter was not always followed, it marked a major improvement over conditions that Jews were living under in other parts of Europe and helped encourage a major eastward migration of the Children of Israel.

1742: Talmudist Judah Lob Mokiach, the son of Mordecai Mokiah the father of “David Berlin (Mokiach) and Isaiah Berlin (Mokiach), known also as Isaiah Pick” passed away today in Pressburg.

1701(6^thof Kislev, 5462): Joshua de Fonseca, a physician in Hamburg and the son of Hakam Abraham de Fonseca passed away today.

1776(26^thof Kislev, 5637): As Jews observe Shabbat and prepare to kindle candles for the third night of Chanukah, Washington’s Army successfully finishes crossing to the south bank of the Delaware River, thus escaping destruction by the British who chased the revolutionary army from New York down the entire state of New Jersey.

1787: Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Delaware abolished religious tests for public office in 1792. For more about the history of the Jews of the “first state” see http://www.hsd.org/DHM_exhibit_Half_A_Chance.htm.

1789: Hannah Manuel and New York City native Gershom Mendes Seixas gave birth to Grace Seixas, the wife of Manuel Judal and the mother of Abigail, Louisa and Gershom Judah

1793(4^thof Tevet, 5554):Herz Cerfbeer of Medelsheim the military contractor and philanthropist passed away today at Strasbourg. Born Naphtali Ben Dov-Beer at Alsace in 1730, he was granted citizenship rights by Louis XVI in 1775. A spokesperson and supporter of the Jewish community he published rare Hebrew books including Lechem Setarim by Solomon Nissim Algazi the 17^th century Talmudist who served as a rabbi by Smyrna and Jerusalem.

1795(25th of Kislev, 5556): Chanukah

1796: Elias Jacobs married Elizabeth Lazarus at the Great Synagogue today.

1797: In New York City, Leah Nathan and Jacob Naphtali Hart gave birth to Lyon Hart.

1797: In New York City, Philadelphia born Leah Nathan and Bavaria born Jacob Naphtali Hart gave birth to Nathan Hart.

1802: Birthdate of German poet and editor Lesser Ludwig who wrote, “One thing to Life you owe: Struggle, or seek for rest. If you're an anvil, bear the blow; If a hammer, strike your best” and who was supporter of the Reform movement.

1815 Birthdate of Louis Bernheim the husband of Emma Simon and father of German historian Ernst Bernheim and father-in-law of Amalie ("Emma") Henriette Jessen.

1819: Today’s “report of the Privy Council of relates that Joseph L. Friedländer came to Bautzen in March 1813 and in the year 1819 had already left his birthplace Mühlendorf in Hungary 46 years earlier. Concerning his family, it further relates that his “child is weak and not more than 2½ years old,” and his wife is pregnant. The Bautzen city administration found a place for the Jewish family to reside because it had work for Friedländer in translation service for 1813-1816.”

1820: Three days after he had passed away, 56 year old Phillip Cohen, the husband of Hannah Cohen, was buried today at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”

1822(23^rdof Kislev, 5583):Rabbi Yosef ben Moshe Mammon, the native of Morocco who taught at the Yeshiva in Safed before settling in Burkhara in 1793 because the people needed strong Jewish leadership, passed away today. Among his descendants is the Dorit Moussaieff, the First Lady of Iceland.

1822: In Breslau, Amalie Kempner and Salomon Silberstein gave birth to Emma Silberstein, the future wife of Louise Loewe and the father of James Loewe.

1823: In Liegnitz, Silesia, Isidor and Johanna (née Prausnitzer) Kronecker gave birth to German mathematician Leopold Kronecker

1827: One day after he had passed away “Joseph ben Chaim Schwab” was buried today at the “Lauriston Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1828: Birthdate of “Herford, Germany” native Ferdinand Falk, the husband of “Jeannette Levy Falk” and father of “Arnold, Gustave, Myron and Gertrude Falk.”

1830: Birthdate of Judah Leib (Ben Asher) Gordon, the native of Vilnius also known as Leon Gordon, who became a leading Hebrew poet of the 19^th century.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/239127/Judah-Leib-Gordon

1833: Birthdate of Louis-Norbert Carrière the anti-Dreyfusard “government commissioner who successfully pled at Rennes for Dreyfus’s second conviction even if it meant misrepresenting evidence.

1834: Two days after she had passed away, “Kenadel Goldsmid,” the widow of Nathan Goldsmid was buried today at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”

1839: Birthdate of Polish native Louis M. Falk, the husband of Hattie Goodhart Falk with whom he had three children – Morris, Estella and Harry.

1841:Michael Solomon Alexander, a convert from Judaism was ordained as Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem at Lambeth Place. He would arrive in Jerusalem in the first month of the following year

1842: The New York Philharmonic gave its first performance. Numerous Jewish musicians and conductors have been involved with the Philharmonic in its 163 year history. One of the most famous Jews connected with the Philharmonic was not a musician. In 1909, Minnie Utermyer, wife of prominent businessman and lawyer Samuel Untermey led a group of philanthropist in guaranteeing the future financial solvency of this great American musical institution.

1844:Ein Feldlager in Schlesien (a Singspiel in three acts by German-Jewish composer Giacomo Meyerbeer was first performed today at the Hofoper, in Berlin.

1847: Birthdate of Solomon Schechter. “Solomon Schechter was born in Rumania in to a Chabad Chassidic family. His Chassidic upbringing did not satisfy him, however, and, in 1879 he went to study at the Berlin Hochschule fur die Wissenschaft des Judentums and at the University of Berlin. In 1882 Schechter was invited to be a tutor in Rabbinics in London. He quickly rose to prominence as a rabbinic scholar and spokesman for Jewish traditionalism. In 1890 he was appointed lecturer in Talmudics and in 1892 reader in Rabbinics at Cambridge University. In 1899 he also became professor of Hebrew at University College, London. He gained international fame as a scholar when he discovered and brought back to London more than 100,000 pages of rare manuscripts from the Cairo Geniza. Beyond sorting and filing the documents, Schechter wrote on the newly-found Ben Sirach materials, unknown until then. Schechter accepted the invitation to become president of the Jewish Theological Seminary and succeeded in attracting an outstanding group of scholars to teach. The Jewish Theological Seminary became a recognized center of Jewish learning. In 1913 Solomon Schechter was instrumental in founding the United Synagogue of America, the umbrella organization of all Conservative congregations. Though a staunch traditionalist, Schechter admitted that there could be change in modern Judaism. However, he felt that changes should not be introduced arbitrarily or deliberately. Rather, ‘the norm as well as the sanction of Judaism is the practice actually in vogue. Its consecration is the consecration of general use—or, in other words, of Catholic Israel.’ Although it may be apocryphal, my favorite quote from Solomon Schechter is, ‘Gentlemen, in order to be a success in the American rabbinate, you must be able to talk baseball.’"

1849: In Freudental, Germany, Simon and Babette Horkheimer gave birth to Morris Horkheimer, the husband of Cecilia Horkheimer with whom he had four children.

1852: Reverend Edward Robinson, DD read a lengthy paper based on his recent visit to the Holy Land at the regular monthly meeting of the New York Historical Society. After Reverend Robinson finished his presentation Dr. Adams said that to some such a detailed report of such a distant place “was not the most appropriate for the New York State Historical Society. But on reflection every man should feel that Palestine was not a strange land to us. It was our home, ‘Jerusalem is the mother of us all.’ …They therefore felt thankful to the Doctor for his laborious research.” [This is an early manifestation of philo-Semitism that would be beneficial to the Zionist movement.]

1857: Birthdate of Sigmund Kohlman who was buried at Springhill Avenue Temple Cemetery in Mobile when he passed away.

1857: The first session of the 35^th United States Congress in which Philadelphian Henry Myer Phillips served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives opened today in Washington, DC.

1857: Birthdate of Sigmund Kohlman, the secretary and treasurer of The New Orleans Foundry Company and husband of Julia H. Kohlman.

1859: Lewis Emanuel married Mary Sampson at the Great Synagogue today.

1860: “The Commercial Relations Between the North and South,” published today,reviewed the impact that Southern Secession would have on the business operations in what has been the United States of America using the ability of Jews and Christians to engage in commercial activities as its template:

“How, then, is New-York to lose its Southern trade? If at all, from political considerations alone; South Carolina says, "I do not like your political sentiments, and will have nothing to do with you." She is not as tolerant as the Jew who would buy and sell with the Christian, but not eat or drink with him. But will, or can she deliberately persist in any course in violation of her own interest? No! The thing is impossible. It has not an example in all history. If there be a law unerring in its action, and firmly engraved upon the popular mind, it is that "men will sell in the dearest market and buy in the cheapest," and will always take the shortest and most convenient method to accomplish their ends. South Carolina can no more stay away from us than matter can refuse to obey the laws of gravity, which is not a whit stronger in its way than is the law of self-interest with the individual.”

1865: Birthdate of Hamburg, Germany native Otto John Beit, “the younger brother of Alfred Beit” who “went to England in 1888” where he became a successful stockbroker and then went on to South Africa to play “an active role” in the diamond and gold mining industries before return to England where he became active in cultural and artistic affairs while becoming a British citizen in 1898.

1867: In Germany, Abraham Elzas and Henrietta Lowenthal gave birth to Barnett Elzaa, the graduate of Jews College, the University of Toronto and the Medical College of South Carolina who was the husband of the former Annie Samuel London and the Rabbi of K.K. Beth Elhoim in Charleston, SC.

1871(24^thof Kislev, 5632): Light the first Chanukah candle.

1871(24^thof Kislev, 5632): Seventy-three year old Orthodox German rabbi Jacob Ettlinger passed away today at Altona, Prussia.

1873: In Cincinnati, Ohio, Rebecca and William Jacob Mack gave birth to Millard William Mack, the husband of Lydia Mack and father of William Jacob Mack – all part of the Cincinnati Mack dynasty.

1873: Birthdate of Olga Lehmann who was transported from Berlin to Terezin in 1942 and from Terezin to Auschwitz in 1944.

1874: Two days after she had passed away, “Simha Toledano” a native of Gibraltar was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1875: Today’s session of the Hebrew Charity Fair raised over $12,000 for the Mount Sinai Hospital.

1875: “The Society for Providing a Home for Aged, Infirm and Destitute Israelites in the city of Albany, NY” which meets on the second Sunday of each month, was incorporated today

1875: It was reported today that the bodies of Abram and Aaron Dietz, William Meyers, Abram Kurtz and William Laser who died in the Brooklyn Theatre Fire which claimed the lives of 278 people were taken from the City Morgue by representatives of the Brooklyn Young Men’s Hebrew Benevolent Society and taken to Temple Israel. The bodies were so badly charred that identification of the victims has been so slow and difficult

1876: In Curacao, Jacob Baiz, the son of “Isaac and Rachel Pereira Baiz” and his wife “Rebecca Baiz” gave birth to Angela Baiz.

1878: In Brooklyn, Harris Alexander and the former Betsy Harris gave birth to David Alexander, the husband of the former Irene Schwab and graduate of the University of Cincinnati and Hebrew Union College who served as the rabbi of Temple Israel in Paducah, Kentucky and the Akron, OH, Hebrew Congregation.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1950/01/15/121627134.pdf

1879: Based on information that originally appeared in an article entitled the “History of Money” by famed numismatist Sir John Lubbock, it was reported today that the ancient shekel is one of the most popular coins among collectors possibly because of its Biblical connection. However, it is the most frequently counterfeited ancient coin and “of so-called shekels found among collectors, over three-fourths of them are forgeries.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C0DE7DF113EE73BBC4F53DFB4678382669FDE

1879: “The Prussian Press and Bismarck” published today describes the government’s control of the content of newspapers in Germany which is under the direction of a Privy Councilor named Hahn, who is a convert from Judaism. (This will not be the last time that the Jews are accused of controlling the media in Germany or elsewhere)

1879: President Abraham Oettinger chaired the 15^th annual meeting of the Hebrew Free School Association. The association operates 5 schools and is planning to open a sixth. The school employs twenty teachers, five of whom are women. The association serves 1,129 students. All of the students must attend public school during the day since the association’s schools are intended to supplement and not supplant public education offerings. Two of the association’s schools conduct Saturday morning services which draw approximately 600 worshippers.

1879: The formal incorporation of Or Chaim takes place in New York City with the adoption of its constitution and by-laws at its first meeting attended by two of its first members, Sigmund Arnstein and Marcus J. Cohen.

1880: “Modern Persecution of the Jews” published today described the outbreak of anti-Semitism sweeping across Germany. It is based on the premise that a million and half Jews are trying to control the lives of forty million Germans. German nationalist hate Jews because they do not engage in manual labor while the Socialists hate them because they are all millionaires. The outbreak of anti-Semitism coincided with the economic downturn that came after the bubble created the victory over France came to an end.

1880: It was reported today that German Jews do not serve in the army because they are prevented from rising above the rank of 2^ndlieutenant.

1880(5^th of Tevet, 5641): Seventy-nine year old Lob Oppenheimer, the husband of Bina Oppenheimer and the son of Rachel and Abraham Oppenheimer passed away today.

1880: It was reported that German Jews do not serve in the German navy or the merchant marine because they have no hope of ever serving as captain of a vessel. This based on “an old German superstition that a Jewish Captain would sink his vessel.”

1881: A four-act version of “The Tales of Hoffmann an opéra fantastique by Jacques Offenbach with recitatives was staged at the Ringtheater today”

1881: It was reported today when Chester A. Arthur sent his Presidential message to Congress he took note of the fact that the Senate resolutions expressing condolence at the time of the assassination of Czar Alexander II had been sent to the Russian government which he hoped would improve the treatment of American Jews visiting that empire. The Russians, Arthur wrote, had a tendency to treat American Jews in the same manner they did Jews living under the Czar

1882: During the Tiszaeszlár Affair, a Hungarian blood libel, the body found in Tisza was exhumed and reexamined by three professors of medicine from the University of Budapest. They would conclude that the original autopsy “had no scientific basis” and showed “grows ignorance” on the part of the examiners.

1882:Marianne Trenel and Rabbi Simon Debré gave birth to French pediatrician Robert Debré

1884: According to reports published today L’Académie française has admitted its first Jewish member, Ludovic Halévy who has agreed to focus only on writing novels from now on.

1884: The list of Holiday Books published today included Our Young Folks Josephus: The Antiquities of the Jews and Jewish Wars simplified by William Shepard which is a simplification of the works of Josephus with illustrations by Dore.

1885: In an attempt to thwart the efforts of the members of St. Bernard’s Church to stop construction of a side track on Van Rensselaer Street on Sundays, the attorney for the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company says he will hire eight Jews “to test the question whether a Jews breaks the Sabbath by working on Sunday.”

1886: According to reports published today, a society has been formed at Minden, Germany to promote marriages “between Christians and Jews.

1887: A Polish Jewish immigrant named Burkmann was pulled from the water when he attempted to kill himself by jumping off the pier at Castle Garden.

1887: Birthdate of Austrian composer Ernst Toch whose works ranged from the classical to the Hollywood musical scores, the most famous of which was for the 1937 classic Heidi.

1888: In a case of Jew versus Jew, 19 year old Ernestine Nolfen sued Noach Soenfeld in Minneapolis, MN for “breach of promise.”

1888: Rabbi Henry S. Jacobs was reported today to have been among the clergymen who met with Mayor Hewitt today to discuss plans for the celebration of the Centenary of the Inauguration of George Washington as President of the United States which is scheduled to take place on April 30, 1889.

1888: It was reported today that Rabbi Wolf Berger of Anshe Chesed has sued the brothers of the late Mr. Kingsburgh who owned a stationary and tobacco store near the local post office for twenty five dollars. Berger claims he is owed the money for teaching the decedent’s sons the appropriate prayers for mourning their father and for composing the inscription on his tombstone.

1889: Today Vanity Fair magazine published a picture of French journalist Henri Blowitz who “predicted the collapse of the French empire during the Franco-Prussian War” and whose “most famous achievement was in 1878, when he managed to obtain the text of the Treaty of Berlin and publish it at the very moment that the Congress of Berlin was finally signing it”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Blowitz#/media/File:Henri_de_Blowitz,_Vanity_Fair,_1889-12-07.jpg

1890(25^th of Kislev, 5651): Chanukah

1890: M.S. Isaacs presided over the annual meeting of The Hebrew Free School Association, an organization dedicated to “Americanizing” Jewish immigrants.

1890: “Baron Hirsch To Send Jews To The Argentine Republic” published today described plans that Baron Hirsch has for settling some of the half million Jews expelled by Russia in the South American country; a plan for which he is ready to spend twenty million dollars and which has the support Argentine President Carlos Pellegrini who has a Jewish brother-in-law.

1890: It was reported today that Dr. George Allan Heron’s “”newly- published work on the communicability of consumption dwells on the well-ascertained immunity from tuberculosis of carefully-conforming Jews whose meat is inspected in a manner which would require the rejection of an entire carcass if any speck of tubercle were discovered.” (In other words he is making a positive connection between the observance of Kashrut and immunity from Tuberculosis. At the same time, opponents of immigration in the United States demonized Jews as carriers of TB.)

1891: In New York, seven Russian Jews – Hirsch Bachletsky, Susman Wilkisky, Elias Chyot, Benjamin Soldofsky, Adolph Baum, Solomon White and Jacob Schwartz – “appeared before the British Consulate on State Street and made formal charges against a foreman of the cattlemen employed on the steamship France after having tried to report their theft and abuse to the local police and the United States Commissioner.

1891: In Albany, NY, Max and Dora Ettelson Aronowitz gave birth to Dartmouth undergraduate and Albany Medical College trained surgeon Milton Aronowitz, the husband of Gretchen Aronowitz.

1892: Birthdate of Max Michaelis Ehhrlich, the multitalented Berlin born entertainer who would be murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz in 1944.

1892: As a result of a campaign led by Joseph Barondess Governor Fowler pardoned cloakmaker Frank Rheingold who had been convicted of 2^nddegree burglary as a result of actions taken during the cloakmaker’s strike at Benjamin & Caspary.

1892: In Washington, DC, the convention of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations came to an end with a report by the financial committee that the Union has raised $26,539 with $22,804 going to support the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1892: During Hermann Ahlwardt’s trial for slandering a Jewish arms manufacturer the presiding Judge fined self-professed anti-Semite’s counsel 100 marks when he attempted to resign following rulings from the bench that he did not liked

1892: In describing the changing population mix in New York, Reverend William T Elsing was quoted today as saying that the east side below Houston Street has become “a great Hebrew center.”

1892: Eighty-four year old Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey, whose work provide one of the “earliest surviving records of the lands of the east Mediterranean including Palestine and Jerusalem passed away today.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4486020,00.html

1894: Silver Dollar Smith, the Jewish Tammany politician and saloon keeper is scheduled to appear in court today where he must answer charges that he assaulted August J. Gloistein, the operator of another nearby saloon.

1894: Max Lissauer explained that the Jewish members of the Committee had not attended the reception at the Union Club for Mayor-elect William Strong, even though they had “worked as hard as they could for his election” because they did not feel comfortable at the Union Club which refused membership to a co-religionist, Theodore Seligman who had been blackballed because he was Jewish.

1895: Birthdate of Peretz Davidovich Markish, the Russian poet whose language of choice was Yiddish whose wife Esther and his sons, literary scholar Shimon Markish and prose writer David Markish sought to redeem his reputation after he was murdered in the Stalin purge “Night of the Murdered Poets.”

http://yiddishkayt.org/view/peretz-markish/

1895: Financier Henry Clews who organized the “Committee of 70” was quoted today as saying that “the best thing that” German anti-Semite Hermann “Ahlwardt can do is to go home.” “The Jews as a class are good citizens. They respect the laws and benefit business and society.” Ahlwardt, “may as well understand that he is a most unwelcome visitor.”

1897: In Shanghai, David Haimovitch of Shanghai married Berth Gersburger of Alsace-Lorraine at the Beth El Synagogue.

1898: In Chicago the fair and bazaar sponsored by the Young Men’s Hebrew Charity Association which is raising funds for Michael Reese Hospital and the United Hebrew Charities is scheduled to come to an end.

1899: As a result of his participation in today’s Battle of Anguillan, Dr. Joseph M. Heller who served as surgeon with the 24^thU.S. Infantry during the Philippine Insurrection received a Silver Star Citation

1903: The first New York Company of the Boy’s is scheduled to meet today for the first time at rooms provided by B’nei Zion under the leadership of Drill Instructor Lebensohn

1904: In New York City, Benvenida Solis Davis and Goodman Richard Davis gave birth to Goodman Richard Davis, Jr, the “brother of Walter Alan Davis.”

1904: Birthdate of New York naïve Viola Regina Philo, the New York College of Music trained operatic soprano whose career included appearances at Radio City Music Hal and the Metropolitan Opera.

1905: In a letter to the editor published today, Lucien Wolf replied “to the allegation that the massacre at Odessa originated with the provocative attitude of the Jews and that had they not been armed and organized the efforts of the reactionaries and local authorities to stir up the populace against them would have failed.”

1905(9th of Kislev, 5666): Eighty-two year old Julius Freiberg, the husband of Duffie Frieberg and father of UAHC president Julius Walter Freiberg, passed away today in Cincinnati.

1905: Birthdate of Leonard Goldstein who would become President of the American Broadcasting Companies in 1968.

1905: According to reports received today in Vienna at least 8,000 people of have been killed in Odessa since the attacks on the Jews began in that Russian city.

1906(20^th of Kislev, 5667): Isaac Samuel Isaacs, the second son of Rabbi Samuel Myer Isaacs and Jane Symmons, and Columbia trained lawyer who “was a member of the firm of M.S. & I.S. Isaacs” which “is counsel for the Baron de Hirsch Fund” who was the long time President of the West End Synagogue passed away today in New York City.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/43057806?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1906/12/08/101852509.pdf

1907:In Chicago, Leon Oboler and Clara Oboler, Jewish immigrants from Riga, Latvia, gave birth to Arch Oboler an American actor, playwright, screenwriter, novelist, producer, and director who was active in radio, films, theater, and television.

1907: Birthdate of Frija Zoaretz, the native of Libya who made Aliyah in 1949 and served “as a member of the Knesset for the National Religious Party between 1955 and 1969.

https://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/eng/mk_eng.asp?mk_individual_id_t=403

1907: Conductor Arturo Toscanini and his wife Carla De Martini gave birth their daughter Wanda, a Catholic who became Wanda Horowitz in 1922 when she married “pianist Valdimir Horowitz.”

1907: Birthdate of Lithuanian native Fred Rosenberg who moved to Canada and as Fred Rose

gained fame as a labor organizer and Canadian communist politician.

1907:The Trustees, Faculty, and students of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America gave a "surprise party" to Dr. Solomon Schechter, the President of that institution, in celebration of his sixtieth birthday. Dr. Schechter has only been in this country five years, having been summoned by the Trustees of the seminary from his position as Reader in the Rabbinic in Cambridge University, England, and Professor of Hebrew in the University of London.

1910(6th of Kislev, 5671): Fifty-five year old Rabbi Hirsch Hildesheimer, the son of Rabbi Azriel Hildesheimer and Henriette (Jettchen) Hildeshiemer and the husband of Rosa Therese Hildesheimer passed away in Berlin

1910: Birthdate of Richard Franko Goldman conductor, educator, author, music critic, and composer who was the son of Edwin Franko Godman. The son followed the father as conductor of the Goldman Band of New York City.

1911(16^th of Kislev, 5672): Seventy-eight year old Sir George Lewis passed away.

http://www.fivenine.co.uk/family_history_notebook/source_extracts/obituaries/george_henry_lewis.htm

1911: Cambridge University conferred an honorary LL.D. degree on Lord Rothschild.

1911: Arthur M. Myers were re-elected to serve as a “member for Auckland City, East New Zealand.”

1912: It was reported today that Adolf Kraus, President of the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith has received an urgent appeal by cable from the President of the Grand Lodge in Turkey requesting speedy financial assistance to aid Jewish sufferers from war and cholera” as well as a similar appeal from the President of the Grand Lodge of Romania on behalf of the Jews of Bulgaria.

1912: Rabbi Tobias Schanfarber is scheduled to speak to the “children of the Sabbath School at the Hebrew Institute this afternoon.

1914: The Federation of Oriental Jews organized the Oriental Jewish Community of New York. They plan to establish and maintain their own institutions, burial grounds, Talmud-Torahs, etc., and to care for the poor and sick Ladino speaking community.

1915: Abraham Shalom Yahuda of Madrid is appointed ordinary professor "Catedratico numberario" of rabbinic literature at the Central University. The appointment came despite the fact that there no synagogues in Spain and that there had not been one in the country since 1492.

1915: The seventh annual convention of the Federation of Jewish Farmers being held in the auditorium of the Educational Alliance building on East Broadway goes into its third day with a morning discussion on “educational and social problems on the farm,” an afternoon business session and a dinner in the evening at the Broadway Central Hotel.

1915: In “Red Hook, Brooklyn” Polish-Jewish immigrants “Abraham and Bertha (Schorr) Wallach gave birth to Eli Herschel Wallach the graduate of the University of Texas who earned a Master of Arts degree from CCNY before serving in the United States Army during WW II and gaining fame as act Eli Wallach one of his best was as the Mexican outlaw leader in The Magnificent Seven.

1916: In New York City, “Jewish immigrants Isaac Sackler” and the former Sophie Greenberg gave birth to Dr. Mortimer D. Sackler, a psychiatrist who was a co-owner of the pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma, makers of the controversial painkiller OxyContin, and whose lavish gifts to the Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Columbia University made him one of New York City’s most prominent benefactors. (As reported by Bruce Weber)

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/meet-the-sacklers-one-of-the-richest-families-in-america-who-built-their-dollar14-billion-fortune-off-of-controversial-prescription-drug-oxycontin/ss-BBSqWVV?ocid=spartandhp

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/business/01sackler.html

1916: During World War I, David Lloyd George became Prime Minister and formed a new government.Lloyd George re-invigorated the British War effort and helped ensure the Allied victory over the Kaiser. Lloyd George was the Prime Minister when the Balfour Declaration was issued and continued to fight for the Zionist cause after the World War when other British leaders were determined to break their war-time commitment to the Jewish people.

1916: Herbert Louis Samuel (the Viscount Samuel) completed his first term as Home Secretary in the UK.

1917: As the Egyptian Expeditionary Force of the British Empire on one side and the Yildirim Army Group of the Ottoman Empire and German Empires on the other side prepare for the climactic fight for control of Jaffa, “three infantry divisions of the British XXI Corps, under the command of Lieutenant General Edward Bulfin, began moving their units into position on the coastal plain.”

1917: The U.S. government, which had declared war on Germany in April, declared war today on its ally the Austro-Hungarian Army.

1917: The 53^rd (Welsh) Division of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, also known as Mott’s detachment, which was supposed to cut the road between Jerusalem and Jericho captured “Solomon’s Pools to the south of Bethlehem” this evening.

1917: “The forty-six teams which are collecting subscriptions for the five million dollar fund for Jewish war relief and welfare work in the army” stopped their work tonight at sunset tonight because the start of the Sabbath but will resume their activity tomorrow afternoon.

1917: State Supreme Court Justice Irving Lehman, Chairman of the Jewish Welfare Board said that “the Jews of America have furnished the army and navy 50,000 of their finest young men” and the Jews “who cannot serve it as fighters” owe to their country to contribute so that their spiritual needs can be met – in the same that the supports of the YMCA and Knights of Columbus have already done.

1917: In Kostroma, the Jews formed a “self-defense corps.”

1917: In Odessa, “the general in command of” the city’s “garrison announced that he would suppress attempts to attack Jews” while “a large part of the garrison openly declared its ‘neutrality’ in events of a pogrom.”

1917: Pogroms took place in “Belgorodsk, Skuria and Rezev.”

1917: On the Western Front, the Battle of Cambrai in which the German forces that included Carl Anker, drove back a British forced led by the Mark IV Tank.

http://theyweresoldiers.com/index.php/2017/09/09/a-century-gone-by-tank-battle-at-cambrai-november-1917/

1918: As Allied troops marched into Germany and established zones of occupation under the terms of the Armistice signed on November 11, German born Zionist Arthur Ruppin wrote in his diary, “Never indeed, in the history of the world has a people been confronted with such terrible armistice terms and admitted its complete defeat, although no enemy has yet set foot on its soil and on the contrary, its armies are still deep within the territories of its enemies. The simple man in the street cannot understand what has happened so suddenly and feels completely lost.”

1918: Achille Ratti, the future Pope Pius XI, writes a letter to Cardinal Pietro Gasparri, Vatican Secretary of State, apparently complaining about what he considered the disproportionate power of Jews in Poland. "There are about 600,000 Protestants and about 2 million Jews, but their religious importance is negligible, outside of the fairly frequent conversions to Catholicism. But by contrast their economic, political, and social importance (especially that of the Jews) is large and indeed tremendous." (As reported by Austin Cline)

1918: “Camden Jews opened the great drive of the Federation of Jewish Charities of Camden with a mass meeting at the Towers Theatre” tonight.

1919: In Albany Park (Chicago), the bazaar sponsored by the Sisterhood of Temple Israel is scheduled to come to an end today.

1919: Mrs. Morris S. Rosenwald is scheduled to perform for the Symphony Concert at the Chicago Hebrew Institute.

1920: “Jews To Work With League” published today described the arrival of a delegation of prominent Jews led by Lucien Wolf, “representing the Jew Board of Deputies in the British Empire” in Geneva where the plan “to place before the League of Nations a memorandum regarding he question of the protectin of minorities and finding some remedy against pogroms.”

1921: The graduation of the nursing class from Hadassah hospital, which had been postponed due to Arab attacks in November, took place. The graduation address was given by Dr. Eder, a distinguished British Jew and member of the Zionist Executive who spoke in English. Dr. Eliezer Ben Yehuda, one of the pioneering fathers’ of Modern Hebrew, walked out in protest.

1922: Professor George L. Scherger is scheduled to lecture on “George Bernard Shaw” this evening at the Sinai Social Center in Chicago, Illinois.

1922: In Manhattan, Walter and Marion Pollak gave birth to Louis Heilprin Pollak, “a federal judge and former dean of two prestigious law schools who played a significant role in major civil rights cases before the Supreme Court, including the landmark Brown v. Board of Education desegregation case” (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)

http://articles.philly.com/2012-05-10/news/31669640_1_chief-judge-fellow-judges-judge-pollak

1923: Birthdate of Professor Sir Abraham Goldberg who became Regius Professor of the Practice of Medicine at the University of Glasgow

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12772438.Sir_Abraham_Goldberg/

1924: In Frankfurt am Main Gustav and Toni (née Koch) Fleischmann gave birth to Ernest Martin Fleischmann who fled the Nazis and eventually became “imperious impresario who ran the Los Angeles Philharmonic for nearly three decades, helping to elevate its stature to that of an orchestra of the first rank.”

1925: Birthdate of Brooklynite Max “Slats” Zaslofsky the St. John’s college basketball player who played for “the Chicago Stags of the newly organized Basketball Association of America, the forerunner of the National Basketball Association” after which he coached “for two seasons in the American Basketball Association with the New Jersey Americans/New York Nets.”

http://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/17/sports/max-zaslofsky-is-dead-at-59-star-in-early-days-of-knicks.html

1925: In Great Britain, movie mogul G.B. Samuelson and his wife gave birth to Sir Sydney Wylie Samuelson who was appointed as the first British Film Commissioner in 1991 and the first President of the UK Jewish Film Festival.

1926: Author Alfred Döblin and his wife gave birth to their third son Stefan

1927: It was reported today that “John D. Rockefeller, Jr. has given $50,000 to the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies” which “is the large largest ever made by a non-Jew to any local Jewish philanthropic cause.”

1928: Birthdate of Noam Chomsky.

1928: The annual Who’s Who issued of the American Hebrew Magazine published today revealed that John D. Rockefeller, Jr. who contributed $500,000 toward Jewish colonization in the Soviet Union was one of “four Christians among the twenty-six persons who have merited special distinction because of achievements in spheres of mutual endeavor among Jews and Christians in American during the year 1928.”

1929: “Glorifying the American Girl,” a musical comedy with songs by Irving Berlin and featuring a cameo appearance by Eddie Cantor was released in the United States today.

1930(17th of Kislev, 5691): Edward David Cowen, the newspaper man whose articles and life were chronicled in Newspaper career of E.D. Cowen, with biographic sketches by Charles A. Murray, Slason Thompson, R.E.M. Strickland, C.E. Arney, Hugh Hume, Frank M. Dallam, Jr passed away today.

http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-no2010190032/

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Cowen%2C%20Edward%20David%2C%201857-1930

1930(17^th of Kislev, 5691): On his 65^th birthday German born British financier and patron of the arts Otto John Beit, 1st Baronet, the husband of Lilian Carter with whom he had two sons, passed away today.

1930: Pauline “Koner's first choreographed piece was presented today] at the Guild Theatre.”

http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/author/koner-pauline

1931:Although Beth El in Camden, NJ, had been organized in 1920, the tenth anniversary was celebrated by Sisterhood at a special meeting” today which was held in conjunction with Hadassah and Council of Jewish Women and featured Dr. Israel H. Leventhal of New York's Brooklyn Jewish Center, the son of Philadelphia's "Chief Rabbi", Bernard Leventhal, as the guest speaker.

1932: In Warsaw, “three Jewish Deputies, members of the government bloc, called upon the Minister of the Interior today to protest against the anti-Semitic disturbance in Lwow.”

1933: Premier of the cinematic version Elmer Rice's play 'Counsellor-at-Law”' starring John Barrymore. Rice was Jewish. Barrymore was not.

1934: “Exiled Jews In Saar Relieved At Accord” published today described an interim agreement that appeared to protect the rights of Jewish refugees in the territory but which would prove to be worthless because they were based on a Nazi officials promise not to discriminate against Jews.

1935(11^th of Kislev, 5696): Parashat Vayetzei

1935(11^th of Kislev, 5696): Fifty-nine year old Herman Morris Adler, the son of Dr. Isaac 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” passed away today in Boston.

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=

1936: Birthdate of Robert Belinsky, the native of New York’s Lower East Side who gained fame as major league pitcher Bo Belinsky who was better known for his off the field antics than his on the mound skills.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/27/sports/bo-belinsky-64-the-playboy-pitcher-dies.html

1936: It was reported today that Senator Royal S. Copeland declared that “the British Government’s lack of any definite policy in administering its League of Nations mandate in Palestine was responsible for the Arab rioting” and that because of a special treaty with Great Britain, the United States “is under a solemn obligation to see to it that Great Britain carries out its duties.

1937: Pianist and composer Alexander Tansman married Colette Cras, a pianist of repute who was the daughter of the composer Admiral Jean Cras and the mother of his two daughters, Mireille and Marianne.

1940: In Brooklyn, Sol Frank Steinhardt and his wife gave birth to Michael Steinhardt the hedge fund manager who founded Steinhardt, Fine, Berkowitz & Co.

https://www.jta.org/2017/06/09/news-opinion/united-states/michael-steinhardt-thinks-american-jews-need-to-stop-focusing-on-religion

https://forward.com/news/374321/michael-steinhardt-says-religion-is-big-problem-for-american-jews/?attribution=home-top-story-8-headline

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/21/nyregion/michael-steinhardt-sexual-harassment.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

1941: A ship from Lisbon arrives at Ellis Island arrives carrying Wanda Landowska.

1941, Japanese warplanes attacked the home base of the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, an act that led to America's entry into World War II. Approximately 500,000 Jews served during World War II. This was about ten per cent of the Jewish Population in the United States, which would have made it higher than the average for other ethnic groups. The numbers put the lie to the anti-Semitic slur that Jews were nothing but black market profiteers. Approximately 52,000 of the Jewish service personnel were decorated during the war.

1941: Time Magazine correspondent Theodore White dropped slips of paper down twenty-nine floors to the street from Time offices at Rockefeller Center to inform bewildered Christmas shoppers below that Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor. This young Jewish Harvard graduate would go on to write The Making of the President 1960, a classic which would change the nature of political literature while helping to create the Kennedy Legend and the Concept of Camelot.

1941: SS and Latvian firing squads began a slaughter of the Jews of Riga. Between December 7 and December 9, 1941, 25,000 Riga Jews were put to death by firing squads. Combined with previous actions by the SS and their Latvian allies, only 20% of original Jewish population in Riga now remained. This ghetto was now ready to house German Jew deportees. Among the victims is a preeminent Jewish historian, 81-year-old Simon Dubnow.

1941: While “writing bulletins for The Times’s radio affiliate, Lester Bernstein was the first staff member to report the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.”

1941: At Pearl Harbor, Ensign Nathan Asher, a graduate of the Naval Academy took command U.S.S. Blue since the skipper was ashore and in a harrowing trip lasting one and half hours guided the ship out to open waters and safety while Ensign Milton Moldane, a graduate of Washington University Law School “took charge of the forward machine guns” fighting off the attacking Japanese aircraft.

1941(17^thof Kislev, 5702): During the attack at Pearl Harbor, Radio Mechanic 3rd Class Rosenthal gave his life aboard the U.S. S. California.

1941(17^thof Kislev, 5702): Private Louis Shleifer, a native of Newark, NJ, serving with the U.S. Army Air Corps was mortally wounded as he helped his comrades move planes into hangars to avoid having them be destroyed by attacking Japanese aircraft.

1941(17^thof Kislev, 5702): Lee Goldfarb, a native of Jersey City, NJ, serving as a 3^rdClass radioman aboard the U.S.S. Oglala lost his life when a Japanese torpedo struck and sunk his ship.

1941: The attack at Pearl Harbor brings the U.S. into WW II during which approximately 200 Jews from Utah would serve in the various branches of the Armed forces.

1941: According to Glenn Flower, German-Dutch landowner Johannes Steel who fled to the United States after the Nazis came to power was one of the few who “predicted the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor a week before it occurred.”

http://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/03/obituaries/johannes-steel-80-commentator.html?pagewanted=1

1941: The Tatsuma Maru whose passengers included Lew Zikman, which had left Japan on December 1^st bound for the United States, turned around today and returned to Yokohaman.

1941: The Nazis begin gas-van extermination operations at the death camp in Chelmno, Poland

1942( 28^thof Kislev, 5703):Eighty-three year old Hannah Greenebaum Solomon the celebrated founder of the National Council of Jewish Women which was the first national association of Jewish women and also an important force for reform in Chicago around the turn of the twentieth century” passed away today. (As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archives)

http://jwa.org/thisweek/dec/07/1942/hannah-greenebaum-solomon

1942: Today, “during the pacification action around Ciepielów, a group of 14 Christian Poles were shot by the gendarmes for hiding Jews including Wojciech Skrzak, Marianna Skwira, Barbara Stefanek, the Wdowiak family including Benedykt (58), Aleksandra (17) and Marianna (94); as well as the Wojewódka family with Ignacy (50), his wife Marianna (45) and children Wacław, Jan, Stanisław, and Józef, age 7. (Editor’s note – The price for being a “righteous gentile” was high, a grim reality that should be factored in when studying the response to the Nazis and their allies during WWII)

1942: “Went the Day Well?” a British war film directed by Michael Balcon, the youngest son of “Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe was released today in the United Kingdom.

1942: German troops enter the Polish village of Bialka and murder 96 villagers suspected of shielding Jews fleeing the anti-Jewish Aktionin the nearby Parczew Forest.

1942: United States State Department official G. Robert Borden Reams, an "expert" on the Jews in the Division of European Affairs, advises that the United States government remain silent concerning details of the Holocaust.

1942: British official John Cecil Sterndale Bennett is upset because Bulgarian Jewish children may be allowed into Palestine.

1943: Eighty-two year old Baltimore born ophthalmologist Charles Henry May, MD, who had earned a degree in Pharmacy before pursuing his medical career, passed away today.

https://bjo.bmj.com/content/bjophthalmol/28/6/313.full.pdf

1944 (21st of Kislev, 5705):Satmar Rebbe Joel Teitelbaum rescued. The Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum , was rescued from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, along with 1,368 other Jews, through the efforts of Rudulf Kastner, head of the Zionist rescue operation in Hungary (an earlier transport of 1,686 Jews had been rescued on Av 29). The Satmar community celebrates the 21st of Kislev as a day of thanksgiving.

1944: USS Drum (SS-228) a Gato-class submarine which has been under the command of Maurice H. Rindskopf set out on 12^th war patrol

1944: The Kasztner transport’s 1, 361 Jews who had left Bergen Belsen on December 4 crossed the border into Switzerland today. For more see the work of Gaylen Ross at http://www.killingkasztner.com/

where you can order a copy of “Killing Kasztner)

1945: Irvine Robbins opened his first ice cream store -- called Snowbird because he couldn't think of anything else – on the day after his 28^thbirthday. Robbins used $2,000 he saved and cashed a $4,000 insurance policy his father had given him at his bar mitzvah at Seattle's Temple DeHirsch Sinai to finance the venture. Robbins had 21 flavors then, and his cousin bought $39 of the first day's $53 total ice cream sales.

1946: U.S. Secretary of state James “Jimmy” F. Byrnes said endorsed the creation of a Jewish state when he said that partition was the best solution to the Palestine Problem.

1947(24th of Kislev, 5708): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah light

1947: During a meeting of the Jewish World Congress, it was charged that anti-Jewish incidents are taking place in Iran

1947: Sir Alan Cunningham, the British High Commissioner asked David Ben Gurion to meet with so that he could tell him that the British "had decided to evacuation Palestine as soon as possible."

1947(24^th of Kislev, 5708): Eighty-one year old French author and lawyer Tristan Bernard whose health was broken during his imprisonment at Drancy passed away today,

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tristan-Bernard

1947(24th of Kislev, 5708): Pessia Lev, a nineteen year old student nurse was killed by Arab snipers when the eight bus convoy she was riding in was attacked as it made its way to Jerusalem. Lev was going home to celebrate Chanukah with her family.

1948: Birthdate of Hartford, CT native and winner of the 2007 Dayton Literary Peace Prize Mark Kurlanksy whose works include Nonviolence: Twenty-five Lessons from the History of a Dangerous Idea.

1948: President Truman announced that he would ask Congress for money for the Palestinian refugees. This would appear to be at odds with the British who want to furnish supplies and money for the refugees from UN working capital funds

1948: The Transjordan cabinet gives its consent to crowning of King Abdullah as king of united Palestine and Transjordan. [In other words, having crossed the Jordan River, seized what is called the West Bank and the Old City of Jerusalem, the Jordanians were staking their claim to the land as opposed to turning it over to the Palestinians for a state of their own.]

1948: On the third and final day of Operation Assaf, the Egyptians prepared to counter-attack and drive the Israelis back. “However, Israeli Air Force reconnaissance revealed the Egyptian preparations in the morning. The Israeli assault battalion was sent to the Egyptian's north (left) flank and stormed their forces southwards, then chased the retreating Egyptians westward, eventually stopping in face of strong anti-tank Egyptian positions.” With the end of Operation Assaf, the Israelis cleared the area of mine’s and built defensive lines in case the Egyptians came back, before being withdrawn to take part in Operation Horev.

1949: It was reported today, that Meyer W. Weisgal, the Chairman of the Executive Council of the Weizman has said that “while India has not yet recognized the Government of Israel, overtures have been for scientific relations between the two countries.

1950(28^thof Kislev, 5711): Sixty-six year old, the Labor Zionist leader “served as the secretary of the World Union of Poalei Zion” passed away today in Haifa.

1951: An instrumental version of “Charmaine" co-composed by Lew Pollack reached the top spot on Billboard today.

1952: Yigael Yadin resigned today, over disagreements with prime minister and defense minister David Ben-Gurion about cuts to the military budget, which he argued should be at least one third of the national budget

1952:Mordechai Maklef became the I.D.F.’s Chief of Staff

1953(1^stof Tevet, 5714): Sixth Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet

1953: Comdr. Hugo Frankberger, (USN Ret) a native of Charleston, W.VA, and a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy is scheduled to be buried this morning at Arlington National Cemetery after funeral services at Fort Myers, Va.

1953: To the amazement of the Israeli public, Ben-Gurion resigned as Prime Minister and retired to the small farming community of Sde Boker in the Negev.

1956: “Rock, Rock, Rock!” produced by Max Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky who also co-wrote the screenplay and music for the film which was released today in the United States today.

1957: NBC broadcast the last episode of “Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion” produced by Harry Saltzman.

1957(13^thof Kislev, 5718): Eighty-eight year old NYU trained attorney and Tammany Hall politician Morris Cukor the Hungarian born son of Joseph and Victoria Cukor and the “husband of Cora Cukor” passed away today in Los Angeles.

1959: The Broadway production of “Saratoga” Harold Arlen’s musical adaptation of Saratoga Trunk by Edna Ferber “opened at the Winter Garden Theatre where it ran for 80 performances.”

1959: David Susskind produced “Simply Heavenly” on The Play of the Week.

1960: In New York, Julian Frieden, the chief of coronary care at Montefiore Hospital and New Rochelle Hospitals in New York and his wife gave birth to Thomas R. Frieden, “the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention” under President Obama who in 2008 was arrested “and charged with groping a woman in his apartment in 2017.”

1967(5^thof Kislev, 5728): Eighty-seven year old “former New York Supreme Court Justice Meier Steinbrink, who served as chairman of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith from 1946 to 1952” passed way today. (JTA)

1967: “Rabbi Jay Kaufman, executive vice president of B’nai B’rith, charged today that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) had permitted its facilities to be used to “subvert minds and poison hearts” against Israel in its “desire to remain acceptable to the host Arab countries.” (JTA).

1967:How Now, Dow Jones a musical comedy by Academy Award winner Elmer Bernstein, Tony Award nominee Carolyn Leigh and Max Shulman opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre

1969(27^thof Kislev, 5730): Third Day of Chanukah

1969(27^thof Kislev, 5730): Sixty-eight year old NYU trained lawyer who “was a past president of the Educational Alliance, treasurer of the Jewish Education Committee” and “a founder with Herman Wouk of the Fire Island Synagogue” passed away today in Beth Israel Hospital.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/12/09/78547297.html?pageNumber=55

1969(27^thof Kislev, 5730): Seventy-eight year old New York born, Harvard grad Howard Joseph Sachs, an investment banker with Goldman, Sachs passed away today.

1970(9^thof Kislev, 5731): Cartoonist Rube Goldberg passed away. The winner of the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for cartooning made his name synonymous with complicated ways to perform simple tasks.

http://www.rubegoldberg.com/

http://mousetrapcontraptions.com/history-4.html

1972(2^ndof Tevet, 5733): Eighty-nine year old German born composer and conductor Klaus Pringsheim, Sr. the father of “Klaus Pringsheim, Jr., who attended Bunce Court School, a German-Jewish refugee school in Kent, England during World War II” and the brother-in-law of Thomas Mann passed away today in Tokyo.

1972(2^ndof Tevet, 5733): Eighty-two year old Cornell trained neuropsychiatrist Dr. Louis Hausman, the husband of “the former of Esther May” who spent much of his career teaching at his alma mater passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/1972/12/10/archives/dr-louis-hausman-taught-at-come-i-medical-college.html

1973(12^thof Kislev, 5734): Seventy-three year old Benn Wolfe Levy, the playwright and Member of Parliament passed away today.

1976(15th of Kislev, 5737): Odessa native Boris Pragel, who partnered with his younger brother Alexander to become a leading dealer “in uranium and other radioactive elements and who was the husband of painter Alexandra Pragel passed away today.

1977(27^thof Kislev, 5738): Peter Goldmark passed away. Born in Hungary in 1906, Goldmark was an engineer who played a major role in the development of the long-playing record and the first commercial color television.

http://www.earlytelevision.org/goldmark_article.html

1979(17^thof Kislev, 5740): Ninety year old “Walter A. Haas, Sr. the former chairman of the board of Levi Strauss and Company passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/1979/12/08/archives/walter-haas-sr-90-exchairman-joined-levi-strauss-in-1919.html

http://www.jmaw.org/hass-jewish-los-angeles/

http://www.jmaw.org/hass-jewish-san-francisco/

http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/haas/about/WHaas.html

:1979(17^thof Kislev, 5740): Eighty-one year old Edward “Eddie” Gottlieb the native of Kiev for whom the NBA Rookie of the Year Trophy is named and whose dominate role in the early days of the National Basketball Association earned him election to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame passed away today.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20220522__Mr__Basketball___Eddie_Gottlieb__memorialized_at_his_South_Phila__alma_mater.html

1980: It was reported today that “most of the emigres” from the Soviet Union “came to America ‘to escape the ignominy of being Jews’ and to take advantage of material freedoms in the United States” and that while “care little for spiritual instruction…they placed a high value on” secular “education for their children.

1981: Philip C. Habib, President Reagan's special envoy to the Middle East, is scheduled to meet with Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir in Jerusalem today.

1983: “Romantic Comedy” the movie version of the play by the same name, directed by Arthur Hiller, co-produced by Walter Mirisch with music by Marvin Hamlisch and co-starring Ron Leibman was released in the United States today.

1984: “City Heat” a crime film directed by Richard Benjamin and co-starring Madeline Kahn was released in the United States today by Warner Bros.

1984: In his review of the new four hour made for television film version of “The Sun Also Rises” John J. O’Connor reminds us that “the anti-Semitism in Hemingway’s work clearly remains a problem” as can be seen by the depiction of the fictional “Robert Cohn.” He is “the New York Jew who is never quite swell enough to be fully accepted into…the special inner circle of” Jake Barnes and who “emerges as an obnoxious whiner with a pronounced streak of nastiness.” (Hemingway is but one of a series of noted American writers whom critics felt dabbled in anti-Semitism, something that was not mentioned when Pappa was busy “fighting fascism” during the Spanish Civil War.)

1986:Arab and Jew:Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land by David K. Shipler is among the twelve books chosen by the New York Times Book Review as the best books published in the country during the preceding year.

1986: NBC broadcast the first of the two part series “Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna” written by James Goldman and co-starring Amy Irving.

1987: About 10,000 Israelis held a rally today to demand that the Kremlin open the gates for Soviet Jews to emigrate. ''We say to the Soviet leader, free my people,'' Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told the crowd. ''We want him to know we will not forget our brethren in the Soviet Union.''''No more gestures, no more tokens,'' President Chaim Herzog said. ''For us, the outcome of the discussion of human rights will be the litmus test for the success of this summit.

1988: President-elect George Bush announced the appointment of Thomas B. Pickering who has served as U.S. Ambassador to Israel since 1985 to be the next United States representative to the United Nations.Mr. Pickering has condemned what he considered violations of human rights, particularly since widespread unrest by Palestinians began almost a year ago in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza. A member of the political inner circle of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir has called Mr. Pickering ''a hostile ambassador of a friendly state.'' Mr. Pickering's greatest frustration in Israel has been the refusal of Mr. Shamir to cooperate in a peace initiative by Secretary of State George P. Shultz that would involve an international conference on the Israeli-Arab conflict.

1988: Yasser Arafat recognizes the right of Israel to exist. Given what transpired afterwards including the Second Intifada, he must have had his fingers crossed.

1990: In a column entitled “Abroad at Home; A Broken Dream” Anthony Lewis described the anguish of Yuval Neria, a decorated war hero and poet who became a clinical a psychologist and author the semi-auto-biographical bestselling novel entitled “Fire.”

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/07/opinion/abroad-at-home-a-broken-dream.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm

1991(30^thof Kislev, 5752): Parashat Miketz; Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah

1991(30^thof Kislev, 5752): Seventy year old Brooklynite and movie producer Herb Jaffe who began his career as literary agent for such notables as Paddy Chayefsky, Reginald Rose and Joseph Heller, passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/10/obituaries/herb-jaffe-dies-at-70-hollywood-producer.html

1992(12^thof Kislev, 5753: Hamas murders three Israeli soldiers and proclaims the killings to be acts of heroism.

1993(23rd of Kislev, 5754):Palestinian gunmen killed a Jewish settler and his son today and wounded three other sons near the West Bank town of Hebron, apparently in revenge for the weekend killing of an Arab by settlers. The attack was the latest explosion in steadily increasing violence between Arabs and Jews in Hebron, and it drew a strong condemnation from Secretary of State Warren Christopher as he returned to Israel after stops in Syria and Jordan to push forward Middle East peace efforts. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said that despite the violence, he would press ahead with efforts to carry out an agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization on Palestinian self-rule, starting in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho.

1994:In a sign of Washington's mounting frustration with Yasir Arafat and his Palestinian Authority, Secretary of State Warren Christopher said today that Israel cannot be expected to withdraw its army from the occupied West Bank until Palestinian attacks on Israelis come to an end.

1997:Inbal Segev, a world-renowned female cellist who grew up in Israel,made her Carnegie Hall debut today where she performed the Carnegie Hall premiere of Trois strophes sur le nom de Sacher for solo cello by Henri Dutilleux

1997: The New York Times list of the Best Books of 1997 contains the following works about Jewish related subjects or by Jewish authors including American Pastoral by Phillip Roth and The Puttermesser Papers by Cynthia Ozick.

1998: “Louis B. Mayer: Lion of Hollywood” published today provides Budd Schulberg’s view of the movie mogul and the world he created.

http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/printout/0,8816,989771,00.html

1998: In “Beauty Queen,” published today, Grace Mirabella described how Estee Lauder “turned cosmetic into a big business”

http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,989786,00.html

1998(18th of Kislev, 5759): Dr Martin Rodbell an American biochemist who was awarded the 1994 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine passed away. (As reported by Wolfgang Saxon)

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/11/nyregion/martin-rodbell-is-dead-at-73-chemist-and-nobel-laureate.html

1999: “The international panel released its finding today on the assets of Holocaust victims in Switzerland” which “concluded that while the actions of some individual banks had been misleading there had not been a conspiracy or organized to deprive survivors of Nazi Germany of their funds.”

2000: Austrian born, American investment banker Felix Rohatyn completed his services as “U.S. Ambassador to France and Monaco.”

2001: Mr. Abu Sway, who had failed to kill anybody when the explosives wrapped around his body detonated prematurely in Jerusalem “was praised by his wife and children today as martyr who have his life for God and Country.”

2002(2^ndof Tevet, 5763): Parashat Miketz; Eighth Day of Chanukah

2002: “The Kenyan police today found the two missiles that were fired at an Israeli airliner, buried in a cornfield about six miles from the spot where the attackers launched them.”

2003: The New York Times book section featured books by Jewish authors and/or about subjects of Jewish interest including The Complete Lyrics of Frank LoesserEdited by Robert Kimball and Steve Nelson

2003: The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is scheduled to “honor the lifetime achievements of San Francisco born philanthropist William “Biily” Veprin and his wife Tootsie

2004:In his talk, "The Royal Court Preacher and the Hebrew Book: Early Enlightenment and Hebrew Publishing in Prussia, 1700-1750," Menachem Schmelzer examined the role of an influential figure in the Prussian court, the Christian theologian and scholar D.E. Jablonski, who founded the Hebrew press in Berlin in 1690. Schmelzer discussed Jablonski's life, work and his activities as the publisher of Hebrew books in order to shed light on the spread of secular culture and the ideals of Enlightenment and religious tolerance among the Jews of the time.Menachem Schmelzer is Senior Distinguished Scholar at the Library's John W. Kluge Center. Schmelzer has published books, articles and reviews in the fields of medieval Hebrew literature and Jewish bibliography and was the editor of Aron Freimann's "Union Catalog of Hebrew Manuscripts and Their Location," Alexander Marx's "Bibliographical Studies and Notes on Rare Books and Manuscripts in the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America" and the poems of Isaac ben Abraham Ibn Ezra.

2004: “An IDF soldier of the Oketz canine unit was killed by a bomb, along with his dog, when a booby-trapped chicken coup exploded northwest of the Karni Crossing. Four soldiers were wounded in the exchange of fire while evacuating him. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.”

2005: Two days after the murder of five Israelis at a shopping mall, an IAF helicopter destroyed the car carrying a PRC leader. The PRC is part of Hamas. The attack is part of a targeted response designed to destroy the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza and the West Bank.

2006: Zachor? Who will remember that today is the 65^th anniversary of “The Day that Will Live Infamy”?

2006: The House of Representatives gave final passage to a bill aimed at forcing the Palestinians' ruling Hamas government to accept Israel and join negotiations toward a Palestinian state in formerly Israeli-occupied territory. "This bipartisan legislation gives incentives to the Palestinian Authority to take another step toward joining the community of peaceful nations and a step away from the abyss of supporting terrorism," Sen. Mitch McConnell, Republican chief sponsor of the bill, said in a statement.

2007(27 Kislev, 5768): Harvey David Luber, 71, son of Nathan and Anne Luber, passed away today. Born July 20, 1936 in Chicago, IL, he shared 52 years of marriage with his beloved wife, Elaine Roberta Barg, and was blessed with 4 children, 7 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren, son and daughter-in-law, Philip and Jackie Luber; daughter and son-in-law, Karen and Mark Mackey; daughter and son-in-law, Gayle and Steve Mink; and son, preceded in death, Sheldon Luber. While Harvey was justifiably proud of being graduate of Northwestern University with a double major in Chemistry and Biology with a minor in Humanities and he was even prouder of having earned MSJS (Master of Science in Judaic Studies) from Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies in Chicago, Illinois. As a member of Temple B’Nai Israel and previously Congregation Agudith Achim, Harvey devoted 40 years of his life to educating young people and serving in many board positions within the community. He also served as Executive Director of the Jewish Federation of Arkansas for many years. He believed in education as a way to understand one another, speaking to schools about the Holocaust and church groups about comparative religion. He shared his love and knowledge of photography and Judaism by teaching at the Arkansas Art Center and UALR. He was an outstanding teacher, role model and friend and touched many people’s lives of all ages. He was my friend, a chever in the truest sense of the term. As long as a camera shutter clicks, his students open books or one of us chuckles over the memory of unique “Harvey moment” he will always live amongst us.

2007: After having premiered in London, “The Golden Compass,” directed and written by Chris Weitz was released today in the United States.

2007: As a testament to the strength and creativity of small town Judaism in the 21^st century, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Temple Judah hosts a Shabbat Chanukah potluck complete with latkes and apple sauce.

2007: On Friday, the fourth day of Chanukah, four Jewish subway riders were approached by a group of ten people who offered holiday greetings. When the Jews responded with greetings of Happy Chanukah, they were pelted with anti-Semitic remarks before being beaten.

2008: The First Annual Goldstein Lecture in memory of Jonathan Goldstein is presented by David Schoenbaum on Sunday afternoon at Agudas Achim. Schoenbaum’s topic is "Fiddlers on the Roof: How They Got Up There, and How They Got Down.” Professor Jonathan Goldstein was a long time member of Agudas Achim and had a joint appointment in the UI History Dept and Classics Dept. He was an ordained rabbi and his research was in Jewish Studies. He was considered the expert on the Hasmonean period.

2008: Barbara Streisand is among those honored by the Kennedy Center for her contribution to Arts in America.

2008: In The Washington Post, critic Jonathan Yardley’s list of the fifteen best books he reviewed in 2008 include For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder That Shocked Chicago, by Simon Baatz and The Spies of Warsaw by Jewish author Alan Furst.

2009(22^nd of Kislev, 5770): Roy Solomonoff, a pioneer, in Artificial Intelligence, passed away today. (As reported by John Markoff)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/science/10solomonoff.html?_r=0

2009: Poets and writers from Israel and all over the world came together in Jerusalem at Beit Avi Chai and Mishkenot Sha'ananim, for the opening session of the third annual Kisufim Conference, which aims to "encourages encounters between Israeli creativity - in Hebrew and other languages - and world Jewish creativity that is both multilingual and multicultural," according to the organizers. Some of the issues to be tackled in the meetings include the writer's identity, the meaning of exile today, the identity of text and place and the function of translation in a literary work with a Jewish identity. "It is no coincidence that the Hebrew acronym for this gathering is Kisufim (yearnings). Jerusalem has been the heart of yearning in Jewish literature for many generations," the organizers said. This year's participants include Miriam Anisimov (France), Jonathan Rosen (USA), Dara Horn (USA), Rodger Kamenetz (USA), Linda Grant (UK), Marcelo Birmajer (Argentina), Ilan Stavans (Mexico/USA), Emmanuel Moses (France) Robert Schindel (Austria), Esther Bendahan (Spain), Lucette Lagnado (Egypt/USA), Lisa Ginzburg (Italy), Geza Rohrig (Hungary/USA), Angel Wagenstein (Bulgaria), Alessandro Piperno (Italy) and Norman Manea (USA).

2009: The 20^thWashington Jewish Film Festival includes a screening of “Human Failure,” a film that “documents the bizarre competition that developed between bureaucrats as to how to organize the robbery of the German Jews before they were ever expelled or sent to their deaths.”

2009: The 24th Annual New York Israeli Film Festival includes a screening of “The Voice of Jerusalem,” a documentary that examines the city’s “glorious feature” and “bleak future.”

2009: Galilee police arrested two additional suspects in an attempt to extort millions of shekels from McDonald's Israel. The suspects, both 22-year-old residents of Tira, are believed to have filmed a short video that they claimed showed extremely poor food safety standards at a McDonald's chain.

2009: A four day conference entitled "A Century of Yiddish: 1908-2008" opened in Jerusalem

2009. The third annual Kisufim Conference opened at Beit Avi Chai and at Mishkenot.

2009: Ambassador Michael Oren addressed a breakfast session at the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism's biennial convention during which he "bashed" J Street as being "out of the mainstream."

2010: Dozens of Israel's municipal chief rabbis have signed on to a religious ruling that forbids renting homes to gentiles, and more specifically to Arabs. The ruling, which became public today, comes less than two months after leading rabbis in the northern Israeli city of Safed signed on to a letter drafted by the city's chief rabbi calling on Jews not to rent to non-Jews in the northern Israeli city, as well as a month after rabbis in the haredi Orthodox Israeli city of Bnei Brak issued a religious ruling forbidding residents to rent apartments to African refugees, echoing a similar ruling for southern Tel Aviv. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to condemn the ruling and take action against those who signed on to it. "Rabbis who are civil servants have an obligation to the entire public, including Israel's Arab citizens. It is unthinkable that they would use their public status to promote racism and incitement," read a statement from ACRI, issued today.

2010: The East Coast Premier of Jews In Space is scheduled to take place at the 21^st Washington Jewish Film Festival.

2010: The Jewish Study Center is scheduled to present a program entitled The Military Siddur — and Soldiers’ Prayers in which Michael Bloom will look at the special prayerbook for Jewish members of the Armed Services and the unique prayer for and about military personnel and our national security.

2010(30^thKislev, 5711): Rosh Chodesh Tevet

2010: Eighty-seven year old Dr. Samuel I Mintz, a Fulbright Scholar and Guggenheim Fellow who was Professor Emeritus of English at CCNY and CUNY Graduate Center passed away today.

2010(30^thKislev, 5711): Eighty-six year old “Arnold Hans Weiss, who fled to the United States from Nazi Germany as a 13-year-old and returned as an American soldier during World War II, becoming a principal in the investigation that led to the discovery of Hitler’s last will and political testament, died today in Rockville, Md. (As reported by Bruce Weber)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/02/world/02weiss.html

2010: A farewell ceremony was held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Jerusalem today for the international firefighting forces that assisted Israel in putting out the recent fire in the Carmel Forest region. Deputy Foreign Minister Ayalon spoke at the ceremony and gave each delegation a certificate that a tree was planted on their behalf by the Deputy Foreign Minister.

2010: Former European Union Commissioner Frits Bolkenstein said that Jews have no future in the Netherlands and recommended that they emigrate to the US or Israel, Dutch magazine Elsevier reported today.

2011: The Israeli documentary “I Shot My Love” is scheduled to be shown tonight at the 22^nd Annual Jewish Film Festival in Washington, DC.

2011: The Northern Virginia Legislative Reception complete with “light kosher buffet” is scheduled to take placed at the JCC of Northern Virginia in Fairfax, VA.

2011: The post-Chicago national tour of Nora and Delia Ephron’s “Love, Loss and What I Wore” began today.

2011: Seventieth Anniversary of the Attack on Pearl Harbor. How many will remember “the day that will live in infamy”?

2011: Israel's Yav Vashem Holocaust memorial said today it has received its largest private donation ever - a $25 million gift from U.S. casino mogul Sheldon Adelson.

2011: Today, a representative body of medical residents voted in favor of a draft deal with the Finance Ministry to end a months-long labor dispute.

2011: Moshe “Katsav arrived at Maasiyahu Prison in Ramla to begin serving his seven-year sentence.”

2012: The JCC of Northern Virginia is scheduled to sponsor “First Friday Book Group.”

2012: In Fairfax, VA, Gesher Jewish Day School is scheduled to sponsor a Sheldon Low Concert

2012: “Human Rights Shabbat” is scheduled to start this evening at Adat Reyim in Springfield, VA.

2012: Jewish Book Month comes to an end.

2012: Roei Fridman, Elyasaf Bashari, Netanel Lesser, Yishai Ben Yaaov and Yishai Tsarfaty are scheduled to perform “Hamshushalym” at the Eden-Tamir Music Center.

2012: 71^st anniversary of “The Day of Infamy.”

2012: Two IDF soldiers and a border policeman were injured lightly this afternoon when a group of about 40 Palestinian protesters threw stones in their direction in the northern West Bank town of Kafr Qaddum.

2012: As Israeli politicians shift alliances as part of the current election campaigns, her two neighbors conduct politics in a different style. The world watches and wonders about the possible use by the Syrian government of chemical weapons on its own citizens in a civil war that has claimed the lives of mostly innocent civilians. At the same time, mobs in Egypt clash over President Morsi’s new Islamist constitution and his granting to himself (temporarily of course) of sweeping powers that make his actions immune from judicial review.

2012: “Anarchy in the U.S.A.” published today provides a review of Sasha and Emma: The Anarchist Odyssey of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman by Paul Avrich and Karen Avrich

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/books/review/sasha-and-emma-by-paul-avrich-and-karen-avrich.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

2012(23^rdof Kislev, 5773): Seventy-three year old Saul Steinberg the Wharton graduate who tried to use Leasco as the base on which to build a financial empire based on a series of acquisitions passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/business/saul-p-steinberg-bold-corporate-raider-dies-at-73.html

2012(23^rdof Kislev, 5773): Eighty-two year old Table Tennis champion Marty Reisman passed away today (As reported by Douglas Martin)

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/08/nyregion/marty-reisman-82-wizard-of-table-tennis-dies.html?hpw&_r=1&

2013: JOFA’s 8^th International Conference of Feminism and Orthodoxy is scheduled to open this evening at John Jay College in New York.

2013: The Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to present “An Evening in Honor of Yehuda Amicahi.”

2013: The JCC of Northern Virginia is scheduled to present “Jackie Hoffman’s A Chanukah Charol.”

2013: The IDF said today that an Israeli military vehicle damaged by a bomb attack set off by Syrians on the Golan Heights was the first “targeted bombing of Israeli forces” since the start of the Syrian civil war. (As reported by Reuters and Forwards)

2013: The Traditional Shabbat Minyan remembers those who answered the call to service as it observes “Pearl Harbor Shabbat” at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

2013: Kansas-raised Jew Paul Rudd is scheduled to host Saturday Night Live this weekend. (As reported by Jordan Hoffman

2013(4^thof Tevet, 5774): Eighty-three year old Jack Fishman “who helped develop naloxone, a powerful medication that has saved countless people from fatal overdoses of heroin and other narcotics” passed away today. (As reported by William Yardley)

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/15/business/jack-fishman-who-helped-develop-a-drug-to-treat-overdoses-dies-at-83.html?amp;_r=0&;rref=obituaries&adxnnl=1&hpw=&adxnnlx=1417845875-f9mYIgXZgZ/TJH/+R4uXUQ

2013(4^thof Tevet, 5774): Eight-two year old Olympic gold medal winning coxswain and rowing coach Allen Rosenberg passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/14/sports/olympics/allen-rosenberg-olympic-rowing-coach-who-transformed-the-sport-dies-at-82.html?pagewanted=print

2013: Germany’s Bild newspaper reported today that “German has signed a multimillion arms deal with Israel” which will provide the Jewish state with two guided missile destroyers that can be used her natural gas pipelines. (As reported by Yifa Yaakov)

2013: Acclaimed Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin is scheduled to be granted Israeli citizenship in a special ceremony this evening in Jerusalem.

2014: In Bethesda, MD, Ruth Marcus, “an op-ed columnist and member of the editorial board of The Washington Post” is scheduled to speak at the 54^thannual meeting of Congregation Beth El.

2014(15^thof Kislev, 5775): One hundred year old William “Billy” Salomon the former head of Salomon Bros. passed away today.

http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-william-salomon-20141210-story.html

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/12/09/william-r-salomon-100-who-transformed-fathers-bank-dies/?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

2014: The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia is scheduled to host The Ruth Spector Memorial Mah Johngg Tournament.

2014: The UK Jewish Comedy Festival is scheduled to “Comedy Club 4 Kids.”

2014: The funeral for Gil Marks is scheduled to take place today.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-food-historian-gil-marks-dead-at-62/

2014: On day after the story of Dinah was read as part of the weekly sedrah, Lifetime is scheduled to broadcast the first in a two part series based on The Red Tent, a novel that “took the shards of Dinah’s story, told in a fairly short chapter of Genesis, and recast them as a layered tale of sisterhood, friendship and love.” (As reported Debra Nussbaum Cohen)

2014: “Prominent Israeli authors Amos Oz, David Grossman, and A.B. Yehoshua were among 800 Israeli signatories to a letter sent to the Belgian parliament today, calling on it to recognize a Palestinian state.”

2014: Israel did not respond to charges by Syria of air attacks the IAF, which according to other sources were an attack on a weapons cache destined for Hezbollah. (As reported by Ave Issaccharoff)

2014: “France’s interior minister vowed today to make the fight against anti-Semitism a “national cause” after a couple was attacked apparently because the man was Jewish.”

2014: “La Scala’s gala season premier “Fidelio” today marks Daniel Barenboim’s final opening-night bow as musical director as Italian opera enters one of its most tumultuous seasons in memory.”

http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-director-bids-italian-opera-farewell/

2014: The New York Times list of “100 Notable Books of 2014” published the following works by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers: American Innovations by Rivka Galchen, Faithful and Virtuous Night by Louise Gluck, Lena Finkle’s Magic Barrel by Anya Ulinich, The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman, A Replacement Life by Boris Fishman, American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell by Deborah Solomon, Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murder by Bettina Stangneth, The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan by Rick Perlstein, Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart, The Teacher Wars: A History of America’s Most Embattled Profession by Dana Goldstein, Thirteen Days In September: Carter, Begin and Sadat at Camp David by Lawrence Wright, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate by Naomi Klein and World Order by Henry Kissinger.

2015: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a screening of “The Unvanquished” the 1945 film was the first Soviet cinematic depiction “of the mass murder of Jews and one of the first ever Holocaust films” which “includes scenes of mass executions that were filmed on location in Babi Yar” followed by a discussion led by Anna Shternshis, University of Toronto and Olga Gershenson, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

2015: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education is scheduled to offer special incentives marking National Human Rights Month.

2015: Librarians at the Martin Luther King Librarians and staff from U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum are scheduled to work with “citizen historians to research how Washington, DC area newspaper reported on several events during the Holocaust.”

2015: In what was later described as “just a joke,” Rick Kriseman, “The Jewish mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida made it known today that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was unwelcome in his city, following Trump’s suggestion the same day that the United States prevent all Muslims from entering the country.” (As reported by Renee Ghert-Zand)

2016: “The a-Sham Arab Food Festival in which 45 leading chefs from the Arab (Muslim, Christian and Druze) and Jewish sectors will showcase the culinary treasures of the region passed down through generations, but with modern twists” is scheduled to open in Haifa today.

2016: “Big: The Musical” featuring music by David Shire and with a book by John Weidman, the son of Jerome Weidman is scheduled to open at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in Dublin.

2016: “Beyond the Mountains and the Hills” and “Sand Storm” are scheduled to be shown at the 10^th Annual Other Israel Film Festival.

2016: The Leo Baeck Institute is scheduled to present Ismar Schorsch, Chancellor Emeritus of the Jewish Theological Seminary and President Emeritus of LBI, who will discuss his new biography of Leopold Zunz, “a key figure in the 19th-century development of the academic study of Judaism.

2016: On the seventy-fifth anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor we remember those who fought there on that seemingly long-ago Sunday morning including Philadelphians Alex Sherman on board the U.S.S. New Orleans, Ben Lichtman on board the U.S.S. West Virginia and Irvin Greben serving at the Naval Air Station in Kaneohe Bay as well as Stan Levitt from Overland Park, Kansas on board the U.S.S. Rigel and Bernard Rubien from Rancho Mirage, CA serving at Hickam Field. (Courtesy of Florida Atlantic University)

2017: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host the final session of David Wolpe’s “Lessons on Lust and Love from the Bible.”

2017: The Breman Museum is scheduled to host a “tour of the Fox Theatre and learn about founder William Fox, born Wilhelm Fuchs and his imprint on the entertainment business.”

2017: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to lecture by Dr. Gideon Grief, the author of We Wept Without Tears on “Confronting Murder: The Jewish Sonderkommando of Auschwitz Birkenau.

2017: The URJ Biennial is scheduled to continue for a second day in Boston.

2017(19^thof Kislev, 5778): CALENDER COINCIDENCE – December 7, 2017 the anniversary of the Attack on Pearl, coincides with the 19^th of Kislev this year on the Jewish calendar which is the “Rosh Hashanah of Chassidism.”

http://www.arjewishcenter.com/library/article_cdo/aid/335659/jewish/19-Kislev-The-New-Year-of-Chassidism.htm

2017: “Morton Klein, the president of the Zionist Organization of America,” was among those who attended “a ‘Hanukkah Nightcap’ party” at the Trump International Hotel, which “was hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition, the organization funded by the casino magnate and Republican superdonor Sheldon Adelson, and America First Action, a political action committee staffed by Trump allies.

2017: The American Jewish Historical Society and the Center for Jewish History are scheduled to host a ‘book talk to launch…the new English translation of Ruby Namdar’s The Ruined House.

2017: Senator Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat “said late this morning in a speech on the Senate floor that he would resign “in the coming weeks” “following accusations of sexual misconduct by several women.”

2017: Jewish Book Month, an annual event that provides us with a chance to contemplate Jewish books and the lives of authors such as David Schoenbaum whose works included The United States and The State of Israel, continues today.

2018(29^thKislev, 5779): Fifth day of Chanukah

2018: “A menorah may been the cause of a house fire on Bellair Avenue in Fair Lawn, NJ which burned tonight on Shabbat and the sixth night of Chanukah.

2018: Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary fame is scheduled to perform at the Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center this evening.

2018: Professor Avigdor Shinan is scheduled “to bring the weekly haftarah to light” at the Israel Museum.

2018: “Dr. Rachel Tzarfati, the Senior Curator at the Jewish Art and Culture Wing of the Israel Museum is scheduled to lead a discussion of “Miketz.”

2018: The Bloomfield Science Museum is scheduled to host another day of Games of Fire where “visitors will have a rare opportunity to meet with firefighters, to learn firsthand about firefighting and rescue operations and their importance, to see the equipment used by firefighters and, above all, to ask the firefighters all the questions they have always wanted to ask.”

2018: The “25^th Anniversary Re-release” of “Schindler’s List” is scheduled to take place today.

2019(9^thof Kislev, 5780): Parashat Va-Yaytzat; for more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/

2019: “Hanukkah in Paris,” the “sixth annual party hosted by Adam Swig and Adrian Goddard” is scheduled to take place in San Francisco.

2019: The “Family Gala 2019: Blue Jean Ball,” a celebration of the Contemporary Jewish Museum’s “Levi Strauss: A History of American Style,” an exhibit on the founder’s Jewish immigrant story, the origins of the blue jean and how it defined American style. Includes performances, art-making and games” is scheduled to take place this evening in San Francisco.

2019: In Boston, the USCJ and the Rabbinical Assembly is scheduled to end Shabbat with a Havdalah concert and Melaveh Malkah featuring Deborah Sacks Mintz, Hadar’s Rising Song Institute and rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary.”

2019: “Last Tree in Jerusalem” and “A Page of Talmud,” two plays by Dani Horowitz are scheduled to be performed this evening at the “TheaterLab” in New York City.

https://twentyfoursix.weebly.com/

December 8

1292: John Peckham, the Archbishop of Canterbury, whose insistence that the closure of “chief synagogues of the Jews of London” was not enough, causing the few remaining Jewish houses of worships to be suppressed in 1282, passed away today.

1522:David Reubeni left Khaibar today “and went to Nubia in northern Sudan, where he claimed to be a descendant of Muhammad. When he spoke to audiences of Jews, he told of large Jewish kingdoms in the east, possibly referring to the Jewish community at Cochin. The Portuguese had just conquered Goa.”

1596(Kislev, 5357): In Mexico, Luis de Carvajal el Mozo, his mother, and three sisters were burned at the stake together with five other Crypto-Jews who were all accused of Judaizing.

1609: “Biblioteca Ambrosiana” opens its reading room, the second public library of Europe. Located in Milan, this library has been cited as a valuable repository for documents about the Jews of Italy including the Ashkenazic Ambrosian Bible which contains a graphic depiction of Ezekiel’s heavenly chariot.

1612(14^thof Kislev, 5373): Printer Isaac Prostitz (Isaac ben R. Aaron passed way today.

1783(13^thof Kislev, 5544): Isaac Touro, the native of Amsterdam who served as “hazzan” for Jesuath Israel, the Sephardic synagogue in Newport, RI. Unlike most American Jews, Touro was a loyalist. After the war he moved to Kingston where he passed away. For some his biggest claim to fame is that he was the father of Judah Touro.

1784(25^thof Kislev, 5545): Chanukah

1805: Rachel Cohen and Isaac Lyons where were married in Philadelphia, PA gave birth to Henry Lyons the husband of Elizabeth Wolff.

1812: In Germany, Jeanette Hirsch and Isaac Weil gave birth to Joseph Weil, the husband of Hannah Greenbaum and the father of Isaac, Julius, Theresa and Libbie Weil.”

1813: Birthdate of August Belmont, the German born financier who “immigrated to New York City in 1837 after becoming the American representative of the Rothschild family's banking house in Frankfurt.” Belmont carved a niche in American finance and became a leading member of the Democrat Party. Prominent socially, he gave his name to the famed New York racetrack, Belmont Park as well as the third leg of the Triple Crown, “The Belmont Stakes.”

1816: Birthdate of Austro-Hungarian writer and political leader Adolf Fischhof.

1817: John C. Calhoun, who as Secretary of State would appoint philo-Semite Warder Cresson (and future convert to Judaism) to serve as U.S. Consul to Jerusalem, began serving as Secretary of War today.

1822(24^thof Kislev, 5583): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah light

1822(24^thof Kislev, 5583): Fifty-five year old German author, published and bookseller Saul Ascher, passed away in Berlin.

1829: Birthdate of “Abenheim, Germany” native Marcus M. Spiegel, the brother of “Joseph Spiegel, founder of the Spiegel Catalog, who reached the rank of Colonel of the 120^th Ohio Volunteer infantry whom he commanded during the Battle of Vicksburg where he was wounded and in the Red River Campaign where he was mortally wounded in 1864.

1832: In Bavaria, Solomon Houseman, “a merchant and manufacturer of silk and cotton goods” gave birth to Julius Houseman, the first Jew to settle permanently in Grand Rapids, Michigan where he enjoyed a successful business career for thirty years while pursuing a political career that included being elected Mayor and a Congressman from the 5^th District of Michigan.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/JHouseman.html

http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000820

1841(25^thof Kislev, 5602): Chanukah

1845: Irish political leader Daniel O’Connell, who supported full political rights for the Jews of the United Kingdom suggested a program to ameliorate the suffering caused by the Irish Potato Famin.

1850: Seventy year old anti-Semite Georg Svedrup, the Norwegian political leader who “felt that it would be incompatible with Judaism to deal honestly with Christians, writing that ‘no person of the Jewish faith may come within Norway's borders, far less reside there’” passed away

1851: An article published today entitled “Religious Freedom” reported that the U.S. Department of State has replied to a letter from Rabbi Lilienthal who is the spiritual leader for three congregations in New York concerning a proposed treaty with the Swiss Confederacy. The State Department assured Dr. Lilienthal that the United States would ratify any treaty with the Swiss Confederacy that discriminated against citizens of the United States who were Jewish.

1851: In New York City, Rabbi Raphall delivered a lecture tonight on the history of Hungary and the Hungarian people. The talk would cover that nation’s whole history and would not be a recap of its recent efforts to gain its independence.

1854: Pope Pius IX proclaims the dogma of Immaculate Conception which holds that the Virgin Mary was born free of original sin. This is the same Pope Pius IX who was responsible for the 1858 abduction of a six-year old Jewish child in what became known as the infamous Edgardo Mortara Affair.

1856: Count Pawel Strzelecki sent a message from Istanbul to London that the Ottoman government “was not willing to provide the land for the construction of” a railroad between Jaffa and Jerusalem which would delay construction for years to come.

1859(12^thof Kislev, 5620): Eighty year old Markus Bär Friedenthal a German banker who devoted his “free time” to Jewish studies passed away today at Breslau.

1859: Two days after he had passed away, Barnett Levy, the son of “Joseph Levy” and “Hannah Isaacs” was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”

1860: Birthdate of Edmund H. Hinshaw, the Congressman from Nebraska who in 1906 attended a mass meeting at Belasco’s Theatre in Washington, D.C which a protest against the atrocities begin committed against the Jews of Russia. (Editor’s note – no explanation for his attendance; certainly not courting the “Jewish vote” in his home district.)

1862: Today Philadelphian, Milton Sultzbach began serving as a Quartermaster with the 167^thRegiment.

1865: In Versailles, “Amédée Hadamard, of Jewish descent, and Claire Marie Jeanne Picard, Hadamard” gave birth to Jacques-Salmon Hadamard developer of the Prime Number Theorem who was Jewish enough to have flee Vichy France.

1869: In Rennes, France, Emile Worms and his wife gave birth to Rene Worms the academic who was a member of the “Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques of the Institut de France” and who “was a devoted adherent of Judaism.”

1869: In New York, Rabbi Moses Mielziner and Rosette Mielziner gave birth to portrait artist Leo Mielziner, the husband of Ella M. Friend who served as “first vice-president of the American Art Association” in Paris while making busts of such notables as “Dr. I.M. Wise and Israel Zangwill.”

1871(25^th of Kislev, 5632): First Day of Chanukah; light the second candle in the evening.

1871(25^th of Kislev, 5632): Seventy-three year old Jacob Ettlinger, the Orthodox Rabbi “referred to as the Aruch la-Ner” and who “headed the protest of the one hundred and seventy-three rabbis against the Brunswick Conference of 1844” passed away today.

1871: On Friday evening, a Shabbat Chanukah party was held at Concordia Hall on Avenue A in New York City.

1875: Several thousand people came to the Hebrew Fair at Gilmore’s Garden today. The fair is a fundraiser for Mount Sinai Hospital and so far has been quite successful in reaching its goal.

1876: Funeral services were held today for William Meyer, Aaron Dietz and his brother Abram Dietz at Temple Israel on Greene Avenue in Brooklyn. The three were among the victims of the Brooklyn Theatre Fire that claimed almost three hundred lives. Following the service, the young men were buried at Cypress Hills Cemetery.

1876: A deck hand named Dixon murdered a Jewish peddler named Bachman on board the Fair Play, a steamboat that was entering the mouth of the Old River as it traveled between Faisonia and Vicksburg, MS. The packs belonging to the 45 year-old Bachman had been rifled two nights earlier and Bachman had accused Dixon of the theft.

1878: It was reported today that New York City is home to 375 houses of worship, 25 of which are Jewish.

1879: Birthdate of Hungarian native “Samuel Solomon Eisner” who came to the United States where he trained as a dentist at NYU and served on the “national committee of the American Jewish Dentists.”

1880: According to “Nervous and Mental Pathology,” Dr. Edward Sptizka’s pamphlet that studies “the comparative pathology of insanity as illustrated by the different races in the New York City Asylum for the Insane” only 10.29% of the Jews suffer from paralytic insanity as compared to 13.29% for Anglo-Saxons. Jews, who “values intellectual culture…enjoys a comparative immunity from paralysis.”

1881: It was reported today that discussion at Constantinople concerning plans for Jews to settle in Syria has brought forth a counter-proposal from the Spanish Ambassador. He offered a plan that would allow Jews to settle on “Crown lands in Castille” and a promise that “any Jew who goes to Spain will be treated with the utmost liberality.” (Considering the history of the Jews of Spain, this is a peculiar entry to say the least)

1882: The Hebrew Leader a theologically conservative New York weekly newspaper edited by Jonas Bondy published its last edition today. The paper which first appeared in May, 1850, was unique in offering a department dedicated to Masonic News.

1884: Rabbi Gustav Gottheil officiated at the marriage of Belle Glazier, the daughter of Mr. S.W. Glazier to Jacob S. Bernheimer at the bride’s home on East 67^thStreet in Manhattan.

1884: Adolph Cohn wrote a letter from Harvard University at Cambridge, Massachusetts, challenging the contention of the New York Times that Ludvoic Halevy is the first Jew elected to the French Academy. “Although of Jewish descent of his father’s side” (Leon Halevy and Uncle Fromental Halevy composer of La Juive) he is no more Jewish than his half –brother Lucien-Anatole Prévost-Paradol who was also the son of Leon Halevy.

1885: Birthdate of Joseph Sprinzak who served as Chairman of the Knesset for the first ten years of its existence (1949-1959)

1886: Birthdate of Philadelphian Reba Fleisher Block

1886: The American Federation of Labor was founded at a convention of union leaders in Columbus, Ohio. The driving force behind the AFL was Samuel Gompers who would serve as the group’s long time President.

1887: Perl Cajesky and another woman to whom her husband is allegedly married are being held as witnesses at Ward’s Island in an alleged Jewish love triangle.

1888: It was reported today that Ernistine Nolfen wants to be paid five thousand dollars by Noach Soenfield because, after paying for her passage from Poland and proposing marriage, he has changed his mind and does not want her for a wife.

1889: “In Russia’s Holiest City” published today, recounted the traditional myth of how the ancient ruler of Kiev chose Orthodox Christianity. He heard representatives from all four major faith groups before making his decision. Judaism was rejected because their representatives “were forced to confess” that “that they had been…from their country and were outcasts and wanders on the face of the earth” because of their sins.

1890: “Literary Notes” published today described plans to commemorate “the thousandth anniversary of Saadia” in 1892 by publishing a collection of his works under the direction of Professor Joseph Derenbourg of the French Academy which will included a biography of Sasdia by Dr. Abraham Eliyahu Harkavi of St. Petersburg, Russia.

1890: The Directors of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of Brooklyn purchased property at Ralph and Howard Avenues for $32,000 which will be the future home of a facility that will replace the current building on Stuyvesant Avenue which is too small to meet the society’s needs.

1890: It was reported today that the American Committee planning the millennial anniversary of the birth of Saadia Gaon include Cyrus Adler of Johns Hopkins, Richard J.H. Gottheil of Columbia, Morris Jastrow, Jr. of the University of Pennsylvania and Jacob Schiff who will serve as treasurer.

1892: In the province of Kovno, Perez and Ida Tarshish gave birth to Jacob Tarshis, the graduate of the University of Cincinnati and Hebrew Union College who served as the rabbi at “congregations in Columbus, OH, Allentown, PA and Miami, FL” while also gaining from his weekly broadcasts that earned him the title of “The Lamplighter” and who was the husband of Golda Tarshish with whom he had one son and two daughters.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/12/24/99832338.pdf

1891: Birthdate of Berlin native and refugee from Hitler’s Germany Albert Salomon who became a Professor of Sociology at the New School for Social Research.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/12/19/90243199.pdf

1892: The trial of Hermann Ahlwardt who is charged with slandering the Jews weapons manufacturer Ludwig Loewe was adjourned for the day when the anti-Semite’s doctor provided a certificate saying he was suffering from an attack of catarrh and could not appear in court.

1892: The delegates at the convention of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations who have met with President Harrison were reported today to have decided to hold their next meeting in New Orleans, LA.

1892: In Kovno, Perez and Ida Tarshish gave birth Rabbi Jacob Tarshish, the husband Golda F. Friedman Tarshish who was a radio personality known as “The Lamplighter.”

1893: In Anniston, Alabama, Congregation Temple Beth El dedicated its sanctuary which is‘the oldest building in the state continuously and currently being used for Jewish worship.’

1895: In New York, Temple Emanu-El was filled this morning “by those who went to hear an address on “The Debt Humanity Owes to Heinrich Heine,” by Assistant Rabbi Joseph Silverman.

1895: “The Great Hebrew Fair” published today described plans for the upcoming city-wide fund raiser under the leadership of Isidor Straus, President and Vice Presidents James Hoffman and Joseph B. Bloomingdale.

1895: It was reported today that “the upcoming “ball of the Young Ladies and Gentlemen’s League of the Montefiore Home promises to eclipse all former events of the kind given by this organization”

1895: In New York, “an advertisement published today read ‘Wanted – Enlightened men who deprecate the attempt to raise race prejudice by Hermann Ahlwardt, to welcome the fanatic with ancient eggs”

1895: “The anti-Semitic group in the Reichstag has laid upon the table of the chamber a proposal to forbid the free immigration of Jews and for the adoption of regulations under which their expulsion may be accomplished.”

1896: “The Girl from Paris,” an English musical comedy starring Ada Reeve, the daughter of Harriet Seaman and Charles Reeves, an actor whose given named had been Samuel Isaacs, in the role of The Gay Perisienne, opened today at the Herald Square Theatre in New York.

1897: Three days after he had passed away, “Zadoc Isaacs” the husband of Julia Garcia, with whom he had had nine children, was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.

1898(24^thof Kislev, 5659): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah Light

1898: Albert H. Vitenheimer who had been promoted to the rank of Sergeant in May was promoted to the rank of 2^nd Lieutenant in the 3^rdRegiment of the Connecticut Volunteer Infantry

1899: Forty-six year old Vaiben Louis Solomon completed his service as the 2st Premier of South Australia,

1900: Herzl met with Arminius Vámbéry in Budapest where discussed the Turkish loan.

1900: Birthdate of Columbus, Ohio native Mose Hirsch Solomon, the New York Giants outfield who was nicknamed the “Rabbi of Swat.”

http://www.jewsinsports.org/profile.asp?sport=baseball&ID=60

1900: Birthdate of Pittsburgh native J. Marshall Taxay, the graduate of the University of Cincinnati and Hebrew Union College who served as the Rabbi at Temple Israel in Bath, OH from 1945 to 1953 and at Temple B’nai Israel in Pinellas Count from 1960 until his retirement in 1969.

1900(16^thof Kislev, 5661): Eighty-seven year old singer, composer and pianist Henry Russell who was a great-nephew of the British Chief Rabbi Solomon Hirschel and whose sons were “conductor Sir Landon Ronald Russell and impresario Henry Russell, passed away today.

http://www.pdmusic.org/russell.html

1901: Birthdate of Doris Caroline Abrahams who gained fame as Caryl Brahms “an English critic, novelist, and journalist” who specialized in the theatre and ballet and who also wrote film, radio and television scripts.”

1901: In New York City, Goldie and John J. Jonas gave birth to Dr. Joseph Quincy Jonas, the husband of Irene Jonas.

1901: Having come to New York City from Lockport, NY, David Goodman, the future president of Bergdorf-Goodman, opened his first store today, “a small one-story structure” on lower 5^th Avenue.

1905: In London, this morning The Times published “a long letter signed by Lord Rothschild, Sir Samuel Montague, David L. Alexander, Leonard L. Cohen, Benjamin L. Cohen and Stuart M. Samuel in which a strong argument is present both against Zionism and also the scheme of the Jewish Territorial Organization.”

1905: It was reported today according to sources in Bucharest, that “almost all of the factories and Jewish homes in Rostoff have been destroyed.”

1905: The National Committee raising funds for the relief of the Jews being massacred in Russia is scheduled to meet today in the offices of Jacob H. Schiff where they will make plans for the next national fund raising appeal which will be made easier because the Western Union Telegraph Company is sending the telegrams containing the appeals at no charge.

1905(10th of Kislev, 5666): Zadoc Kahn, the Alsatian born Chief Rabbi of France passed away. A noted scholar, he was active in Jewish communal affairs including leading the Alliance Israélite Universelle and serving as President of the Société des Études Juives, an organization that he had helped to found.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0011_0_10603.html

1906(21^stof Kislev, 5667): Parashat Vayeshev

1907: Three days after she had passed away, Sarah Solomon, the daughter of “Nathan Marcus Adler” and “Henrietta Worms” and the wife of “Henry Solomon” with whom she had had ten children, was buried today at the “Willesden Cemetery.”

1907: Birthdate of Paul Ross, the husband of Ann Ross, the New York born daughter of Pauline and Max Margulies

1908: President Roosevelt, who as Police Commissioner had shown his support for the Jews in conflict with a visiting German anti-Semite and who had Jewish soldiers serving with him in the Rough Riders, delivered his final State of the Union Address to Congress.

1909(25^thof Kislev, 5670): First Day of Chanukah; Kindle the second light in the evening.

1909: As Russian society slowly sunk in the chaos that would lead to more anti-Jewish outbreaks and eventually to the Russian Revolution. To the “director of Russia’s secret police” was killed by a bomb planted by a Bolshevik infiltrator.

1910: “Salome” an opera based on Jewish author Hedwig Lachman’s German translation of the French play “Salomé” by Oscar Wilde was performed for the first time in London.

1911: In New York, Kate (Neilecht) and Benjamin (Benzion) Jacob, a compositor for a foreign-language newspaper, gave birth to Leo Jacob who gained fame as actor Lee J. Cobb whose many screen triumphs included roles in ”On The Waterfront,” “Three Faces of Eve” and “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit.” He passed away in 1976.

1911: Lionel Abrahams, C.B. of the India Office was “appointed as a member of the Committee on West African Currency by the Secretary of State for Colonies.

1911: The Emperor appointed Hungarian scholar József Bánóczi to serve as “Ordinary Professor of Hungarian Literature and History at the University of Budapest.

1911: Jews in Palestine organized the Red Magen David society with the purpose of sending doctors and nurses to Tripoli. Earlier in the week the Anglo-Palestine Company in Jaffa donated 1,000 Francs for a fund for injured Turkish soldiers in Tripoli.

1912(28^thof Kislev, 5673): Fourth Day of Chanukah

1912: Tenor Ralph Errolle is scheduled to be the feature soloist at tonight’s 8^thSinai Orchestral Concert at Temple Sinai in Chicago.

1912: The Chicago Home for Jewish Orphans is scheduled to host a Chanukah celebration this afternoon.

1912: “Over 1,000 people gathered at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York to hear Boston writer Mary Antin” author of the recently published The Promised Land, “a memoir of her emigration from Russia to Boston's South End” “make a plea for more aid to support Jewish immigrant girls arriving alone in the United States.”

https://jwa.org/thisweek/dec/08/1912/this-week-in-history-immigrant-mary-antin-packs-house-at-waldorf-astoria

1912: Founding the Congregation Staff of Aaron Synagogue in Yonkers, NY.

1912: Funeral services are scheduled to be held today at the Isaiah Temple in Chicago for sixty-two year old Simon Hartman, the husband of the former Emma Able and the father of Emanuel S., Edward A. and Louis H. Hartmen and Mrs. Edward Mayer.

1912: In San Francisco, founding of a Chevra Kadisha

1913: Birthdate of poet Delmore Schwartz. The prolific poet won the Bollingen Prize in 1960 and was the inspiration of the title figure in Saul Bellow’s Humboldt’s Gift.

1913: In France,Louis-Lucien Klotz completed his service as Minister of the Interior.

1914: Irving Berlin's musical "Watch your Step" premiered in New York.

1914: In Bayonne, NJ, Benjamin and Mollie Pinkowitz gave birth to George Pinkowitz, the husband of “Cecelia Glick Pinowitz.”

1915: Today, “the American Jewish Relief Committee, of which Louis Marshall is chairman…launched a campaign to raise another $1,000,000 for relief of Jewish war sufferers in Europe not only during the” World War “ but also in the lean days after peace” comes.

1915: In an attempt to follow Jacob Schiff’s recommendation that Jewish immigrants coming to the United States after the World War should be settled outside of big cities, “it was decided to arrange a conference between representatives of the federation and organizations such as the B’nai B’rith and the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society of America” which will arrange a program designed to develop education in agriculture and general citizenship.

1915: This evening, in Brooklyn, meetings were held at Congregation Beth Jacob and at the Willoughby Avenue Synagogue to make plans for a “Tag Day” to raise money for the Jewish Volunteer Relief Fund “which is aiding war victims in Europe.”

1915: In New York Gertrude and Paul E. Lehman gave birth to American screenwriter Ernest Lehman whose credits include the scripts for “The King and I,” “North by Northwest,” “The Sound of Music,” and “Whose Afraid of Virginia Wolf?” He passed away in 2005. (As reported by Margalit Fox)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/06/movies/06LEHMAN.html

1916: In Brooklyn Essie (née Goldstein) and animator/producer Max Fleischer gave birth to director Richard Fleisher whose films include the Oscar winning documentary “Design for Death” as well as the “Boston Strangler” and “Tora! Tora!”

1917(23^rdof Kislev, 5678): Parshat Vayeshev

1917: Despite the fact that today is Shabbat, “the captains and the workers” raising funds for Jewish War Relief and to aid the soldiers and sailors in the military is scheduled to meet this afternoon including Team 22 led by Mortimer L. Schiff which has raised the most money and Team 4 headed by William Goldman which is in second place.

1917: British troops began to bombard Turkish positions west of Jerusalem marking the start of the final assault to seize the City of David from the Ottomans.

1917: The American Jewish Relief Committee (for sufferers from the war) was listed today as one of the organizations that had submitted “satisfactory audited financial statements” to the Bureau of Advice and Information of the Charity Organization Society.

1917: In the evening, the Ottoman Seventh Army retreated leaving Jerusalem open to the advancing British and Imperial forces.

1917: Contributions to the $5,000,000 fund for the Jewish war relief and welfare work in the army and navy reached a total of $2,400,000 today. The largest individual contributions received today were $15,000 from Mr. and Mrs. S.R.. Travis, $10,000 from the Altman Foundation and $5,000 from Michael Friedsam, President of B. Altman & Co.

1918: The Philadelphia Inquirer reported today that Rabbi R. L. Levental, a national leader among Orthodox Jews, Rabbi Riff of the Sons of Israel Synagogue in Camden, NJ, Philadelphia attorney Max Hertzberg and William Leaf were among the speakers who addressed mass meeting that marking the opening of fund drive for the Federation of Jewish Charities in Camden.

1918: Felix M. Warburg, Chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee of the American Funds for Jewish War Sufferers, announced that organization's decision to hold its New York City campaign designed to raise $5,000,000 to aid Jewish war sufferers during the week starting on December 8 and ending on December 15.

1919: Yitak Jacov Liss who had been 16 years old when he enlisted completed his service as a member of the British Jewish Legion 38th Battalion Royal Fusiliers. (The diary he kept provided an eyewitness account of the service of the Jewish soldiers serving in Palestine during World War I)

1919: Birthdate of Mieczysław Weinberg, a native of Warsaw who lost most of his family in the Holocaust and who became a major Soviet composer after he moved there in 1939.

1919: Birthdate of Sidney H. Radner an amateur magician who became the unlikely steward of a trove of Harry Houdini artifacts, which he built into one of the world’s largest Houdini collections.

1920: It was reported today that “The Minister of the Interior of the Georgian Government has inform the Jewish community that Jews from Russia may through the territory of the republic on their way to Palestine” but these “emigrants must not make an extended stay” in Georgia.

1922: In Brooklyn, “Ethel (Kornblum) Yaged” and property manager Isidore Yaged, who bought his son his first clarinet, gave birth to “Jazz Man” Solomon William Yaged. (As reported by Richard Sandomir)

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/23/obituaries/sol-yaged-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

1921: Nahum Sokolow the head of a Zionist delegation continued his visit to the United States following festivities that included a luncheon at the Hotel Brevoort “arranged by the publishers of The Jewish Morning Journal, The Day, The Jewish Daily News and The Zeit.”

1922: In Berlin, Lucie Brasch and Ernst L. Freud gave birth to Lucian Freud, the German-born British realist painter who was the grandson of Sigmund Freud. (As reported by William Grimes)

1922: Birthdate of historian and self-styled left-wing activist Howard Zinn who wrote A People’s History of United States.

1923: As Germany slipped further into the economic and social chaos that made the Weimar Republic ineffective and brought the Nazis to power, to “The Reichstag passed another enabling act, giving Chancellor Wilhelm Marx the power to implement emergency economic and welfare measures.”

1924: It was reported today that “In the three years since its inception, the Palestine Foundation Fund, of which Samuel Untermyer is the President, has spent more than $6,900,000 on the rebuilding of the Holy Land…”

1925: Birthdate of the multi-talented entertainer Sammy Davis Jr.

http://www.biography.com/people/sammy-davis-jr-9268223#personal-life-and-death

1925: Today marked the start of the culmination of the Hadassah drive to raise $15,000 “to provide luncheons for the school children in Palestine.

1926: In Berlin, “Johannes Fest, a conservative Roman Catholic and staunch anti-Nazi schoolteacher who was dismissed from his post when the Nazis came to power in 1933” and his wife gave birth to Joachim Fest the German author“best known for his writings and public commentary on Nazi Germany, including an important biography of Adolf Hitler and books about Albert Speer and the German Resistance to Nazism.”

1926(3^rdof Tevet, 5687): Ninety year old Hannah Conquy Abecassis, the daughter of Fortunato (Messod) Abecassis and Júlia Conquy Abecassis, the wife of Abraham Abecassis and the mother of Júlia Abecassis passed away today in the Lisbon.

1926(3^rdof Tevet, 5687): Fifty-four year old Julius Ephraim Mastbaum, the son of “Fannie (née Ephraim) and Levi Mastbaum”, whose Stanley Company of American “became the largest movie theatre chain in the world in 1926” and who was the husband of “Etta Wedell Mastbaum, the daughter of Rachel P. Lit who founded the original store that became Lit Brothers” and the brother-in-law of two sons of “Adam Gimbel, the founder of Gimbels department store” passed away today.

https://www.jta.org/1926/12/09/archive/jules-e-mastbaum-phila-jewish-leader-and-philanthropist-dies-at-54

1927: “The Transformation of Dr. Bessel” silent film directed and produced by Richard Oswald and featuring Otto Wallburg was released in Germany today.

1928(25^thof Kislev, 5689): Chanukah and Parashat Vayeshev

1928: Today marked the start of the culmination of the Hadassah drive to raise $15,000 “to provide luncheons for the school children in Palestine.

1929: “Suppression of Judaism and persecution of Zionists in Russia by the Soviet Union were vigorously denounced by speakers today at a conference of the American Jewish Congress in the Hotel Pennsylvania.”

1930: The Cleveland Rosenblums, a professional basketball team organized and owned by “Clelveland department store owner Max Rosenblum dropped out of the American Basketball League today.

1930: Birthdate of Shepsel Ber Nudelman, the Bronx native who gained fame as Dr. Sherwin B. Nuland.http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/05/us/sherwin-b-nuland-author-who-challenged-concept-of-dignified-death-dies-at-83.html?hpw&rref=obituaries

1931: Birthdate of Robert Arum, the native of Brooklyn’s Crown Heights and graduate of Harvard Law who founded the professional boxing promotion company known as Top Rank.

1932: Political activist and social reformer Belle Moskowitz broke several bones when she fell down the steps in front of her home in New York today. This accident would lead to a fatal embolism which would bring about her premature death in January of 1933 at the age of 55.

1933: “High and Low” a French drama filmed by cinematographer Eugen Schüfftan was released today.

1933: “Girl Without a Room” a comedy featuring Mischa Auer as “Walsky” was released today in the United States.

1933(20^thof Kislev, 5694): Eighty-one year old Louis Lehmann Berr, the French born son Mathilde and Alphonse Henrion Berr, and husband of Henritte Alice Berr with whom he had two sons – Maurice and Raymond – passed away today in Paris.

1933:In “John Barrymore in a Pictorial Conception of Elmer Rice's Play 'Counsellor-at-Law'” published today Mordaunt Hall provides a description of the successful efforts to move this drama from Broadway to Hollywood.

1934: “Babbitt” a cinematic version of the novel of the same name produced by Samuel Bishcoff was released in the United States today.

1935: “Anti-Jewish rioting in the heart of Bucharest” which was reportedly observed by the Chief of Police and “several high officials who took no effect measures to restore order,” “broke up balloting by the Rumanian Bar Association” five hundred of whose Jewish members were kept from casting their votes.

1936: “The German press, led by Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s own Voelkischer Beoabachter, has started a violent campaign technically directed ‘against world Jewry and against bolshevism,’ but obviously designed to exert pressure on the judges at Chur, Switzerland” who are getting to preside at the “trial of David Frankfurter who is charged with killing Swiss Nazi leader Wilhelm Gustloff at Davos last February.

1936: “Hundreds of Nazis” including “many members of the German Legation at Berne” “and anti-Nazis thronged” into Chur, Switzerland tonight “on the eve of the trial for murder of David Frankfurter, the “27 year old Jewish medical student” charged with killing Wilhelm Gustloff whose status as a Nazi icon was cemented when Adolf Hitler delivered the funeral oration at his formal.

1936: Today, “Eliahu Epstein continued his testimony before the British inquiry commission regarding illicit Arab immigration stressing that this caused an economic grievance because unskilled Arab immigrants worked for 35 to 50 cents” but “spent only 15 cents daily and accused the government and government contractors of “encouraging this influx” because they employed these illegal immigrants.

1936(24^thof Kislev, 5697): Thirty-eight year old David Freedman – “The King of the Gagwriters” passed away today.

http://www.david-freedman.info/

1936: As tensions grew over regulations designed to force Jewish businesses to stay open on Saturday and close on Sunday in Tripoli, “two Jews were flogged in the market place in the presence of a large crowd” while “a third who had been condemned to a similar punishment” was sent to prison for three months since his doctor said his physical condition left him “unequal to a flogging.”

1937: Falastin, an Arabic newspaper which had gained fame as the leading sports journal in Ottoman Palestine, is scheduled to print a report tomorrow describing “a compromised that has been reached between Jewish leaders, led by Chaim Weizmann, and Arab leaders led by Nuri Pasha as-Said, the former premiere of Iraq that will put an end to the current wave of violence.

1938: A campaign to raise funds for the immediate relief for Jews who have suffered from the anti-Semitic measures in Germany was launched today by the Christian Committee for the Relief of Jewish Refugees chaired by New York State Attorney General John J. Bennett, Jr.

1939: Six Jews and 25 non-Jewish Poles, accused of committing acts of sabotage, are shot in Occupied Warsaw.

1940: Jewish immigrants who had entered Eretz Israel illegally aboard the Atlantic were told that those aboard the Patria would stay in the country but they would be deported.

1941: The Nazis brought 700 Jews to Chelmo for final experiment of the new method of killing. In groups of 80, the Jews were driven around the woods in a special van, gassed to death by the fumes of the exhaust. A thousand Jews a day for the next four days go through the same test. While this was seen as in improvement over the other forms of murder used by the Nazis, it was not efficient enough. These mobile vans would give way to the gas chambers.

1941: Four thousand Jews of Novogrudok, Belorussia, are killed.

1941(18th of Kislev, 5702): As the Riga Ghetto was being liquidated 81 year old Jewish historian Simon Dubnow was murdered in Riga because he was too old and sick to travel to Rumbula where he would have been massacred with other Jews. There is no way this blog can do justice to this Jewish Intellectual Giant. The tragedy is that a mind like this lost its life in the mud of Nazi murder spree. Even as he faced death he expressed his faith in the value of history when he told the Jews of Riga, "Yidn, shreibt un fershreibt"("Jews, write and record").

http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ghettos/dubnow.html

http://digifindingaids.cjh.org/?pID=1413626

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/simon-dubnow-a-revaluation/

http://www.myjewishlearning.com/history/Themes/About_Jewish_History/Emergence_of_Jewish_History_I/Emergence_of_Jewish_History_II/Simon_Dubnow.shtml

http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Dubnow_Simon

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Dubnow.html

1941(18th of Kislev, 5702): Second day of the Rumbula Massacre during which 25,000 Jews were murdered

http://www.rumbula.org/remembering_rumbula.shtml\

1941: The Imperial Japanese Army took control of the rest of Shanghai, including the British and American controlled sections of the city which meant that “monetary aid and all communications from American Jews to the Jews of Shanghai ceased due to the Anglo-American Trading with the Enemy Act and that Baghdadi Jews living in Shanghai, many of whom were British subjects, were interned as enemy nationals.”

1941(18^thof Kislev, 5702): Rabbi Moses Parzen passed away today in New York City.

1941: FDR called for a declaration of war against Japan on the same day Germany was entering into the most horrific stage of the Final Solution.

1941: The Screen Writers Guild responded to yesterday’s attack on Pearl Harbor by forming the Hollywood Writers Mobilization Against the War, a body to organize writers for the war effort chaired by Robert Rossen.

1941: Williams College undergraduate Bruce Sundlun who would become the second Jewish Governor of Rhode Island volunteer to serve in the U.S. Army Air Forces Aviation Cadet Program.

1941: Robert “Rosie” Rosenthal enlisted in the United States. His request for combat training led to him becoming a much decorated B-17 pilot who flew more than twice the required missions over German.

1941: Today, Freiberg, Germany native Frederick Mayer, the son of a German Army veteran and recipient of the Iron Cross, who came to the United States at the age of 16 enlisted in the Army where he eventually he would be dropped behind enemy lines as part of operation Greenup in 1945.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/21/world/europe/frederick-mayer-jew-who-spied-on-nazis-after-fleeing-germany-dies-at-94.html?hpw=undefined&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

1942(29^th of Kislev, 5703) Fifth Day of Chanukah

1942(29^th of Kislev, 5703): Albert Kahn, the Prussian born son of German Rabbi who became America’s leading industrial architect passed away today.

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/b/bhlead/umich-bhl-0420?rgn=main;view=text

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/auto-factory-architect-albert-kahn-dies?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2016-1208-12082016&om_rid=ce90181b0c3c1c3ceab4056c1ed1ff02d824a1fe06338d33baf4a5faf2c54d96&om_mid=119395340&kx_EmailCampaignID=8555&kx_EmailCampaignName=email-hist-tdih-2016-1208-12082016&kx_EmailRecipientID=ce90181b0c3c1c3ceab4056c1ed1ff02d824a1fe06338d33baf4a5faf2c54d96%20&os_ehash=44@experian:ce90181b0c3c1c3ceab4056c1ed1ff02d824a1fe06338d33baf4a5faf2c54d96

1942(29^th of Kislev, 5703): Sixty-five year old Anna Mehrbach, the wife of Albert I. Mehrbach and the mother of Elliot and Albert M. Mehrbach passed away today.

1942: Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, president of the World Jewish Congress, met with other Jewish leaders and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt to discuss the recently revealed plight of European Jews. “In the Abandonment of the Jews author David S. Wyman points out that this gathering the Oval Office was ‘the only one concerning the Holocaust that FDR ever granted to a group of Jewish leaders’ Estimates of two million Jewish dead were given to him. Roosevelt responded by saying that official U.S. sources …’have given us proof that confirms the horrors discussed by you.’” Based on this meeting, FDR knew but did nothing except allow his previous made comments about ‘doing all in our power to be of service to your people in this tragic moment.’”

1942: The German SS organized the last deportation of Ternopil Jews to death camp in Belzec, when 1,400 Jews were sent there. The chief of the Gestapo, SS-Sturmbannführer Hermann Müller, bore overall responsibility for the mass murder of the Jews of Ternopil and Berezhany which were located in the western Ukraine.

1943: “Speaking before the Council of Christians and Jews” in London today, “the Most Reverend William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury declared that it was of ‘utmost importance’ that the sufferings of the Jews ‘be kept in full view’ of all people so that the spirit of indignation and compassion in them will not die out.”

1944: “Guest in the House” a film noir which Lewis Milestone began directing but could not finished due to appendicitis was released in the United States.

1945: In Berkley, CA, Julius Heldman, the 1936 National Tennis Junior Champion and “Gladys Heldman the founder, editor, and publisher of World Tennis magazine and the founder of the women's pro tour in 1970” gave birth to Stanford grad and UCLA trained attorney Julie Heldman, the American tennis player “who won 22 women’s singles titles as well as “three gold medals at the 1969 Maccabiah Games and was the author of “a memoir, Driven, A Daughter’s Odyssey.”

1945: Birthdate of Russian volleyball player Valdimir Patkin, who competed for the Soviet Union in the 1972 Summer Olympics and 1976 Summer Olympics” before becoming “the Secretary General of the Russian Volleyball Federation.”

1946: In Los Angeles, California, Aniela Młynarska who was Roman Catholic and Polish-born Jewish concert pianist Arthur Rubinstein gave birth to actor and composer of John Rubinstein.

1946: Dan Keinan photographed “a typical ship carrying illegal immigrants to Mandatory Palestine.”

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/1.540099

http://www.dankeinan.com/

1947(25th of Kislev, 5708): First Day of Chanukah; in the evening, kindle the second light.

1947: Birthdate of Chava Albersteinan Israeli singer, lyricist, composer, musical arranger and an actress who is one of the most important Israeli singers, with a career spanning more than forty years. In 2007, she released her latest work “Shvil HeChalav” or “Milky Way.”

1947: As the Arabs tighten the noose around the Jewish community in Jerusalem, trucks arrived carrying 60,000 eggs.

1947(25th of Kislev, 5708): Tragedy struck when Yehoshua GLoberman, a senior Haganah official was gunned down when his car was stopped at Latrun. This is the same Latrun that was the fortress held by the Jordanian Arab Legion cutting off the city of David from Tel Aviv.

1947: Egypt and Lebanon asked to be heard during the UN debates.

1947: The UN rejects the request by the Jewish Agency to address the Security Council since the organization did not want to set a precedent that allowed an entity other than a country to participate in UN debates.

1948: During the War for Independence, Uri Avnery, age 25, who would describe his view of the war sixty years later in 1948: A Soldier's Tale, the Bloody Road to Jerusalem is wounded while serving as a private soldier

1948: Jordan annexes “Arabic Palestine.” The Kingdom of Trans-Jordan (Across the Jordan) will drop the “Trans” prefix in recognition of its holdings on both sides of the Jordan River. Obviously, there was no thought to creating a state of Palestine on the part of the Arabs since the only thing that changed this illegal land holding was the war in 1967.

1948:Britain demands that the Security Council’s Negev subcommittee implement sanctions against Israel because Israel continues to surround an Egyptian force in the Negev. The British did not seem to be bothered by the fact that the Egyptian force was part of an act of aggression taken to contravene a resolution of the United Nations.

1948: At Kibbutz Ein HaHoresh, Ya'akov Morris, an Israeli diplomat, historian, and poet and Sadie Morris, a journalist gave birth to historian Benny Morris.

http://www.meforum.org/2769/benny-morris-1948-islamic-holy-war

1948: Isaac Don Levine “provided testimony to the House Un-American Activities Committee today” during which, according to Karl Mundt, the Republican from South Dakota, Levine named Laurence Duggan as being communist spy.

1948: At kibbutz Ein HaHoresh, Israeli diplomat, historian, and poet Ya’akov Morris and journalist Sadie Morris, Jewish immigrants from Great Britain gave birth to historian Benny Morris.

1948:King Abdullah denounces Arab League-sponsored Palestine Army regime in Gaza.

1948:Egypt announces dissolution of Moslem Brotherhood, a fanatical national religious organization. [I guess they didn’t do such a good job since the Brotherhood came out on top in the elections of 2011.]

1949: Birthdate of Raymond “Ray” Shulman, “a British musician and the youngest of three brothers that were in the innovative British progressive rock band, Gentle Giant.”

1949:In Philadelphia, “Irving Meyers, an executive at a voting machines manufacturer, and Patricia Meyers (née Lemisch), an interior designer who also worked as a volunteer with the Head Start Program and the Home for the Blind” gave birth to Nancy Jane Meyers “an American film director, producer and screenwriter” who “is the writer, producer and director of several big-screen successes, including The Parent Trap (1998), Something's Gotta Give (2003), The Holiday (2006), and It's Complicated (2009). Her second solo venture, What Women Want (2000), was at one point the most successful film ever directed by a woman, taking in $183 million in the United States.

1949: Burma recognizes the state of Israel.

1949: “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” a Jule Styne musical with a book by Joseph Fields opened on Broadway today at the Ziegfeld Theatre.

1949: Red Buttons (Aaron Chwatt) married Helayne McNorton

1949: In a ground-breaking precedent, the United Nations established UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees with a budget of $54,900,000. Thus the UN played a key role in creating Palestine Refugee Problem. No comparable UN organization was established when Jews were forced to flee from a variety of Moslem and/or Arab nations.

1949: U.S. premiere of “On the Town” a cinematic adaptation of the Leonard Bernstein Broadway musical of the same named with a screenplay by Adolph Green and Betty Comden, co-directed by Stanley Donen, co-produced by Arthur Freed co-starring Jules Munshin as “Ossie” and featuring Hans Conried as ”Francois, the head waiter.”

1950: In Nevada, Gus Greenbaum “lobbied the Clark County Commission to create the unincoported township of Paradise” today

1951(9^th of Kislev, 5712): Parashat Veyetzei

1952: Yitzchak ben Zvi was elected the second President of Israel succeeding Chaim Weitzman, who had died in office.

1953:Maryla Husyt, who “grew up in Warsaw, survived the Warsaw Ghetto, the Majdanek concentration camp, and two slave labor camps” and “Zacharias Finkelstein, active in Hashomer Hatzair, and a survivor of both the Warsaw Ghetto and the Auschwitz concentration camp” gave birth to Dr. Norman Finkelstein, the holder of a Ph.D from Princeton and college professor whose unconventional views as can be seen by his book The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering in which he “argues that Elie Wiesel and others exploit the memory of the Holocaust as an "ideological weapon".

1955: “The Ladykillers” produced by Michael Balcon, filmed by cinematographer Otto Heller and starring Peter Sellers who was, on his mother’s side, a descendant of prizefighter Daniel Mendoza, was released in the United Kingdom today.

1956: The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, which were boycotted by Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon “in response to the Suez Crisis” that had been precipitated by the Egyptian nationalization of the Suez Canal, came to a close today.

1958: “Everybody’s Broker” published today described the powerful role played by 67 year old Sidney J. Weinberg the partner at Goldman, Sachs & Co who is a modern day version of Bernard Baruch.

http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,864550,00.html

1959: NBC broadcast “My Three Angels” the tenth episode in the Startime series for which Music Corporation of America under the leadership of Lew Wasserman got performers who did not usually do television to perform on the small screen.

1960: U.S. premiere of “The Sundowners” directed by Fred Zinnemann, with a score by Dimitri Tiomkin.

1960: A special television version of “Peter Pan” with music by Jule Styne, Mark Chartap and Trude Rittman and lyrics by Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Carolyn Leigh was broadcast today.

1962(11^thof Kislev, 5723): Parashat Vayetzei

1962: Birthdate of Martin Adam “Marty” Friedman, “the lead guitarist for the heavy metal band Megadeath.”

1962(11^thof Kislev, 5723): Fifty-six year old “Romanian-born French producer” Émile Natan,” the brother of Bernard Natan, the head of Pathé-Natan” passed away today in Paris.

1963: “The Girl Who Came to Dinner” a musical with a book by Harry Kurnitz and “directed and choreographed by Joe Layton” opened on Broadway today at The Broadway Theatre.

1963: Funeral services are scheduled to be held this afternoon for Senator and Governor Herbert Lehman at Temple Emanu-El in New York

https://www.jta.org/1963/12/06/archive/herbert-h-lehman-dies-in-new-york-mourned-by-jewry-funeral-sunday

1965: Abe Burrows'"Cactus Flower" premiered in New York. (Would there be theatre in America without the Jews?)

1966(25^thof Kislev, 5727): Chanukah

1966: Birthdate of Georgian born Israeli director and screenwriter Dover Koshasili.

1967: In Queens, NY, Peter Madoff, the brother of Bernie Madoff, and his wife gave birth to attorney Shana Diane Madoff who became Shana Madoff Skoller Swanson when she married Eric Swanson whom she had met while he was investigating her uncle and who had played no part in what maybe the biggest Ponzi scheme ever pulled off in the United States.

1968(16^thof Kislev, 5729): Parashat Vayishlach

1968(16^thof Kislev, 5729): Sixty year old Ft. Worth Texas native Philip Jacob “Phil’ Handler the TCU guard who went on to a professional career with the Chicago Cardinals and the Chicago Bears passed away today.

https://www.profootballarchives.com/coach/hand00800coach.html

1969: NBC broadcast the 13^th episode of “My World and Welcome to It” a droll sitcom created by Melville Shavelson.

1969: Three days after having been cited for contempt of court and sent to the Mateo Jail, Dr. Joseph Lifschutz who had “refused a court or testify about one of his patients” in a landmark case involving the issue of “Dr. – Patient Confidentiality” was “released pending resolution of the case.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/28/science/joseph-lifschutz-dead-confidentiality-psychiatry.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

1972(3^rdof Tevet, 5733): 8^th Day of Chanukah

1972: Mahmoud Hamshari, the PLO representative in France, believed to be the leader of Black September in France was mortally wounded today in Paris.

1973: After 296 performances, the curtain came down on the original Broadway production of “Seesaw” a musical with lyrics by Dorothy Field and music by Cy Coleman

1974(24^thof Kislev, 5735): Kindle the first Chanukah light in the evening

1974(24^thof Kislev, 5735): Eighty-eight year old Joseph Pearl, the Polish born holder of Ph.D. from NYU who was the “chairman of the classical languages department at Brooklyn College” passed away today, just eight days before his next birthday.

https://www.nytimes.com/1974/12/10/archives/prof-joseph-pearl-headed-classics-unit-at-brooklyn.html?searchResultPosition=1

1974: Anti-Zionist trials begin in Moscow today.

1976: “Deputy Minister of Culture Popov warned organizers of the symposium on Jewish culture” of “the unacceptability of the” event.

1976: U.S. premiere of “A Star is Born” starring Barbra Streisand who also co-produced the film.

1976(16^thof Kislev, 5737): Ninety-five year old Rabbi Julian Morgenstern passed away today in Macon, GA.

http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0030/ms0030.html

1977: Sir Zelman Cowen was sworn in as Governor-General of Australia.

1977:Rosalyn Yalow became the first American-born and American-trained woman to receive a Nobel Prize in science when she accepted the Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her work in the development of radioimmunoassay, a technique that allows scientists to measure minute amounts of hormones and other substances in human blood.(As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archives)

http://jwa.org/thisweek/dec/08/1977/rosalyn-s-yalow

1978(8th of Kislev, 5739): Eighty-year old Golda Meir, passed away. A Russian immigrant to the United States, this former Milwaukee school teacher would make aliyah in the 1920’s. She would become one of the most influential leaders of the Zionist movement whose career included raising the funds that made it possible for Israel to purchase arms at the time of its creation, clandestine negotiations with the King of Jordan designed to avert war in 1948 to serving as Israel’s Foreign Minister and Prime Minister. One of her most memorable quotes came when Sadat made his visit to Jerusalem. In this one statement she showed a depth of understanding rare in world leaders. “Long after we have forgiven you for killing our children, we will still be trying to forgive you for turning our children into killers.” As a socialist and an idealist she believed in and sought peace. As a pragmatist, she understood the necessity of self-defense even if it meant war.

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0503.html

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/meir.html

1978:“Force 10 from Navarone,” the movie version of the novel by the same name with a story created by Carl Foreman was released today in the United States.

1979(18^thof Kislev, 5740): Parashat Vayishlach

1979(18^thof Kislev, 5740): Sixty-nine year old “Joseph Wohl, founder and president of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America’s Universal Brotherhood Movement” passed away today.

1979: Aaron Jean-Marie Lustiger, the Parisian born Jew who converted to Catholicism in 1940 at the age of 13 “received episcopal consecration …from Cardinal François Marty”

1980: While on assignment for Rolling Stone, Annie Leibovitz took the last photos of John Lennon who was shot and killed five hours after she finished.

1980: Today “during a Monday Night Football game between the Miami Dolphins and the New England Patriots, Howard Cosell shocked the television audience by interrupting his regular commentary duties to deliver a news bulletin of the murder of John Lennon in the midst of a live broadcast

1981: Birthdate of Dov Yosef Tiefenbach, the native of Toronto whose first big acting break came in 1994 “playing the role of 'Josh Avery' in the television series RoboCop”

1982(22nd of Kislev, 5743): Sixty-three year old General Haim Laskov, former Chief of Staff of the IDF, passed away.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Laskov.html

http://www.nytimes.com/1982/12/09/obituaries/gen-haim-laskov-of-israel-former-chief-of-staff-1958-61.html

1982: “The Verdict” the movie version of the play by the same name directed by Sidney Lumet who also wrote the screenplay and starring Paul Newman was released in the United States today.

1982: “Sophie’s Choice,” an adaption of the novel with the same name Directed , Produced and written by Alan J. Pakula, starring Kevin Kline whose father Robert was Jewish and featuring an Academy Award nominated score by Marvin Hamlisch was released today in the United States.

1983(2^ndof Tevet, 5744): 8^th Day of Chanukah

1984: “Biloxi Blues, a semi-autobiographical play by Neil Simon premiered at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.”

1984(14th of Kislev, 5745): Eighty-four year Luther Adler, a stage and screen actor who starred in ''Fiddler on the Roof'' on Broadway, died today at his home in Kutztown, Pa., after a long illness (As reported by Wolfgang Saxon)

http://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/09/obituaries/luther-adler-actor-is-dead-star-of-fiddler-on-broadway.html

1985(25^th of Kislev, 5746): Chanukah

1985:The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945 by David S. Wyman and The Periodic Table by Primo Levi; translated by Raymond Rosenthal are among the twelve books chosen by the New York Times Book Review as the best books published in the country during the preceding year

1986: The second and final segment of “Anastasia” produced and directed by Marvin J. Chomsky, written by James Goldman and with music by Laurence Rosenthal was broadcast today.

1987: Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories began an intifada, or uprising.

1987: Sir Joshua Abraham Hassan completed his second term as Chief Minister of Gibraltar.

1988:The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, a comedic adventure film featuring music by Michael Kamen was released today in the West Germany.

1988: “Yasir Arafat said today that the Palestine Liberation Organization accepted the existence of the state of Israel. His statement, which he presented as a milestone, was immediately dismissed in Israel and greeted coldly by the United States. (As the Camp David negotiations under President Clinton proved, this was posturing not policy)

1990(21st of Kislev, 5751): Director and playwright Martin Ritt passed away.

1991: “Nick & Nora” a musical written by Arthur Laurents with music by Charles Strouse based on character from The Thin Man opened on Broadway.

1992(13th of Kislev, 5753): Journalist William Shawn passed away. Born William Chon in 1907, the Chicago native was the editor of the New Yorker Magazine from 1952 to 1987.

1993: Upon being named today as budget director by New York’s incoming Mayor, Abraham Lackman said “he hoped to bring some new approaches to budget balancing…so the city can avoid tax increases.”

1994(5th of Tevet, 5755): Israel Aaron Maisels, popularly known as “Isie” Maisels, passed away at the age of 89. He was fondly remembered as a leading member of the bar and a respected leader of the Jewish Community in South Africa.

1994: Secretary of State Warren Christopher met with Yasser Arafat to express the Clinton Administration’s displeasure with the failure of the Palestinian Authority to provide the level of security that will make possible the transfer of territory to PA control.

1996: “Ragtime” a musical based on E.L. Doctorow’s novel of the same name “had its world premiere in Toronto, where it opened at the Ford Centre for the Performing Arts (later renamed the Toronto Centre for the Arts) today, the brainchild of Canadian impresario Garth Drabinsky and his Livent Inc., the Toronto-production company he headed

1996: Michael and Susan Dell attend the groundbreaking for the Dell Jewish Community Campus.

1996: In “Symbol on a Hill” Serge Schmemann reviews a series of recent books about Jerusalem including “City of Stone:The Hidden History of Jerusalem” by Meron Benvenisti, “Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths” by Karen Armstrong, “ City of the Great King: Jerusalem From David to the Present” edited by Nitza Rosovsky, “Jerusalem In 3000 Years” by Nachum Tim Gidal and “Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century” by Martin Gilbert

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/08/books/a-symbol-on-a-hill.html?scp=5&sq=Jerusalem%20in%20the%20Twentieth%20Century%20by%20Martin%20Gilbert&st=cse&emc=eta1

1997(9^thof Kislev, 5758): Eighty-nine year old Sarah Abrams passed away today in Pittsburgh, PA.

1997(9th of Kislev, 5758): Eighty-seven year old Leon Poliakov, a historian of anti-Semitism who testified at major war crimes trials, died today in France.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1997-12-11/news/9712110257_1_nazi-war-crimes-leon-poliakov-trials-of-nazi-leaders

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-leon-poliakov-1288107.html

1997: A Broadway revival of Neil Simon’s “Sunshine Boys” starring Jack Klugman as Willie Clark and Tony Randall as Al Lewis opened at the Lyceum Theatre.

2000(11^thof Kislev, 5761): Seventy-six year old documentary filmmaker Lionel Rogosin, the son of textile mogul and philanthropist Israel Rogosin and the grandson of Samuel Eliezer Rogosin who had come to the United States to raise funds for a Yeshiva in Eastern Europe passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/18/movies/lionel-rogosin-76-documentary-filmmaker.html

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/dec/15/guardianobituaries.filmnews

https://www.lionelrogosin.org/AboutLR.html

2000: “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” a film nominated for 10 Oscars with a script co-authored by James Schamus was released today in the United States.

2001(23^rdof Kislev, 5762): Parashat Vayeshev

2001: In the fight against Arab terrorism, Israeli “helicopter gunships attacked Palestinian security buildings in Rafah, Gaza.

2001: “Black Hawk Down” a cinematic version of the book by the same name produced by Jerry Bruckheimer with music by Hans Zimmer was first shown in the United States today.

2002: The New York Timeslist of the Best Books of 2002 contains the following works about Jewish related subjects or by Jewish authors including White Christmas': Irving Berlin's Dream by Barry Gwen.

2002: Final performance of Jewish playwright Clifford Odets’ masterpiece Awake and Sing at the Timleline Theatre in Chicago, Ill. The play is as robust, emotional and gritty as the Great Depression itself. As Odets describes it, each of the characters shares a fundamental activity: a struggle for life amidst petty conditions. Crowded together in a cramped Bronx tenement and laid low by the Great Depression, this moving portrait of a Jewish family is both funny and heartbreaking as they cope with survival and cling to dreams of a brighter future.

2003: A special two day lighting tribute began marking the 110th anniversary of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) with illumination of the Empire State Building with the organization's colors of blue and green. The illumination marked the founding of the Council at the Jewish Women's Congress held at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. The New York section of NCJW took a strong role in its early years sending volunteers to Ellis Island to look after the welfare of single Jewish women who arrived alone in the New World. Today with 90,000 members, NCJW continues to advance Jewish values by working for social change, acting nationally to improve the quality of life for women, children, and families and to advance individual rights and freedoms. (As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archives)

2004(25th of Kislev, 5765): First Day of Chanukah; kindle the second light in the evening.

2004(25th of Kislev, 5765): David Brudnoy, Boston radio talk show host, passed away. Born in Minnesota, Brudony was living proof that one could be a popular radio personality, discussing controversial subjects while maintaining a basic level of civility.

2004: U.S. premiere of “Blade: Trinity” directed and written by David S. Goyer based on a character created by Marv Wolfman.

2005: Delegates to an international conference have accepted a new Red Cross emblem, paving the way for Israel to join the humanitarian movement after nearly six decades of exclusion, officials said today. The 192 signatories of the Geneva Conventions approved the new "red crystal" emblem. A number of Muslim countries again tried to block Israel's path into the Red Cross movement by voting against the proposal after three days of negotiations in Geneva. "The most important thing is the result," said Noam Yifrach, head of the Magen David Adom, after receiving a congratulatory call from Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, chairman of the board of governors of the American Red Cross.

2005: Avi Saig a member of the IDF who died when his APC rolled over during a training exercise was laid to rest in Holon’s Military Cemetery.

2005(7^th of Kislev, 5766): Sixty-nine year old Kalman Ruttenstein,”the fashion director for Bloomingdale’s” passed away today. (As reported by Eric Wilson)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/09/fashion/09ruttenstein.html?_r=0

2005: Rick Moranis’ ‘The Agoraphobic Cowboy was announced as a nominee for the 2006 Grammy for Best Comedy Album.’

2005: Israeli mathematician Robert Auman shared the Nobel Prize in Economics with Thomas Schelling. Auman was recognized for his research into game theory.

2005: “Leonard Woolf’s Quiet Complexity” published today provides a review Victoria Glenddinning’s biography of the man some know only as the Jewish husband of Virginia Woolf.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/08/arts/08iht-IDSIDE9.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

2006: “The Holiday,” a “romantic comedy written, produced and directed by Nancy Meyers” and starring Jack Black and Eli Wallach and with music by Hans Zimmer was released today In the United States and the United Kingdom

2006: On her 39^th birthdate, Shana Madoff became engaged to Eric Swanson whom she might while he was investigating her Uncle Bernie’s financial activities.

2006: “Blood Diamond,” “co-produced and directed by Edward Zwick was released today in the United States.

2006: Macmillan Reference USA and Israel’s Keter Publishing unveil the new edition of the Encyclopedia Judaica with 22 volumes containing more than 21,000 entries about Jewish life.

2007(28th of Kislev, 5768): Amy Elizabeth Rosenblatt Solomon, the wife of Dr. Harrison Solomon, mother of Jessica, Sammy and James, and daughter of Ginny and Roger Rosenblatt passed away.

2007: In Jerusalem, a screening of “Children of the Sun” a documentary about the first generation of sabras born on kibbutzim to the parents of parents who immigrated to Eretz Israel with the hope of creating a new society.

2007: In the Chicago Tribunea Jewish literary double-header: E.L. Doctorow reviews a memoir by Studs Terkel entitled Touch and Go.

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:Prof. Aliza Lavie of Bar-Ilan University discusses her compilation of traditional prayers for women, A Jewish Woman's Prayer Book at the Ivry Lounge in the Schottenstein Cultural Center in New York City.

2008: At the 92^nd Street Y Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and Hillel president Wayne Firestone discuss the complications facing Jewish life on campus today, from anti-Israel activity and Holocaust denial to outright anti-Semitism in a presentation moderated by Thane Rosenbaum, professor of law at Columbia University.

2008: Today “Web series release” of “Children’s Hospital co-developed by David Wain and co-starring Henry Winkler.

2008: “Rabbi Professor Daniel Hershkovitz, a mathematician from the Technion, was chosen to head” the newly formed Jewish Home Party.

2008: Time magazine includes reviews of “Defiance, “a film based on Defiance: The Bielski Partisans which chronicles the exploits of the largest of all Jewish partisans fighting against the Nazis and Milk,“a biopic” that chronicles the exploits of Harvey Milk as he “organized gay society…into a politcally effective community as well as a laudatory obtiurary of Irving Brecher which like so many articles about the famed comedy writer, fails to mention the fact that he is Jewish and was part of a whole generation of Jewish comedy writers who fueled the funnybones of America during the 20^th century.

2009: A public memorial service is held in honor of Abe Pollin at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.

2009: The 20^th Washington Jewish Film Festival presents a screening of “In Search of the Bene Israel” which documents “the filmmaker travels to India to reconnect with her grandmother's Bene Israel community” and “From Swastika to Jim Crow,”a film that includes “the lost stories of the ‘refugee scholars,’ Jewish academics who fled Nazism to the United States and found employment at historically Black colleges.”

2009: The 24th Annual New York Israeli Film Festival includes a screening of “Israeli Cinema, Part 2.”

2009(21st of Kislev, 5770):Yosef Haim Yerushalmi, a groundbreaking and wide-ranging scholar of Jewish history whose meditation on the tension between collective memory of a people and the more prosaic factual record of the past influenced a generation of thinkers, passed away today at the age of 77. (As reported by Joseph Berger)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/nyregion/11yerushalmi.html?_r=0

2009:Mr Matthew Gould MBE has been appointed Her Majesty's Ambassador to the State of Israel in succession to Mr Tom Phillips CMG. He is the first Jewish person to hold this post

2010: “Celebrating the First Lights of Women Rabbis” by Elizabeth Imber published today.

http://jwa.org/blog/celebrating-the-first-lights-of-women-rabbis

2010: Yael Perlov is scheduled to present a program entitled David Perlov: Pioneer of Israeli Cinema at the 21^st Washington Jewish Film Festival. The scheduled presentation will include the U.S. premier of “In Jerusalem” and “Diary: Chapter 1 (1973-1977)”

2010: Keshet Eilon students and teachers are scheduled to perform works by Schumann on WQXR’s Young Artists Showcase at 9 pm in New York City.

2010(1^st of Tevet, 5771): Rosh Chodesh Tevet

2010: Funeral services were held today for Rose Becker, of blessed memory, in Cedar Rapids, IA.

2010: Four to five mortar shells were fired from the Gaza Strip into the Eshkol regional council tonight hitting an area resident. (See today’s entry for 2019. The more things change, the more they stay the same)

2011: The Booklover’s Luncheon, a part of Jewish Cultural Arts Month, is scheduled to be held at the Upton JCC in New Orleans, LA.

2011: The second weekend of Hamshoushalayim is scheduled to begin today.

2011: “Eichmann’s End: Love, Betrayal, Death” is scheduled to be shown at the 22^ndJewish Film Festival in Washington, D.C.

2011: An Israeli air strike in central Gaza killed a Palestinian militant planning a terrorist attack on the Egypt border, the IDF Spokesperson said today.

2011(12^thof Kislev, 5772): Ninety-two year Sir Zelmann Cowen who was the 19^thGovernor-General of Australia passed away.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/02/sir-zelman-cowen

2011: David Stern asserted his power as Commissioner of the NBA by vetoing a three-team trade that he thought would have undermined the integrity of the game.

2012: An outdoor menorah lighting ceremony is scheduled to take place the Virginia Gateway Town Center in Gainsville, VA.

2012: Parshat Vayeshev – this is the same Torah portion that was read on December 13, 1941, the first Saturday after Pearl Harbor. You have to wonder how the Rabbis of the day tied the story of Joseph to the events of the day. Maybe they related the darkness of Joseph’s pit to the darkness that America was facing at the start of WW II.

2012: A second Broadway revival of David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross” opened today at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre

2012(24^thof Kislev, 5773): In the evening, Kindle the first light of Chanukah.

2012: The Sephardic Music Festival is scheduled to open with performances by Copal, Cannibal Animal Machine and The Sway Machinery at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn

2012: Tonight, President Obama “congratulated Jews around the world on the first night Chanukah.” (As reported by the Times of Israel)

2012: In Westport, CT, the Jews are scheduled to find two uses for potatoes at “Vodkas and Latkes.”

2012: Yesterday, the United Nations on Friday approved an Israel-initiated resolution in which the international body affirmed for the first time that entrepreneurship was a critical development tool.

http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=295155

2012: Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, making his first ever visit to the Gaza Strip, vowed today never to recognize Israel and said his Islamist group would never abandon its claim to all Israeli territory.

2013: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Collision Low Crossers: A Year Inside the Turbulent World of NFL Football by Nicholas Dawidoff, The Most of Nora Ephron by Nora Ephron and Wonders of Wonders: A Cultural History of “Fiddler on the Roof”by Alisa Solomon

2013: Out-of-town tryouts for “If/Then” starring Idina Menzel came to an end at the National Theatre in Washington, DC.

2013: The Yiddish film “American Matchmaker” is scheduled to be shown at the Westside Neighborhood School.

2013: In Springfield, VA, Congregation Adat Reyim is scheduled to host a service rededicating its 200 year old Holocaust Torah that had belong to a congregation in Sedlacany, Czechoslovakia that was destroyed by the Nazis.

2013: “Voices of the Vigil,” an exhibition that “tells the story of the Washington Jewish Community’s “role in the struggle for Soviet Jewry” is scheduled to open at Washington Hebrew Congregation.

2013: The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education is scheduled to host a screening of “Mrs. Miniver” followed by a discussion of this Oscar winning account of English bravery during the Battle of Britain that buttressed the cause of those believing America should enter the war to fight the Nazis.

2013: Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the attack on Greek Orthodx Priest Garbriel Nadaf’s son at today’s cabinet meeting, saying that Israel will not tolerate threats of physical attacks against Christians, Muslims and Druse who “want to link their fate even more to the State of Israel and want to serve in the IDF (As reported by Ariel Ben Solomon and Herb Keinon)

2013 A right-wing political group accused former Knesset speaker and Jewish Agency head Avrum Burg of treason today in a letter to law enforcement officials for statements Burg made last week that appeared to confirm that Israel possessed nuclear and chemical weapons. (As reported by Gavriel Fiske)

2013: The American Zionist Movement, the World Zionist Organization and Consulate General of Israel in New York City is scheduled to host a conference on Anti-Zionism and Ant-Semitism

http://www.azm.org/the-devil-that-never-dies-antisemitism-program/

2013: “The London Review of Books published an online article by Seymour Hersh alleging that President Obama had "omitted important intelligence, and in others he presented assumptions as facts" in his assertion during his televised speech of 10 September that Bashar Al-Assad regime had been responsible for the use of sarin in the Ghouta chemical attack of 21 August 2013 against a rebel-held district of Damascus. In particular, Hersh wrote of anonymous intelligence sources telling him that the Syrian army was not the only agency with access to sarin, referring to the Al-Nusra Front Jihadist group, and that during the period before the Ghouta attack secret implanted sensors at the country's known bases had not detected suspicious movements suggesting a forthcoming chemical attack in the period.”

2014: Willa Schneberg is scheduled “to read from her recent collection Rending the Garment at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education.

2014(16^thof Kislev, 5775): Ninety-five year old Sylvia Padzensky passed away today at Cottage Grove Place in Cedar Rapids.

http://www.cedarmemorial.com/Obituary/2014/Dec/Sylvia-Padensky/

2014: The second and final episode of “The Red Tent” is scheduled to be broadcast on Lifetime.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/the-red-tent-hits-the-small-screen-in-new-steamy-setting/

2014: “The Rothschild egg which “Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild presented this egg to Germaine Halphen upon her engagement to Béatrice's younger brother, Édouard Alphonse James de Rothschild” was given to the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg during the celebration of the 250^th anniversary of the museum.

2014: “Arabic media reported today that two alleged Israeli airstrikes the day before had targeted advanced Russian-made air-defense missiles bound for Hezbollah.”

http://www.timesofisrael.com/syria-strike-said-to-target-advanced-air-defence-missiles/

2014: “Irritability and Sever Temper Outbursts” Helping Parents Help Their Children” was the topic of today’s Dr. Samuel Kahn Memorial Lecture presented by the Westchester Jewish Community Services organization and NewYork-Presbyterian, Westchester Division.

2014: A new HBO documentary, “Regarding Susan Sontag” airing tonight charts the way Sontag’s approach to the issues of her day allowed her to become a new kind of American public intellectual.

2014: The 19^th Knesset’s final day began today with a meeting of the Finance Committee where the agenda “consisted of the long-planned funneling of some NIS 3.6 billion ($902 million) to the Defense Ministry. “

http://www.timesofisrael.com/on-its-last-day-a-knesset-gripped-by-election-fever/

2015: “Shmattes” an exhibition that “surveys the numerous ways in which hip, secular, young American Jews wear their Jewishness on their sleeves, literally” and that features a display of “contemporary, funny, edgy Jewish-themed t-shirts” is scheduled to open at the Center for Jewish History.

2015: In what was later described as “just a joke,” Rick Kriseman, “The Jewish mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida made it known today that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was unwelcome in his city, following Trump’s suggestion the same day that the United States prevent all Muslims from entering the country.” (As reported by Renee Ghert-Zand)

2015: “Young (Mostly), Hip (Mostly), Adrift in 2 Worlds” published today provides a review of New York 1, Tel Aviv 0 by Shelly Oria.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/09/books/new-york-1-tel-aviv-0-stories-by-shelly-oria.html?ref=books&_r=0

2015: Chef Michael Solomonov, the chef/owner of the popular Zahav restaurant in Philadelphia is scheduled to teach the “Master Chef Class” at the Skirball Center.

2015: “A Carved Stone Block Upends Assumptions About Ancient Judaism” published today described the impact that the discovery of “The Magdala Stone” has had on views of life during the final decades of the Second Temple.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/world/middleeast/magdala-stone-israel-judaism.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=wide-thumb&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below

2016: The YIVO Institute for Jewish research is scheduled to present “Yiddish Open MIC” hosted by Shane Baker for an evening filled with the sounds of a language that at one time had been written off as dead as the proverbial dodo bird.

2016: The New York premiere of “Personal Affairs” is scheduled to be shown on the last night of the 10^th Annual Other Israel Film Festival.

2016: Singer Yael Naim, the daughter of Sephardic Jews from Tunisia born in Paris and raised in Israel is scheduled to perform at the Highline Ballroom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhE7QMXRE1g

2016: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present a tutorial in which senior reference librarian Moriah Amit provides the lay person with guidance on how to use a searchable online map of New York’s historical synagogues synagoguemap.cjh.org recently established by the Ackman and Ziff Family Genealogy Institute.

2017(20^thof Kislev, 5778): Observance of the second day of the Rosh HaShanah of Chassidus.

2017: “Dozens of letters from Jews to Oskar Schindler’s wife Emilie thank her for her role in their liberation are scheduled to actioned in south-west England” today.

2017: Today’s session of the URJ Biennial in Boston is scheduled to include a Shabbat Dinner followed by Kabbalat Shabat and Song Session.

2017: Sixty-seven year old United States Court of Appeals Judge Alex Kozinski was accused of “sexual misconduct” today.

2017: Jewish Book Month, an annual event that provides us with a chance to contemplate Jewish books and the lives of authors such as Rabbi Leo Trepp whose works included The Complete Book of Jewish Observance continues today.

2018: In London, the “Conference of Aegyptiaca, the Journal of the History of the Reception of Ancient Egypt” hosted by the Warburg Institute is scheduled to come to an end today.

2018: At the Lumberyard in Catskill, NY, “The Day” is scheduled to be performed by Wendy Whelan and “world renowned Israeli-American cellist Maya Beiser.”

2018: “The Mlotek family and The National Yiddish Theatre - Folksbiene honored the memory of Chana Mlotek z"l as people from all walks of life from the YIVO Institute to multiple personalities of the Entertainment Industry shared their stories in celebrating the life & accomplishments of the beloved author, archivist, lifelong activist for the preservation Yiddish music and culture.

2018(30^thof Kislev, 5779): Triple Header Shabbat; Parashat Miketz; Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah

2019: The Leo Baeck Institute is scheduled to present Yale Professor David Sorkin speaking on “Emancipation, Then and Now” which examines “the ongoing story of how Jews have gained, kept, lost, and recovered rights in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, the United States, and Israel.”

2019: In San Jose, CA, Temple Emanu-El is scheduled to host “Latkes and Laughs” during which “comedians Jeff Applebaum, Rachael Berman and Scott Blakeman serve up the jokes to go with freshly made potato pancakes.”

2019: In Atlanta, GA, the Breman Museum is scheduled to host Murray Lynn as he describes being a 14 year old “when he, his mother and three brothers, who were later murdered were shipped in cattle cars to Auschwitz.

2019: In San Francisco, Congregation Beth Shalom is scheduled to host Ephraim Margolin as he talks about “The Education of One Israeli—1936 to 1945.”

2019: The Shoshana S. Cardin Leadership Awards for 2019 are scheduled to be present today at the USCJ-RA Convention in Boston.

2019: In Albany, CA, Local Jewish artist, author and poet Marcia Falk is scheduled to discuss and reads from her latest book, Inner East: Illuminated Poems and Blessings.

2019: The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to Elizabeth Rosner as she talks about her latest book Survivor Café: The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory.

2019: As Israelis awaken this morning, they will be looking to the skies to see if last night’s rocket barrage from Gaza was an apparition or the start of a new wave of terror.

December 9

1212: In Mainz, coronation of Frederick II as King of Germany during whose reign the Jewish “community of Austria began to flourish” due to his “recognition that the Jews were a separate ethnic and religious group, and were not bound to the laws that targeted the Christian population.”

1437: Sigismund of Luxemburg, who “drained the Jews of their wealth whenever he could, he protected them from some of the worst excesses,” passed away today. (History of the Jewish People)

1565: Pope Pius IV who issued a bull that improved the conditions of the Jews passed away today. It allowed them to stop wearing their yellow cap, buy land up to the value of 1,500 ducats and to trade in things other than old clothes. While they could speak with Christians, they could not have Christian servants. He also allowed the Jews to publish the Talmud as long as they did not use that word in the publication.

1657 (Kislev 5418): Manasseh ben Israel passed away. Manasseh ben Israel was born in 1604 in Holland, A Marrano at birth; he became an outstanding man of letters. He was mystically inclined and believed that Jews should dwell in every country before the Messiah could come. It is from this platform that he approached the religiously-minded Cromwell with a petition for the resettlement of Jews in England. He was assisted by Antonio Carvajal, the first "denizenized" (foreigner granted residence and some other rights) Jew in England under Charles I. Although Manasseh was later offered a job in Brazil, he remained in Amsterdam. Cromwell eventually had his way despite the fact that England and the Dutch states were at odds, and in spite of the opposition of English clergy and merchants.

1641: Forty-two year old Sir Anthony van Dyck, who painted “The Portrait of Adriaen Moens” which had been returned to “Marei von Saher, the sole heir of Jacques Goudstikker, a Dutch dealer who fled the Nazis in 1940” passed away today.

1612: One day after he had passed away, Isaac ben Aaron Prostitz, the native of Prostejov who was sent to Venice by his father to learn the printing trade passed away today after retiring from his crdaft.

1666(12^thof Kislev,5427): Three months after Shabbati Z’vi cast off his Jewish garb and converted to Islam, the Rabbinical Council of Constantinople acted to stamp our this heresy that threatened their peaceful place in the Ottoman Empire by excommunicating Nathan of Gaza, one of his foremost "prophets

1669: Pope Clement IX passed away. The year before his death, the Pope modified the custom of having the Jews run through the streets of Rome as part of the carnival festivities by allowing them to pay heavy fines to avoid the race. This ended two hundred years of humiliation that had been introduced by Pope Paul II in the 15th century.

1677: Birthdate of William Whiston “an English theologian and historian” who “is now probably best known for his translation of the Antiquities of the Jewsand other works by Josephus.

1712(Kislev, 5473): Simon Moses Ben Israel, the Dutch rabbinical scholar who was the father of Moses Frankfurter the Dutch printer who lived from 1672 to 1762, passed away today.

1738: The Jews were expelled from Breslau Silesia.

1783: After the British were driven from New York and General George Washington entered the city late in 1783, exiled New Yorkers including the Jewish exiles began to return home. Today Myer Myers joined two other leaders of Shearith Israel as a delegation that was to convey the loyal greetings of the Jewish community of New York to Governor Clinton.

1792: Birthdate of Max-Théodore Cerfberr, the native of Nancy who may have been one of the first Jewish career officers in the French Army and who also served as “president of the Consistoire Central Israelite de France.”

1793: In Germany, Fromet and Nathan Baldauf gave birth to Leopold Loeb Baldauf, the husband of Ella Kahn and the father of Henry, Morris, Regina and Nathan Baldauf.

1797: In Philadelphia, PA, Rebecca Lyons and John Moss gave birth to Sarah Moss, the wife of Isaac Phillips and the mother of Barnet Phillips.

1799: Birthdate of Baden, Germany native Heinrich Moses Moos, the husband of Fanny Mayer and the father of Jeannette Moos.

1804” A Ukase (Czarist proclamation) issued today “allowed Jews for the time to purchase land in Russia for farming settlements

1809: Birthdate of Jules Isaac Mires, the son of Sephardic watchmaker from Bordeaux who became a successful banker, Managing Director of the Gas Company of Aries and was decorated with the Cross of the Legion of Honor by Napoleon III in 1860.

1813: Birthdate of John Addison Gurley the Congressman from Cincinnati, Ohio who arranged for Cesar Kaskel to meet with President Lincoln so that Jewish Kentuckian could protest the issuance of General Order 11.

1818: In Montego Bay, Jamaica, Isaac Simon and his wife gave birth to Sir John Simon, the English barrister and member of the Liberal Party.

1818: Alfred Phillips married Rebecca Moses Samuel at the Great Synagogue today.

1819: In Frankfurt am Main Malchen and David Philipp (Feist) Schloss gave birth to Sophie Schloss

1821: In Bavaria, Ella and Wolf Goldmann, “a former schoolteacher and cattle dealer” gave birth to

Marcus Goldman, the German-born American businessman and entrepreneur who immigrated to the United States in 1848 and was the founder of Goldman Sachs, which became one of the world's largest global investment banks.

http://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=100

1822(25^thof Kislev, 5583): Chanukah

1831: Birthdate of Maurice de Hirsch who would gain fame as Baron Hirsch one of the greatest philanthropists of his time.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Baronhirsch.html

http://www.jta.org/1931/12/10/archive/baron-de-hirsch-centenary

1833: Jacob ben Naphtali HaCohen married Beila bat Judah at the Western Synagogue today.

1835: In Gedern, Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany, Lob and Bina Oppenheimer gave birth to David Oppenheimer.

1840: Twenty-five year old haberdasher Michael Cashmore, “the first Jewish settler in Melbourne” and business partner of Samuel Emmanuel,married Elizabeth “Betsy” Solomon before board the PS Clonmel which would sink, causing him considerable business losses.
1840: David Benjamin married Esther Solomon in Hobart, Australia today.

1843: Birthdate of Corporal Isaac Gause who won the Medal of Honor during the U.S. Civil War.

1847: In Natchitoches, LA, Samuel Myers Hymas donated the land for the cemetery “to the Society of Israelites.”

1856: In “Temesvár (then Hungary, now Timisoara in Romania) Rosalia Engel Katscher and Ignaz Katscher, who had married in 1852 in Makó, Hungary gave birth to Bertha Katscher (or Berta Kácser) the sister of “Leopold Katscher, noted pacifist, lawyer and journalist, and Helen Kohlbach.”

1858: Three days after she had passed away, Charlotte Styer nee Levy, the wife of Abraham Styer and mother of Mathew Styer was buried today at the “Lauriston Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1861: Rabbi Arnold Fischel arrived in Philadelphia and met with Jewish leaders working to make it possible for Jews to serve as chaplains with the Union Army. Fischel was on his way from New York to Washington, D.C.
1861: Philadelphia native Myer Asch was promoted to First Lieutenant and Adjutant of Company H, First Cavalry, New Jersey Volunteers.
1861: Today’s edition of the Louisville-Nashville Courier gave the following details concerning the burning of a bridge at Whippoorwill on the Memphis Branch Railroad. A detachment of fifty or sixty federal soldiers “under the under command of a Dutch Jew peddler named Netter” fired “a volley of over one hundred rounds from Sharp’s revolving rifles” at the Confederates who guarding the bridge. Two were killed and the rest surrendered. The Federals then burn the railroad bridge. “Netter” was probably Gabriel Netter, a French-born Jew living in Kentucky who within a year would rise to the rank of Lt. Colonel before being killed in fighting near Owensboro.

1864: Louis Rosenberg, who would rise to the rank of Corporal, began serving with Company K of the 82^nd Regiment.

1868(25^thof Kislev, 5629): Chanukah is observed for the last time during the Presidency of Andrew Johnson.

1868: Birthdate of German-born Chemist Fritz Haber who synthesized ammonia and won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1918.

1868: Austen Henry Layard, the archeologist who excavated Nimrud and Niniveh as described in Discoveries at Nineveh began serving as the First Commissioner of Works during the reign of Queen Victoria.

1869: In London, Mordecai Abrahams, secretary to the Initiation Society and his wife gave birth to economist and civil servant Sir Lionel Barnett Abrahams, the husband of Lucy Joseph and the father of Arthur Charles Lionel Abrahams.

1870: The Society of Biblical Archaeology was founded in London "for the investigation of the archaeology, history, arts, and chronology of ancient and modern...biblical lands...."

1872: Birthdate of Edward Lazansky the native of Brooklyn who “was a Justice of the New York State Supreme Court from 1917 to 1926, and a Justice of the Appellate Division from 1926 to 1943” and who “was a founder and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Brooklyn Jewish Hospital.”

1874: Isaac and Hannah Weil gave birth to Jonas Weil, the husband of Caroline Weil

1875: Today’s session of the Hebrew Charity Fair raised over $7,000 for the benefit of Mount Sinai Hospital.

1878: A fair for the benefit of Shaare Rachmim is scheduled to open tonight at Tammany Hall.

1878: Joseph Pulitzer bought the St Louis Dispatch for $2,500.

1879(24th of Kislev): In the evening the first light of Chanukah was kindled.

1879: It was reported today in New Jersey, that Chancellor Runyon has decided not to grant Rachel Blumenthal, young Jewess from Canada, a divorce from Moses Tannenholz an older Jew living in New Jersey. In 1875, when she was only 17 she participated in what she thought was a betrothal ceremony with Tannenholz Much to her amazement she discovered that the ceremony was a marriage ceremony. According to testimony offered during the divorce hearing, Blumenthal’s parents had declined Tannenholz’s offers to end the marriage for a cash payment. The Chancellor sensed that Tannenholz had been perpetrating a fraud in the matter of the marriage. But he declined to grant the divorce because Miss Blumenthal was a minor when she moved to New Jersey from Canada so that she could establish residence (a requirement for filing for divorce) and since she was a minor she could not file for divorce under New Jersey state law

1881: It was reported today that at least one Russian newspaper has taken issue with President Chester A. Arthur’s criticism of the Czarist Empire’s treatment of its Jewish citizens.

1881: Samuel Shrimski began serving as a Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Oamaru.

1882: It was reported today that the Hebrew Free School Associations is planning on holding its annual meeting this month.

1882: Some Jewish businessmen who had obtained a temporary injunction were able to keep their stores open today. The Jews, who observe the Sabbath on Saturday, have taken the matter to court.

1883: In Eichstetten, Leopold Bloch, the son of Samuel and Jeanette Bloch and his second wife Klara Bloch gave birth to Leonie Bloch

1883: R. Heber Newton delivered a lecture on “The Book of Genesis” during when he said the book “purported to be a Jewish work, giving the traditions of Jewish antecedents in prehistoric times…”

1885(1^stof Tevet, 5646): Rosh Chodesh Tevet

1885: Thirty thousand people, including the adjutant of the Crown Prince who been sent as a representative of the royal family attended the funeral of Herr Strassmann, the President of the Berlin Municipal Council

1886: Birthdate of Irma Levy, the daughter of a New York assimilated anti-Zionist German Jewish family who gained fame as Irma Lindheim, a member of Kibbutz Mishmar Haemek. (As reported by Jewish Women’s Archives)

1888: In Bialystok, Mordecai Perlman “a Jewish merchant who supplied yarn and thread to home weavers and was a friend of Maxim Litvinov's father” and his wife gave birth labor economist Selig Perlman who taught at the University of Wisconsin for over four decades and was also “a visiting Professor at the” highly prestigious Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D04EFD71F3CE63BBC4D52DFBE668382649EDE

1888:”Old New York Churches” published today featured a history of the houses of worship on Manhattan’s Norfolk Street including one building on the corner of Broome Street that housed a Baptist Church, followed by a Methodist church and is currently being used as a synagogue and another one on Stanton Street that had been a Presbyterian Church but is now a synagogue.

1888: In Brooklyn, a caucus of Republicans met today and decided that Ernst Nathan, a Twenty-third Ward politician must be stopped “at all cost” from gaining any power in their party.

1889: The Hebrew Education Fair opened this evening at the American Institute Building. This two long fund raiser officially began at 8:45 this evening when Eben’s Band began playing the grand march as New York City Mayor Grant and A.W. Lilienthal took their places on the stage.

1889: In Chicago, President Benjamin Harrison dedicated the Auditorium Building which had been designed the architect Dankmar Adler.

1891: In what may have been one of the most important events in this year’s social season for the Jewish community in New Orleans, at Temple Sinai, Rabbi Max Heller officiated at the marriage of Cincinnati native Julia Seeman, the daughter of George and Caroline (Carrie) Goodhart Seeman, to Felix J. Dreyfous which was attended by Isidore Schooler, Harry Hyman, Leon J. Schwartz, Henry Friedman, Leon Kaufman, Charles Godchaux, Morriss Levy, E.I. Johns, the bride’s sister, Mary Seeman and the groom’s sister Blanch Dreyfous

1891: In London, Polish Jewish immigrants, Louis Gertler and Kate "Golda" Berenbaum gave birth to British painter Mark Gertler.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Gertler_(artist)#mediaviewer/File:Mark_Gertler,_by_Mark_Gertler.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Gertler_(artist)#mediaviewer/File:Mark-gertler-queen-of-sheba-1922.jpg

1891: In the wake of the passage of the May Laws and increased persecution of the Jews of Russia during a speech delivered to Congress today, President Benjamin Harrison said: This government had found occasion to express in a friendly spirit, but with much earnestness, to the government of the tsar its serious concern because of harsh measures being enforced against the Hebrews."

1891(8^thof Kislev, 5652): Sixty-nine year old Russian physician Leon Pinsker, an early Zionist and the author of “Auto-Emancipation” passed away today.

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/pinsker.html

http://www.zionism-israel.com/bio/biography_leon_pinsker.htm

1892: One day after she had passed away, 70 year old Hannah Levy, “the widow of the late Moses Levy” with whom she had had six children was buried today in the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”

1892: Reports published today describe the spread of anti-Semitism among Germany’s political parties as can be seen by “a violent anti-Jewish article” in “the Catholic organ Germania” that the parties “desirous of annulling the emancipation of the Jews are growing daily.”

1892: Reports published today describe efforts to “invalidate Hermann Ahlwardt’s election to the Reichstag on grounds of corruptions and intimidation of opponents” including the beating of a member of the Radicals who is “suspected of being a Jew.”

1894: “Finances and Russian Alliance” published today described changes in British policy toward the new Czar’s government including the arrangement of loans by London’s financiers along with the expectation of “decent treatment of the Jews.

1894: As the former Belle Glazier and her new husband Jacob S. Bernheimer left on their wedding trip the bride’s father gave a dinner for the children of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.

1895: N.S. Rosenau of the United Hebrew Charities was among those who attended today’s conference where ways were discussed “promote prosperity among the farmers” during the current agricultural depression.

1895: “The great Hebrew fair…one of the most extensive enterprises” that the Jews of New York have undertaken is scheduled to open tonight at Madison Square Garden. This fundraiser which has booths sponsored by every Jewish congregation and organization in the city is expected to raise $250,000 for Educational Alliance and the Hebrew Technical Alliance.

1895: “When the doors of the Madison Square Garden opened this evening for the great Hebrew fair the visitors saw much that in splendor will rival what has been depicted by the authors of ‘The Arabian Nights’ and like fiction, in which spectacular wonders abound.”

1895: Birthdate of Vivian de Sola Pinto the British poet and literary critic who was a close friend of Siegfried Sassoon with whom he served in WW I and who became one of the great authorities on D.H. Lawrence.

1897: Birthdate of Philadelphia native Edwin Israel “Hughie” Black, the first capital of the Philadelphia Sphas basketball team.

1897: One day after she had passed away, 75 year old Rachel Fishman was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.

1897: Birthdate of Hermione Gingold. Born Hermione Ferdinanda Gingold in London, she was the daughter of a high-class Austrian-born Jewish financier. The British actress known for her sharp-tongued, eccentric persona, an image enhanced by her sharp nose and chin, as well as her deepening voice, a result of vocal nodes which her mother encouraged her not to remove. She appeared on stage, on radio, in films, on television, and in recordings. Gingold passed away in 1997.
1897: Two days after she had passed away, 22 year old Leah Lipman, the daughter of John and Rose Lipman was buried at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery.

1898(25^thof Kislev, 5659): First Day of Chanukay
1898: The Jewish Messengerreported Meyer Dannenberg a member of Or Chaim in New York City passed away. He "...was an Israelite of the olden school...he was truly pious and he leaves to his descendants and friends the priceless legacy of a good name."

1899: “The Children of the Ghetto” is scheduled to open at the Adelphi Theatre in London.

1900: Birthdate of New York City native and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of CCNY Albert Weisbord who joined with his wife Vera to becoming Communist activists.

http://www.weisbord.org/

1901: In the Bronx, Moritz and Fannie Kahn gave birth to Irene Kahn who became Irene Jonas when she married Dr. Joseph Quincy Jonas.

1903: It was reported today that the divorce of Solomon Cohen, the managing director of Cohen and Co. Ltd, of Cootamundra and Stockinbingal and Mabel Lillian Cohen has been finalized.

1904: In Richmond, VA, members of Congregation Beth Ahavah (House of Love) dedicated their new home what is popularly known as the Franklin Street Synagogue, probably because it is located on West Franklin Street. The congregation is one of the oldest in the United States tracing its origins back to 1789. The building which is still in use is on the National Historic Registry.

1904: Birthdate of University of Cincinnati alum and drama critic Louis Kronenberg who worked at the New York Times and Time magazine before become a professor at Brandeis.

1905: “Salome” an opera based on Hedwig Lachmann's German translation of the French play Salomé which was dedicated to Sir Edgar Speyer “was first performed at the Hofoper in Dresden.”

1905: The French law on the Separation of the Churches and State (Loi du 9 décembre 1905 concernant la séparation des Églises et de l'État) was passed by the Chamber of Deputies today. From now on, the functionaries of all religions in France - Catholic, Protestant and Jewish - ceased to receive state funding and no longer conducted their affairs under state supervision. France had become a secular nation thanks to the backlash from the Dreyfus Affair.

1905: The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that in New Jersey, “the Camden Hebrew Relief Fund has reached $694.38. (Ed. Note – the money was being raised for the victims of the Pogroms that had taken place in Russia earlier in the year.)

1905: Birthdate of 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”

1905: It was reported today that at a time when the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the arrival of the Jews in what is now the United States is being celebrated, “the account given in the Jewish Encyclopedia, the twelfth and last volume of which is about to be published by Funk & Wagnalls” makes for interesting reading.

1908: Three days after she had passed away, “Louisa Sophia Goldsmid,” the widow of “Sir Francis Henry Goldsmid and the daughter of Eliza Solomon and Moses Ashe Goldsmid, was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1909(26^thof Kislev, 5670): Second Day of Chanukah

1909: Birthdate of Chicago native and University of Chicago trained Social Worker Harry Barron

1910: Congressman-elect Jefferson M. Levy, the nephew of Uriah P. Levy, was reported today to have joined publisher William Randolph Hearst and Admiral Dewey in resigning “from the American Boy Scout organization” because they “did not approve of the (organization’s) management” and they “think a great deal of the funds have been raised through false representation and in other manner” of which they heartily disapprove.

1910: Birthdate of Troy, NY native and Cornell undergrad Harold I. Saperstein, the Jewish Institute trained rabbi and spiritual leader of Temple Emanu-El in Lynbrook, NY for “nearly half a century” while raising to sons – Rabbis March and David Saperstein – with his wife Marcia.

http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0718/ms0718.html

1911(18th of Kislev, 5672): Rabbi Haim Covo of Salonica passed away at age the age of 68.

1912(29^thof Kislev, 5673): Fifth Day of Chanukah

1912: Max Schulman is scheduled to address adult attendees at Chanukah celebration hosted by the Chicago Hebrew Institute.

1912: Funeral services are scheduled to held at noon today at the Waldheim Cemetery for seventy year old Augusta (Meyers) Sultain, the wife of Bernet Sultan with whom she had six children.

1913(10th of Kislev, 5674): Seventy-four year old “French pianist and composer” Élie-Miriam Delaborde who was reputed “to be the illegitimate son of the composer and pianist Charles-Valentin Alkan” the Franco-Jewish “composer and pianist” passed away today.

1914: Birthdate of Samuel Katz, who was a close adviser to Menachem Begin, Israel’s prime minister in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but who later became a vociferous opponent of Begin’s peace efforts with Egypt and the Palestinians. The son of Alexander and Luba Katz, Katz was born in Johannesburg and moved to Palestine in 1936 He changed his first name to Shmuel and soon joined the Irgun. For several years, he was secretary to Ze’ev Jabotinsky, one of the founders of the Irgun. Mr. Katz and Menachem Begin became comrades in arms in the 1940s when both rose to leadership positions in the Irgun, the right-wing underground militia that battled the British Mandatory government of Palestine and later Arab forces in Israel’s 1948 war for independence. In June 1948, Mr. Katz helped organize the voyage of the cargo ship Altalena, which was carrying weapons and Irgun fighters to Israel when it was sunk off Tel Aviv by the newly formed Israel Defense Forces. In May 1977, Begin, the longtime leader of the Herut Party, was elected prime minister of Israel’s first right-wing government in 29 years; Herut later merged with the Likud bloc. Begin chose Mr. Katz as his adviser for information abroad and sent him to several countries, including to the United States for meetings with President Carter, to counter perceptions that Begin was a wild-eyed terrorist and reactionary. But Mr. Katz had resigned to protest Israeli concessions by the time Mr. Carter brought Begin and Sadat together at Camp David in September 1978; at the White House the next year, they signed a treaty returning Sinai to Egypt and calling for Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza. In June 1979, Begin was re-elected to a 13th term as chairman of Herut, by a vote of 1,340 to 8. The 8 votes went to Mr. Katz. In Mr. Katz’s view, peace with the Arabs was illusory; in his view, Judea and Samaria, the biblical names for much of the West Bank, should be annexed as part of the “land of Israel,” and pressure from Washington could be ignored. It was a position Mr. Katz took in many books and opinion articles that he wrote in the years after he left the government. Among Mr. Katz’s books are Jabo, a biography of Mr. Jabotinsky; Battleground: Fact and Fantasy in Palestine, about the roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict and what Mr. Katz considered the deep connections between his nation and the biblical land of Israel; and The Aaronsohn Saga, an account of a Jewish spy ring that worked for the British against the Ottoman Turks. He passed away in May of 2008 at the age of 93 in Tel Aviv.

1915: It was reported today that the one million dollars already raised to aid the Jews suffering in war-torn Europe, the American Jewish Relief Committee knows now that it “was only a small part of what was needed” and that a new campaign must be waged to raise additional funds – a campaign that will benefit from the expertise of “Manny Strause of Cincinnati, an efficiency expert” who will devote sixty days of his time to this endeavor.

1915: It was reported today Irving I. Lipsitch of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society delivered an address on “How Can Jewish Farmers Be Assisted in Getting Their Naturalization Papers?” at the last meeting of the Federation of Jewish Farmers of America which has gone “on record as opposing legislation using a literacy test to restrict immigration.”

1916: “The Women’s Proclamation Committee, the national women’s organization for Jewish war relief of which Mrs. Samuel Elkeles is Chairman, announced” today “that it had established new branches in Baltimore, MD and Memphis, TN” and that steps were being taken to establish branches in Milwaukee, Dayton and Kansas City, MO.

1916: In London, a Polish born English watchmaker and jeweler who wrote in Yiddish under the “pen name of Moseh Oved” and his wife gave birth to Isadore Jacob Gudak who gained fame as Cambridge trained mathematician Irving John Good, also known as I.J. or Jack Good, the Bletchley Park cryptologist.

1916: In Amsterdam, New York Bryna "Bertha" (née Sanglel) and Herschel "Harry" Danielovitch gave birth to Issur Danielovitch who gained fame as Kirk Douglas, who has played everything from Doc Holiday in Gunfight at the OK Corral, to deranged Naval officer in In Harm’s Way to Colonel Mickey Marcus in Cast a Giant Shadow.

1916: “A wireless statement from Alfred Zimmermann, Germany Secretary for Foreign Affairs” sent “in reply to an inquiry made through the German Embassy by Dr. S. M. Melamed, the editor of the American Jewish Chronicle” received today in New York declared “that the new constitution granted to the Jews of Poland gave them far-reaching self-government and a chance to develop their own educational system.” (Editor’s note – A scant thirty years later the Jewish population of Poland would be almost non-existent thanks to another German regime.)

1917(24th of Kislev, 5678): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah

1917: According to reports published today, “this evening the celebration of Chanukah, the Feast of Dedication, will begin among Jewish people and continue for eight days. Although rated in the traditional calendar as a minor festival, compared with the Biblical festivals and holy days, it is known also as the Feast of Lights, and is of great significance, as it commemorates one of the most heroic struggles and final victory for the Jewish fatherland and faith.”

1917: Just after midnight, Turkish troops began the final evacuation Jerusalem. According to one report, it was fitting that the Turks should be leaving Jerusalem for the last time on the same day that the Seleucids left the city since this day coincided with the celebration of the holiday of Chanukah.

1917: The Turkish mayor of Jerusalem surrenders the city to 2 British soldiers - Sergeants Sedgwick and Hawcombe.

1917: “O.A. Glazebrook, the United States Consul, who recently returned from Jerusalem, predicted in an address” at the Institutional Synagogue today predicted that “starvation and untold suffering” awaited “the Jews in Palestine unless very active steps were taken by” Jews in the United States to send money to the region and “that Germany had begun a complete reorganization of the Turkish Army and to that end was commandeering all resources of the Turkish Empire regardless of the needs of the civilian population” which only made the position of the Jews all the more perilous.

1917: A delegation of notables including the mayor of Jerusalem, the chief of police and several imams, rabbis and Christian clergy met with British forces just north of the city and surrendered the “keys of the city.”

1917: Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein delivered a sermon to members of the Institutional Synagogue who met at Mount Morris Theatre urging “liberal support” for the drive to raise funds for Jewish war relief.

1917: Among the contributions reported today to have been made to The Central Committee for the Relief of Jews suffering Through the War were $222 from the American Graphaphone Company, “one of the earliest names in recorded sound” which was founded in 1887 and $222 from the Cannonsburg, PA, Hebrew Association.

1917: It was reported today that the upcoming issue of The Menorah Journal will carry a story about the invitation to Israel Zangwill to come to the United and address the Menorah Quintennial Convention, including “Zangwill’s eloquent, if regretful replay to the invitation.”

1917: Today, “the Provisional Zionist Committee announced that Justice Louis D. Brandeis of the United States Supreme court has received letter of congratulation from the Armenian United Association of London on the British declaration in favor of the establishment of a national Jewish home in Palestine to which the Cabinets promises that ‘his Majesty’s Government will exert its best endeavors.’”

1917: Forty seven year old Shreveport, LA native and playwright Arthur Lee Kahn, some of whose plays “show the influence of his southern heritage and indicate something of the nature of the struggle of the southern-born playwright” passed away today.

1917: At the Rockford Hall, in Rockford, Illinois, the Young Peoples’ Jewish Congress is scheduled to host an “entertainment and dance” in honor of the Jewish soldiers at Camp Grant who are being granted a furlough so they can attend the event.

1918: In the Bronx, Austrian immigrants Asher and Ida Tannenbaum gave birth to Gertrude Tannenbaum who gained fame as Gertrude Schimmel whose police career was all the more challenging because of her gender – a challenge she repeatedly overcame rising to become the first female chief in the NYPD. (As reported by Richard Goldstein)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/13/nyregion/gertrude-schimmel-first-woman-named-an-nypd-chief-dies-at-96.html?rref=obituaries&module=Ribbon&version=origin&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Obituaries&pgtype=article

1918: Victor Berger went on trial today on charges that he had violated the Espionage Act of 1917 by publicly opposing America’s entry into WW I. Berger was a Socialist who opposed all war.

1919: Mrs. Henry Hershkovitz is scheduled to deliver a report at today’s regular meeting of the Hungarian Charity Society Women’s Auxiliary in Chicago.

1920: Thirty days after the death of Shloyme Zanvl Rappoport whose pen name was S. Ansky, passed away, “The Dybbuk” was performed at the Elyseum Theatre in Warsaw.

1921: Funeral services are scheduled to be held this morning at Sam Rothschild’s Funeral Chapel for 53 year old Alfred Loeb, the husband of the former Edith Marx and the father of Richard Loeb.

1922: The North West Young Women’s Hebrew Association is scheduled to host “their third informal dance” this “evening at the Cameo Room in Chicago’s Morrison Hotel.

1922: Mrs. Andrew Roth is the chairperson for the Beth Israel Sisterhood’s charity bazaar which is scheduled to open tonight.
1922: Cleveland banker and philanthropist Maurice J. “Moses” Mandelbaum, the son of Jacob and Amelia (Lehman) Mandelbaum married his third wife, Florence Burnet today.
1923(1st of Tevet, 5684): Rosh Chodesh Tevet

1923: Sigmund Israel, the rabbi leading the Temple at Poughkeepsie, NY passed away today.

1923(1st of Tevet, 5684): Seventh day of Chanukah; in the evening Kindled the 8th candle

1923: Hadoar resumes publication

1923: The Jewish Welfare Board sponsored a special Army and Navy Chanukah Service that was held at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association in Manhattan. During his address to the attendees, Rear Admiral Charles P. Plunkett, commander of the Third Naval District and the Brooklyn Navy Yard, said that “There are more kinds of hatreds both religious and social in the world today than ever existed. This country has been open to the world, a haven of safety, but we have no room here for those who cannot be assimilated. They cannot bring their hatreds here..”

1923: In address to the first meeting of the National Council of the Keren Hayesod at the Hotel Astor, Dr. Arthur Ruppin said that “the housing shorate in Palestine has been relieved to a considerable estnet by the establishment of the General Mortgage Bank of Palestine which has invested more than $300,000 in mortgages enabling the construction of 300 house in Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Haifa and Tiberias.

1924: In the presence of in the presence of Sir Herbert Samuel, the High Commissioner for Palestine, Sir Ronald Storrs, Governor of the Jaffa district in Jerusalem, and Raghib al-Nashashibi, the Arab mayor of Jerusalem a street in Jerusalem that crosses Ben Yehuda Street and Hillel Street was named King George Street or Rechov HaMelech in dedication ceremonies held today. The street was named in honor of King George V in honor of the seventh anniversary of Lord Allenby’s conquest of Jerusalem during World War I.

1926: Birthdate of Newcastle upon Tyne native Lionel Kopelowitz, the University College Hospital trained physician and RAF veteran who “was President of the European Jewish Congress from 1989 and 1991.

https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/sadness-over-death-of-communal-father-figure-lionel-kopelowitz-1.486860

1925: In Wilkes-Barre, PA, “Morris and Gussie (Levy) Facher gave birth Penn State journalism graduate and Harvard trained lawyer Jerome Facher who gained famed from his depiction in A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/03/us/jerome-facher-won-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

1926: It was reported today that The American Christian Fund for Jewish Relief has announced that the Protestant-Catholic-Jewish mass meeting at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine last Sunday night had been followed by many contributions and offers to cooperate in raising the $25,000,000 sought by the United Jewish Campaign, of which $19,000,000 has already been subscribed, to relieve the suffering of 5,000,000 Jews in Eastern Europe.”

1927: “The Private Life of Helen Troy” a silent film about the famous beauty directed by Alexandra Korda and starring his wife Maria in the title role premiered in New York City today.

1927(15^thof Kislev, 5688): Eight-two year old Max Landsberg, the Berlin born son of Rabbi Meyer Landsberg, a graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary of Bresalau who became Rabbi at B’rith Kodesh at Rochester in 1871 where he served for 44 years passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1927/12/10/98425024.pdf

1928: A Chanukah celebration is scheduled to be held this afternoon at the Bronx Jewish Center under the supervision of Talmud Torah’s principal, Rabbi J.J. Charlot

1928: It was reported today that “in the hope of putting an end to anti-Semitic rioting in Rumanian universities, the Minister of Education has notified the rectors…that students guilty of participating in anti-Jewish demonstrations to such an extent as to break the peace will be drafted into the army at once…”

1929: During an interview today Ossip Gabrilowitsch, the Jewish son-in-law of Mark Twain, commended the music program started last week at Hebrew University. Based on first-hand knowledge gained by his visit to Palestine last Sring, Maestro Gabrilowitsch spoke highly of the accomplishments of the Jewish musical community and identified the areas in most need of growth.

1930: Birthdate of Buck Henry. Born Henry Zuckerman, Henry is known as an actor, writer and the satirical wit who helped to make SNL into a hit show.

1930: “In the presence of over 200 representatives of many faiths from various points in the country gathered at a dinner concluding the Seminar on Human Relations between Protestants, Catholics and Jews, held at the Hotel McAlpin, Newton D. Baker, former Secretary of War, was presented tonight with the American Hebrew Medal for the Promotion of Better Understanding between Christian and Jew in America.”

1931: Jews throughout the world celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Birth of Baron Hirsch

1931: Supporters of the Grand Mufti distributed “fake photographs” to delegates to the World Islamic Conference showing Jews armed with machine guns attacking the Dome of the Rock. This was part of the mufti’s plan to inflame relations between Jews and Arabs while cementing his role as leader of the Arabs in Palestine.

1932: “The Jews of this country, in a new era of Jewry, must become the bene-factors of America, it was declared tonight by Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, speaking before more than 1,200 members of the Congregation Rodeph Sholom, in the synagogue at 7 West Eighty-Third Street.”

1933: Seventy-three year old Eugenie Wottitz Wartski, the daughter of Marie and Dr. Simon Spitzer who was married to Moritz Wottitz and then Zygmunt Wartski passed away in her home town of Vienna.

1933(21^stof Kislev, 5694): Fifty-four year old German silent screen actor Julius Falkenstein passed away today in Berlin.

1934: In a response to a request from Churchill, Leonard Montifore, a member of the Central British Fund, sent the British statesman a translation of the recently promulgated Nuremberg Laws, commentary from The Times on these anti-Jewish laws and a pamphlet describing the conditions in Germany just before the laws were passed.

1935: “Paradise Lost” a drama written by Clifford Odets, directed by Harold Clurman and starring Stella Adler and Morris Carnovsky opened on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre.

1935: Walter Liggett, Minnesota newspaper editor and muckraker, is killed in a gangland murder. After writing newspaper articles connecting between the mobster Kidd Cann and Minnesota Governor Floyd Olson, Ligett was gunned down, reportedly by Kid Cann. Kid Cann was Isadore Blumenfeld a leading Jewish mobster living in the Twin Cities. He was tried for the murder but “beat the rap.”

1936: “Dr. Arthur Ruppin, an agricultural and colonization expert for the Jewish Agency for Palestine, Maurice B. Hexter testified before the Royal Commission in Jerusalem, where among other things, they worked to refute the criticism of the Jewish National Fund’s land-purchasing policy made by commission member Sir Laurie Hammond.

1936: In Chur Switzerland, 27 year old Yugoslav Jewish medical student who has admitted killing Wilhelm Gustloff, the Swiss Nazi leader testified “that he had decided not to assassinate Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels, ‘because it would cause too great suffering among the Jews in Germany.’”

1936: “The New York Ladies Auxiliary of the Jewish Consumptives Relief Society of Denver, Colorado announced” today ‘that it had begun a drive for $45,000” which will “be used to provide a new dining hall and kitchen for the 300 patients at the society’s sanitarium in Denver.

1937: The Palestine Postreported that in Jerusalem two bombs were thrown by Arab terrorists at the houses of Arabs known to oppose the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini, who was hiding from the authorities in Lebanon.

1937: The Palestine Post reported that in London the Colonial Office refused to accede to Colonel J.C. Wedgwood’s request to circulate the names of 137 officials of the Palestine government and judiciary who, on June 30, 1936, sent a memo critical of the establishments’ activities and policy.

1938: “Undaunted by efforts to intimidate them, fifty-six of Hollywood’s most prominent stars, directors, writers and studio heads gathered at HANL activist Eddie Robinson’s Beverly Hills home” today “to discuss the worsening situation in Germany and western Europe” which led to a sign “The Declaration of Democratic Independence” a petition “which they sent to the President and Congress calling for a boycott of all German products until Hitler stopped persecuting Jews and other minorities.
1938: As the level of anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany increases and Hitler pursues a more aggressive foreign policy, Churchill gave a speech reminding his constituents that four years earlier he had called for a four-fold increase in spending for the RAF and that if those who are criticizing him now would have heeded his advice then Britain would not be dealing with the Germans from a position of weakness.

1938: “Dramatic School” a “romantic drama” produced by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Luise Rainer and Paulette Goddard (Marion Levy) was released today in the United States today.

1938: Bessie (Basha) Riff, the wife of Rabbi Naftali Riff, who had arrived at Ellis Island in 1923 “became a naturalized citizen in the Common Pleas court of Camden, NJ today.

1939: Dr. Henryk Szoskies, vice president of the Jewish community in Warsaw, who escaped last month and is now in Paris has provided first-hand information on the desperate situation of the Jews living in the German-occupied zone of Poland. “Jews all over the German part of Poland live in constant fear of new persecutions and new orders making life even harder.” He reported that the Gestapo had ordered the establishment of a ghetto in the middle of November allowing only three days to transfer an additional 160,000 Jews into the Nalewiki district increasing the population in this small area to 366,000. “Jews all over Poland face an extremely hard winter…since merchants are not allowed to trade and all their property has been confiscated. Dr. Szoskies has “presented a detailed report to Premier Wladislas Sikorski and other members” of the Polish government in exile in Paris.

1940: The British deported illegal Jewish immigrants from Haifa to Mauritius. This was part of the British enforcement of the White Paper that effectively ended Jewish immigration to Eretz Israel. When you consider how strapped the British were for resources in fighting Hitler, it is amazing that the government in London could find the resources to intercept vessels sailing to Palestine.

1940: Jewish immigrants who had entered Eretz Israel illegally protested their deportation by lying nude in their bunks, refusing to dress in an act of spontaneous, and ultimately futile, civil disobedience,

1940: A German soldier leaps from a car in the Warsaw (Poland) Ghetto and strikes a Jewish boy in the head with an iron bar, killing him.

1941(19^thof Kislev, 5702): “Rosh Hashanah of Chassidism”

1941(19^thof Kislev, 5702): Seventy-six Hart O.Berg “a pioneer in the manufacture of machine guns, guns automobiles and submarines” whose most notable accomplishment was helping the Wright Brothers promote their flying machines during their first European tours passed away today.

1941(19^thof Kislev, 5702): Following two days of killing known as the Rumbula Massacre, an additional 500 Jews were murdered in the “small ghetto” at Riga. The Nazis used buses supplied by the Riga municipal authorities to transport the Jews to the Bikernieki forest where “they were murdered and buried in mass graves.

1942: German troops in Tunis, Tunisia, seize 128 Jews and march them to a labor camp. One young Jew who drops from exhaustion is shot and killed.

1942: Hannah Karminski was brought to the extermination camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0011_0_10774.html

1942: Christian Century, an American Protestant journal, attacks Rabbi Stephen Wise, claiming he has lied about the Holocaust in his recent press conference. Christian Century further argues that even if what Wise has to say is true, to make the facts of the Holocaust public serves no purpose.

1943: “Setback For Hitler” published today includes the views of the President of the National Conference of Christians and Jews that while there have been race riots in several U.S. cities, that despite the murmurings against Catholics and Jews, “there has arisen a general conviction that we must labor together if or national life is to be maintained.”

1944(23^rdof Kislev, 5705): Parashat Vayeshev
1944: According to a survey completed today, the fate of at least 2,091 Roman Jews “deported to the north by the Germans is still unknown.

1945: “Yeshiva…always has endeavored to blaze a new trail in the field of higher learning, and now that it has become a university will continue to do pioneering work in the field of divine and human knowledge, Dr. Samuel Belkin President of Yeshiva University declared tonight at the 17^th annual Yeshiva College dinner.”
1946: “The Doctors' Trial,” the trial for crimes committed in Nazi human experimentation during World War II, began in Nuremberg, Germany.

1946: Chaim Weizmann calls for a Jewish state in Palestine.

1947: The Security Council tables a debate on partition after Syria reports that Arabs will question legality of such a partition.

1948: In Tel Aviv, “Israel Friedman, who was executive vice president of the Religious Zionists of America, and the former Rivka Hershman” gave birth to Bracha Friedman who gained fame as “whistle-blower Bracha Graber.” (As reported by Sam Roberts)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/18/nyregion/bracha-graber-dead-whistle-blower-in-foster-care-fraud-case.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

1948: Iraq is asked by Britain, U.S., and France to reopen oil pipeline from Iraq to Haifa The promise made that oil refined in Haifa will not be furnished to Israel.

1948: In British ruled Aden eighty-two Jews were killed during a savage attack on the Jewish citizens and their property. Other such riots took place in Beirut, Cairo, Alexandria and Aleppo.

1949: The UN General Assembly voted to put Jerusalem under permanent UN rule. This a repeat of what was in the resolution adopted on November 29, 1947.

1949: Arab states support the adoption of the motion to put Jerusalem under permanent UN rule because they are suspicious of King of Abdullah of Jordan who has annexed the West Bank and the Old City of Jerusalem.

1949: Britain opposes the UN plan to put Jerusalem under permanent UN rule.

1949: The United States opposes the UN plant to put Jerusalem under permanent UN rule. It favors a compromise put forward by Sweden and the Netherlands under which only the city’s religious shrines would be under UN Control instead of the whole city

1949: Chile abstained from voting on the UN resolution in favor to the internationalization of Jerusalem

1950: Harry Gold was sentenced to thirty years in jail for stealing United States nuclear weapon secrets for the Soviet Union. Gold’s testimony led to David Greenglass which in turn led to Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, who were executed after being convicted of espionage. Gold only served about half of his sentence.

1951: “Dr. Earl James McGrath, United States Commissioner of Education, said today that Jewish culture had become "increasingly a part of the whole American pattern," and that if anti-Semitism "is again to become a threat it will menace the whole of the American people, the whole of American democracy."

1952: The Jerusalem Postreported that the Knesset elected Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, the 68-year-old Labor Zionist leader, as the second President of Israel. He was elected on the third ballot when he won 62 votes. The other candidates were Rabbi M. Nurock, who received 40 votes, and Mr. Y. Gruenbaum who won five. There were five blanks and eight abstentions.

1954: “Deep In My Heart” biopic about Jewish composer Sigmund Romberg directed by Stanley Donen, was released today in the United States by MGM.

1956(5^thof Tevet, 5717): Sixty-two year old painter and poet Uriel Birnbaum passed away.

http://www.jhm.nl/cultuur-en-geschiedenis/personen/b/birnbaum,+uriel

http://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/The-Gate-of-Death/36C13293CEA88220

1957: The first Japanese ambassador to Israel arrived in the Jewish state.

1958: Robert Welch, Jr. founded the John Birch Society.

http://www.jta.org/1966/02/18/archive/group-of-jewish-members-of-john-birch-society-form-organisation

1959: Bartley Cavanaugh Crum, the lawyer who “was a member of the Anglo-American Commission of Inquiry on Palestine in 1945 that advised President Harry Truman to support the opening of the British Mandate of Palestine to unrestricted Jewish immigration and to ease restrictions on Jewish land purchases” and authored Behind the Silken Curtain a Personal Account of Anglo-American Diplomacy in Palestine and the Middle East published by Simon & Schuster in 1947.
1961: An Israeli court found Adolf Eichmann found guilty of war crimes.

1961: Ferenc Molnar, a Hungarian author who escaped to the United States to avoid the persecution of Hungarian Jews and passed away in 1952 was retroactively granted the status of “returning resident.”

1962: Premiere of “Station Six-Sahara” a British-German film produced by Holocaust survivor Gene Gutowski and co-starring Carroll Baker who converted to Judaism when she married Holocaust survivor Jack Garfein.
1965: In Tokyo, world premiere of “Thunderball,” the fourth film in the James Bond series featuring Leonard Sachs
1966: Birthdate of Gideon Moses Serchanski, the Tel Aviv native who gained fame as Gideon Sa'arl, a Likud MK and Minister of Education.

1966: Seventy-one year old poet Lazarus Leonard Aarronson, a native of London’s East End who converted to Christianity and published Christ in the Synagoguein 1930, passed away today.

1968: In the U.K. premiere of “The Birthday Party” directed by William Friedkin, produced by Max Rosenburg and Milton Subotsky with a script by Harold Pinter.

1969: Thanks to newly supplied Soviet radar, the IAF suffers a “bad day” when Egyptian aircraft shoot down two Mirages and one F-4 Phantom Jet.

1969: The Nixon Administration publicizes the “Rogers Plan” named for the U.S. Secretary of State that “calls for Egyptian ‘commitment to peace’ in exchange for the Israeli withdrawal from Sinai.” (This plan follows a pattern all too common to these negotiations over the decades – Israel gives up something tangible for an Arab promise)

1969: Birthdate of musician Jakob Dylan, son of Bob Dylan.

1970: The 6^th Asian Games in which Esther Roth-Shachamorov won golds in 100m hurdles and pentathlon and a silver in long jump opened in Bangkok.

1970(11^thof Kislev, 5731): Eighty-two year old London born, Columbia University trained Professor of Chemistry, Benjamin Harrow, Ph.D. passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/1970/12/11/archives/benjamin-harrow-dies-at-82-professor-and-science-writer.html

1971: Dr. Ralph J Bunche passed away. Bunche won the Nobel Peace Prize for his successful role in negotiating an end to the fighting between the Israelis and the Arab states in 1949.

1972: Ninety-two year old gossip columnist Louella Parsons , the daughter of Joshua Oettinger, a German Jew, who was raised as an Episcopalian passed away today in Santa Monica, CA.

1972:Helen Reddy’s "I Am Woman" tops the charts

http://jwa.org/thisweek/dec/09/1972/helen-reddy

1973: A revival of “The Pajama Game,” the Richard Adler/Jerry Ross musical starring Hal Linden opened at the Lunt-Fontaine Theatre.

1973: “After only 37 performances and 16 previews,” “In the Boom Boom Room” directed by Joseph Papp and co-starring Madeline Kahn who “won the Drama Desk Award” for her performance closed on Broadway today.

1974(25^thof Kislev, 5735): First Day of Chanukah

1974: Howard Cossell (who was Jewish) interviewed John Lennon as part of a breakaway segment during tonight’s Washington Redskins football game.

1976(17^thof Kislev, 5737): Sixty-five year old Barnard College graduate “Aleen Ginsberg Schacht, a national vice president of Hadassah and wife of steel construction executive Lawrence Schact with whom she raised two children – Michael and BarDara – passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/1976/12/10/archives/aleen-schacht-a-vice-president-of-hadassah-on-national-board.html

1976: Funeral services for Dr. Julian Morgenstern, President Emeritus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio, are scheduled to be held at the college this afternoon.

http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0030/ms0030.html

1977(29^th of Kislev, 5738): One day before her 57^thbirthday Brazilian author Clarice Lispector passed away today.

http://forward.com/culture/books/320003/clarice-lispectors-stories-arent-much-fun-but-theyll-sear-your-mind/

1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that Egypt had returned to Israel the bodies of three unidentified Israeli soldiers who were killed during the Yom Kippur war.

1977: In Cairo tens of thousands of Egyptians demonstrated, carrying placards and chanting slogans of support for President Anwar Sadat's drive for peace. While Egypt severed relations with Arab states, King Hussein of Jordan arrived in Cairo for a visit. Hussein seemed to be ready to agree to the Jordanian participation in the joint Israeli-Arab meeting in Cairo, suggested by Sadat, preparatory to the reconvening of the Geneva Peace Conference.

1980: In Los Angeles, actor Sandy Helberg and casting director Harriet Helberg Simon Maxwell Helberg, American actor and comedian best known for his role as Howard Wolowitz in “The Big Bang.”

1981: The Moscow Municipal Court sentenced refusnik Boris Chernobylskii “to twelve months of general regime imprisonment “for resisting the police while performing their official duties.”

1981:“Lady in the Dark” a musical with music by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and book and direction by Moss Hart had its premiere UK performance at the Nottingham Palace.

1982(23rd of Kislev, 5743): Polish born Dutch violist Paul Godwin [Goldfein] passes away at the age of 80.

1982(23rd of Kislev, 5743): Activist Norman Mayer threatens to blow up the Washington Monument, before being killed by United States Park Police.

1983: U.S premiere of “Scarface” produced by Martin Bregman.

1983: After premiering in November, “Terms of Endearment” a comedy directed, produced and written by James L. Brooks and co-starring Debra Winger was released U.S. wide today by Paramount Pictures.

1983: “The Dresser” the movie version of the play written by Ronald Harwood who also wrote the script for the film was released today in the United Kingdom.

1985: The funeral for 83 year old “Abraham M. Adler, “co-founder of the Hirschl and Adler art gallery are scheduled to be held today

https://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/09/arts/abraham-adler-83-is-dead-co-founder-of-an-art-gallery.html

1987: The First Intifada began in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. (Editor’s note – such catchy names for the various waves of Arab violence. This event falls at a time when we are tracing events of 50 years ago when there was another wave of Arab violence that resulted in the infamous White Paper that closed Palestine to Jews fleeing the Holocaust.)

1988: “My Stepmother Is an Alien” a sci-fi comedy directed by Richard Benjamin and featuring Jon Lovitz was released today in the United States.

1988: “Mississippi Burning” a film based on the investigation of the murder of three civil rights workers, two of whom – Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner – were Jewish featuring Stephen Tobolowsky as “Clayton Townley” was released in the United States today.

1988: Today the major daily newspaper Yediot Ahronot published a survey indicating that 80 percent of Israelis now want President Chaim Herzog to continue urging Labor and Likud to form a new coalition. And 76 percent want that coalition to include no other partners - especially not the religious parties.

1990: In New York, Congregation Ansche Chesed sponsors a concert by folk singer Richie Havens. The concert is a fund raiser for the building fund and is part of the synagogue's 10th annual Hanukkah Arts Festival, which also offers a bazaar of gift items and refreshments.

1991: In a case of a Jewish critic evaluating the work of a Jewish authors and a Jewish composer, Franks Rich reviewed “Nick & Nora.”

http://www.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=9D0CE6D91539F93AA35751C1A967958260&_r=2&

1993: A revival of Lerner and Loewe’s "My Fair Lady" opens at Virginia Theater New York City for the first of 165 performances

1996(28^thof Kislev, 5757): Fourth Day of Chanukah

1996(28^thof Kislev, 5757): Sixty-one year old Raphael Elkan Samuel, the Marxist and Professor of History at the University of East London who left the Communist Party when the Soviets crushed the Hungarians in 1956 passed away today.

https://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/obituary-raphael-samuel-5588939.html

1998: “For the first time in more than half a century, the United Nations General Assembly decided today to list anti-Semitism as a form of racism.”

1999(30^thof Kislev, 5760): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah

1999: It was reported today that “With negotiations at an impasse over a German fund to compensate Nazi-era slave laborers, Chancellor Gerhard Schroder has dismissed demands to improve Germany's latest offer.”

2000: “Ten people were killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in one of the deadliest days of violence since the current Palestinian uprising began more than two months ago.”

2001: In “Music’s Dangers and the Case For Control” published today Richard Taruskin examined “The Death of Klinghoffer” an opera which its critics, including the family of the murdered Leon Klinghoffer, distorts a brutal act of murder in which an old Jew is thrown from his wheelchair into the Mediterranean.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/09/arts/music-music-s-dangers-and-the-case-for-control.html?pagewanted=print

https://cbsnewyork.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/protest2.jpg

http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2014/10/17/455935940_custom-343dbecffddf9508e9a22d2c33116bab9a80b0f1-s4-c85.jpg

2001(24^th of Kislev, 5762): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah light.
200I: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak announced he would resign and call a special election.

2001: The New York Times book section featured books by Jewish authors and/or about subjects of Jewish interest including Collected Stories by Saul Bellow, Letters To A Young Lawyer by Alan Dershowitz and Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered by Ruth Kluger.

2001: A suicide bomber exploded a powerful bomb near a bus stop at the Checkpost Junction in Haifa shortly after 7:30 AM. About 30 people were injured, most lightly and suffering from shock. A second explosive device was found and detonated nearby. The terrorist was killed.

2002: Yale undergrad and Harvard trained lawyer Ellen L. Weintraub began serving as Member of the Federal Election Commission.

2002: An International Symposium entitled "Jewish identity and anti-Semitism in Central and South Eastern Europe sponsored by the Federation of Romanian Jewish Communities, the "Goldstein-Goren" Hebrew Studies Center, Bucharest University and Bucharest History Museum opened in Bucharest.

2002: Susan “Sontag continued to theorize about the role of photography in real life in her essay "Looking at War: Photography's View of Devastation and Death", which appeared in today’s issue of The New Yorker in which she concludes that the problem of our reliance on images and especially photographic images is not that "people remember through photographs but that they remember only the photographs ... that the photographic image eclipses other forms of understanding – and remembering. ... To remember is, more and more, not to recall a story but to be able to call up a picture"

2003:The Shin Bet captured Mahmud Amru, the sniper who murdered ten-month-old Israeli infant Shalhevet Pass and wounded her father as he blazed away at a busy playground.

2003: For the second night in a row, The Empire State Building offered a special tribute to the 110th anniversary of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), when it was illuminated by the organization’s colors of blue and green. The illumination marked the founding of the Council at the Jewish Women’s Congress held at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.

2004: The first Broadway revival of “La Cage Aux Folles a musical with a book by Harvey Fierstein and lyrics and music by Jerry Herman opened at the Marquis Theatre.

2004: Birthdate of Mile High resident Judah Ruscha.

2005: “Chrisie Watts” played by Tracy-Ann Oberman made her final appearance today in the “BBC soap opera ‘EastEnders.’”

2005: Sgt. Nir Kahane, 20, the military policeman who was stabbed to death by a Palestinian attacker at the Kalandia checkpoint, was buried in the Kiryat Tivon military cemetery.

2006: Haaretzreported that Germany condemned a planned Iranian conference on the Holocaust. The German Foreign Ministry told a top Iranian official that attempts to question the Nazis' murder of Jews were "shocking and unacceptable." Foreign Ministry spokesman Jens Ploetner said "We condemn all past and future attempts of anyone who gives a platform to those who relativize or question the Holocaust. Ploetner stressed that "the German government finds all statements that question the right of Israel to exist or the Holocaust shocking and unacceptable."

2006: The Chicago Tribunepublished an “edited” version of a “letter to the editors” describing one Jew’s view of the annual office Christmas Party, and if you read between the lines, a whole lot more.

2006: Shuttle Discovery launches on the STS-116 mission at 8:45 P.M. Space Shuttle Discovery Commander Mark Polansky took a replica of "Refugee" with him on the shuttle's mission. Each astronaut is invited to take a few items into space. Polansky took the replica of "Refugee" and an image of a Darfurian child in a refugee camp in Chad taken by Museum staff member Jerry Fowler. “Refugee” is the name of the stuffed bear that comforted Holocaust survivor Sophie Turner-Zaretsky when she is a refugee following World War II.

2007: The Center for Jewish History, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America present “A Legacy for the Future: Celebrating the Life and Teachings of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel on the Centennial of His Birth 1907-2007

2007: The Sunday New York Times book section reviews of books by Jewish authors or on topics related to Judaism or Jewish culture including The Rowing Lesson by the South African Jewish author Ann Landsman, Touch and Go: A Memoir by Studs Terkel and Bernard Malamud: A Writers Life by Philip Davis.

2007: The Washington Post list of Best Books for Young People included Leaves by David Ezra Stein.

2007(29th of Kislev, 5768): In Little Rock, AR, Harvey Luber, a man whose talents, gifts and accomplishments are too numerous to mention is laid to rest. To say he was a pillar of the Jewish community, a teacher, a photographer, a first class raconteur and lifelong learner as well as a proud father and great Zeda does not even begin to capture the essence of the man. To say that he was a friend to all both great and small regardless of rank or status says much about the basic decency of the man. If one were to write more in this vein, it would cause Harvey to laugh all the more. Suffice it to say that God apparently was in need of a great photographer, a memorable laugh and sage if slightly twisted discussion on matters of Judaica and only Harvey could give Him all that and more in one soul. He will me be missed and never forgotten.

2007: “Bagels & Barbeque: The Jewish Experience” opens at The Tennessee State Museum in Nashville. Bagels & Barbeque: The Jewish Experience in Tennessee is a joint project of the Tennessee State Museum in collaboration with the Jewish Federation of Nashville and Middle Tennessee, Jewish Community Federation of Greater Chattanooga, Knoxville Jewish Alliance, and Memphis Jewish Federation, with the participation of other Jewish communities around the state. The exhibit’s statewide tour is supported in part by a grant from Humanities Tennessee, an independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

2007: Funeral services for Harvey David Luber, of blessed memory were held in Little Rock, AR this afternoon.

2008: Police provided the name of the 10 Pakistani terrorists who attacked various targets in Mubain last month including the Chabad House.

2008: At Adas Israel, a three day conference entitled "Zionism, Israel and Human Rights" with Avram Burg, author and former Speaker of the Knesset and Sari Nusseibeh, President of Al Quds University moderated by Kathleen Peratis, Board Member Emeriti of Human Rights Watch comes to an end.

2008 (12 Kislev): Yahrzeit of Solomon Schechter.

2009: Rabbi Addin Steinsaltz is scheduled to produce tractate Niddah, which deals with the laws that a married woman must adhere to during menstruation.

2009: The 20th Washington Jewish Film Festival includes a screening of “Divided We Fall,” which tells the story of a childless couple living in a small Czech village during World War II who hide their former neighbor, a young Jewish man who has managed to escape from the death camps after losing his entire family.”
2009: The 24th Annual New York Israeli Film Festival includes a screening of “Legends in the Dunes,” Ya’akov Gross’ new documentary prepared in honor of the 100th anniversary of the founding of Tel Aviv that follows the development of the building of the new city across from the ancient city of Yaffo.

2009(22nd of Kislev, 5770): Gene Barry passed away. Born Eugene Klass in 1919, he enjoyed successful career performing on the stage, in films and on several successful television series. His marriage to Betty Kalb lasted 58 years, making him a success in his personal as well as professional life.

2010: “Tango, A Story With Jews” is scheduled to make its Mid-Atlantic Premiere at the 21st Washington Jewish Film Festival. The film highlights the role played by Russian musicians who fled to Buenos Aires in the 19th century in creating this icon of Argentine culture.

2010: Funeral services for Dr. Samuel I Mintz, the husband of the former Eleanor Streichler, English Professor and WW II veteran are scheduled to take place in Hackensack, NJ.

2010: The YIVO is scheduled to present a program entitled "This Theatre is a Battlefield: How Antifascist and Zionist Performance Forged a New Jewish- American Identity, 1939-1948.”
.’”

2010(2nd of Tevet, 5711): Eighth Day of Chanukah

2010(2^ndof Tevet, 5711): Ninety-nine year old Brooklyn born violin prodigy and Syracuse University basketball player who co-founded the Famous Artists Broadway Theater Series passed away today.

http://blog.syracuse.com/entertainment/2010/12/murray_bernthal_dies_at_99_col.html

2010(2nd of Tevet, 5711): Dov Shilansky, Holocaust survivor and former speaker of the Knesset passed away at the age of 86.

2011: “Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg” is one of three films being screened today at the 22nd Washington Jewish Film Festival.

2011: Craig Breslow was part of a multi-player trade that sent him from the Athletics to the Diamonbacks.

2011: As part of the Scholars in Residence Weekend at Touro Synagogue in New Orleans, Dr. Ethan Bueno de Mesquita, a professor in the Harris School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago is scheduled to address the issues of terrorism, counter-terrorism and religion.

2011: Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is scheduled to host one of its ever-popular Musical Shabbats.

2011: Gaza militants launched several rockets toward Israel's south today, hours after an Israeli air strike in central Gaza killed a Palestinian militant planning a terrorist attack on the Egypt border. A Grad-type rocket exploded in an open field near the southern city of Be'er Sheva, with another Qassam landing in an open field in the Sdot Negev Regional Council. No injuries or damages were reported in either incident.

2011: Thousands of Israelis marched in Tel Aviv today to mark International Human Rights Day. 2012(25^th of Kislev, 5773): Chanukah

2012(25^th of Kislev, 5773): Eighty-five year old “Charles Rosen, the pianist, polymath and author whose National Book Award-winning volume The Classical Style illuminated the enduring language of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven” passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/arts/music/charles-rosen-pianist-polymath-and-author-dies-at-85.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&hpw=&adxnnlx=1355206609-Jnh13JdsesQWoZhuvCbKNA&pagewanted=all

2012: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Sasha and Emma: The Anarchist Odyssey of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman by Paul Avrich and Karen Avrich

2012:Bein Hashmashot (Between the Suns), the official youth choir of Beit Shemesh, is scheduled to perform the JCC of Northern Virginia.

2012: The Sephardic Musical Festival is scheduled to continue tonight with “Sephardic Story Slam” at Lolita Bar in NYC.

2012: Chabad of North Dakota led by Rabbi Yonah Grossman is scheduled to host a public menorah lighting complete with Latkes and Sufganyot (Is there any place where the lamplighters of Lubavitch are not to be found?)

2012: In Cedar Rapids, Brian Cohen, champion Shofar Blower, shows that he is a “man for all festivals” as he leads his latke flipping team in preparing the potato delights for Temple Judah’s annual Chanukah Dinner.

2012: Israel should define its borders, even if this means doing so unilaterally, and separate from the Palestinians, former IDF chief of General Staff Gabi Ashkenazi said today.

2012: “The Gatekeepers,” a film by Israeli director Dror Moreh, was named best documentary today by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, whose prizes are among a flurry of year-end honors that help sort out the Academy Awards race. The French-language drama “Amour” was chosen as the year’s best film.

2012: Agovernment proposal to allow 1,300 Haredi yeshiva students to enlist in the civilian service program instead of serving in the military was approved today but was greeted with widespread outrage from IDF draft reform advocates.

2012: The Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to open tonight in Israel’s capital city.

2012:Yoram Marciano re-entered the Knesset.

2013: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present a roundtable discussion “French and Jewish: Defining a Modern Jewish Identity in the 19^th Century.”

2013: “Trembling Before G-d” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.

2013: On the advice of his doctor “nonagenarian President Shimon Peres” will not be traveling to South Africa to attend Nelson Mendela’s funeral which Israel will be represented by Knesset Speark Yuli Edelstein.

2013: The trial of five former employees of the great goniff Bernie Madoff resumes today.

2013: In a rare instances of unanimous agreement “Both Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and senior Palestinian spokesmen doused any optimism today that the US-led Israeli- Palestinian talks were on the verge of a breakthrough. (As reported by Herb Keinon)

2013: Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority were set today to ink an agreement to build a long-anticipated pipeline from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, part of an initiative that would produce millions of cubic meters of drinking water for the parched region and slake the critically dwindling Dead Sea (As reported by Stuart Winer)

2013: Anat Hoffman, Executive Director of the Israeli Religious Action Center is scheduled to deliver a talk entitled Between the Stones and a Hard Place: The Challenge to Gender Equity & Pluralism in Israel at the Lawrence Family JCC.

2103: Peter Shurman announced that he would resign as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario representing the riding of Thornhill effective at the end of the year.

2014: LBI is scheduled to present “Fighting for Kaiser and Fatherland” German-Jewish Soldiers and the Quest for Integration, 1914-1935”

2014(17^th of Kislev, 5775): Ninety year old landscape painter Jane Freilicher passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/11/arts/jane-freilicher-an-outsider-in-era-of-abstract-expressionism-dies-at-90.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

2014(17^th of Kislev, 5775): Seventy year old Russian violinist Lydia Mordkovitch passed away today in London.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11290327/Lydia-Mordkovitch-obituary.html

2014: Kirk Douglas, “the son of an immigrant Russian Jewish ragman marked his birthday today by celebrating the launch of his 11^th book.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/at-98-kirk-douglas-the-poet-emerges/

2014: A group calling itself "Guardians of Peace" hacked into Sony's computer system – a hack which would eventually lead to the dismissal of Amy Pascal as the Chairperson of the Motion Pictures Group of Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) and Co-Chairperson of SPE, including Sony Pictures Television.

2014: “Zero Motivation, a zany, dark comedic portrait of everyday life for a unit of young, female Israeli soldiers” is scheduled to be shown at the Washington Jewish Film Festival

2014: “French police arrested five men suspected of making threats online to attack a synagogue.”

http://www.timesofisrael.com/five-arrested-for-threats-to-attack-french-synagogue/

2014: While praying at Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters in Brooklyn 2wenty-two year old Levi Rosenviat, an Israeli man studying for the rabbinate in New York was stabbed by Calvin Peters who entered the Chabad building shouting “I will kill the Jew! I want to kill the Jew!” (JTA)

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/10/nyregion/brooklyn-synagogue-stabbing.html?hpw&rref=nyregion&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

2014; “Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said today that there appeared to be a lull in the recent wave of terror attacks in the West Bank and Jerusalem, but added that it was far from certain that the calm would continue.

2015: The American Jewish Historical Society in collaboration with Moscow Museum is scheduled to present the documentary film "Alyad" about the Refusenik Movement.

2015: In his criticism of Education Minister Naftali Bennett, Chief Rabbi David Lau said that the Conservative of Masorti movement “distances Jews from the path of the Jewish people” – a distancing that does not include avoiding soliciting funds from Conservative Jews.

2016: In Haifa, the a-Sham Arab Food Festival “in which 45 leading chefs from the Arab (Muslim, Christian and Druze) and Jewish sectors have showcased the culinary treasures of the region passed down through generations, but with modern twists” is scheduled to come to an end today.

2016: “Jackie” with Natalie Portman starring in the title role is scheduled to be released in the United States today.

2016: “On the Map” a film that “tells the against-all-odds story of Maccabi Tel Aviv’s 1977 European Championship, which took place at a time when the Middle East was still reeling from the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the 1972 Olympic massacre at Munich, and the 1976 hijacking of an Air France flight from Tel Aviv” is scheduled to open at the Cinema Village.

2016: In Memphis, TN, a Ruach Preneg Concert is scheduled to kick-off the observance of Shabbat.

2016: Actor, director, producer, author, philanthropist and most surprising of all Torah Student, Kirk Douglas is scheduled to celebrate his 100^th birthday today.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/kirk-douglas-to-celebrate-100th-birthday-in-star-studded-bash/

2017(21^stof Kislev, 5778): Parashat Va-yeishev;

2017: Eighty-eight year old Marshall Loeb, the Chicago born son of Monroe Harriman Loeb and “the former Henrietta Benjamin and University of Missouri trained journalist who “was managing editor of Forbes and Money magazines” passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/11/obituaries/marshall-loeb-editor-who-shaped-money-and-fortune-magazines-dies-at-88.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

2017: Kirk Douglas is scheduled to observe his 101^st birthday.

http://www.kirkdouglas.com/

2017: One hundredth anniversary of the British capture of Jerusalem during WW I.

2017: Attendees at the URK Biennial are preparing to deal with the first major winter snow storm scheduled to strike Boston as they observe Shabbat.

2017: Jewish Book Month, an annual event that provides us with a chance to contemplate Jewish books and the lives of authors such as Rabbi Eugene Borowitz whose works included The Mask Jews Wear and Liberal Judaism continues today.

2018(1^stof Tevet, 5779): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; 7^th day of Chanukah

2018: The Lior Milliger Quartet led by saxophone player Lior Milliger whose “music is influenced by traditional jazz as well as ancient Jewish music and Israeli folklore” is scheduled to appear at the Cornelia Street Café.

2018: “The Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines, the Iowa Jewish Historical Society, and the United Nations Association of Iowa” are scheduled to host Dr. Emile Schrijver, the Director of the Amsterdam Jewish Museum as he lectures on “Amsterdam’s Jewish Golden Age.”

2018: In Amherst, MA, the Yiddish Book Center is scheduled to host a screening of a newly restored prinf of “Der Dibuk” (The Dybbuk)

2018: In Washington, DC, Adas Isreal is scheduled to host the annual meeting of the “Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum.”

2018: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education is scheduled to a performance of “Everyday Things” – “a play weaving Survivor testimonies and treasured objects from Stories of Survival.

2018: In Chevy Chase, MD, Ohr Kodesh is scheduled to host “The 5^th Annual Dreidels and Drink” featuring everything from latkes to “dreidel drinking games.”

2018: The New York Times published reviews by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Life of Saul Bellow: Love and Strife, 1965-2005 by Zachary Leader and The Politics of Petulance: America in an Age of Immaturity by Alan Wolfe

2019: In Boston, the Convention of USCJ and the Rabbinical Assembly is scheduled to host a Monday Night Concert with Josey Weisenberg and the Hadar Ensemble.

2019: The National Council of Jewish Women of Greater New Orleans is scheduled to host its board meeting this evening.

2019: The Center for Jewish History and the American Jewish Historical Society are scheduled to host “a conversation moderated by Rabbi Joseph Black of Temple Emanuel in Denver, in which Amanda Kinsey speaks with Annie Polland, Executive Director of the American Jewish Historical Society and Ann Kirschner, author of Lady at the O.K. Corral: The True Story of Josephine Marcus Earp about the soon to be made “feature length documentary ‘Jews of the Wild West.’”

2019: In San Francisco, the Chase Center is scheduled to host the 15^thannual Warriors Jewish Heritage Night as Golden State takes on the Memphis Grizzlies in an NBA matchup.

2019: In Palo Alto, CA, the Oshman Family JCC is scheduled to host a “discussion with Professor Rivka Carmi, the first and only female to serve as president of a public university in Israel, Ben Gurion University of the Negev.”

2019: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host Rabbi David Wolpe as he lectures on “Isaac Luria, the Mystics of Safed and the Beginning of Creation.”

2019: In Washington, Dr. Jean-March Dreyfus is scheduled to deliver the 2019 J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Annual Lecture on “At the Margin of the Holocaust? Writing the Biography of Mischling in the German Foreign Office: Vollrath von Maltzan.”

2019: In the wake of the killing of three people at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, by a Royal Saudi Air Force on a training assignment who accused the United States of being anti-Muslim and complained about U.S. support for Israel, U.S. government officials are scheduled to continue a review of the security component of a program that trains thousands of foreign airman in the use of American aircraft purchased by their countries.

December 10

1475: Seventy eight year old Italian artist Paolo Uccello passed away. Like many artists of his time, Uccello produced what today would be called anti-Semitic art. Among his works was “Miracle of the Host”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Uccelo_host_burning.jpg

1508: The League of Cambrai is formed by Pope Julius II, Louis XII of France, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Ferdinand II of Aragon as an alliance against Venice. From a Jewish point of view, this item presents a mixed bag. Ferdinand ruled over a kingdom that had expelled its Jews and was home to the inquisition. But Pope Julius employed a Jewish physician, Samuel Sarfatti and practiced a policy of “benign neglect” when it came to dealing with the Jewish people. While Venice had enacted its share of ant-Jewish laws (and in 1516 would create the first Ghetto), it was a better place for Jews to settle than other parts of Europe. This is attested to by the fact that many of the Sephardim who had been expelled from Spain made their new home in the city of canals, including Isaac Abravanel.

1520: Martin Luther, who would condemn the “inhuman treatment of the Jews” in 1523 before turning anti-Semite in 1536, to responded to the Papal Bull of excommunication by burning it (Exurge Domine) “along with the book of church law and many other books by his enemies in Wittenberg” at a spot now known as the Luther Oak.

1675: A German Jew, Alexander Polak, became a citizen of The Hauge. He was the progenitor of the Polak Daniels family, and gave the congregation a cemetery in 1697.

1758: Martha Lampley and Philadelphian Samson Levy gave birth to Joseph Levy.

1765: In Philadelphia, Rebecca Meyers-Cohen and Mathias Bush gave birth to Richea Bush.

1768: Birthdate of “Christian Orientalist and theologian Ernst Friedrich Karl Rosenmuller” who among other things “brought out a pocket edition of the Hebrew Bible in 1822.”

1773(25^th of Kislev, 5534): Chanukah

1774: After just a little over three months of Austrian rule, General Gabriel Freiherr von Spleny reported on the conditions at Czernowitz including a description of the Jewish population whose presence in the city dated back to the 15^th century during the reign of Moldavian Prince Alexander the Good.

1776: Birthdate of Abraham Mendelssohn, the son of Moses Mendelssohn and the father of Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn. A successful banker, he would change his name to Abraham Ernst Mendelssohn Bartholdy and change his religion to Christianity. "Once I was the son of a famous father, now I am the father of a famous son."

1776: Birthdate of Sarah Coates, the wife of Philadelphian Samson Levy and the mother of Sophia and Margaret Maria Levy.

1789: Birthdate of Rosetta Micholls, the Jamaica born wife of Edward Emanuel Micholls, with whom she had eight children.

1799: In Germany, Frommet Weil and David Hirsch Lindauer gave birth to Mayer Hirsch Lindauer, who married “Senftele Cronheimer” after the death of his first wife Kehle Lindauer with whom he had four children.

1803(25^th of Kislev, 5564): Chanukah

1804: Birthdate of German mathematician Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi. Jacobi was the German mathematician who, with the independent work of Niels Henrik Abel of Norway, founded the theory of elliptic functions. He also worked on Abelian functions and discovered the hyperelliptic functions. Jacobi applied his work in elliptic functions to number theory. He also investigated mathematical analysis and geometry. Jacobi carried out important research in partial differential equations of the first order and applied them to the differential equations of dynamics. His work on determinants is important in dynamics and quantum mechanics and he studied the functional determinant now called the Jacobian. He passed away in 1851.

1805: In Furth, Bavaria, “Samuel Lazarus Affelder and Nanni Nanette Affelder gave birth to Louis Loew Leopold Affelder, the husband of Regine Rosalie Affelder and the “father of Isidor, Jacob, Moritz, and Jette Affelder.”

1806: Aharon ben Yevzlah Hollander married Esther bat Zemel at the Great Synagogue today.

1807: In Bavaria, “Lob Moses Mack and Henriette Samuel Mack” gave birth to Moses Loeb Mack

1814: Birthdate of Sebastian Brunner, the Benedictine trained priest who was one of a group of authors including Anton E. von Roasa, Count Ferdinand Schirnding and Albert Wiesinger and who launched a libel case against Ignaz Kuranda and Heinrich Graetz.

1816: Birthdate of Dr. Albert Lowey, the rabbi who led the West London Synagogue of British Jews, the “first reform synagogue in England.”

1817: Mississippi was admitted to the union as the 20th state. The Jewish community in Mississippi dates back to the 1840’s. There are Jewish houses of worship and cemeteries dotted in many towns across the state including Jackson, the state capital, Greenwood and Vicksburg. The Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience (MSJE) is located in Utica, Mississippi. Utica is also the home to Henry S. Jacobs Camp, the summer destination for thousands of southern Jewish youngsters in the last forty years. The Mississippi Jewish community has produced several prominent individuals including Shelby Foote and Rabbi Fred Davidow.

1818: Alexander Barnet Gompertz, the son of Barent Solomon Gompertz and the former Miriam Keyser got married today in London.

1826 (10 Kislev 5587): Rabbi Dovber of Lubavitch was released from prison after being arrested the week after Sukkot on slander charges.

1827: Bolette Salomonsen and Zacharias Isaac Levy gave birth to Isaac Zacharias Levy, the husband of Isabella Salomonsen.

1831: In Middlesex, Phoebe and Ephraim Benjamin gave birth to Sarah Benjamin.

1833: Ameilia Joel and Solomon Marks gave birth to Aaron Marks, the husband of Sarah Jacobs and the father of Laurence Marks.

1836: Emory College was chartered in Oxford, Georgia. Today Emory University is located in Atlanta, Georgia. One third of the undergraduate student body is Jewish and in 2005 Hillel received a three million dollar grant to upgrade its services and facilities on campus. The university offers a two year graduate degree in Jewish Studies.

1848: Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte won a four-way race and was elected President of France today which led Michael Goudchaux to withdraw his support of the government.

1850: Judah Leib "Leopold" Löw was installed as the rabbi at Szeged, Hungary

1851: At Friedland, Germany Miriam Lessler and Wolf Schreier gave birth to Eugene Schreier who was married Martha Kasprowicz and who was the “first president of the reorganized Congregation Jeshuat Israel” for which he procured a charter from the State of Rhode Island in 1894.

1854: In Berlin tax-collector Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Henrici and his wife Wilhelmine gave birth to Carl Ernst Julius Henrici the anti-Semitic leader who founded the Social Nazi Party in 1881

1855(1st of Tevet, 5616): Rosh Chodesh Tevet

1855: Birthdate of Mrs. James (Selina) Levi. The Dubuque native was the daughter of the founder of Iowa Jewry and one time held the record for being the oldest Jewish woman born in the Hawkeye State.

1858: The Executive Committee of the Representatives of the United Congregations of Israelites of the City of New York sent a letter to President James Buchanan which described a public meeting held on December 4 in which Jews and non-Jews gathered to demand the return of Edgardo Mortara to his parents. Those attending the meeting also petitioned the President to join with the several European nations who were protesting the kidnapping of the youngster by representatives of the Pope. This letter was a follow-up to a communication sent by the same group on November 20, 1858.

1858: Caleb Lyon delivered his second lecture on The Holy Land under the auspices of the Mercantile Library Association at Clinton Hall this evening. His lecture included a description of the mountains of Moab, the Dead Sea and “the silvery Jordan River.” He described his trip to Jerusalem which he said was populated by six thousand Jews as well as a visit to the Siloam Springs, the Wailing Wall and attendance at a Jewish wedding.

1861: An article entitled “Sold by a Jew Peddler” reported that John H. Bornisky had filed a complaint before Judge Osborne claiming that a Jewish peddler name August Seligman had sold to him seven pieces of linen, for the sum of $38 50. The sale was made by sample, and the complainant had paid the money upon the promise of Seligman to deliver the goods immediately. Since the goods were not delivered Seligman was arrested and held because bail had not been posted.

1861: Rabbi Arnold Fischel arrived in Washington, D.C. this evening. He hopes to meet with government leaders including President Lincoln in an attempt to change the law so that Jews can serve as chaplains with the Union Army.

1861: Moses Grinnell wrote a letter of introduction to President Lincoln on behalf of Rabbi Arnold Fischel.

“Sir, permit me to present to you Rev .Dr. Fischell of this city who visits Washington as a delegate from the Board of Delegates of American Israelites, having been selected as chaplain to the Jews of the army around Washington estimated at about 8000. Dr. Fischell is of high literary abilities and greatly esteemed by distinguished men of all religious denominations. Believe me, etc.”

1864: Sherman’s Union Army reached Savannah in what history will call “Sherman’s March to the Sea.” Among those with Sherman was Major General Frederick Knefler. The native of Hungary was the highest ranking Jewish officer in the Union Army. He was commander of the 79th Indiana regiment before he was promoted to brigadier general for his performance at the Battle of Chickamauga and then to major general during his service with Sherman on his march through Georgia.

1864: While serving with Company A, of the 65^thRegiment-Fifth Cavalry, Max Armhold was taken prisoner and held until the following April when the Confederates surrendered to the Union.

1864: While the Union forces were besieging the Army of Northern Virginia, Abraham Schloss of Company E, 65^th Regiment-Fifth Cavalry was wounded at Richmond.

1865: The reign of Leopold I, the first King of the Belgians, who was friendly enough with the Rothschilds to have stayed with Carl von Rothschild at his villa in Naples came to an end today.

1869: Ellen Cohen, the daughter of Louis Cohen and Samuel Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling gave birth Louis Samuel Montague, the 2^ndBaron of Sawyling, “the merchant banker and communal leaders who “in 1911 became the first professing Jew to inherit a peerage and a seat in the House of Lords..

1869(6^th of Tevet, 5630): Fifty-four year old Rabbi Maier Zipser passed away at Rohonc.

http://www.balassagyarmatizsidosag.hu/en/maier-zipser

1870: It was reported today that ground has been broken for a new synagogue located at Lexington and 55th in Manhattan. Henry Fernbach who was the architect for the 34th and 44th street synagogues as well as one of the architects who worked on Temple Emmanuel, designed this building which he estimates will cost $180,000, [Today this synagogue is the Central Synagogue which was formed from the merger in 1898 of Shar HaShomayim (meaning Gate of Heaven), founded in 1839 by German Jews, and Ahawath Chesed (meaning Love of Mercy), founded in 1846 by Bohemian Jews. Its name was changed to Central Synagogue in 1920 symbolizing not only its location, but also its change to Reform Judaism.”]

1870(16^th of Kislev, 5631): Parashat Vayishlach

1870(16^th of Kislev, 5631): Russian born author Joseph Schonhak, whose leading worked was Toledot ha-Arez passed away today.

1871: In Leipzig, Henriette Goldschmidt “founded the Association for Family and Popular Education (Verein für Familien- und Volkserziehung) today.

1871: It was reported today that the Jewish Messenger has a published “a very discriminating criticism on the character of Shylock as a representative of the Hebrew nation.” According to the Messenger, “as an embodiment of the Jewish people Shylock stands forth strong in his love of religion, family and neighbors but impotent to remonstrate against injustice or to resent it.”

1873: Philadelphian and veteran of the Union Army Myer Asch was elected Commander of the George G. Meade Post, Number 1 of the Grand Army of the Republic today.

1874: During today’s meeting of the Board of Alderman in New York, a resolution authorizing the Hebrew Benevolent Orphan Society to sub-let the property they obtained from the City was referred to the Committee on Law.

1875: Birthdate of Russian native Benjamin Duberstein who owned the Dayton (Ohio) Mineral Water Company and was named as a defendant in 1917 “infringement of trade-mark suit” brought by the Coca-Cola Company against him and several defendans.

1875: Today’s session of the Hebrew Charity Fair which closed at 4 o’clock because of erev Shabbat raised $1,155.65

1875: In Philadelphia, Clara Einstein and Hyram Coriate gave birth to Tufts Medical trained physician Isador Henry Coriat, a pioneer in the field of psychoanalysis who married Etta Dann in 1910.

1876(24th of Kislev, 5637): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah light.

1876: Birthdate of Baltimore native Ernest Wise Keyeser, who like his uncle Ephraim Keyser was a sculptor who was a member of the “National Sculpture Society” and whose work include a statute of Sir Galahad.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Wise_Keyser#/media/File:Sir_Galahad_statue.jpg

1876: It was reported today that the Purim Association will manage the upcoming Hebrew Charity Ball which is fund raiser for the United Hebrew Charities.

1876: It was reported today that New York’s Hebrew Free School Association is serving 580 students and that the association’s President has announced that additional efforts will be made to provide more facilities for the youngsters.

1876: Rabbi Lukskar officiated at the funeral of 27 year old Abraham Stettaner (sp) at the Cypress Hills Cemetery. He was one of the victims of the Brooklyn Theatre Fire.

1879: The New York Times published a lengthy article about the history of Chanukah which begins with the erroneous statement, “The Jewish feast called Chanukah or the Feast of Dedication will be honored by the adherents of the ancient faith on the 16th.” On the evening of December 16th, Jews will be lighting the 8th candle

1879(25th of Kislev, 5640): First Day of Chanukah

1879: Birthdate of Maltz, Poland native Samuel Olshevsky, who in 1912 came to the United States where he served as the Rabbi at “Beth Hamedresh Hagadol” in the Bronx before become a Professor of Talmud at REIT and Yeshiva College while raising his son Louis Cort with his wife Gussie Olshevsky.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1943/02/11/85083985.html?pageNumber=19

1880: It was reported today that a fundraiser is to be held to benefit the 44^th Street Synagogue.

1881: It was reported today that the Young Men’s Hebrew Association is planning on hosting a ball in celebration of Chanukah at the Academy of Music that will feature several tableaus depicting events in Jewish history.

1881: In Brooklyn, the fair sponsored by Temple Israel which opened on November 30 is scheduled to close this evening.

1881:Birthdate of Cleveland merchant Myron Albert Cohen, the husband of Edna (Stone) Cohen with whom had two daughter, Marian and Eleanor and active member of the “Jewish Welfare Association.”

1882: The annual meeting of the Hebrew Free School Associations is scheduled to take place at ten o’clock this morning in Manhattan.

1882: Four days after she had passed away, Adele (Fermi) Foa, the wife of Octave Foa, with she had had six children, was married today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1882: It was reported today that Alfred Steckler has obtained an injunction preventing the police from arresting several Jewish shopkeepers and workers for violating the Sunday Closing Laws. The injunctions were based on Section 264 of the Penal Code which permits people to work on the first day of the week if they “uniformly keep another day of the week as holy time” and that their labor does not disturb those “observing the first day of the week as holy time.” (In our world where everything it is 24-7-365 it seems hard to remember that Sunday Closing Laws were the norm and vestiges of them still exist such as the prohibition on buying and selling vehicles in Iowa on Sunday.)

1882: Birthdate Austrian-born British philosopher Otto Neurath, the Marxist radical and refugee from Hitler’s Europe who passed away in 1945.

1882: It was reported today that the Jews are one of only “religious sects” (the others being Catholics, Episcopalian and Presbyterians) who have founded one or more hospitals in New York City.

1882: It was reported today that that the Prefect of Police has ordered the expulsion of all Jews “residing within the boundaries of St. Petersburg without official permission.”

1883: Birthdate of Shakhne Epstein the native of Vilna who came from a long line of “distinguished rabbis and maskilim.”

1884: It was reported today that the state of Connecticut has had a law on the books “designed to exempt Jews and Seventh Day Baptists who conscientiously observed Saturday as a day of religious worship from the penalties apply to a violation of Sunday laws.

1884(22^nd of Kislev, 5645): Abraham Placzek, the chief rabbi of Moravia, passed away today.

1887: In “Shemele, Russia (Belarus), “Ya’acov Abraham Davidowitz” and “Taube Hinda Schwartzman” gave birth to Harry Hirsch Davidowitz, the Columbia and JTS trained rabbi “severely wounded by shrapnel” while serving in France during World War I as the chaplain of the 78^thDivision and who was the husband of Ida Chaya Bloom with who he had one son and two daughters.

1888: “He Wants To Be A Boss” published today described moves by Ernst Nathan to take control of “the Republican machine in Kings County (NY)” by asserting his role to dispense patronage following the election of Benjamin Harrison to the Presidency of the United States.

1889: In Brooklyn, founding of Congregation Mikro Kodesh Anshey Klodower which was served by Rabbi S.L. Westman and President Jonas Cohn.

1889: In the U.K. Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading, and Alice Edith Cohen gave birth to Gerald Rufus Isaacs, 2nd Marquess of Reading the WW I veteran, British barrister and MP who was the son-in-law of Alfred Moritz Mond and the father-in-law of Solly Zuckerman.

1889: It was reported today that the Montefiore Home Fair of 1887 which raised $158,000 was the most successful fundraiser sponsored by the Jewish community to date.

1889: It was reported today that this year’s Hebrew Educational Fair is being sponsored by the Hebrew Free School Association, the Aguilar Free Library and the Young Men’s Hebrew Association. Funds raised during this two long event will go the Hebrew Institute.

1890: In London, The Lord Mayor presided over a meeting at the Guildhall today “to consider the condtion of the Jews in Russia and to take action to secure some alleviation of their distress.”

1890: A benefit performance of the play “Ein Konigreich um ein Kind” presented by Amberg’s company “for the benefit of the building fund of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Orphan Asylum” will take place tonight at New York’s Lexington Avenue Opera House.

1890: The forty-piece juvenile orchestra of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum performed at the Teacher’s Bazaar, an event designed to raise funds for teachers’ pensions.

1890: In New York the State Senate Committee on Finance whose members included Jacob Cantor met today to “consider what disposition should be made of the 121 acres of land on Ward’s Island” which had been the entry point for untold thousands of immigrants including Jews from Russia and Poland.

1890: In New York, William Lesser who was accompanied by Jacob Finkelstone of the United Hebrew Charities Organization, identified the corpse of Maximillian Laski just before it was about to be dissected in the amphitheater of the University Medical School

1891: Two days after shad had passed away, 80 year old Barbara Cohen, the wife of I.M. Cohen and mother of “Meyer, Mina and Alida Cohen” was buried today at the “Stockton Jewish Cemetery.”

1891: Birthdate of Nelly Sachs. Born in Berlin, Sachs was a German poet and dramatist who was transformed by the Nazi experience from a dilettante into a poignant spokesperson for the grief and yearnings of her fellow Jews. Sachs found sanctuary in Sweden in 1940. When, with Shmuel Yosef Agnon, she was awarded the 1966 Nobel Prize for Literature, she observed that Agnon represented Israel whereas "I represent the tragedy of the Jewish people." She passed away in 1970 and was buried in Sweden.

1891: Sixty-three year old Abraham Kuenen, “a Dutch Protestant theologian” who specialized in the Hebrew Bible including as can be seen by his text on the Hexateuch” passed away today at Leiden.

1891: “Our Foreign Relations” published today noted that President Harrison’s “references to the persecution and expulsion of the Russian Jews are just and temperate.” The President showed a “practical as well as a humane and sympathetic interest in persuading” to “abate her cruelties” when dealing with the Jews.

1892: Lucius Weinschenk, a member of the firm of Bryan, Weinschenk & Hirschel and prominent member of the Chicago Jewish country fled the United States “leaving a shortage in his accounts…of about $20,000.”

1893: Professor Felix Adler delivered an address at Carnegie Hall this morning on the teachings of Jesus Christ which began with a comparison between Jesus and “the older prophets of Israel.”

1893: Rabbi Gustav Gottheil delivered a sermon this morning at Temple Emanu-El on “Who Are the Enemies of Judaism?”

1894: “Cheap Loans A Success” published today described the activity of the Provident Society, which had been established to lend money to the needy at a rate far below of the pawnshops whose founders included August Belmont and Jacob Schiff, had made half of its loans to Jews with the rest going mostly to “Americans and Germans.”

1895: Today, twenty-four women organized the Tri-City Section of the National Council of Women which included Davenport Port, Iowa, Rock Island, Illinois and Moline, Illinois.

1895: Large crowds visited all of the booths and displays at the Hebrew Fair in New York City. Isaacs S. Isaacs is editor in chief of the Fair Journal. Rebecca Kohut is the business manager of the Fair Journal.

1896: A secretary for President-elect William McKinley wrote a letter to Rabbi Emanuel Schwab in response to one that Rabbi Schwab had sent to him congratulating McKinley on his election and telling the former Civil War major that he had voted for him.

1897: Two days after she had passed away, 42 year old Rosie (Levy) Sampson, the wife of Nathan Sampson with whom she had had eleven children was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.

1897(15th of Kislev, 5658): Charles Louis Fleischmann passed away. Born in 1835, he “was an innovative manufacturer of yeast and other consumer food products during the 19th Century. In the late 1860s, he and his brother Maximilian created America’s first commercially produced yeast, which revolutionized baking in a way that made today’s mass production and consumption of bread possible.”

1898(26 of Kislev, 5659): Shabbat shel Chanukah; Parashat Vayeshev

1898(26^th of Kislev, 5659): Seventy-three year old Josef Pick, “the son of Markus and Elisabeth Sara Pick” and the “husband of Eleanor Pick” passed away today in Vienna.

1898: The Treaty of Paris is signed, officially ending the Spanish-American War. Following the war, a number of Jewish veterans settled in Cuba. By 1904, they were able to establish a synagogue in Havana.

1899: The National Jewish Hospital for Treatment of Consumptives opened today in Denver, Colorado.

1901: The first Nobel Prizes were awarded. In 1905, Adolph von Baeyer, a German chemist, became the first Jew to win a Nobel Prize. He won it in Chemistry for his work in synthesizing dye indigo.

1902: In Amsterdam, Jacob Querido, the Dutch born son of Abraham Querido and Schoontje / Ribca Gosler and his wife Anna Heilbron gave birth to Rudolph Querido

1903: “The Early and the Girl” a two-act musical comedy for which Jerome Kern would write the song “How’d you like to spoon with me?” opened at the Adelphi Theatre in London.

1903(21^st of Kislev, 5664): Fifty-three year old Baron Arthur de Rothschild, a member of the French branch of the famous banking family who collected stamps, was an active yachtsman and who bequeathed part of his art collection to the Louvre passed away today in Monte Carlo.

1904: In New York City, Eugene E. Sperry and Rosalie Stanton Bloomingdale gave birth to Josephine Bloomingdale Sperry.

1905: The Jews of Manchester, England called for a meeting to publicly protest the treatment of Russian Jews as typified by the Kishinev Pogroms.

1905: “Five hundred Jews who fled from Russia because of the massacres arrived” in New York today aboard two separate steamships and are awaiting approval from the immigration authorities to enter the United States.

1905: The Janitors’ Society held a meeting at the Educational Alliance auditorium tonight and “took up a collection for the relief of the Jews sufferers in Russia.”

1905: It was reported today that $1,111,183 has been contributed to the fund for the Jews suffering from the Massacres in Russia including $100 from I. Gothstein of Muscatine, Iowa, $500 from G.A. Efroymson of Indianapolis, Indiana, $1,547.84 from Leo K. Steiner of Birmingham, Alabama and $100.50 from Herman J. Nathanson of Virginia, Minnesota.

1906: Albert Lowey, the retired Rabbi of the West London Synagogue of British Jews, “the first reform synagogue in England” celebrated his 90^th birthday today “in the full possession of his mental faculties.”

1906: U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first American to win a Nobel Prize. Roosevelt never intended to keep the money that was part of the prize. Finally, in 1918, he was able to donate the money to a variety of charities. Among those receiving funds was the Jewish Welfare Board, which received $4,000 for War Activities. The funds were to be handled by the treasurer, Mr. Walter E. Sachs.

1907: Birthdate of Michael Blankfort, the New York native who gained fame as the author and screenwriter who converted his novel The Juggler into of the earliest Holocaust movies, “The Juggler” and who risked his career to see to it that the Blacklisted Albert Maltz was able to continue his career as a screenwriter.

1908: The trial of San Francisco political boss Abe Reuf ended today “with a verdict of guilty and the maximum sentence for bribery—14 years in San Quentin.”

1909(27^th of Kislev, 5670): Third Day of Chanukah

1909(27^th of Kislev, 5670): Mrs. Rose Samuelsohn passed away today.

1909: Bessie Ida Ginsberg married Jesse Lasky, the co-founder of Paramount Pictures.

1910(9^th of Kislev, 5671): Seventy-seven year old Michael Friedländer passed away. Born in Posen, and educated in Germany, he moved to England in 1865 when he back principal of Jews’ College in London, a position he held until three years before his death. His English translation of Maiimonides’ Guide to the Perplexed is considered to be a classic. He was the father-in-law of Moses Gaster.

1910: German-Jewish author and translator Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

1910: Sir Edward Grey, the man who signed the Sykes-Picot Agreement which has had such a significant impact on the Middle East and Israel, began servicing as Secretary of State For Foreign Affairs.

1910 Birthdate of historian Jack D. Foner. (As reported by William H. Honan)

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/16/arts/jack-d-foner-88-historian-and-pioneer-in-black-studies.html

1911: The Emperor appointed Dr. Desiderius Markus as Judge of the Royal Curia, “the highest Court of Justice in Hungary.”

1912(30^th of Kislev, 5673): Rosh Chodesh Tevet and 6^th day of Chanukah

1912(30^th of Kislev, 5673): Thirty-eight year old Harry Milton Samson, the husband of Sarah C. Samson, “the son of Lena Samson and the brother of E.J. Samson and Mrs. Victor J. Lowenthal” passed away today.

1912: Isidor Schuman married Ida Schiff today at the Ashland Club House today.

1912: Funeral services are scheduled to be held at the Rosehill Chapel today for the mother of Mrs. J.S. Kimmelstiel, Yetta Ballenberg who passed away “in her 91^st year.”

1913: “In the Richmond Hill section of Queens, NY, a Viennese born real estate agent and his Russian born wife gave birth to composer Morton Gould.

http://mortongould.com/biography.html

1913: In London, Charles Rothschild and his wife, Hungarian baroness Rozsika Edle von Wertheimstein, daughter of Baron Alfred von Wertheimstein of Transylvania gave birth to Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild “a British-born jazz patroness and writer.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/arts/music/19sing.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

1914: Under the caption “The Kaiser’s American Agents,” The Times of Londonprinted a letter from Israel Zangwill in which he wrote “I should add that since receiving Sir Edward Grey’s assurance that England’s sympathies lay with the emancipation of the Russian Jews I have had a number of applications from Jews – Rumanian and English as well as Russian Jews living outside of Russia – anxious to enlist in the Jewish Territorial Organization under the idea that is a branch of the British Army.” (Gray was the British Foreign Minister who is credited with the lines as he walked out of his ministry on the evening that Britain declared war on Germany – "The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time.”

1915: Moise Cohen of Constantinople was appointed professor of finance at Ottoman University.

1916: Sir Edward Grey, who in 1914 when asked by MP Herbert Samuel “about a homeland for the Jewish people” replied “that the idea had always had a strong sentimental appeal to him and he would be prepared to work for if the opportunity arose” completed his 11 years of services Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

1916: Alfred Mond began serving as First Commissioner of Works under Prime Minister David Lloyd George.

1917(25th of Kislev, 5678): First Day of Chanukah

1917: Four days after he had passed away, 76 year old Isaac Henry Samuel was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1917: Sydney L. Nyburg of Baltimore, MD, the author of the Chosen People is scheduled to speak at this afternoon’s meeting of the Council of Jewish Women at Chicago’s Sinai Temple.

1917: Today, “Andrew Bonar Law, Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced in the House of Commons today that Jerusalem after being surrounded on all sides by British troops, had surrendered and that British, French and Mohammedan representatives were on the way to Jerusalem to safeguard the holy places.”

1917: “There was an outburst of applause which lasted for several minutes” today at the gathering of those leaders working to raise the five million dollar fund for Jewish war relief and welfare work in the Army and Navy when Henry Morgenthau talked about the “recapture of Jerusalem from the Turks” saying that “We ought to be particularly happy today, for apart from all political considerations the capture of Jerusalem by the English is a momentous occasion in the history of the Jews.

1917: As of today the team contributions made to the fund for the Jewish War Relief and Welfare Work in the Army and Navy included $231,888.00 from Mortimer L. Schiff’s Team 22, $179.026.00 from H.D. Rosen’s Team 18, $177,483.70 from William Goldman’s Team 4 and $173,798.00 from S. G. Rosenbaum’s Team 19

1918: “The Jewish War Relief campaign” designed to raise five million dollars “to aid the suffering Jews of Europe passed the two million dollar mark today” as it reached an actual total of $2,005, 840.

1919: A delegation of “prominent Jews from New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, Newark and other cities representing the American Jewish Congress” meeting with Secretary of State Lansing and described to him “the terrible situation in the Ukraine” and protested “against the recent pogrom in which 40,000 Jewish men, women and children had lost their lives in that region.”

1920: In Chechelnyk, Podolia, a shtetl in what is today Ukraine Pinkhas Lispector and Mania Krimgold Lispector gave birth to Chaya Lispector, the youngest of their three daughters, “the Brazilian author” whom some describe as “the most important Jewish writer since Franz Kafka.”

http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-true-glamour-of-clarice-lispector

1921(9^th of Kislev, 5682): Parashat Kislev

1921: “Council of Jewish Women Benefit” published today described plans for the upcoming concert and dance at the Astor Hotel sponsored by “the New York Section of the Council of Jewish Women.”

1922: Due to travel problems, Albert Einstein was unable to attend the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony and deliver his Nobel Lecture.

1922: Mrs. William Ratzenstein is the chairman responsible for tonight’s “entertainment and dance to be given by the Milton Vehon Charity Workers” at Chateau Hall.”

1922: The charity bazar sponsored by the Sisterhood of Temple Beth Israel is scheduled to continue for a second night.

1923: Dr. Arthur Ruppin tells the Keren Hayesod Council that “the housing shortage in Palestine has been relieved to a considerably extent by the establishment of the General Mortgage Bank of Palestine, which has invested more than $300,000 in mortgages, enabling the construction of 300 houses, chiefly in Tel-Aviv, Jaffa, Haifa and Tiberias.”

1923: In Schenectady, NY, “postal worker” Louis Goldstein and his wife, a part-time state health department employee, gave birth Albany Teachers College grad and WW II Army combat veteran Harold Vernon Goldstein who earned a Ph.D. in theatre at Cornell where he met his wife Lea Vernon and who gained fames as Harold Gould, one of those character actors whose face you know but name you don’t as can be seen in such films as Harper and The Sting, both of which he made with Paul Newman.

1924: In Cincinnati, OH, William Jacob Mack, Sr. the son of Lydia and Millard William Mack and Harriette L. Segal gave birth to Leon Meyer Mack

1925: “The question of restriction in the Jewish attendance at Hungarian universisites to nine-tenths of the Jewish proportion of the population of the country, which the League of nations has been condsider for the past four years at the request of the Jewish Association of London, was postponed again today and it appears that the Permanent Court of International Justice at the Hague will be asked to give an opinion on whether the action of the Hungarian Parliament is contrary to the stipulations of the Treaty of Trianon which defines Hungarian nationals and provides equality before the law and enjoyment of the same civil and political rights without distinction or language.’

1926: In Hamburg, Germany, Solomon Birnbaum, the son of Nathan Birnbaum, and his wife gave birth to Jacob (Yaakov) Birnbuam who survived the Holocaust thanks to the Kindertransport and formed the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry”

1927: Seymour “Cy” Schindel fought his 20^th bout which would prove to be his last victory even though he fought three more times before retiring.

1927: Birthdate of Danny Matt, the native of Cologne who made Aliyah in 1934 and in 1943 began a military career that stretched from the Jewish Brigade through the Yom Kippur and led him to the stars of a general in the IDF.

http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Esteemed-ex-IDF-general-Danny-Matt-laid-to-rest-334264

1928(27^th of Kislev, 5689): Third Day of Chanukah

1928: WOR and nineteen other stations are scheduled to broadcast the Jubilee Hour this evening featuring soprano Isa Kremer.

1928: According to a report made public today by Bernard Flexner, the President of the Palestine Economic Cooperation, “extensive development in Palestine is provided for in the budget of $1,010,000 authorized at the executive committee meeting of the corporation” which was held last week.

1929: Ossip Gabrilowitsch, the Jewish son-in-law of Mark Twain, conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in a concert at Carnegie Hall tonight.

1929: Twenty year old flyweight Moe Mizler fought his 36^thbout which he lost on points.

1930: As the U.S. economy moved further into what we now call The Great Depression, the savings bank in which many members of the Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood in New York had placed their money closed and no funds were made available to depositors. The collection of dues began to fall off at an alarming rate, and there was a high demand for financial aid from the Secret Relief Fund.

1931: “Baron De Hirsch Centenary” published today traces the life of Jewish philanthropist who is all but unknown to modern generations.

http://www.jta.org/1931/12/10/archive/baron-de-hirsch-centenary

1931: U.S. Premiere of “The Struggle” based on a novel by Emile Zola, the defender of Capt. Dreyfus which was filmed by cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg.

1931: U.S. premiere of “Men in Her Life” a drama with a script co-authored by Robert Riskin.

1932: “Central Park” featuring Harold Hubert as “Nick Sarno” was released today in the United States.

1934: By today, which marked the end of the weekend, “more than 350 arrests had been made in Bucharest and the provinces” as “members of the anti-Semitic Iron Guard” resisted the dissolution of their organization which had been decreed by the government.

1934: Birthdate of Howard Martin Temin, the American virologist who in 1975 shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with his former professor Renato Dulbecco and another of Dulbecco's students, David Baltimore, for his co-discovery of the enzyme reverse transcriptase. In 1961, Temin's formed a provirus hypothesis that cancer cells affect genetic material. The protein coat of certain viruses contains an enzyme that facilitates the copying of viral genes into the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of the host cell. In 1970 he and Baltimore both independently isolated the enzyme, now called reverse transcriptase. The viruses that contain the enzyme are known as retroviruses. Temin also investigated how genetic information in the provirus transforms a normal animal cell into a tumor cell. He passed away in 1994.

1934: A dramatization of Charge It to Me written by Sara Smith, who “learned Yiddish to become a newspaperwoman” is scheduled to open today in Baltimore under the name “Pied Piper.”

1934: Birthdate of Ryszard Przecicki, who as Richard J. Pratt, became one of the richest men in Australia.

1935(14^th of Kislev, 5696): Sixty-seven year old Bella (Epstein) Unterberg, the wife of philanthropist Israel Unterberg who founded the Young Women’s Hebrew Association in her home in September of 1902 passed away today.

https://jwa.org/media/ywha-bella-unterberg-still-image

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/young-womens-hebrew-association

https://www.jta.org/1935/12/12/archive/rites-held-for-mrs-unterberg-dead-at-67

1936: Jewish settlers erected the first of the “Tower and Stockade” settlements,Tel Amel which is now known Nir David. These settlements on remote parcels of land purchased by the Jewish National Fund were set up overnight with the help of prefabricated towers and walls. They were usually put up overnight with the help of hundreds of volunteers. Eventually 118 of this type of settlement were erected throughout the Galilee, Bet-She'an Valley and the Jordan Valley. The secretive construction method was one way of avoiding Arab attacks.

1936: In Jerusalem, at the morning session of the royal commission, Earl Peel, the chairman said that in his “opinion the Jewish Agency should have pressed its claim for State domains to which it is entitled according to the mandate” while Dr. Maurice B. Hexter “said that in the last six or seven years he did not recall that any pressured was exerted by the Jews on the Palestine Government in connection with the mandatory’s duty to allot suitable portions of State domains for Jewish coloniziation.” (Translation – the mandatory government did not give the Jews the arable land to which they were legally entitled.)

1937: The Palestine Post reported on the brazen attack carried out in the heart of Haifa's Hadar Hacarmel. An Arab terrorist first exploded a bomb and then fired two shots, seriously wounding 13-year-old Elimelech Gromet. Another bomb was thrown in the Tel Arza quarter of Jerusalem, next to the Weismann carpentry.

1937: The Palestine Post reported that Sir Charles Teggart, who won his reputation as an indefatigable anti-terrorist fighter in Bengal, arrived in Jerusalem, to advise the government and police on new anti-terrorist tactics.

1937(6^th of Tevet, 5698): Eighty-one year old Abraham Isaak the Russian born anarchist who worked as a journalist and founded Aurora Colony with his in California which was based on his anarchist belief

1938: Thanks to the effort of Mrs. Gertruida Wijsmuller-Meijer, a Dutch organizer of Kindertransporte, who had been active in this field since 1937,” a train filled with 600 children left Vienna today.

1939: Friedrich Ubelhor, governor of the Kalisz-Lodz district, issued a secret order for the establishment of a ghetto in the northern section of Lodz, where the Jewish Baluty slum quarter was situated. "Needless to say [stated his order] the establishment of a ghetto is only a provisional phase...the ultimate goal must be the total purge of this scourge."

1941: In the dark days of WW II, Japanese bombers sank the HMS Prince of Wales and the HMS Repulse, the last major battleships that would be able to standup to an invasion of Australia, which had sent most of its troops to the Middle East to fight against the Nazis.

1941: As of today, in the last 100 days an additional 600 Jews had been shot to death in and near the city of Liepāja

1942(2^nd of Tevet, 5703): Seventh Day of Chanukah

1942(2^nd of Tevet, 5703): Seventy-five year old businessman and philanthropist Louis E. Kirstein, the Chairman of the Board of Filene’s Department Store, President of the Graduate School for Jewish Social Work and husband of Rose Stein with whom he had three children passed away today.

https://www.jta.org/1942/12/11/archive/louis-e-kirstein-dies-in-boston-at-75

https://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/wes/collections/women_finance_investment/business_ownership/content/1001956080.htm

1942: A transport of Jews from Germany arrives at Auschwitz.

1942: At Wola Przybyslawska, Poland, near the Parczew Forest, Nazis shoot seven Poles accused of aiding Jews.

1942: The Polish ambassador to Britain informs Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden that the Polish government-in-exile can confirm that the German authorities are systematically exterminating the entire Jewish population of Poland and the rest of Europe.

1943: As Soviet troops began to break through German lines, the Germans (and local Rumanians) tried cover up their actions by killing the surviving inmates of the labor camp and destroying the camp itself in Tarasika Rumania. This type of action was repeated over and over as Soviet troops moved toward Germany.

1943: In Brooklyn Elaine and Arthur Niederhoffer gave birth to Victor Niederhoffer “a hedge fund manager, champion squash player, bestselling author and statistician” who is the older brother of Roy Niederhoffer.

1943(13^th of Kislev, 5704): Seventy-three year old Dr.William Salant, the 1899 graduate of Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, the pharmacologist who taught at Cornell University passed away today.

1944(24^th of Kislev, 5705): In the evening, Kindle the first Light of Chanukah

1944: “Dr. Israel Goldstein, president of the ZOA said today that ‘we are closer than ever before to the actual restoriation of Israel as a people’” and he called for “the total mobilization of American Jewry and its resources in the final effort to establish the Jewish Commonwealth in an undivided Palestine…”

1945: Birthdate of James Lee “Jimmy” Kessler, the founder of the Texas Jewish Historical society and the “first native Texan to serve as Rabbi of B’nai Israel, in Galveston Texas.

1945: The cover of Timefeatures a montage of Nazi leaders standing trial at Nuremberg under the title “Hitler’s Heirs”

1945: Timepublished “War Crimes: Day of Judgment” describing the trial of Hermann Göring, Alfred Jodl, Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht, Alfred Rosenberg, Julius Streicher, Julius Streicher and Rudolph Hess

1945: "The Chalice of Nurnberg," published today by Time described the purposed of the trials in the words US. Prosecutor Robert Jackson who defined the need for individual responsibility and the establishment of a rule of International Law that would prevent such crimes from happening again

1945: “Treason: The Seeker” published today described the condition Ezra Pound, the expatriate American poet who relished giving anti-Semitic and anti-American broadcast from his home in Italy. The latter earned him the dubious distinction of being one of the few Americans indicted for treason because of his radio broadcasts.

1945: President Truman names six U.S. members to Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Palestine. London announces six members

1945: SS Captain Theodore Dannecker, a henchman of Adolf Eichmann committed suicide after having been arrested by the United States Army.

1946: Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver criticizes President Truman, expresses his opposition to Partition and recommends resistance to the British Mandatory Government.

1947: British leaders will not alter the Jewish quota that limits the Jewish immigrants 1,500 a month.

1947: Dr. Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori became the first Jewish woman, as well as the first American woman, to win a Nobel Prize in the sciences when she received the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine on. She won the prize jointly with her husband, Dr. Carl F. Cori, and Bernardo A. Houssay. The scientists were honored for their research in identifying the "Cori Cycle" which explained how the body converts carbohydrates into sugars that supply muscles with energy. This research was particularly important in leading to the understanding and treatment of diabetes. Dr. Gerty Cori was born in Prague in 1896. Encouraged by her family, she enrolled at the Medical School of the German University of Prague, receiving her Doctorate in Medicine in 1920. Together with her husband, Cori immigrated to the United States and became a citizen in 1928. Carl took a position at the State Institute for the Study of Malignant Diseases in Buffalo, NY and Gerty was hired as an assistant pathologist. The Coris persisted in working together despite the discouragement of many institutions that sought to hire only Carl. In 1931, they moved to St. Louis where Carl became the chair of the pharmacology department at Washington University School of Medicine. Gerty was offered a position as a research assistant. When Carl was made chair of a new biochemistry department in 1946, Gerty was finally promoted to full professor. They won the Nobel Prize the following year. In 1952, President Truman appointed her to the Board of Directors of the National Science Foundation.

1947: A detachment of Palmach soldiers was attacked while paroling the water pipeline near the Arab village of Shu’ut in the Negev. The commander of the Palmach assured his men that they had nothing to worry about since the head man of the village had been a friend of his. But in the Arab’s undeclared war on the yet to be born Jewish state, friendships did not always matter.

1948: Speaking in the House of Commons as leader of the Opposition, Winston Churchill raised the question of why the British government continued to refuse to recognize the state of Israel since nineteen other countries including the United States and the Soviet Union had already done so. He appeals to Parliament to end its “sulky boycott” of the Jewish state

1948: Despite opposition from some of his ministers, Ben Gurion pressured the cabinet into committing to move the Israeli government to Jerusalem “without further delay.” Ben Gurion dismissed the fears of his opponents that the move would anger world opinion by pointing out that the occupation of the Old City and the West Bank by the Jordanians had changed the equation.

1948: Israel agrees to UN truce mission's request to let a trapped Egyptian force withdraw from Faluja in Negev. Was it only 6 months ago that the Egyptians invaders were bombing Tel Aviv and heading toward the “Jewish city” with the intent of driving the Jews into the sea.

1948: The Israelis devised Operation Horev, a new offensive plan designed to drive the Egyptian army out of the remaining areas of Mandatory Palestine south-west of Beersheba, along the western edge of the Negev.

1948: Moshe “Dayan gave a sealed letter to Abdullah el-Tell to be delivered to King Abdullah. Before delivering the letter el-Tell discreetly lifted the seal and made a photo-static copy of its contents, which was an invitation from Elias Sasson to King Abdullah to restart the negotiations which had been led by Golda Meir before the outbreak of war.

1949(19^th of Kislev, 5710): Parashat Vayishlach

1949(19^th of Kislev, 5710): Fifty-eight year old Russian born and Columbia University trained bio-chemist William Alexander Perlzweig, the “professor of biochemistry and department chair at the Duke University Medical School” best known for his work in the field of nutrition passed away tonight in Durham, NC.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1949/12/12/96488618.pdf

1949: Birthdate of Harry Michael, a Labour Party MP, critic of Israel and according to the Daily Telegraph, “one of the MPs who allegedly made improper claims for expenses.”

1950: Ralph J. Bunche was presented the Nobel Peace Prize. Bunche was the first black American to receive the award. He was honored for bringing an end to the war between the Israelis and the Arabs that began in 1948 when the Arabs began their unsuccessful attempt to drive the Jews into the sea.

1951(11^th of Kislev, 5712): Sixty-five year old Yampol native Solomon Pincasovich, the product of the Slobodka Yeshivan and the Odessa Conservatoire who became the cantor of the New Synagogue in Manchester, UK in 1921 and a lecturer at Jews College in 1947 passed away today.

https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/johannesburg/Pinkasovitch.html

1952: Members of the Jewish Education Committee of New York are scheduled to attend today’s funeral for “teacher and author” Abraham Epstein.

1952: Yosef Sprinzak, the first Speaker of the Knesset, completed his service as President of Israel which had begun following the death of Chaim Weizmann.

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that at the end of the 30-day mourning period for the first president of the State of Israel, Dr. Chaim Weizmann, his successor, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, took the pledge of office.

1953: Seventy-five year old Polish born, NYU trained attorney Henry Lasker, the former President of the Board of Alderman in Springfield, MA where he served as the first president of the local B’nai B’rith Lodged and was a founder and President of the Spring Young Men’s Hebrew Association passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1953/12/12/issue.html

1955(25^th of Kislev, 5716): Chanukah

1955: “An Israeli police approaching the Sea of Galilee’s northwestern shored was fired on by Syrian guns” in the latest of a series of Syrian violations of the truce agreement.

1956: Seventy-two year old Moses “Mosey” King, the Yale lightweight who coached the boxing team for forty-six year and “was Connecticut’s first boxing commissioner” passed away today.

1956(6th of Tevet, 5717): David Shimoni, Israeli poet, writer and translator, passed away.

1961: Birthdate of Oded Schramm, who melded ideas from two branches of mathematics into an equation that applies to a multitude of physics problems from the percolation of water through rocks to the tangling of polymers.

1963: In Chamberlin v Dade County Board, the Florida State Supreme Court heard “new arguments in a challenge to public school students in Miami, Florida, being required to read passages from the Bible and recite the Lord's Prayer at the beginning of every school day” (As reported by Austin Cline)

1964: In Israel, the government resigned when “Ben-Gurion demanded that members of the Supreme Court Investigate the Lavon Affair.

1964: “Father Goose” a WW II comedy which won an Oscar for its screenplay co-authored by Peter Stone and with music by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh was released today in the United States.

1965: Birthdate of “Gary “The Kid” Jacobs the Scottish boxer who “wore a Star of David on his trunks and who “held the British Commonwealth and European (EBU) welterweight titles.”

1966: “A musical version of the Mossinsohn play, ‘Casablan’ starring Yehoram Gaon, opened today on the Alhambra Stage in Tel Aviv.”

1966(27^th of Kislev, 5727): Shabbat Shel Chanukah; Parashat Miketz

1966(27^th of Kislev, 5727): Seventy-seven year old Irving W. Halpern, the Russian-born school who rose from being a “probation officer with the Jewish Protectory and Aid Society” to serving as chief probation officer of the State Supreme Court in Manhattan” as well as a college lecturer on criminology while raising a family with his wife, “Judge Caroline K. Simon of the State Court of claims, passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/12/11/82529683.pdf

1966: Israeli Samuel Yosef Agnon and German-Jew Nelly Sachs shared the Nobel Prize for Literature.

1967: “Bedazzled,” a comedy directed and produced by Stanley Donen was released in the United Kingdom today.

1969: “They Shoot Horses, Don't They?” a movie version of the novel of the same name directed by Sydney Pollack, produced by Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler and featuring Al Lewis was released in the United States today.

1970: A small group of local Jewish activists gathered on the International Union of Electrical Workers plaza which was across the street from the Soviet Embassy. The group was protesting the verdicts of treason and death sentences of 11 Soviet citizens, 9 of them Jewish.

1970: First Human Rights Day on which “a daily Soviet Jewry Vigil is launched across from the Soviet Embassy in Washington, DC” which will last for twenty years.

1971: Dr. Gunter Kahn and one of his colleagues “went to Upjohn’s headquarters in Kalamazoo where they briefed scientists and executives” on minoxidil telling “them that he drug was a potential ‘gold mine.’”

1972: U.S. premiere of “Sleuth” the film version of Anthony Shaffer’s Tony Award winning play directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.

1972(5^th of Tevet, 5733): Forty-seven year old Tibor Szamuely, the Russian born English historian who was the nephew of Tibor Szamuely and the father of journalist George Szamuely, passed away today.

1974(26^th of Kislev, 5735): Second Day of Chanukah

1974: As Jews prepared to kindle the third Chanukah light, The U.N. General Assembly adopted Resoultion 3275 declaring 1975 “International Women’s Year.”

1975: Activist Andrei Sakharov is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, accepted by his Jewish wife, Yelena Bonner.

1976: The KGB increased pressure on the organizers of the symposium on Jewish culture by questioning “the main activists” responsible for the event.

1978: The New York Times features reviews of children’s books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “My Noah’s Ark” by M.B. Goffstein and “Hanukah Money” by Sholem Aleichem with illustrations by Uri Shulevitz.

1978: Richard Shepard reviews “The Girl From Tel Aviv,” a throwback to “the Yiddish musical theater of bygone years, the type of theater that provided escapism for the Lower East Side, which always enjoyed ‘tzoress’ on stage and had more than enough of its own waiting at the exit.”

1978: In Oslo, Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat accepted the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize. The two men earned the prize for breaking the cycle of violence. More to the point, their work has stood the test of time. These two certainly earned their award.

1978: “Superman” the movie that brought to the big screen the comic hero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster and directed by Richard Donner (born Richard Donald Schwartzberg) opened in Washington, DC today.

1980: Future Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer began serving as a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

1980: Two people were injured when a terrorist bomb “exploded under a car” in Jerusalem.

1981: Jules Pfeiffer’s "Grownups" premieres in New York NY.

1982(24^th of Kislev, 5743): In a double header of light, in the evening light the first Chanukah candle followed by lighting the Shabbat candles.

1982: “Hyman Belzberg, one of Canada's wealthiest men, was freed unharmed by his kidnappers today and flew to Vancouver to visit with family members.”

1984: In “Jewish Federation Shifts Policy on Hospital Gifts” published today Ronald Sullivan described changes the organization is making in its distribution of five million dollars to local medical facilities

http://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/10/nyregion/jewish-federation-shifts-policy-on-hospital-gifts.html?pagewanted=print

1986: Michiko Kakutani reviewed “Letters from Westerbrook” the posthumously published diaries of Etty Hillesum that describe life in Holland under the Nazi occupation. Westerbrook, where Miss Hillesum and a large number of Dutch Jews were held, was, in reality a transit camp with the next stop being Auschwitz

1986: Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel accepted the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize.

1986(8^th of Kislev, 5747): Fifty-nine year old Susan Cabot (Harriet Shapiro) the actress who oddly enough was rumored to have had an affair and a child with Jordan’s King Hussein was beaten to death tongith.

http://articles.latimes.com/1989-10-11/local/me-58_1_involuntary-manslaughter

1987(19th of Kislev, 5748): Yasha Heifetz passed away. Born in 1901 in what is now Lithuania, Heifetz joined a long list of world class Jewish violinist.

http://www.jaschaheifetz.com/about/

1989: The Intifada entered into its third year today.

1989: In “The Arab Uprising After Two Years: Voices From Both Sides” published today, Joel Brinkley examines the impact of the Intifada on average Arabs and Israelis.

1990: In Canada, Herb Gray, a member of the Liberal Party stepped down as the leader of the Opposition

1990(23^rd of Kislev, 5751): Ninety-two year old Oil Tycoon Armand Hammer passed away today. (As reported by Eric Pace)

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/11/obituaries/armand-hammer-dies-at-92-executive-forged-soviet-ties.html?pagewanted=all

1992: In “Hafetz Hayim Journal; The Rabbis' Almanack of Seventh-Year Farming” published today Clyde Haberman described the implementation of the Sabbatical Year in modern day Israel

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/10/world/hafetz-hayim-journal-the-rabbis-almanack-of-seventh-year-farming.html

1994: The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat. Arafat betrayed Rabin, Peres and all who supported the peace process as can be seen by his continuing support of violence in the Middle East up until the day of his death.

1994(7^th of Tevet, 5755): Eighty-seven year old Philip “Phil” Piratin who was one of the leaders of “Battle of Cable Street” in 1936 and one of two members of the Communist Party elected to Parliament in 1945 passed away today.

1995: Vice President Al Gore, Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Leah Rabin, addressed a crowd of nearly 15,000 people crowded into Madison Square Garden today to honor the memory of Yitzhak Rabin.

1995(17^th of Kislev, 5756): Eighty-eight year old Philip Piratin, the circulation manager of The Daily Worker who was one of the first members of the Communist Party of Great Britain to be elected as an MP.

1996: Three hundred Palestinian students “suddenly barged onto the walled campus of Hebron University, closed by the Israelis since last March, and declared that they would stay until it was reopened.”

1997(11^th of Kislev, 5758): Eighty-five year old Kalmen Kaplansky who was described as "the zaideh" (grandfather) of the Canadian human rights movement” passed away today.

http://www.historyofrights.com/bios/kaplansky.html

1999(1^st of Tevet, 5760): Eighty-nine year old Jack D. Foner, the black-listed historian who was the Eric and Thomas Foner passed away today on his birthday.

http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/foner-obit.html

1999(1^st of Tevet, 5760): Rosh Chodesh is observed for the last time in the 20^th century.

2000: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak submitted his resignation.

2000: The New York Times book section includes a review of Open Closed Open by Yehuda Amichai whose “poems capture the joy of ordinary experience.”

2000: The Manhattan Theatre Club’s final performance of “Class Act” a musical “based on the life of composer-lyricist Edward Kleban” who had passed away in 1987 at the age of 48 took place at Stage II.

2001(25^th of Kislev, 5762): Chanukah is celebrated for the first time in post 9/11 world.

2002: Former President Jimmy Carter, who gained fame for the Camp David accords but later became a vocal critic of Israel, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize today in Oslo.

2001: “It was reported today that “Israel has successfully vaccinated more than 15,000 soldiers and public health workers against smallpox on a voluntary basis since July with virtually no severe side effects, senior Israeli officials say.”

2003: “The Big Fish” a cinematic version of a novel of the same name co-produced by Bruce Cohen was released in the United States today.

2004: Actor Jeffrey Michael Tambor and “his wife Kasia gave birth to Gabriel Kasper today.

2005: Deputy Chief Gertrude D.T. Schimmel, “the second highest ranking woman ever in the New York Police Department described her training in 1940 when she wrote today “we didn’t box or do the two-mile rue but other than that the police academy training for women was the same as for men.”

2005: Deputy Chief Gertrude D.T. Schimmel, “the second highest ranking woman ever in the New York Police Department described her support for the Knapp Commission because as she wrote today that while she was aware that “police officers were openly accepting money” “she was steadfastly again the taking of bribes or any other unethical behavior on the part of the police.”

2005: The first Asiatic elephant to be conceived in Israel through artificial insemination was born at the Tisch Family Zoological Gardens in Jerusalem. The Biblical Zoo joined the project to preserve the Asiatic elephant, which faces extinction, several years ago. The zoo's next goal is to mate the still-adolescent elephant bull Teddy -named after Jerusalem's former mayor, Teddy Kollek -with elephant cows around the world, again through artificial insemination.

2006: Reflections from the Heart, an exhibition of the works of CHIM (David Seymour) at the Albin O. Kuhn Library came to an end today.

2006: The curtain came down on an Off-Off-Broadway production of “Torch Song Trilogy” starring Seth Rudetsky.

2006: Celebration of Yud-Tes Kislev, the 19th of Kislev. “The 19th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev is celebrated as the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidism. It was on this date, in the year 1798, that the founder of Chabad Chassidism, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi was freed from his imprisonment in Czarist Russia. For Chassidim this event is more than a personal liberation. They see this as a watershed event heralding a new era in the revelation of the ‘inner soul’ of Torah. This is also the celebration of the birthday of Avraham Elimelech ben Yosef Dov, the Coca Chef.

2006: Under the title of “The Schindlers of the Middle East” The Washington Post book section features a review of Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust's Long Reach into Arab Lands by Robert Satloff.

2006: Actor Jeffrey Michael Tambor and “his wife Kasia gave birth to their second child, Eve “Evie” Julia today.

2006: Today, The New York Times named The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan as one of the best nonfiction books of the yeaer.

2007(1st of Tevet, 5768): Rosh Chodesh Tevet

2007: Publication of the Hebrew paperback edition of Sefer Ateret Yehosua.

https://www.amazon.com/Ateret-Yehoshua-Hebrew-Zambrowsky-Joshua/dp/B00166S82O

2007: “President George W. Bush and Laura Bush invited Ruth and Judea Pearl, parents of Daniel Pearl to the White House Chanukah reception, to light the menorah that once belonged to Daniel's great grandparents, Chaim and Rosa Pearl, who brought it with them when they moved from Poland to Israel in 1924 to establish the town of Bnai-Brak.”

2007: The New Republicfeatured a review of The Book of Psalms: A Translation With Commentarytranslated by Robert Alter. Over the centuries, The Book of Psalms has gained popularity with a wide variety of religious groups and leaders. However, this has led to translations and interpretations that fit their different agendas and often has meant drifting far from the original meaning of the words. Alter attempts to release this trend. “He has deliberately set out to evacuate these covert (and usually christological) assumptions” that distort or completely alter what the Psalmists actually created.

2008: Peter Yarrow, the Peter in “Peter, Paul and Mary” appears at the Barnes & Noble in Cedar Rapids, Iowa as he promotes “The Peter Yarrow Songbook Series.”

2008:J. Ezra Merkin informed investors in his $1.8 billion Ascot Partners fund that he was among those who suffered substantial personal losses, since all of the fund's dollars were invested with Madoff, a fact that Merkin had tried to conceal as can be seen by his lying to a client bysaying that he had not connection with Madoff and that the investments were with Morgan Stanley and therefore fully protected.

2008: Baal teshuvah Andy Statman who is at home with Klezmer and Country music joined Bela Fleck and the Fleckstone in a concert at the University of Buffalo.

2008: The month-long exhibition “The Nature of Dreams: Israeli photographs, selection from the collection of Yosefa Drescher Fine Art” has its final showing at Trinity College in Hartford. Artists featured during the exhibition included Noa Ben Shalom, David Harris, Menahem Kahana, Joel Kantor, Alex Levac, Shimon Lev, Tamir Sher, Ilan Spira, and David Rubinger. According to Yosefa Drescher, a well-known Israeli documentary photographer “The land in which [Israeli photographers] live and work is replete with gripping visual scenes, and striking images both human and landscape. The challenge is at once to do justice to the external reality and not attempt to usurp the power of the place and moment, while giving reign to deeply personal comment and reaction to the subject.”

2008 (13 Kislev): On the Hebrew calendar, Yahrzeit of Ravina II who passed away in 475 CE the same year in which he finished editing the Gemara portion of the Talmud Bavli ("Babylonian Talmud"), completing the work of his teacher Rav Ashi.

2008: At Princeton University, Dennis Ross former special Middle East Coordinator under the Clinton administration and consultant for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy delivers a speech entitled "Whither the Middle East?"

2009: The third annual Kisufim Conference which aims to "encourages encounters between Israeli creativity - in Hebrew and other languages - and world Jewish creativity that is both multilingual and multicultural," comes to an end.

2009: Screenwriter Steven Karras discusses and signs his first book, The Enemy I Knew: German Jews in the Allied Military in World War II, at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, in Washington, D.C.

2009: The 20th Washington Jewish Film Festival includes a screening of “Brothers,” a film that depicts the struggle of 2 brothers who struggle to come to terms with their political and religious beliefs when they reunite in Israel after years of silence.

2009: “Avatar,” the science fiction film co-produced by Jon Landau premiered in London.

2009: The 24th Annual New York Israeli Film Festival includes a screening of “Achziv,” a film that documents the unique story of Eli Avivi, President of "Achziv Land," from the time of the War of Independence when Eli appropriated a deserted Arab village called A'Ziv.

2009: The Israel Aerospace Industries made the first delivery of the Heron UAV to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) today. The ten unmanned aerial vehicles will be used in Afghanistan in the coming weeks.

2009: The third annual Kisufim Conference, a series of special workshops and meetings in Russian, English, French, Hungarian, Serbian and Spanish which aims to "encourages encounters between Israeli creativity - in Hebrew and other languages - and world Jewish creativity that is both multilingual and multicultural," comes to an end in Jerusalem.

2009: A four day conference entitled "A Century of Yiddish:1908-2008" came to a close in Jerusalem

2010: On Human Rights Day, the community is scheduled to hold a ceremony that will remember the Soviet Jewry Struggle and commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Washington, D.C. Vigil that became part of efforts to make it possible for Russian Jews to leave the Soviet Union.

2010: Daniel Burman, who lives and works in Argentina as one of its leading filmmakers today, and Jorge Gurvich, also an award-winning filmmaker who left Argentina for Israel are scheduled to present a program entitled “Argentina’s Jewish Community Through Filmmaker’s Eyes at the 21st Washington Jewish Film Festival.

2010: The 12th annual Jerusalem Festival is scheduled to come to a close. During this year’s festival, Frans Weisz, a Holocaust survivor who directed “Polonaise” (1989), “Qui Vive” (2001) and “Happy End” (2007) – a trilogy, about two Dutch Jewish families he co-wrote with playwright Judith Herzbergrecipient received this year’s Life Achievement Award.

2010: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Kadima chairwoman and opposition leader Tzipi Livni at the State Department in Washington today, only a few days after the U.S. and Israel announced that talks between Jerusalem and Washington over a new freeze on West Bank settlement construction in exchange for a set of U.S. guarantees had hit a dead end. The meeting, initiated by Clinton, marks the first time that Livni has been invited for a meeting with Clinton in Washington since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was elected in early 2009. Until now, the American officials had only met with Livni in Israel, so as not to give the appearance of interfering in Israel's internal politics.

2010: Rain began falling on different parts of Israel this afternoon, beginning what was expected to be a stormy weekend. Tel Aviv received its first raindrops early in the afternoon, along with Haifa, Netanya, Ra'anana and Kfar Saba.

2010: Thousands of people participated in a march celebrating International Human Rights Day in Tel Aviv this morning. ]

2010: Hundreds of people attended the funeral of former Knesset speaker and Holocaust-survivor advocate Dov Shilansky at the Kiryat Shaul Cemetery in Tel Aviv this morning.

2010: Memorial services were held this morning for Lawrence E. “Larry” Gelf, the Professor-Emeritus in the Department of History at the University of Iowa at Agudas Achim in Iowa City.

2011: As part of the Scholar-In-Residence Weekend at Touro Synagogue in New Orleans, Dr. Ethan Bueno de Mesquita of the University of Chicago is scheduled to lead the Shabbat Torah Study.

2011: Producer Aviva Kempner is scheduled to see the 2011 WJFF Visionary Award recipient at the 22nd Washington Jewish Film Festival followed by a screening of her documentary “Partisans of Vilna” the theme of which is "We will not allow them to take us like beasts to the slaughter."

2011: The second round of weekend events that are part of Hamshoushalayim are scheduled to end today.

2011:Israeli professor Dan Shechtman was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in Stockholm today, and said that scientists have many duties, including keeping an eye on politicians.

2012:The Sephardic Music Festival is scheduled to continue today with performances by Zion 80,Hasidic New Wave with Yakar Rhythms, and Mika Karney

2012(26^thof Kislev, 5773): Second Day of Chanukah

2012(26^thof Kislev, 5773): Eighty-six year old landscape architect Dan Zur, the partner of Lipa Yahalom, passed away today.

2012(26^thof Kislev, 5773): Ninety-seven year old economist Albert O. Hirschman who helped to rescue artists and intellectuals from Nazi-occupied France passed away today. (As reported by William Yardley)

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/24/business/albert-o-hirschman-economist-and-resistance-figure-dies-at-97.html?hpw&_r=0

2012(26^thof Kislev, 5773): Zoltan Zinn-Collis, who was born at High Tatras in 1940 and “was one of only five living survivors of the Holocuast in Ireland” passed away today “in his Athy home.”

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

2012: The Washington Jewish Festival and the Hebrew Language Table are scheduled to present a screening of “There Was Once,” a film by Gabor Kalman.

2012: The Sephardic Scholar Series is scheduled to continue this year with a free concert at the CUNY-Graduate Center with the New York Andalus Ensemble.

2012: Nechemya Weberman a 54 year old unlicensed therapist who is a prominent member of the Satmar Chasidic community in Williamsburg was convicted “of repeatedly sexually abusing a young girl who had been sent to him for help.” (As reported by Sharon Otterman)

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/nyregion/hasidic-man-found-guilty-of-sexual-abuse.html?hp&pagewanted=all&_r=0

2012: After nightfall, Jews worldwide will celebrate the third of the winter festival’s eight nights at which time those in Jerusalem can see a Hanukkah menorah made from the ornamental headgear of a soldier of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

2012: The Palestinian Authority today granted Hamas permission to mount a 25th anniversary celebration in the West Bank in growing signs that Fatah and rival Hamas are working to end the five-year schism between them, Ma'an News Agency reported.

2012: Todayin Stockholm, the Royal Academy of Sciences is scheduled to present the Nobel Prize in chemistry to Dr. Robert Lefkowitz, and the Nobel in economics to Alvin Roth. (As reported by Mark Shulte)

2013: The JCC of Northern Virginia is scheduled to sponsor a reading and discussion of The Reason I Jump by Naokj Higashida.

2013: “The Congress” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.

2013:Keren Kayemet LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) is scheduled to begin distributing free Christmas Trees at Nazareth. (This is not a typo or a joke)

2013:“Hundreds of haredi men from radical sectors of the ultra-Orthodox community rallied once again in Jerusalem tonight in protest at the ongoing detention of two yeshiva students by the army, and against enlistment to the military and national service programs in general.” (As reported by Jeremy Sharon)

2013: “Emergency services across” Israel “were put on high alert as a major storm hit the region which is expected to last through the weekend. Mt. Hermon is already experiencing high winds and snow according to the Israel Metrological Service (As reported by Gavriel Fiske)

2013: Israeli-American chemists Arieh Warshel and Michael Levitt were officially awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, today. The two, along with Martin Karplus, won the award “for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said. (As reported by Adiv Sterman)

2014: At the Historic 6^th& I Synagogue is “Rabbi Shira” is scheduled to present “What It Takes To Officiate at Your Friend’s Wedding.”

2014: “Lester L. Wolff, Civil Air Patrol veteran and former member of Congress, spoke today during a Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony for World War II era Civil Air Patrol members, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C.’

2014: Rabbi Todd Thalblum officiated at the funeral of Sylvia Padzensky.

http://www.cedarmemorial.com/Obituary/2014/Dec/Sylvia-Padensky/

2014: The IDF bolstered security measures across the West Bank this evening amid fears that tensions could escalate after a senior Palestinian official died en route to a Ramallah hospital earlier in the day following clashes with Israeli troops.

2014: “Poland’s constitutional court today overturned a ban on the ritual slaughter of animals which had affected the Jewish and Muslim communities.”

2014: Today, Israeli novelist Amos Oz saw “a film documenting the journey of Haifa University historian Fania Oz-Salzberger, the author’s daughter, to the region in north-western Ukraine, which was populated by more than 350,000 Jews on the eve of World War II.”

2014: Today, Noah Mamet was sworn in as U.S. Ambassador to Argentina.

2014: “As part of its Righteous Among the Nations project, the Raanana Symphonette Orchestra has commissioned an original orchestral piece, “His Finest Hour,” from composer Moshe Zorman in tribute to Perlasca which will have its debut at concert today in Raanana in the presence of Perlasca’s son Franco and daughter-in-law Luciana Amadia.”

2014: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to sponsor a tour of its exhibition “Echoes of the Borscht Belt: Contemporary Photographs by Marisa Scheinfeld.

http://www.marisascheinfeld.com/Video-&-Interviews/The-Jewish-Daily-Forward/1/

2015(28^th of Kislev, 5776): Fourth Day of Chanukah

2015(28^th of Kislev): On the Hebrew calendar “Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Chizkiyah Da Silva, commonly known as the Pri Chadash, the name of the commentary he authored on the Code of Jewish Law.”

2015(28^th of Kislev, 5776): Eighty-seven year old basketball pioneer Dolph Schayes passed away today. (As reported by Richard Goldstein)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/11/sports/basketball/dolph-schayes-a-bridge-to-the-modern-nba-is-dead-at-87.html?_r=0

2015: Jonathan Birnbaum, of JBirnbaum which is located on 47^th in the heart of Manhattan’s famous diamond district reported today that diamonds worth between five and ten million dollars have been stolen from is safe.

2015 Final performance of “Indecent,” “a play by Paula Vogel that “recounts the controversy surrounding the play “God of Vengeance” by Solomon Asch which was produced on Broadway in 1923.

2015: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host an evening with Dr. Danny M. Cohen, the author of Train“which follows the story of six teenage who try to escape Nazi round-ups.”

2015: Catholics should not try to convert Jews and should work with them to fight anti-Semitism, the Vatican said today in a major new document that drew the Church further away from the strained relations of the past.

2015: In Kensington, MD, Temple Emanuel is scheduled to host a presentation by The Foundation for Jewish Studies “Home and Homelessness: European Jews in 1948.”

2015: The Jewish Museum is scheduled to host “acclaimed Israeli pianist Daniel Gortler as he presents a unique chamber music concert featuring Brahms's Die schöne Magelone along with other 19th- and 20th- century classics dedicated to the word.”

2015: Sheldon Adelson purchased the Las Vegas Review-Journal

2015: The 92^nd Street Y is scheduled to “The Poetry of Yehuda Amichai” a celebration of the poet and his works with Robert Alter, Hana Amichai, Jonathan Galassi, Chana Kronfeld, Stanley Moss, Philip Schultz and Leon Wieseltier.

2016: Nobel laureates including Bob Dylan are scheduled to be honored today at ceremony on the anniversary of the death of Alfred Noble – a ceremony that Dylan will not be attending but for which he has sent a speech to be read aloud by somebody else.

2016(10^th of Kislev, 5777): Shabbat Va-yaytzay

2016(10^thof Kislev, 5777): Chabad Chassidim are scheduled to party today in celebration of the release of Dovber Schneuri, the second Lubavitcher Rebbe, by the Russians on the 10^th of Kislev, 5587.

2016: Israeli sculptor Oren Pinhasi’s solo exhibition is scheduled to open at Temp Rubato.

2016: Everyone is scheduled to continue saying prayers on behalf of Rav Adin ben Rivkah Leah – Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz – who is recovering from a stroke.

2016: The Israeli Consulate is scheduled to host “special screening of ‘On the Map” followed by a discussion with Israeli filmmaker Dani Menken.

2017: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including A Bold and Dangerous Family: The Remarkable Story of an Italian Mother, Her Two Sons and Their Fight Against Fascism by Caroline Moorehead, Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life by Robert Dallek, The Education of Eva Moskowitz: A Memoir by Eva Moskowitz and the recently released paperback edition of The Fortunate Ones by Ellen Umansky

2017: The URJ Biennial is scheduled to come to an end today in Boston, MA.

2017: The Breman Museum is scheduled to host a lecture by Warsaw native George Rishfeld who “as an infant he was thrown over the barbed-wire fence of the Vilna Ghetto into the waiting arms of Halinka, the daughter of a man that worked for George’s father.”

2017: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host a lecture in which Dr. Ian Hancock, a Professor at the University of Texas, “discusses the experience of the Roma during the Holocaust, the persistence of prejudice, and the current struggle of the Romani peoples.”

2017: The Center for Jewish History and the Jewish Genealogical Society are scheduled to present a lecture by New York journalist Marisa Fox entitled “By Thread – A Daughter’s Search for Her Mother’s Hidden Identity” in which she examines the life of her mother Tamar Fromer Fox.

2017: Jewish Book Month, an annual event that provides us with a chance to contemplate Jewish books and the lives of authors such as military leader and archeologist Yigael Yadin whose works included Bar-Kochba: The Legendary Hero of the Law Jewish Revolt Against Imperial Rome continues today.

2018(2^ndof Tevet, 5779): Eighth Day of Chanukah

2018: Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to present “The Displacement of Jewish Communal Life in Islamic Lands and Cultural Reconstruction in Israel”

2018: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host “Reclaiming Citizenship: Stories of a New Jewish return to Germany during which “Donna Swarthout, editor of a volume of essays by authors who reclaimed German citizenship as the descendants of persecuted Jews, discusses her story with historian David Sorkin (Yale), whose research on Jewish Emancipation illuminates the meanings of citizenship in Jewish history.”

2018: JW3 is scheduled to host a screening in London of the award winning “Three Identical Strangers.”

2018: As an example of the diversity of activities American Jewish congregations must offer in the 21^st century, in Chevy Chase, MD, Ohr Kodesh is scheduled to host the Second Annual Mentsch Club Charity Bowling Tournament.

2018: As part of its Chanukah celebration, The Museum of Islamic Art is scheduled to host a production for children of “Shmulik the Hedgehog.”

2018: As part of its Chanukah Festival celebrations “for the whole family, The Bible Lands Museum is scheduled to host the final “interactive tour and creative workshop, The Mystery of the Hidden Pitcher.”

2018: In London, Jewish Museum is scheduled to present “Philippe Sands and Adam Wagner on Jewish Human Rights Heroes” as part of an evening that “celebrates the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the lives of the Jewish Human Rights heroes behind it.”

2019: San Francisco State University is scheduled to host “Jewish studies lecturer Alexis Herr” as he discusses “Voice of Genocide, Echoes of the Holocaust.”

2019: In New Orleans, the Jewish Children’s Regional Service, one of the most worthwhile of such organizations that provides meaningful service, is scheduled to hold it Executive Committee Meeting at the Uptown JCC.

2019: The joint convention of the Rabbinical Assembly and the USCJ is scheduled to come to an end today in Boston, MA.

2019: Dizzy’s Club is scheduled to host an “Israeli Jazz Celebration” featuring the Yuval Cohen Sextet.

DECEMBER 11

321: A letter from Emperor Constantine the Great regarding special taxes of this date provides the first evidence of Jews along the Rhine.

361: Emperor Julian, referred to as Julian the Apostate, entered Constantinople as the sole ruler of the Empire. The appellation was affixed to him because unlike his predecessors he did not embrace Christianity and was willing to see a return to previous pagan practices. His “toleration” of other religions would be seen in 363, when, on his way to find the Persians, he announced that the Jews would be allowed to re-build their Temple. The plan was thwarted by an earthquake in the Galilee and by his untimely death at the hands of an assassin.

1474:The Reign of Henry IV as King of Castile, during which “the condition of the Spanish Jews was one of comparative peace and comfort, came to an end today when he passed away at the age of 49.1475: Birthdate of Pope Leo X. To the Christian world, Leo was one of the Popes criticized by Luther for selling indulgencies and perpetuating other non-spiritual practices. To others he was a patron of the arts and one of the Renaissance Popes. In fact, Leo “fostered tolerance of Jewish learning as another aspect of the Renaissance cultural scene.” During a dispute over the Talmud, Leo refused to have the Talmud burned. Instead he had a Christian printer published the text in its entirety without censorship. “Leo confirmed privileges accorded Jews in French papal territory despite protests from the local bishops.” He ended the wearing of Jew Badge in French papal territories and did not enforce the requirement in Italy.

1563: In a war between the Poles and the Russians, Ivan the terrible captured Polotsk and “according to eye witnesses” ordered the approximately 300 Jews who refused to convert to drown in the “Duna.”

1751: Birthdate of Christian Wilhelm von Dohm a friend of Moses Mendelssohn, “a staunch advocate for Jewish emancipation, who published On the Civil Improvement of the Jewish.

1758: Birthdate of German composer and music teacher Carl Friedrich Zelter whose students included Felix Mendelssohn, Fanny Mendelssohn and Gioaccomo Mayerber, an unlikely trio given their ethnic background and the conditions in Germany at that time.

1761(15^th of Kislev, 5522): Moses L.I. zur Kahn, the son of Rabbi Lob Issak zur Kahn and the husband of Sara Wertheimer, who was the daughter of Samson Wertheimer and Frumet Brülle passed away today.

1762(25^th of Kislev, 5523): Chanukah

1772: Birthdate of Buchau, Germany, native Rosechen Obermayer, the wife of Jacob H. Wallersteiner and the mother of Samuel and Henriette Wallersteiner.

1778: Birthdate of Schopfloch, Germany, native Roesle Salomon Joseph, the wife of Leopold Einstein with whom she had had eleven children.

1789: The University of North Carolina is chartered by the North Carolina General Assembly. The first Jewish student group, the Hebrew Culture Society, appeared on campus in 1912. Despite objections, the secretary of the YMCA, Frank Porter Graham, gave them meeting space in his building. In 1936, Jewish community leaders and students organized the Hillel Foundation, one of eleven across the nation.Jewish students began their own fraternities because the existing organizations excluded them. The first Jewish fraternity at Carolina was Tau Epsilon Phi, organized in 1924. By 1926, it had twenty-one members. Notable among them was Harry Schwartz, who starred on the football team, and Emanuel J. Evans, who competed on the track, basketball, and debate teams. Zeta Beta Tau appeared on campus in 1928. In 1951, Evans was elected mayor of nearby Durham, the first Jew to hold that office in North Carolina. Carolina students in 1958 elected their first Jewish student body president, Eli Evans of Durham, whose father had attended the university during the 1920s. Evans published a memoir, The Provincials: A Personal History of Jews in the South, in 1973. According to recent figures 1,000 of Carolina’s 16,000 undergrads are Jewish and 200 of the 10,000 graduate students are Jewish. The school offers approximately 30 Jewish studies courses including a minor in Jewish studies. From a personal point of view, the school’s greatest claim to fame is that Larry Rosenstein, of blessed memory met Judy Levin, of blessed memory while they were both attending Carolina. They married and produced three sons all of whom are proud Tar Heels.

1803: According to the JCR-UK Jewish Communities & Records, birthdate of Nathan Marcus Adler, who served as Chief Rabbi from 1845 to 1890. (The Jewish Encyclopedia shows January 15, 1803 as the birthdate)

1807: In Bremerhaven, Marcus and Henritte Hertz Schwabe gave birth to Johanna Schwabe who married David Mortiz Goldschmidt who gained fame as Johanna Goldschmidt the leader in the fight for women’s right who was the mother of Otto Goldschmidt and the mother-in-law of famed singer Jenny Lind.

1809: Birthdate of Theodore Griesinger, a German clergyman, author and leading anti-Semite.

1813: In the Netherlands coronation of King William I who “began to regulate the Jewish community's internal affairs, by effectively disbanding the Netherlands kehilla, instituting compulsory secular education for Jewish children and waging “a determined battle against Yiddish, which resulted in the Jews' widespread adoption of Dutch.” The efforts of the government were aided by those of the Dutch maskilim, who were of course in favor of integration. (Jewish Virtual Library)

1816: Indiana became the 19th state to join the Union. “In Indiana, towards the end of the 1840’s, there were small organized communities in Fort Wayne, Lafayette and Evansville. The first congregation was organized in Indianapolis in 1856.” During the Civil War, over five hundred Jewish Hoosiers fought for the Union.

1817: Birthdate of Sheerness, Isle of Sheppey Kent native Frances Russel, the wife of Nathaniel Samuel Jacobs.

1817: Sixty five heads of families joined The New Israelite Temple Society (Neuer Israelitischer Tempelverein in Hamburg) which was founded today.

1826: Birthdate of William Henry Waddington, the future Prime Minister of France, who as Foreign Minister provided Laurence Oliphant with a letter of recommendation he could take to the Sultan to further his plan to settle large numbers of Jews in Palestine.

1828: Birthdate of George Lewis Lyon, the native of Portsea, England who served as the secretary of the Portsmouth Hebrew Benevolent Institution and then moved to London where he “secretary of the Jews' and General Literary and Scientific Institution.”

1830(25^thof Kislev, 5591): Chanukah

1833: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Cohen officiated at the wedding of Ziporah Cohen and Joseph Soria of New York City.

1835: Birthdate of Adolf Stoecker, the Lutheran theologian and Court Chaplain to Kaiser Wilhelm II who became an outspoken leader of the anti-Semitic movement in Germany.

1838: Birthdate of Emil Rathenau. A German industrialist, Rathenau was cofounder of the German Edison Company which later became the electrical and telephone giant AEG. He was the father of Walter Rathenau, the famous German statesman from the World War I era.

1839: Alexander Solomon married Alice Barnett at the Great Synagogue today.

1840: In Charleston, SC, Esther G. Barrett Poznanski and Reform Rabbi Gustavus Poznanski, Sr. gave birth to Isaac B. Poznanski the violinist and composer and brother of Joseph, Sarah and Gustavus Poznanski, Jr. who died while serving as a private on the side of the Confederacy in the Civil War.

1843: In Furth, Bavaria, Mina Gerstle and Anton Pickert gave birth to Lehman Pickert, the husband of Bertha Kaufman, who came to the United States in 1858 where he first settled in Cincinnati before finally settling in Boston in 1875.

1848(16^thof Kislev, 5609): Forty-two year old Mauriz Jacobsson, the “son of Abraham Jacobsson and Regina von Halle and the husband of Carolina Weslig with whom he had two children passed away today.

1854: A Jew named Rosenthal was arrested in Louisville, KY today on charges that he had obtained goods valued at $60,000 under false pretenses while in Philadelphia, PA. He left for Philadelphia today in the custody of law officer who had been dispatched from the City of Brotherly Love.

1856: Joseph Cohen married Catherine Joseph at the Great Synagogue today.

1860: Birthdate of Louis Ostheim, the Philadelphia native and son of Philip Ostheim who was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy in 1878.

1861: “Jewish Chaplains” published today reported that Rabbi Arnold Fischel, of New York, “had an interview today with the President, to urge the appointment of Jewish Chaplains for every military Department, they being excluded by an act of Congress from the volunteer regiments, among whom there are thousands of Israelites. In the meantime the Doctor will take charge of the spiritual welfare of the Jewish soldiers on the Potomac. The President assured him that the subject will receive his earnest attention, and expressed the opinion that this exclusion was altogether unintentional on the part of Congress.”

1861: In his own words, Rabbi Arnold Fischel “called this morning at ten o’clock at the White House where hundreds of people were anxiously waiting for admission, some of whom told me that they had been for three days awaiting their turn. I was, nevertheless, at once invited to his room and was received with marked courtesy. After having read the letter of the Board and delivered to him several letters of introduction, he questioned me on various matters connected with this subject and then told me that he fully admitted the justice of my remarks, that he believed the exclusion of Jewish chaplains to have been altogether unintentional on the part of Congress, and agreed that something ought to be done to meet this case. I suggested that he might do for the Jewish what he had done for the Christian volunteers and take upon himself the responsibility of appointing Jewish chaplains for the Hospitals. He replied that he had done that at a time when Congress was not in session deeming the subject to require immediate attention, but that after the Meeting of Congress he would not be justified in taking the responsibility upon himself. Finally, he told me that it was the first time this subject had been brought under his notice, that it was altogether new to him, that he would take the subject into serious consideration, that I should call again tomorrow morning and if he has five minutes to spare he would receive me and let me know his views. I thanked him for his kind reception, and expressed to him my best wishes for his welfare. In the course of my remarks, I gave him clearly to understand that I came to him not as an office seeker but to contend for the principle of religious liberty, for the constitutional rights of the Jewish Community and for the welfare of the Jewish volunteers, which he seemed fully to appreciate.”

1861: Levy Duis married Phoebe Neuberger today in Amsterdam, Holland.

1862: Union troops including the 59^th New York Volunteer Regiment which had been formed by Lt. Colonel Phillip J. Joachimsen began crossing the Rappahannock River at the start of the Battle of Fredericksburg, the military disaster led by General Ambrose Burnside.

1866(3^rdof Tevet, 5627): Hirsch Kolisch, the philanthropist from Nikolsburg who established a school for deaf-mutes passed away today in Vienna.

1872: Philadelphia native Myer Asch who was taken prisoner while fighting with his cavalry unit “in front of Richmond” and was “brevetted Major of United States Volunteers” was elected for a third time to serve as Senior Commander of the George G. Meade Post Number 1 of the Grand Army of the Republic today.

1875: Birthdate of religious leader Yehuda Leib Maimon who served as an Israeli cabinet minister.

1875: Edward Levy, who had assumed by Royal license of Lawson in addition to and after Levy making him Edward Levy-Lawson, today legally changed the name of his to Harry Lawson Webster Levy-Lawson

1875: According to today’s issue of the British Medical Journal, The Jews’ Deaf and Dumb Home which “was founded in 1863 by Baroness Mayer de Rothschild as a school where resident Jewish children could learn to speak” has been moved from its original location in White Chapel to Walmer Road, Notting hill.

1876: It was reported today Boston police have arrested several notorious female shoplifters included a Lena Nugent a Jewess known as “Black Lena.” Nugent and one of her accomplices, an English woman named Tilly Miller are wanted by authorities in Brooklyn, NY on charges of shoplifting and jail breaking.

1876(25^thof Kislev, 5637): First day of Chanukah

1876: In Surry, England, Sir Henry Hildyard and his wife Annette gave birth to decorated war hero and diplomate General Sir Reginald John Thoroton Hildyard who in 1939 when some British leaders thought they could make a deal with Hitler and when anti-Semitism was a known factor among certain members of the British upper crust, told a meeting of the English-Speaking Union in Bermuda that “ “our hatred of what” Hitler “has done, our hatred of the way he has treated the Jews, has made” America and Great Britain “very close.’

1876: The Hebrew Charity Ball is scheduled to take place tonight at the Academy of Music in New York City. The Executive Committee responsible for this fundraising activity includes H.S. Allen, Henry Rice, J.F Bamberger, L.S. Levy, M.H. Moses, S.B. Solomon, C.C. Allen, Joseph Koch and J.S. Isaacs.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C0CE4DC133AE63BBC4852DFB467838D669FDE

1880: Birthdate of Berlin born “theater critic, author and co-founder of the Jüdischer Kulturbund” Julius Bab who fled the Nazis and finally settled in New York City in 1940.

https://www.lbi.org/digibaeck/results/?qtype=pid&term=431122

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Bab#/media/File:Berlin_GTafel_Bab.jpg

1880: A fair that will raise funds for the Ladies’ Lying in Relief Society and the Forty-fourth Street Synagogue is scheduled to open at the Metropolitan Concert Hall in New York City.

1881: In Poland, Jacobi Bornstein, the son of Aron and Sara Bornstein, and his wife Tehelka Bornstein gave birth to Elise Besser

1882: “Literary Notes” published today contains a brief review of Jews of Barnowby Karl Emil Franzos. “This collection of Jewish stories” based on life in Eastern Galicia “is certainly one of the most valuable contributions made during this century” in helping us to understand the customs of Polish and Russian Jews.

1882: It was reported today that several ministers in New York have spoken out on the subject of the Sunday Closing Laws. Reverend Charles H. Eaton spoke of the need to remember the spirit of the law and not just the letter of the law. “The Jew who closed his store on Saturday kept his Sabbath according to his conscience and it would be wrong to compel him by force to change the Sabbath of his faith. (Strangely enough, this comes at a time when leaders of the Reform movement were trying to substitute Sunday services for the traditional Shabbat Saturday morning service.)

1882: A fire in Kingston destroys Spanish and Portuguese and Ashkenasic synagogues along with many other buildings

1882: In Bresalu, Gretchen Kauffmann and Gustav Jacob Born gave birth to Max Born, pioneer in the field of quantum mechanics. The German born physicist won the Nobel Prize in 1954, with Walther Bothe of Germany, for his statistical formulation of the behavior of subatomic particles. His studies of the wave function led to the replacement of the original quantum theory, which regarded electrons as particles, with a mathematical description He also won the Max Blanc Medal and the Hughes Medal. He passed away in 1970. Born was a Jew who converted to the Lutheran faith in 1914.

1882: Birthdate of Fiorello H. La Guardia, Republican Congressman and three term mayor of New York City. The flamboyant reformer had a Jewish mother and an Italian father. At one point in his career, the Democrats ran a Jewish candidate against La Guardia. According to legend which may be fact, La Guardia countered by insisting on debating his opponent in Yiddish. While the “Little Flower” was conversant in the tongue of Eastern European Jewry, his opponent had to beg off since he wasn’t.

1883: Birthdate of Gustav Althoff, the Prague resident murdered at Terezin in 1944.

1883: Birthdate of Philadelphia born “yarn manufacturer” Alex Van Straaten, the “President of Northern Liberties Hospital.”

1884: In New York, the Sixth Precinct Station House was filled with a variety of clothing, haberdashery and furnishings that had been taken from the house of Marx Cohen a Jew is, “an alleged receiver of stolen goods.”

1885: “Victoria’s Fifty Years of Reign” published today says that if the celebration of the British Monarch’s time on the throne is to be “a Jubilee” it should follow the pattern of the Jubilee described in Leviticus. Based on the words of the ancient Israelites the celebration should be a year-long affair that should actually begin with the 49^th year of her ascension to the throne. (Another example of the indirect impact that Jewish culture has had on the world)

1886: One day after she had passed away, “Kendal bat Jacob” was buried at the “Bancroft Road (Maiden Lane) Jewish Cemetery.

1886: Birthdate of Nice native Marcel Lattès the French movie composer who was murdered at Aushwitz.

1887(25^thof Kislev, 5648): Chanukah

1887: In St. Louis, MO, Caroline and Joseph Lazarus Kranson gave birth to Willie Lewis Kranson

1887: Judge M.S. Isaacs presided over the annual meeting of the Hebrew Free School Association in New York City.

1888: Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler officiated at the wedding of Miss Fannie Foster, the daughter of Myer Foster and Jonas F. Emanuel in New York City.

1888: This evening, Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler officiated at the wedding of Miss Ophelia V. Herman daughter of Simon Herman and Leon Sonneborn.

1889: Birthdate of Russian born “clothing merchant” Samuel Kappel who came to the United States where he co-founded the clothing chain of Howard Stores” and was active in numerous Jewish Philanthropies while raising a family of four daughters with his wife Minnie Kappel.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1957/11/12/102282687.pdf

1889: It was reported today that the actor M.B. Curtis will be appearing a newly written and as yet unnamed comedy in which he will a Jewish matchmaker who marries one of his clients when he is unable to find her a match. (Curtis is no stranger to playing Jewish roles since he began his career playing a Polish immigrant traveling salesman in “Sam’l of Posen. As reported by Harley Erdman)

1890(29^thof Kislev, 5651): Fifth Day of Chanukah

1890: According to reports published today a committee has been organized to convey the views of several prominent Englishmen including Archbishop of Canterbury, the Duke of Argyle, the Duke of Westminster and Lord Ripon concerning the treatment of the Jews to the Czar. They declare “that the renewed sufferings of the Jews in Russia from the operation of the sever and exceptional edicts against them and the disabilities placed upon them are deeply to be deplored and that in this last decade of the 19^th century religious liberty is a principle which should be recognized by every Christian community as among natural rights.”

1890: Among those who arrived at the Barge Office aboard the SS Noordland today were three Russian Jews, Moses Winterstein, his “18 year old wife and 22 year old daughter” who were destitute be who claimed that any of Winterstein’s other three children who were already in this country would vouch for them.

1890: “Russian Anti-Jewish Laws” published described new anti-Jewish laws that will be promulgated in 1891 including the extension of provisions already in place in Poland that prohibit the selling, leasing or mortgaging to Jews of any real estate in any part of the empire and that dispossess the Jews of any real estate they may already hold.

1890: Simon Ascher who employed Maximillian as “a confidential clerk” said that that Maximillian Lasker probably committed suicide because of “overwork.”

1890(29^thof Kislev, 5651): Sixty-one year old Henry Nordlinger, the native of Wurtemberg who came to New York about 40 years ago where founded the importing firm of Henry Nordlinger & Co. along with his brother J.D. Nordlinger died suddenly while along Chambers Street. He was a supporter and/or member of the Harmonie Club, Temple Emanu-El the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, the Hebrew Technical Institute, the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews, Mt Sinai Hospital, the Montefiore Home, the United Hebrew Charities and the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children.

1891: Three days after he had passed away, 83 year old Samuel Mocatta, the son of Moses Mocatta and Abigail Lindon and the husband of Miriam Mocatta with whom he had had six children, was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1892: Members of the Hebrew Free School Association elect officersed at the annual meeting this morning after discussing Jacob H. Schiff’s plan for “consolidating all the branches of the Hebrew educational system in the Educational Alliance.”

1892: Birthdate of Leo Ornstein. Born in Russia, the son of a Cantor, this composer’s early works showed the influence of Jewish liturgical music as well as the influence of Armenian chants.

1892: Reports published today claimed that embezzler Louis Weinschenk, the prominent member of the Chicago business and Jewish communities has fled to New Orleans as he tries to make his way to Mexico City where he hopes to avoid the consequences of his “extravagant living.”

1892: Four hundred people had signed up for the new singing classes at the Hebrew Institute at Jefferson and Broadway organized by Frank Damrosch.

1892: It was reported today that a meeting of the Conservative members of the Reichstag turned “itself into a frenzy of Jew-baiting zeal” where “too much Judaism” was blamed for the lack of success of people living in rural areas.

1892: It was reported that approximately “1,500 people mostly wealth and all well-educated and refined” will be affected by the new royal decree calling for the immediate of Jews from Moscow unless they agree to be baptized in the Orthodox Church.

1892: It was reported today “that the Russians will do their best to foment the anti-Semitic outcry in Paris” in retaliation for the refusal of the Rothschilds to take up a new loan desired by” Minster of Finance Sergei White.

1892: It was reported today that “the anti-Semitic propaganda in Austria has received fresh energy” as can be seen by “a mass meeting recently held at the Vienna Town Hall” where Prince Alois Lichtenstein advised a crowd that included 2,000 working people “to boycott Jewish tradesmen.”

1892: It was reported today that “Sarah Bernhardt me with a cool reception in Moscow because she is a Jewess” and that season-seat holders offered their tickets for her series at any price.

1893: “The Proposed Tax On Bourse Transactions Approved by the Masses” published today described the willingness of the Reichstag to pass new, increased taxes on Bourse transactions because most people are not affected by them and because those who will suffer the greatest loss will be “the Jews who dominate the Frankfort and Berlin Bourses.”

1893: “Enemies of Judaism” published today provided Rabbi Gustav Gottheil view that the two greatest threats to the survival of the Jewish people came from missionaries who “desired to close the doors of the synagogue and make it a church” and “Jews who have reached a lofty position” and say that “this religion might been all right once, but it is not now.”

1894: “The body of Abraham Keyser, a retired grocer, was found in the Hutchinson River, near Pelham Bay Park in Westchester County” New York today.

1895: In “Kremenchuk, Poltava, Russian Empire (now Ukraine)”, a Jewish cantor and his wife gave to long lived composer and pianist Leo Ornstein.

1895: The attendance at the today’s session of the Hebrew Fair “was much larger than on the previous day” and the receipts collected almost eclipsed the total collected on the opening night of the event being held at Madison Square Garden.

1898(27^th of Kislev, 5659): Third Day of Chanukah

1898(27^th of Kislev, 5659): Seventy-nine year old Max Grünbaum, a German orientalist who specialized in Ladino and Yiddish literature passed away today in Munich.

1898: During the winter social season, Baron Hirsch leads hunting parties at his estate in Norfolk.

1899:The crisis between the Neue Freie Presse and Herzl comes to an end. Herzl is paid the highest salary at the "Neue Freie Presse" and is given the exclusive editorship of the entire literary section.

1899: In Denver, the first patient, “a Protestant Swedish woman from Minnesota,” entered the National Jewish Hospital for Treatment of Consumptives one day after it had opened.

1899: In Charleston, SC, Etta Goodman married Jacob J. Goldstein of New York City.

1901: “Elizabeth Loeb, the daughter of Jacob L. Loeb who had married Benjamin Vogel Becker on June 20, 1900 gave birth to John Leonard Becker.

1903: It was reported today that Baron Arthur de Rothschild, who had died while visiting Monte Carlo was a Parisian residing at Cornay-la-Ville, Department of Seine-et-Oise, France.

1903:Herzl asks for an interview with the Austrian Foreign Minister Agenor Goluchowsky. He writes to Wenzel von Plehve and repeats his request that the Russian ambassador in Constantinople be directed to give his support to the Zionist demands. He also pursues his efforts to open a branch of the Jewish Colonial Trust in St. Petersburg.

1904: In Hanover, GermanyRahel and Philipp Nussbaum gave birth to “surrealist painter” Felix Nussbaum. Unfortunately, being the son of a German patriot and a veteran of the Kaiser’s WW I Army did not save Felix from death at Auschwitz

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Self_Portrait_with_Jewish_Identity_Card_-Felix_Nussbaum_-_1943.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Felix_Nussbaum,_Stazione_ferroviaria_di_Alassio,_1933.jpeg

1905: Birthdate of award winning Anglo-Jewish author Robert David Quixano Henriques

1905: Establishment today of Russkoye Znamya, a newspaper “notoriously known for its anti-Semitic bias which was the organ of the Union of the Russian People

1905: Workers in Kiev rise in revolt and issue a manifesto that among other things calls for “national emancipation of …Jews” and “the immediate end to the Jewish pogroms, which embarrasses our people.”

1905: Today, “at Ellis Island…500 Russian refugees” including “Jews…who had hidden in the darkest corners of Odessa to escape certain persecution or probable death” “told the United States immigration officials” “of the horrors they had seen and declared that the conditions were so terrible that no news dispatch could have possibly exaggerated the actual situation.”

1905: Representative Sulzer introduced a resolution in Congress today condemning and deploring “the cruel outrages, the unspeakable brutalities, and the unwarranted and wholesale assassinations of Russia’ Jewish citizens” and calling for an immediate end to them.

1905: “The reports of the terrible conditions prevailing in the Czar’s domain and the frightful massacres of the Jews by the mobs” were all verified today by the five hundred Russian Jewish immigrants who arrived in New York yesterday.

1905: It was reported today that in response to a request for “small change contributions” in one evening the Janitors’ Society, most of whose members lived on the Lower East Side, raised $150 to provide relief for the Jews trying to survive during the current wave of massacres in Russia.

1906(24^th of Kislev, 5667): In the evening kindle the first light of Chanukah.

1906: Two hundred and twenty-five retail kosher meat butchers went on strike because of the increase in the price of beef. There were more meat riots tonight in the Brownsville district of Brooklyn and several butcher shops were destroyed. Additional police had to be called out to deal with the mob.

1907: Birthdate of Berlin born lawyer Axel Rosin who came to the United States when the Nazis rose to power where he married Katharine Scherman, rose to the presidency of the Book-of-the-Month Club and became head of the Scherman Foundation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/28/obituaries/28rosin.html

1908: Birthdate of Ruth Weiss, the native of Vienna who moved to China where she witnessed World War II, the end of Chiang Kai-Shek, the rise of Mao Zedong and the Communist takeover.

1908: In New York, Paula (née Schoenberger) Eilers, who was Jewish and her husband Hio Peter Eilers who was Irish gave birth to actress Sally Eilers.

1909(28^th of Kislev, 5670): Parsashat Miketz; Fourth Day of Chanukah

1909(28th of Kislev, 5670):Ludwig Mond, German-born, British chemist and industrialist who was the founder of Mond Nickel Company, the husband of Frida Lowenthal and the father of Robert and Alfred Mond passed away today.

1909: Birthdate of Abraham Marcovich who gained fame as radiologist Abraham W. March.

1909: At the Reichstag, a debate on the budget gave way to a discussion of a speech Ambassador Bernstorff had delivered in Philadelphia which was attacked by Herr Zimmerman, of the Anti-Semites, who expressed displeasure at disparaging remarks about the Pan-German movement.

1912(1^st of Tevet): Seventh Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet observed for the last time during the Presidency of William Howard Taft, the only person to serve as President of the United States and Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

1912: In San Francisco, founding of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.

1913: Two days after he passed away Franco-Jewish composer and pianist Elie-Miriam Delaborde “was buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery today.

1913: In Providence, RI, Madeline (Talamo) and David Dworkin gave birth to Harvard and Oxford trained legal scholar Ronald Dworkin.

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/15/us/ronald-dworkin-legal-philosopher-dies-at-81.html

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/law-obituaries/9873847/Professor-Ronald-Dworkin.html

1914: Hahambashi Nahum calls upon the Ottoman government in Palestine to protect the Jews in the face of an anti-foreign movement.

1915(4^thof Tevet, 5676): Parashat Vayigash

1915(4^thof Tevet, 5676): German born and German trained Rabbi Meyer Elkin who served congregations included those in Liverpool, UK, Philadelphia and the UK before serving Congregation Beth Israel in Hartford, CT and about whom there is some debate as to how old he really was, passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1915/12/13/106788842.pdf

1915: After having been notified today by “Russian military authorities that he must present himself at once for” military training, pianist Aaron Kaufman and 10 other men left for America via Siberia after having gone home and discussed the matter with his wife Etta who urged him to flee, packed his bags and slipped their live savings into his pocket while he was kissing his son Joseph good-bye.

1915: It was reported today that violinist Mischa Elman played a concert “for the benefit of the Jewish sufferers from the war” which raised “a considerable sum” thanks to “the sale of lowers, programs and souvenirs.”

1916: The St. Louis branch of “the Women’s Proclamation Committee, the national women’s organization for Jewish war relief of which Mrs. Samuel Elkeles is President” held a bazaar today which enabled them to send the national committee “a draft for $1,000.”

1916: While the Senate was debating an immigration bill “which specifically barred Japanese immigration” Senator Gallinger asked whether this could lead to Jews being barred from immigrating to the United States, Senator Reed said, “The Jews by race and by blood have been civilized for thousands of years. They spring from the race that gave us our religion and the fundamentals of our laws….It is plain that we should make an effort to protect our citizenship of undesirables and keep out all not capable of thorough amalgamation.” (Editor’s Note – In fact future immigration bills would effectively bar most Jews from coming to the United States.)

1917(26^thof Kislev): Second Day of Chanukah

1917: Mrs. Hannah Solomon and Mrs. Israel Cowan are scheduled to speak today at “the third regular meeting of the K.A.M. Auxiliary” which meets in “the vestry rooms of the Temple.”

1917: British troops under General Allenby make their way into Jerusalem, defeating the Ottoman Turks and liberating Judea. The whole city turned out to greet the General, as did the Chief Sephardic and Ashkenazi Rabbis. The Jaffa Gate was opened after years of disuse to enable Allenby to enter on foot and also to enable him to enter into the city without making use of the gap in wall created for Kaiser William in 1898.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Jerusalem#/media/File:Capture_and_occupation_of_Palestine_by_British.jpg

1917: Henry Morgenthau wrote today, “The fall of Jerusalem…is surely an event of the greatest significance to us all” and that “for the whole civilized world the 10^thof December, 1917, will be remembered as a day of profound historical interest, and, I hope also of large meaning for the future.”

1917:Corporal Louis Isaac Salek, a Gallipoli veteran from New Zealand, flew the first Jewish flag ever to fly over Jerusalem since the city’s fall to the Romans 2000+ years ago.” The flag was made by an Egyptian-Jewish department store owner named Moreno Cicurel with the assistance of a tailor from Alexandria named Eliezer Slutzkin. Unlike Israel’s present flag, Salek’s version was blue and white, the top half blue, the bottom half white with a Magen David in the center, but within the triangles there were rounded edges. Salek planted Moreno’s flag “atop the Tower of David - the Citadel - where it flew for 20 minutes before being removed by the British who had just conquered Palestine from the Turks.”

1917: On the second day of Chanukah, the Atlanta Constitution headline read, "Jerusalem Falls into the Hands of British Troops; Jerusalem Is Freed from Turk after Virtually we Centuries - British Capture the Holy City.

1917: “Although the campaign for the five million fund for Jew war relief and welfare work in the army and navy brought in $266,700” today “with a total of $2,866,000” having been raised today, the leadership was not satisfied because even with the promise of anonymous donation of one million dollars the drive will have to take in over $400,000 a day and currently the average daily collection has been a little under $300,000.

1917: The Times of London “says it understands” that “no attempt will be made to define the future position of Jerusalem until a general peace comes” and that the in the meantime the city wll be treated as in British military occupation and will be under martial law.”

1917: “A committee of the American Union of Rumanian Jews” including Dr. P.A. Siegelstein, the President, Leo Wolfson, Counselor Abraham L. Kalman, Executive Secretary Edward Herbert, Philadelphians Dr. M.Y. Belder and A.B. Goldenberg and Washingtonian Reuben Fink met with President Wilson today “and asked him to use his good offices with the present Rumanian Government to obtain civil rights for the Rumanian Jews.”

1917: “A Hanukah musicale and dance” is scheduled to “be given in Earl Hall” today “by the Council of Jewish Societies of Columbia” University in New York City.

1917: On the same day that it reported on the fall of Jerusalem to the British, the Atlanta Constitution carried a story entitled "Jerusalem's Fall Brings Happiness to Atlanta Father" which told of how Abraham Amato now believes that "he will be able to bring his wife and children" who are living to Jerusalem to the United States. Amatao was a Sephardic Jew born on the isle of Rhodes, who had lived in Jerusalem before coming to Atlanta.

1918: “Felix M. Warburg, the Chairman of the Campaign Committee for the Jewish Relief drive” which has a goal of raising five million dollars “announced tonight that that the close of the day, $2,203,300 had been raised.”

1919: In Philadelphia, PA, “Louis and Rose (Pogost) Masteroff” gave birth to Joseph “Joe” Masteroff, the Tony Award winning playwright who gave the world “Cabaret.” (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/28/obituaries/joe-masteroff-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

1919: “Andrew Bonar Law, the spokesman for the Government, announced in the House of Commons today that dispatches had been received corroborating a report that Cossacks and a volunteer corps had carried out a pogrom in which several hundred Jews were killed in the suburb of Podol when the Bolsheviki evacuated Kiev” in October.

1919: Miss Gladys L. Baruch, the daughter of Mrs. Joseph Baruch and a cousin of financier Bernad M. Barcuch married Harold Marian Iseman, who fought overseas with the Rainbow Division during the World War, this evening at the Hotel St. Regis.

1920: Birthdate of Austrian born American violinist Eric Rosenblith.

1920: Birthdate of Frank Blaichman (Ephraim Blaichman), the native Kamionka, Poland who fought to save Jews during WW II and was the leader of at least one group of partisans.

http://www.jewishpartisans.org/mini_bio1.php?&pageName=mini+bio+short+bio+1&jus=4lbibi5n21hu1t83uvlavpkn32&vqf=F&parnum=1

http://www.amazon.com/Rather-Die-Fighting-Frank-Blaichman/dp/B003D7JTCM

http://www.un.org/en/holocaustremembrance/2011/FrankBlaichman_studyguide.pdf

1921: The Executive Committee of the American Jewish Committee met today.

1922: In Kamionka, Poland, grain merchant Chaim Israel Blajchman and Ita Lewin gave birth to Franek Blajchman, known as Frank Blaichman who became a teenage leader of a band of anti-Nazi fighters during WW II.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/obituaries/frank-blaichman-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

1922: This evening a dinner in honor of the national president and officers of the Council of Jewish Women is scheduled to held at the Standard Club as part of National Council Day when President Rose Brenner of Brooklyn addressed an afternoon meeting at the Sinai Social Center.

1922: “Professor Owen R. Lovejoy of New York” is scheduled to speak on “The Child and Progress: A Study in Modern Civilization” this evening at Temple Sinai in Chicago.

1922: In the Bronx, Isaac and Manya Ridnyik Goodside gave birth to Grace Goodside who gained fame as Grace Paley, author, feminist and "somewhat combative pacifist and cooperative anarchist,” She has written three highly acclaimed collections of short fiction including Later the Same Day (1985) and Enormous changes at the Last Minute(1974), as well as three poetry collections. She contributes fiction to many prominent periodicals. She has taught at City College of New York as writer-in residence, as well as at Sarah Lawrence College. Raised in a socialist family by parents who had been arrested by the Russian czarist regime, Paley's progressive stances and concern for the underdog often emerge in her writing. Her political activism as an adult began with her work with the PTA at her children's school. She has been and remains actively involved in anti-war, anti-nuclear and feminist movements. Her more controversial activities include a visit to North Vietnam in 1969 and her role in co-founding the Jewish Women's Committee to End the Occupation of the Left Bank and Gaza in 1987. Paley has been the recipient of many grants and awards including a Senior Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts in recognition of her life-time contribution to literature in 1987. In 1986, Governor Mario Cuomo named Paley as the first official New York State Writer.

1923: “In the town of Satorauljaujhely, in present day Hungary,” Benjamin and Rose Lenovitz gave birth to Lillian Lenovitz who gained fame as Lillian Cahn, who along with her husband Miles “founded the Coach Leatherware Company.” (As reported by Paul Vitello)

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/08/business/lillian-cahn-creator-of-the-coach-handbag-dies-at-89.html?action=click&contentCollection=Business%20Day&module=RelatedCoverage&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article

1923: Birthdate of pianist Menahem Pressler. A native of German, he immigrated to Palestine in 1939 before finally settling in the United States where, among other accomplishments, he help to found the Beaux Arts Trio.

1924: “Fresh outbreaks of anti-Semitic demonstrations by students have caused authorities to order the closing of the University of Jassy” but authorities in Bucharest checked similar demonstrations today in Bucharest.

1925: Birthdate of Bronx County, NY native and WW II Army Air Corps veteran Alvin A. Achenbaum he the holder of an MBA from Columbia who held senior positions with four major advertising agencies whiledfounding the Achenbaum Institute of Marketing.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=177480876

1925(24^thof Kislev, 5689): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah light.

1925: Birthdate of Paul Greengard, the American neurologist who was awarded a share of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (with Arvid Carlsson of Sweden and Austrian-American Eric R. Kandel) for their discoveries concerning how drugs affect the brain and recognizing drug addiction as a brain disease. Greengard traced the biochemical reactions that occur in nerve cells in response to neurotransmitters such as dopamine. Abused stimulants, such as methamphetamine, alter nerve cells' exposure or reactions to neurotransmitters, which produce feelings of pleasure and leads to addiction. Greengard's continuing research on how cocaine and amphetamine change neurotransmitter function may make possible medications to prevent or treat the addictive effect.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/14/obituaries/paul-greengard-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

1926(6^th of Tevet, 5687): Parashat Vayigash

1927: “Thirty More Are Hurt in Rumanian Riot” published today described how “several hundred students held anti-Semitic demonstrations in Jassy yesterday and how thirty members of a congregation were beaten and severely injured” while attending Shabbat morning services.

1928: Joseph C. Hyman, the secretary of the Joint Distribution Committee who has just returned to New York this week from a trip to Berlin and Moscow said today “help must be obtained in America if the relief societies for Jews in Russian cities and towns are to remain active.”

1928: One thousand men and women who had paid “$100 a couple for their seats” for a dinner at the Hotel Astor tonight heard Mayor Jimmy Walker “praise the public spirited work of the Jews in New York” who have supported “the Bronx Home of the Daughters of Jacob” which provides care for the destitute aged.”

1929: In the Bronx, Irving Sperling, a Broadway ticket broker and Peggy Sperling, a milliner, gave birth to Donald Seymour Engel “a lawyer who helped pop stars like Olivia Newton-John, Donna Summer and the Dixie Chicks wrest greater control of their careers from their record companies.” (As reported by Bruce Weber)

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/business/donald-s-engel-persistent-contract-lawyer-to-the-stars-dies-at-84.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&_r=0

1930: Two Englishman named Kirby and Macartney who have been operating in the Akaba region of the Red Sea coast, must be feeling quite a bit wealthier today after having been granted the concession “to exploit the valuable mineral deposits regarded as equal in importance to those in the Dead Sea Area.”

1931 In Camden, NJ, Rabbi Grayzel was the guest services at Friday night services during which Congregation Bethel continued the celebration of its “tenth anniversary.”

1931: In Providence, Rhode Island Madeline (Talamo) and David Dworkin gave birth to legal scholar and philosopher Ronald Dworkin.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/law-obituaries/9873847/Professor-Ronald-Dworkin.html

1932: “The support of more than 100 Jewish organizations representing social, religious, educational and welfare interests with a combined membership of more than 100,000 in New York City was pledged today to the Zionist movement, with which the groups had not previously been affiliated.”

1933: Following the death of the incumbent mayor, the city council named Sam Frank as Mayor of Reno, Nevada, a position held for two years while also serving as the manager of the Reno Municipal Airport. Frank was the first Jew to serve as Mayor.

1933: In Providence, Rhode Island, Madeline and David Dworkin gave birth to Ronald Dworkin, the legal scholar and philosopher of Jurisprudence.

1933: “Counsellor-At-Law” a film about poor Jew from the East Side who became a successful lawyer directed by William Wyler, produced by Carl Laemmle, Jr. and with a screenplay by Elmer Rice was released today in the United States.

1933: Birthdate of Louis Lentin, the Irish “theatre, film and television director’ who was the husband of Ronit Lentin, a Sabra who moved to Ireland in 1969.

1934: It was reported today that “that the American Jewish Congress” has “requested the AAU to set up a board of review to keep close check on the extent to which Germany is adhering to her proises of fair treatment to Jewish athletes in connection with the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.”

1935: One day after she had passed away, funeral services were held today for sixty-seven year old Bella (Epstein) Unterberg, the wife of philanthropist Israel Unterberg who founded the Young Women’s Hebrew Association in her home in September of 1902.

https://jwa.org/media/ywha-bella-unterberg-still-image

1936(27^th of Kislev, 5697): Third Day of Chanukah

1936: “Pagliacci” a film adaptation of the opera produced by Max Schach, starring Richard Tauber with music by Hanns Eisler was released today in the United Kingdom

1936: “The annual ‘Who’s Who” issue of The American Hebrew published today listed 299 Jews and six non-Jews who had distinguished themselves for their efforts toward better understanding between Christians and Jews for citation including Supreme Court Justice William T. Collins, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, Albert Einstein, civic leader Harry F. Guggenheim, producer Max Gordon, Governor Herbert H. Lehman, actor Paul Muni, actress Alla Nazimova, clubwoman Mrs. William Dick Sporborg, philanthropist Felix M. Warburg and author Edna Ferber.

1936: In a statement issued today, “the New York Board of Jewish Ministers…urged the support of the people of all faiths in a campaign now being carried on to aid oppressed Christian exiles from Germany.”

1937:At Yeshiva College, Governor Frank Murphy of Michigan speaks at the opening session of a two-day national conference of Jewish organizations which is attended by more than 600 delegates. Dr. Bernard Revel, President of Yeshiva College also addresses the delegates.

1938: In West Vancouver, British Columbia Ethel (nee Frankel) and Sol Horowitz gave birth to Michael Horowitz who has the dubious distinction of being “a former lose associate of Timothy Leary” and is the father of Winona Ryder and Uri Horowitz.

1939: All Jews living within General Government of Germany were held liable for two years of forced labor.

1941: Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. This has to rate as one of the topic strategic blunders in history. Under the terms of the Axis treaty, the Germans did not have to declare war on the United States. But Hitler was so “angry” with the United States and so convinced of his own invincibility that he blundered into war with America. If it had not been for Hitler’s hubris, the United States would have found itself fighting only Japan.

1941: A Jewish ghetto is established at Lutsk, Ukraine.

1941: Over the next two days, more than 14,000 Jews are murdered by Einsatzkommandos in Simferopol, Ukraine.

1942(3^rdof Tevet, 5703): Eight Day of Chanukah (Yes, the dates for Chanukah can float depend on whether or not Kislev has 29 or 30 days)

1942(3^rdof Tevet, 5703): Seventy-five year old Samuel Mark Newmark, the son of Augusta and Joseph Phillip Newmark and the husband of Carolyn C. Newmark with whom he had two children and who held a patent for “Newmark’s Pure,” a “coffee, cinnamon, tea and lemon extract used for food-flavoring purposes” passed away today.

1942: In Paris, Etienne began a multi-day auction of “the George Via Impressionists” which was attended by Nazi occupation officials who were in the business of confiscating art, much of it owned by Jews, for collections in the Reich.

1942: Jewish inmates of a labor camp at Lutsk, Ukraine, are informed by a Christian woman that the camp is about to be liquidated. The Jews quickly planned a revolt.

1943(14^thof Kislev, 5704): Thirty-nine year old Ricardo Reuven Pacifici, the Italian Rabbi who refused to desert the Jews of Genoa was murdered at Auschwitz today after betrayal led to his capture by the Nazis.

1944(25th of Kislev, 5705): Chanukah

1944: As Jews kindle the candle for the second night of Chanukah, the 1,361 Jews aboard the Kasztner transport found refuge in Caux, Switzerland. For more see Gaylen Ross’ www.killingkasztner.com

1944: Yehuda Amital, the Romanian born rabbi, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion and Minister without Portfolio, arrived in Palestine after having survived a Nazi concentration camp.

1944: The surviving 2,000 Jews of Monowitz, also known as Auschwitz III, lit candles on Chanukah in remembrance of the 12,000 who perished.

1945: The Palestinian Arab Council (Higher Committee) announces opposition to the Anglo-American inquiry into Palestine. Arab League has offered cooperation.

1946:Dr. Emanuel Neumann, vice president of Zionist Organization of America says Jews of Palestine will have to rely on U.S. and armed strength since they cannot rely on the British.

1947: “Ten Jews were killed when their convoy, carrying food and water to the Etzion Bloc settlements, was ambushed just south of Bethlehem.”

1947:The British government announces its intention to terminate its responsibility under mandate on May 15, 1948.

1947: Colonial Secretary Arthur Creech-Jones of Britain appeals to UN to speed up its partition plans.

1947: In a six hour battle, Haganah troops fought off a major Arab attack on the Old City of Jerusalem, home to 2,500 Jews.

1948: The UN General Assembly established the Palestine Conciliation Commission with primary responsibility for preparing for the international governance of Jerusalem. Of all the lame committees, panels and commissions created by the UN this had to be one of the lamest.

1948:King Farouk of Egypt and Syrian foreign minister disclose that they had warned King Abdullah of Transjordan not to annex Palestine.

1948: Elias Sasson, an Israeli representative at the ceasefire negotiations, “met Abdullah el-Tell and Shawkat al-Sati “King Abdullah's confidant and personal physician”

1949(20^th of Kislev, 5710): J. Isaac Friedman, a native of Natchez, Louisiana, the son of Samuel and Caroline S. Friedman and the brother of Leon Friedman with whom he served the Louisiana State Legislature passed away today.

1950(2^nd of Tevet, 5711): Eighth Day of Chanukah

1950(2^nd of Tevet, 5711): Seventy-two year old Louisville, KY native Herbert Marcus, Sr., the husband of Minnie Marcus and father of Harold Stanley, who with his brother A.L. Neiman found Niemen-Marcus Department Store in 1907 passed away today in Dallas.

https://lakewood.advocatemag.com/2011/11/08/the-dallas-house-of-westlake-avenue-was-built-for-herbert-marcus/

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1950/12/14/317445162.pdf

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported after the festive Knesset inauguration ceremony, President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi was made a Freeman of Jerusalem. The new president signed pardons for 25 prisoners, all of whom had nearly completed their sentences.

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that 184 new students had been admitted to the new Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School. The majority were Israelis who had previously studied medicine abroad and graduates of Israeli secondary schools.

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Post’s Toy Fund started the distribution of Hanukkah toys and sweets at over 100 ma’abarot and new-immigrant centers throughout the country.

1955: Operation Olive Leaves which was designed to put an end to Syrian shelling attacks on Israelis in around the Sea of Galilee began this evening with an artillery barrage “elements of the 890th Paratroop Battalion, augmented by units of Aharon Davidi's 771 Reserve Paratroop Battalion as well as units from the Nahal and Givati Brigades commenced” “a complex two pronged attack” “on Syrian emplacements along Kinneret’s northeastern shoreline.”

1957: “Wild is the Wind” directed by George Cukor, produced by Hall B. Wallis, written by Arnold Schulman and with a score by Dimitri Tiomkin was released today in the United States.

1957: Birthdate of Orly Silbersatz Bania, the Israeli singer and actress who has won two Ophir Awards.

1957: “Peyton Place,” a movie version of the novel directed by Mark Robson, produced by Jerry Wald and with music by Franz Waxman premiered in Camden, two days before being shown in the rest of the United States.

1958(29^thof Kislev, 5719): Fifth Day of Chanukah

1958(29^thof Kislev, 5719): Eight-six year old London born Sephardic Jew and author Samuel Levy Bensusan, the husband of Marian Lallah Prichard who served as Press Chief of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and “is best known for the 24 books and 6 plays that he wrote about the Rural marshland area of Eastern Essex surrounding Mote Cottage” passed away today in “a nursing home at St Leonard's on Sea in Sussex.”

1958: “J.B.” a three-act play based on the Book of Job with sets designed by Boris Aronson and which won the 1959 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 1959 Tony Awards for Best Play and Best Direction premiered today at the ANTA Playhouse in New York City.

1960(22^ndof Kislev, 5721): Eighty-five year old “Mrs. Estelle May Affelder,” the widow of Louis J. Affelder, the U. Pittsburgh educated civil engineer, “assistant division manager of the American Bridge Co and civic leader” who was “a member of the National Federation of Settlements” and the mother of two daughters and one son – Paul B. Affelder, the music critic of the Brooklyn Eagle – passed away today in Rye, NY.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/12/13/99901883.pdf

1961: Melvin Calvin, the son of Jewish immigrants was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for studies related to the process of photosynthesis.

1961: Adolf Eichmann was found guilty.

1963(25^thof Kislev, 5724): Chanukah observed during the national mourning for John F. Kennedy.

1964: In Jerusalem, Leonard and Ricki Waldman gave birth to author Ayelet Waldman, the wife of Michael Chabon.

1967(13^thof Kislev, 5728): Eighty-four year old Sir Adolphe Abrahams, the brother of Harold Abrahams (of Chariots of Fire fame) and husband of Adrienne Walsh who was the medical adviser to the International Athletic Board and the British Olympic team as well as president of the British Association of Sports and Medicine passed away today.

1968:A French adaptation of Man of “La Mancha” with a book by Dale Wasserman and music by Mitch Leigh premiered at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées today.

1970: Premiere of “The Aristocats” a Disney animated film with music by Richard and Robert Sherman.

1970: Birthdate of actress Jennifer Conelly. She won a Golden Globe Award and an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in the film A Beautiful Mind.

1971: The Libertarian Party of the United States was formed. According to The Libertarian Party News, Irv Rubin, leader of the Jewish Defense League, signed up with the party in 2000.

1972: In New York, premiere of Man of La Mancha a film adaptation of the Broadway musical Man of La Mancha by Dale Wasserman, with music by Mitch Leigh, directed by Arthur Hiller and co-produced by Hiller and Saul Chaplin.

1973: After premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, “The Hourglass Sanatorium” the movie version of the novel by Bruno Schultz was released today in Poland.

1974(27^th of Kislev, 5735): In Tel Aviv, one person was murdered and 66 others were injured when a terrorist set off a bomb in movie theatre.

1976(19^th of Kislev, 5737): Sixty-seven year old Major-General Sir Henry Joseph "Harry" d'Avigdor-Goldsmid, 2nd Baronet the decorated war hero who severed as an MP alongside his younger brother James passed away today.

http://www.jta.org/1976/12/14/archive/henry-davigdor-goldsmid-dead-at-67

1977(1^st of 5738): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah

1977(1^st of 5738): Eighty-two year old Isidore Pick, the husband of Corinne Frada and father of Albert and Gladys Pick passed away today in Chicago.

1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that President Ephraim Katzir proclaimed the opening of the 30th anniversary of Israel's independence.

1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that Egyptian President Anwar Sadat said that the preliminary talks between Egypt and Israel should be expanded to foreign ministers’ level. Sadat warned the PLO that their recent, hard-line Tripoli conference canceled the resolution of the 1974 Rabat talks which called for peace negotiations. This, in Sadat's opinion, could affect PLO status as the sole representative of the Palestinian people.

1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that President Jimmy Carter said he would be willing to come to the Middle East to support the current peace initiatives. Cairo sources revealed that King Hessian of Morocco had played an active role in promoting Sadat’s historic visit to Israel.

1978: NBC broadcast the miniseries “A Woman Called Moses” produced by Henry Jaffe and Michael Jaffe today.

1979:“Funeral services were held today for Joseph Wohl, founder and president of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America’s Universal Brotherhood Movement” who “for 27 years had been a member of the Seminary’s Board of Directors and in that capacity had chaired major committees in the areas of finance, development, real estate and building.”

1979(21^stof Kislev, 5740): Sixty-one year old historian and rabbi Bertram Korn who led Congregation Keneseth Israel in Philadelphia for thirty years while rising to the rank of Rear Admiral while serving as a chaplain in the United States Navy passed away today In Israel.

http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0099/ms0099.html

1980(4^thof Tevet, 5741): Eighty-four year old Belarus native Rabbi Gershon Hadas who was one of the organizers of the Rabbinical Association in Kansas City in 1939 and the husband of Anne Isenberg with whom he had two children, passed away today after which he was buried in the Mount Carmel Cemetery in Raytown, MO.

1981: Release date of “Buddy Buddy” a film “loaded with Jews” including director Bill Wilder, co-star Walter Matthau and writer I.A.L. Diamond. The film was based on a screenplay by French writer Francis Verber whose father was Jewish.

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

1981: U.S. premiere of “Pennies From Heaven” directed by Herbert Ross with music by Marvin Hamlisch.

1982(25^thof Kislev, 5743): Chanukah

1982: CBS broadcast the last episode of “Gilligan’s Planet,” a cartoon show created by Sherwood Schwartz

1984: “Airlift to Israel Is Reported Taking Thousands of Jews from Ethiopia” published today described the resettlement of Ethiopia Jews in Israel saving them from famine, war and prejudice.

http://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/11/world/airlift-to-israel-is-reported-taking-thousands-of-jews-from-ethiopia.html?pagewanted=print

1984(17^thof Kislev, 5745): Eighty-four year old David Glick, the husband of Rose Shanis Glick and the father of Stephen Jack Glick passed away today after which he was buried in Woodlawn, MD.

1984: The funeral of Luther Adler, a stage and screen actor who starred in ''Fiddler on the Roof'' on Broadway, was scheduled to take place this afternoon at the Riverside Chapel in New York City

1984: German-born American literary scholar, poet, and writer of children’s stories, Oskar Seidlin, passed away

1986: The Jewish National Funds Annual Tree of Life Awards are held atSheraton Premiere Hotel in Los Angeles, California.

1988: In “On the Red Sea, Israel’s Answer to Key West,” published today it was reported that Eilat is to Israel what Key West is to the United States - a hot, lazy, bohemian and (to be honest) tawdry little resort town at the nation's southern tip, physically and emotionally far removed from the commotion to the north. Eilat has no Arab community and no significant religious population, facts the city's boosters like to point out. ''This is a resort area; the religious, they like to stay in the center of the country,'' Mayor Avi Hochman says. That removes any possibility for the two greatest sources of tension here - Arab versus Jew, religious versus secular. ''We're tolerant here,'' said Rina Maor, head of the state tourism office. ''If people want to go to the synagogue it's O.K.; if people want to go topless it's O.K.'' Most female visitors seem to choose the latter option.” (As reported by Joel Brinkley)

1988: The New York Times featured reviews of the following books written by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers which were recently released in paperback edition including Hitchcock and Selznick: The Rich and Strange Collaboration of Alfred Hitchcock and David O. Selznick in Hollywoodby Leonard J. Leff and Café Nevo by Barbara Rogan which is set in a Tel Aviv bistro during the war in Lebanon.

1990: Dr. John Strugnell, a Harvard divinity professor whose verbal attacks on Jews, Judaism and Israel included statements describing Judaism as “racist,” and “not a higher religion” and saying that that the state of Israel “is founded on a lie” led to his dismissal as chief editor of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the celebrated documents illuminating the evolution of Judaism and the origin of Christianity, scholars and others close to the controversy said today.

1991: “Hook” film tied to the tale of Peter Pan directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Dustin Hoffman in the title role was released in the United States today.

1991(4th of Tevet, 5752): Robert Q. Lewis passed away at the age of 71. Born Robert Goldberg, this son of Jewish immigrants gained fame on radio and television primarily as a game show host. His dark black glasses and gravelly voice provided him with two distinctive trademarks.

1991(4^thof Tevet, 5752): Seventy-one year old movie and television producer Mathew Rapf, the Dartmouth College graduate and Navy veteran who worked on such television hits as “Kojak” and “Ben Casey” passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/18/obituaries/matthew-rapf-producer-71.html

1992: U.S. premiere of “A Few Good Men” the film based on Aaron Sorkin’s play of the same name directed by Rob Reiner with music by Marc Shaiman.

1992: U.S. premiere of “Forever Young” written by J.J. Abrams with music by Jerry Goldsmith.

1992: The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany issued a statement detailing the criteria for eligibility of Jewish victims of Nazi persecution for German Government compensation under an agreement concluded in November. In the newer, detailed statement, issued today to Jewish newspapers, the conference noted that the agreement provides funds for "severely persecuted Jewish Nazi victims who received no compensation or only minimal indemnification." It said claimants must prove that they were confined for six months or more in Nazi concentration camps, 18 months or more in ghettos, or spent 18 months in hiding from the Nazis.Such people will remain eligible for this compensation even if they have already received one-time payments up to 5,000 marks -- about $$3,200 -- under the German Federal Indemnification Law from the Claims Conference Hardship Fund, or payments above 5,000 marks for extended incarceration. These categories appear to cover some Jews from Eastern European countries who were unable to take advantage of the original German compensation act of 1952. That measure expired in 1965. The claims conference made clear that there are several important exclusions in the new agreement. Its statement says, "Individuals who receive pensions under the German Federal Indemnification Law or under the Israeli Law for Invalids of Nazi Persecution are not eligible." Some Dislocation Required It adds, "Nazi victims who never left their original countries or returned to these countries are also not eligible." The conference said that beginning in August 1995, those found eligible would indefinitely receive monthly payments of 500 marks -- now $320 -- plus "a limited interim payment." (As reported by David Binder)

1994(8^thof Tevet, 5755): Eighty-six year old Brooklyn born and Hunter College alum Lillian Poses, one of “the first women to graduate from NYU Law school and the wife of Jack I Poses passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/13/obituaries/lillian-poses-86-new-deal-lawyer-and-philanthropist.html

1995: In “Thousands Pay Tribute to Rabin And Listen to Appeals for Unity” published today Carey Goldberg described the rally at Madison Square Garden that featured speakers from the U.S. and Israel including Yitzchak Rabin’s widow, Leah.

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/11/nyregion/thousands-pay-tribute-to-rabin-and-listen-to-appeals-for-unity.html?ref=leahrabin

1996(1^st of Tevet, 5757): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Chanukah

1996(1^st of Tevet, 5757): Ninety year old Seattle born and John Hopkins undergrad Louis L. Jaffe, the Harvard trained lawyer who clerked for Justice Brandeis and taught for years at his alma mater passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/15/us/louis-l-jaffe-90-noted-legal-scholar.html

1996: Presentation of the 14^th Annual Harold U. Ribalow Prize

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBygO5LCf14

1997: Neil Simon’s "Sunshine Boys" opens at Lyceum Theater in New York City.

1998: After having premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival “A Simple Plan,” the movie version of the novel of the same name directed by Sam Raimi and music by Danny Elfman was released today.

1998: “The Parent Trap” an inane comedy directed by Nancy Meyers who also co-authored the script was released in the United Kingdom.

1998: “Jack Frost” a comedy produced by Irving Azoff and Mark Canton, with music by Trevor Rabin and featuring Eli Marienthal as “Spencer” was released in the United States today.

1999(2^nd of Tevet, 5760): Eighth Day of Chanukah marking the last time the holiday is celebrated in the 20^th century.

2000(14^th of Kislev, 5761): Seventy year old Don Devlin (born Donald R. Siegel) who made the transition from actor to writer/producer whose most famous effort was the screenwriter “Harry and Walter Go to New York” starring two Jewish actors – James Caan and Elliot Gould.

2001: The DVD of “The Mists of Avalon,” a mini-series co-starring Juliana Margulies was released today.

2000(14^th of Kislev, 5761): Eight-seven year old N. Richard Nash (born Nathan Richard Nusbaum) the author, playwright and screenwriter whose work included “The Rainmaker” passed away today.

http://articles.latimes.com/2000/dec/23/local/me-4001

http://www.nrichardnash.com/

2002: Barry Strauss published “What, You Consider Ant-Semitism? How Very One-Sided” which provides an interesting view of Jewish treatment on college campuses.

2002: In Bucharest, anInternational Symposium entitled "Jewish identity and anti-Semitism in Central and South Eastern Europe sponsored by the Federation of Romanian Jewish Communities, the "Goldstein-Goren" Hebrew Studies Center, Bucharest University and Bucharest History Museum came to an end.

2003(16^thof Kislev, 5764): “Three people died and up to 18 were injured today in an explosion at a money-changer's shop in a crowded Tel Aviv business district” which police attribute to local criminals and not terrorists.

2004: The Sixth Annual Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival features a screening of the film שיחה מקומית/ Local Call/ Quittez Pas!

2005: In a reversal of what happened during the Hitler people period, German church leaders spoke out in defense of the Jewish state. The Jerusalem Post website reported that German church leaders joined international protests against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's demand that Israel be moved to Europe and his statement doubting whether the Holocaust happened. Roman Catholic Cardinal Karl Lehmann said he was "outraged," and urged Ahmadinejad to show respect for other nations and religions. Lutheran Church leader Wolfgang Huber said the international community needed to take action against Iran, but he did not elaborate. "Whoever denies the historical fact of the murder of millions of Jews during the Third Reich in Germany and denies Israel's right to exist has committed incitement."

2005: In the tops-turvy world of Israeli politics, Shaul Mofaz ended his attempt to lead Likud, left the party and joined Kadima, the new political party started by Ariel Sharon.

2006: End of a two day conference sponsored by the government of Iran designed to support the Iranian contention that the systematic killing of some 6 million Jews a "myth" and "exaggerated."

2006: Despite David Stern’s support for a new basketball, the NBA announced today that it would in fact switch back to the leather ball starting on January 1, 2007

2007: Six days of performances including productions of “The Jester” and “The Mutual Note” come to an end at The Orna Porat Theater in Tel Aviv.

2007: Haaretz reported on a study that finds Maine has the highest intermarriage rate in the United States.According to the study, which was conducted by Ira Sheskin, the director of the Jewish Demography Project at the University of Miami, 61% of couples in married Jewish households are interfaith.

2007(2^ndof Tevet, 5768): 7^th Day of Chanukah

2007(2^ndof Tevet, 5768): Eighty-four year old theatrical agent and producer Freddie Fields passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/13/arts/13fields.html

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/people/2007-12-12-freddie-fields-obit_N.htm

2007: After a little more than a month, Robert Rubin stepped down as acting Chairman of Citigroup.

2007: David “D'Or released Live Concert, an album for which he composed most of the songs including "Kiss from a Rose" (in English), "Sri Lanka" (instrumental), and an Arabic song

2007: The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution proposed by Israel. The UN passage of an Israeli resolution on agriculture is the first time a nonpolitical Israeli resolution has been adopted by the international body, and signifies a breakthrough in Israeli-UN history.

2008: In one of those anomalies that is unique to the American cultural scene, Jewish composer Marvin Hamlisch conducts the National Symphony Orchestra’s Pops Happy Holidays concert in Washington, D.C.

2008:Allen Weinstein, archivist of the United States, chats with journalist Daniel Schorr, whose career has spanned decades at both CBS News and National Public Radio, about his recent collection of essays, Come to Think of It: Notes on the Turn of the Millennium, as part of the "American Conversation" series at the National Archives. Schorr holds the unique distinction of being the only American reporter to have been kicked out of the Soviet Union and been on Richard Nixon’s enemies list.

2008: Bernard Madoff, who founded Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, was arrested by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents on alleged fraud, The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site. Charges against Madoff allege that he told senior employees on Wednesday that the firm was "a giant Ponzi scheme" after trying to distribute the "couple of hundred million dollars" he had left before turning himself in, according to the Journal, citing a person familiar with the matter. The alleged scheme involved tens of billions of dollars, the newspaper reported.

2008 (14th Kislev, 5769): Robert Chandler,a Creator of the ’60 Minutes’ Format, passed away at the age of 80.

2008(14^th of Kislev, 5769): Forty-eight year old “voice actress” Maddie Blaustein passed away unexpectedly from “acute stomach failure.”

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSmcid=47541371&GRid=85663250&

2008: In response to the humanitarian crisis in Postville, Iowa the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines establishes Postville Relief Fund to which concerned Jews and non-Jews can send contributions at Postville Relief Fund, Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines, 910 Polk Boulevard, Des Moines, IA 50312.

2008: Today, Australian cricketer Michael Klinger, known as “the Jewish Bradman” “posted his highest individual score in one day cricket, with an unbeaten 133 off just 128 balls” which “guided South Australia to victory in their high-scoring match against the Tasmania Tigers at the Adelaide Oval.”

2009(24^th of Kislev, 5770): Kindle the first light of Chanukah in the evening

2009(24^th of Kislev, 5770): Eighty-four year old New York City native Katharine Scherman Rosin, the daughter of Harry and Bernadine Scherman and husband of Alxel Rosin the Swarthmore trained author and editor at “Book of the Month Club” passed away today.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=137434177

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=katharine-rosin&pid=137434177

2009: As Jews light the first candle for Chanukah, Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, hosts its annual Chanukah Pot Luck Dinner and Latke extravaganza.

2009: The 20^th Washington Jewish Film Festival features a screening of “The Imported Bridegroom” and “Black Over White.”

2009:President Barak Obama and first lady Michelle Obama extended warm wishes to Jews around the world who are observing Hanukkah. Obama said the story of the Maccabees and the miracles they witnessed is a reminder that faith and perseverance are powerful forces that can sustain people through difficult times and help them overcome great odds. President Obama says Hanukkah's lessons should inspire everyone to be thankful for what they have.

2010:Daniel Burman is scheduled to receive the WJFF Visionary Award at the 21^stWashington Jewish Film Festival. A screening of Lost Embrace is scheduled to be part of the special ceremony. The award “recognizes and pays tribute to courage, creativity and insight in presenting the diversity of the Jewish experience through the moving image.”

2010: “Expectations,” a piece of video art by Shahar Marcus is scheduled to be shown at The Invisible Dog in Brooklyn.

2010: In Columbus, Ohio, Congregation Tifereth Israel is scheduled to host Minyan Chadash,an alternative service featuring lots of singing, congregant participation, interactive learning, and a sense of Shabbat ruach!

2010(4^th of Tevet, 5771):Mark Madoff, the older of Bernard L. Madoff’s two sons, was found dead in his Manhattan apartment today, the second anniversary of the day his father was arrested for running a gigantic Ponzi scheme that shattered thousands of lives around the world. “Mark Madoff took his own life today,” Martin Flumenbaum Mark Madoff’s lawyer, said in a statement today. “This is a terrible and unnecessary tragedy.” One city official said that the first notification, via 911, was at 7:27.18, this morning, and the call was for a, “possible suicide.” The call came from a fourth-floor, private house at 158 Mercer Street – a 13-story building.

2010(4^th of Tevet, 5771):A 30-year-old Israeli man was pronounced dead today after being hospitalized with swine flu. The man, a resident of east Jerusalem, was checked into the Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center on Thursday suffering from severe flu symptoms, after a blood test revealed the potent flu virus strain was present in his blood stream. The man was quarantined by hospital personnel while he was treated intensively for the disease, but despite their best efforts, the man passed today.

2010: Rabbi Chaim Brovender will discuss: "Why Couldn't Yosef 'Hold Back' (Hitapek)?" and talk about his activities at ATID and WebYeshiva at a shiur and reunion in Silver Spring, MD.

2010: Diane Kaplan showcases material from her latest album, Like an Olive Tree, at the Jacob’s Ladder Festival at its Nof Ginosar venue by the Kinerret.

2011: Temple Judah is scheduled to host it annual Chanukah Potluck Dinner where they will enjoy Latkes prepared under the supervision Linn County Latke Maven Brian Cohen

2011: The Los Angeles Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Jerusalem: A Biography” by Simon Sebag Montefiore.

2011: Closing night of the 22^nd Washington Jewish Film Festival.

2011:One person was injured in southern Lebanon today when a rocket apparently fired towards Israel hit a Lebanese border village, security sources in Lebanon said. They said the rocket was fired from the Wadi al-Qaisiyeh area, about 2 km (one mile) from the frontier and landed in the village of Houla inside Lebanon.

2011:Iran's ruling clerics could use nuclear weapons to strengthen their grip on power and the world must urgently impose crippling sanctions to prevent them from building such arms, Israel's defense minister said today. Ehud Barak also predicted that Syria's ruling Assad family could fall within weeks and that this would be a "blessing" for the Middle East.

2012: “Oded the Wanderer” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival

2012: Vanessa Paloma and the Lev-Yulzari Duo are scheduled to perform at Congregation Shearith Israel as part of the Sephardic Music Festival.

2012: Kevin Youkilis signed a one year contract with the New York Yankees for $12 million to play third base.

2012: “Punk Jews,” the “documentary film that follows an underground Jewish community expressing their identity in unconventional ways that challenge stereotypes and break down barriers” is scheduled to have its world premiere at the JCC of Manhattan

2012(27^th of Kislev): Yahrzeit of Harvey David Luber who will be remembered as long as people laugh and take pictures.

2012:The IDF has acquired tens of thousands of doses of a drug used to combat nerve agent chemical poisoning and will distribute them to all combat medics in the coming months, according to a report in the new issue of the army’s Bamahane weekly magazine

2012: Israeli students from all sectors of society registered dramatic increases in test scores in all subjects, the Education Ministry announced today.

2013: The Union for Reform Judaism Biennial is scheduled to open in San Diego, CA

2013: “The Best Offer” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.

2013: Les “Wexner was awarded the Women's Wear Daily Beauty Inc. Visionary award”

2013(8^thof Tevet, 5774): Eighty-four year old Barbara (Weidman) Branden, the novelist, author of The Passion of Ayn Rand and wife of Nathaniel Branden, the lover of Ayn Rand, with whom she wrote Who is Ayn Rand? passed away today.

http://www.barbarabranden.com/interview3.html

2013: The Lawrence Family JCC is scheduled to the opening reception for “smART: The Art of Jewish Educators.”

2013: “Heavy amounts of rain drenched the Galilee, the Sharon region and the Gush Dan…cause Lake Kinneret’s water level to rise by several centimeters this morning (As reported by Sharon Udasin, LIdar Grave-Lazar and Ben Hartman)

2013: Ian Paul Livingston, Baron Livingston of Parkhead began serving as Minister of State for

Trade and Investment

2013: According to the Wall Street Journal and Israel’s Channel 2 “former Bank of Israel governor Stanley Fischer is the top choice to become vice chairman of the US Federal Reserve Bank” which would mean that the two top slots at the Fed would be held by Jews.

2014: Scholar Eddy Portnoy is scheduled to team up with puppet theater company Great Small Works to present a reinterpretation of the scripts of Zuni Maud and Yosl Cutler, who in the 1920s formed Modicut, a bitingly satirical Yiddish puppet theater troupe as part of YIVO’s Artists and Scholars Series.

2014: LBI is scheduled to present “From the Shtetl to the Lecture Hall: Jewish Women and Cultural Exchange.”

2014: “France’s upper house of parliament today urged the government to recognize Palestine as a state, following a similar and highly symbolic vote in the lower house.

2014: “The Palestinian Authority will freeze security cooperation with Israel in the wake of the death of a senior Palestinian official after a clash with Israeli troops, a top aide to PA President Mahmoud Abbas said today.”

2015(29^thof Kislev, 5776): Fifth Day of Chanukah

2015: In Coralville, IA, Alex Cicelsky: "The Pied Piper of Sustainable Living in Israel" Founder Center for Creative Ecology at Kibbutz Lotan is scheduled to talk about Jews and Arabs collaborating together during an Oneg Program at Congregation Agudas Achim.

2015: The second season of “Transparent” starring Jeffrey Tambor premiered today.

2015: Harry Pregerson assumed the status of Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit today.

2015: “When President Reuven Rivlin met” today “with leaders of America’s three main Jewish denominations at an event hosted by UJA-Federation of New York” “both Rabbi Rick Jacobs of the Union of Reform Judaism and Rabbi Steven Wernick of the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism called on Israel to grant equal rights to non-Orthodox Jews on matters concerning marriage, divorce, conversion and worship at the Western Wall.” (As reported by Uriel Heilman)

2016: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter by David Sax, The Resistible Rise of Benjamin Netanyahu by Neill Lochery, A Path to Peace: A Brief History of Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations and a Way Forward in the Middle East by George J. Mitchell and Alon Sachar, Looking For “The Stranger”: Albert Camus and the Life of a Literary Classic by Alice Kaplan and Judas by Amos Oz

2016: The Symphony Chorus of New Orleans is scheduled to host a performance of Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus at Temple Sinai with Cantor Joel Colman, Betsy Ushkrat, Monika Cosson and Jonathan Yarrington appearing as the featured soloists for the work.

2016: At Iowa City, former Congressman and U. I. Law Professor Jim Leach who in the 1990’s “held four years of unprecedented hearings on Holocaust theft issues after new evidence identified Swiss banks as intermediaries for Germany during World War II, and how they benefited from Nazi policies” is scheduled to lecture on "Where Greed Reigned: An Inquiry Into a Shadowy Corner of the Holocaust."

2016: “Anigina Pectoris” a satire “about an Israeli Defense Minister who finds himself in need of a heart transplant” is scheduled to be performed at Symphony Space.

2016: B’nai Emunah Congregation, Tulsa’s Conservative Jewish synagogue, yearlong celebration of its centennial is scheduled to come to an end today.

2016(11^thof Kislev, 5777): Eighty-two year old record executive Bob Krasnow passed away today. (As reported by Ben Sisario)

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/arts/music/bob-krasnow-revitalizer-of-elektra-records-dies-at-82.html?_r=0

2016: The American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to present the Annual Chanukah concert featuring Yiddish folk and theatre songs, a Chanukah sing-along and “a special story read by Emmy-Award winning actress Ellen Gould.”

2016: Ninety-six year old Marion Pritchard, a Dutch national who risked her life to save Jews during the Holocaust passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/world/europe/marion-pritchard-rescuer-of-jews.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/marion-pritchard-dutch-rescuer-of-jewish-children-during-the-holocaust-dies-at-96/2016/12/20/d5ca50e0-c61b-11e6-bf4b-2c064d32a4bf_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_obit-pritchard-0950pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.4c3fd46ca522

http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/saviors/others/marion-pritchard-dutch-savior/

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/marion-pritchard

2016: At the 56^th annual meeting of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington, “celebrity chef Pati Jinich of Pati's Mexican Table (WETA) is scheduled to speak about her Jewish-Mexican roots and her new book, Mexican Today: New and Rediscovered Recipes for Contemporary Kitchens.

2017: “The submission period for the 2019 Natan Book Award” “which is run in partnership with the Jewish Book Council” is scheduled to open today.

2017: Twenty-seven year old Akayed Ullah, a resident of Brooklyn “of Bangladeshi origin” detonated a bomb “in a tunnel connecting the Times Square subway station with the Midtown Manhattan transit hub during this morning’s rush hour” acted because he was upset by actions taken by the IDF in Gaza - action taken in response to terrorists attacks from the Hamas controlled enclave.

2017(23^rdof Kislev, 5778):Eighty-four year old Vera Katz who went from fleeing Hitler’s Germany to serving three terms as Mayor of Portland, Oregon, passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/13/obituaries/vera-katz-mayor-who-oversaw-portlands-flowering-dies-at-84.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

2017: Jewish Book Month, an annual event that provides us with a chance to contemplate Jewish books and the lives of authors such as Franz Kafka whose works included The Metamorphosis and The Trial continues today.

2018(3^rdof Tevet, 5779): Ninety-two year old Alter Weiner a Nazi concentration camp survivor died today in Hillsboro, OR after being “struck and killed by a car while crossing a street near his home.” (As reported by Cnaan Liphshiz)

2018: In Ann Arbor, The Jean and Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan is scheduled to host “Anti-Jewish Pogroms in Lithuania under the Tsars.”

2018: The Jstyle Winter Premiere Party is scheduled to take place in Shaker Heights, OH.

https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07efs5jdhw82e4da98&oseq=&c=&ch=

2019: “The Knesset is expected to dissolve tonight, confirming the failure of both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz to form a governing coalition following the inconclusive September election.” (As reported by TOI)

2019: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host Maggie Schreiner is the Manager of Archives and Special Collections at the Brooklyn Historical Society who will lecture on “Personal Archiving – Preserving You Digital Memoires.

2019: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to co-sponsor “An Evening of Music and Song From Al-Andalus and North Africa.”

2019: In Deerfield and Chicago, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to host “What Were Watching? Americans’ Responses to Nazism through Cinema, Radio and Media.”

2019: In San Francisco, the Commonwealth Club is scheduled to host Arye Carmon, founder of the Israel Democracy Institute who talks about Israel’s struggles and his new book Building Democracy on Sand: Israel without a Constitution.

December 12

456 BCE (1st of Tevet, 3305): Ezra opened convocation on the problem of intermarriage.

627: A Byzantine army under Emperor Heraclius defeats Emperor Khosrau II's Persian forces, commanded by General Rhahzadh at the Battle of Nineveh. This meant that The Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire regained control of the Middle East, including Jerusalem. Unfortunately, Heraclius, the Byzantine Emperor did not keep his promise to his Jewish allies to give them control of David’s City and its environs.

1098: During the First Crusade, Christian forces breach the walls of Ma'arrat al-Numan in Syria and massacre about 20,000 inhabitants. Some view this is as a “dress rehearsal” of the massacres that took place when the Crusaders arrived in Jerusalem and slaughtered the Jewish and Moslem inhabitants

1204(20th of Tevet, 4965): Maimonides passes away. His name says it all. Nothing that can be said here would do him justice. Maimonides followed the Rabbinic injunction that a man should have a job and study Torah unlike some who today insist that their “studying’ exempts from having to earn a living. “From Moses to Moses, there as none like Moses”

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/75991/jewish/Maimonides-His-Life-and-Works.htm

1254: Alexander IV, the prelate “responsible for launching the Inquisition in France” began his papacy today.

1474:Isabella crowns herself queen of Castile and Aragon in what will become a milestone on the road to end of the Jewish Community in Spain in 1492. Ironically two of the people who would help her come to power and/or consolidate her crown were Don Isaac Abravanel and Don Abraham Senior.

1479: The Jews were expelled from Schlettstadt, Alsace by Emperor Frederick III

1484: At Soncino, Italy, Joseph Solomon Soncino printed the first copy of “Beḥinat ha-'Olam” (The Examination of the World) by Jedaiah ben Abraham Bedersi a Jewish poet, physician and philosopher. Born in 1270 at Béziers, he was the son of Abraham Profiat, another French-Jewish poet. He passed away in 1340. Beḥinat ha-'Olam (The Examination of the World), called also by its first words, "Shamayim la-Rom" (Heaven's Height), a didactic poem written after the banishment of the Jews from France (1306), to which event reference is made in the eleventh chapter. The 37 “chapter” poem concludes with an expression of Bedersi’s admiration of Maimonides.

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

1505: In Ceske Budejovice, Czechoslovakia, ten Jews were tortured and killed after being accused by a local shepherd of killing a local girl. Years later on his deathbed, the shepherd confessed that he made up the whole story.

1524: Pope Clement VII approved the organization of a Jewish Community in Rome

1561: According to a document of this date, Nahum Pesakohovich, a Jew living in Pinsk filed a complaint against Grigori Grichia, the estate owner in the district of Pinsk for failure to honor the terms of their mortgage agreement.

http://books.google.com/books?id=sr85AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA47&lpg=PA47&dq=Lewin+Aron+Pinner&source=bl&ots=BK45lfbe8u&sig=dPKQ71Yi3MRpZ7kEmHgioWvIAMs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=TYM8U46hBsTn2QWXooGYCw&ved=0CEcQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=Lewin%20Aron%20Pinner&f=false

page 49

1574: Selim II, Ottoman Sultan, passed away. During his reign, Selim appointed Joseph Nassi as the Duke of Naxos. He appointed his physician Solomon Nathan Eskenazi to serve as ambassador in Venice where he participated in negotiations for a treaty between the Turks and the Spanish. When Turkish forces took Cyprus, Selim had five hundred Jewish families settle on the island. This was a way of improving the economic environment on the island while ensuring the presence of a loyal local population.

1626: Inquisitional authorities arrested Francisco Maldonado de Silva, after his sister (a devout Catholic) turned him because he told her he believed in Judaism, as their father had. His passion for Judaism came after studying a book written in 1391 by the Bishop of Burgos. The Bishop, a convert Jews who was born as Solomon Halevi, wrote the book to defend the Catholic faith. Halevi's words put doubt into Francisco's mind about Catholicism, and brought him closer to Judaism-the religion Francisco's father had already been following. In the end Francisco went to his death January 23, 1639 for his faith in Judaism.

1653: The Short Parliament was dissolved today leaving Oliver Cromwell, who held the title of Protector of the Realm, as the king-like ruler of England. This may have actually helped Manasseh ben Israel in his effort to gain readmission of the Jews since Cromwell, unlike some of his allies, actively supported the Jews attempts to return to the British Isles.

1670: Today the Sephardic Jewish community of Amsterdam acquired the site to build a synagogue

1762: In Philadelphia, Mordecai Moses Mordecai and Zipporah "de Lyon" Mordecai gave birth to their first daughter Esther who became Esther Mordecai Russell when she married Dr. Philip Moses Russell in 1780.

1785: Today, King Frederick II suspended the legal action that had been undertaken to punish Joseph Abraham Stelicki for converting from Catholicism to Judaism which was a capital crime.

1787: Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Religious qualifications for holding state and local office were abolished in 1790. Jews had been part of Pennsylvania even before the coming of William Penn. The community had its start with Jewish traders who operated in what would be the southeastern corner of the soon to be founded colony. Mikveh Israel (Hope of Israel) the Philadelphia’s first synagogue was established in the 1740’s. When an enlarged Mikveh Israel, under the leadership of Gershom Mendes Seixas was dedicated in 1782, a wide variety of public officials attended. Jews were earlier settlers of Lancaster where a Jewish burial plot was established in 1747. The size of the Jewish population was exaggerated due to that fact that the English confused Yiddish speaking Jews with the German speaking Pennsylvania Dutch.

1802: “Eight-year old Abraham Bar Naphtali” as buried today at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”

1805: Birthdate of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, a collection of whose papers are found at Brandeis University.

http://brandeisspecialcollections.blogspot.com/2011/10/william-lloyd-garrison-collection.html

1806: Birthdate of Rabbi Isaac Lesser, one of the most important leaders of the 19^thcentury American-Jewish community whose accomplishments included completing the first translation of the Bible from Hebrew in English published in the United States.

1809: Lewis Gompertz married Ann Hollaman in London today.

1821: Birthdate of Gustave Flaubert, the French author whose works included “Herodias” set in the court of Antipater in which the author writes “The Jews were tired of Herod’s idolatrous ways.”

http://peopleofshambhala.com/herodias-of-flaubert/

1827: Eliezer ben Moshe HaCohen married Yacht bat Moses Israel at the Western Synagogue today.

1827: Abraham Moise of Charleston, SC, married Caroline Agnes Moses, “the third daughter of Isaac C. Moses.

1831: In Jamaica, a tankard was presented to Moses Delgado in recognition of his work on behalf of Jewish rights.

1832” Birthdate of Sophie Schriesheimer Waldstein, the German born wife of Henry Waldstein with whom she had four children.

1832: Birthdate of Abraham Carel Wertheim, the native of Amsterdam whose role as banker, politician and leader of the Jewish community can be seen in his partnership in Wertheim & Compertz, membership in the Dutch Senate and “presidency of the Jewish community.”

1837: Birthdate of Rabbi Moritz Framer, the native of Rybnik, Prussian Silesia who wrote numerous articles and served as the editor of a Jewish literary magazine while leading congregations in Thorn and Magdeburg.

1838(25^thof Kislev, 5599): Chanukah

1838: Three days after he had passed away, 73 year old “Plymouth wine merchant” Samuel Hart was buried today in the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.

1841: Jacob Frankfort arrived in Los Angeles as part of the Rowland-Workman party. Frankfort, one of the earliest Jewish settlers in New Mexico had been living in Taos when he hurriedly left town because authorities believed he was part of a group of Texans seeking to take control of the territory. He and some of his confederates joined a scientific expedition and traveled with them to California.

1851: An article entitled “Interesting Hebrew Relic” published today reported that in Washington, DC, Colonel Lea, the Commissioner of Indian affairs has in his possession “four small rolls or strips of parchment, closely packed in the small compartments of a little box or locket of about an inch cubical content. On these parchments are written, in a style of unsurpassed excellence, and far more beautiful than print, portions of the Pentateuch, to be worn as frontlets and intended as stimulants to the memory and moral sense.” The item was brought to Washington from the Pottawatomie Reservation on the Kansas River by a man named Dr. Lykins. Lykins got them from a member of the tribe name Pategwe who had gotten them from his aged grandmother. Originally there had been two boxes, but one of them had been lost long ago when the Indians were crossing some river rapids. The Indians believed that the lost box contained a description of the creation of the world. Nobody seems to know how the boxes first came into the possession of the Indians. They cannot remember a time when they did not have them in their possession. The article concludes, “The question occurs here, does not this circumstance give some color to the idea, long and extensively entertained, that the Indians of our continent are or less Jewish in their origin?”

1853: Rabbi Raphall delivered the last in a series of lectures on “The Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews” in New York City.

1855(3rd of Tevet, 5616): 8^th and final day of Chanukah

1858: In Cleveland, OH, Samuel and August Lasker gave birth to Henry Lasker who settled in Little Rock, AR where he was buried.

1861: In Houston, TX, Bennet and Bertha Cowen gave birth to Northwestern University trained lawyer Israel Cowen, the Cook County Judge and Democratic Party member who served as President of District No. 6 of B’nai B’rith and “a member of the executive committee of the Hebrew Sabbath-School Union.”

1861:At today’s regular meeting of the Board of Councilmen the report in favor of donating $30,000 to the Hebrew Benevolent Association was finally adopted.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9403E0D6123CEE3ABC4A52DFB467838F669FDE

1862: Twenty-eight year old Louis Manly Emanuel who had graduated as M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1860 went from Assistant Surgeon to Surgeon while serving with 82^nd Regiment during the Civil War.

1862: During the Civil War, 19 year old Richmond born Jacob Ezekiel Hyneman, the resident of Philadelphia who had been serving with Company G of the 119^thRegiment was among those who crossed the Rappahannock at the start of what would become the ill-fated Battle of Fredericksburg.

1865: Birthdate of the Pinsk native and “Jewish Menshevik” who came to be known as Aleksandr Martynov, one of those became more radicalized after the October Revolution and became a member of the Communist Party in 1923.

1866: Birthdate of Dr. Edward Alsworth Ross, who had been fired by Stanford University for his racist views when it came to Chinese and Japanese immigration, stirred up similar controversy at the University of Wisconsin when wrote magazine articles attacking the Jews including “Jews of Eastern Europe in America” which contains the charge that Jews in America “are the greatest criminals.”

1869: In Breslau, Silesia, Helene von Heimburg, a former opera singer, and conductor Leopold Damrosch gave birth to Clara Damrosch, whose grandfather was Jewish which would make her a Jew under Nazi race laws and who gained fame American music educator Clara Mannes.

1872: In Paris, Ludovic Halevy, who had turned his back on his family proud Jewish tradition when he became a Protestant and his wife gave birth French historian Daniel Halevy.

1872: Today “French law introduced the system of universal suffrage in the election of the consistories, “the bodies governing the Jewish congregations of a province or of a country”

1874: It was reported today that it appears Russian government has ordered to the managers of the nation’s railway companies to fire all of the Jews in their employ and not to hire any Jews in the future.

1875: During the past week, the Hebrew Charity Fair raised $66, 421.19 for Mt. Sinai Hospital.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=980CE5DA143AE63BBC4A52DFB467838E669FDE

1875:

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F0CE5DA143AE63BBC4A52DFB467838E669FDE

1875(14th of Kislev, 5636): Pesach N. Rubenstein, the husband of Elke Rubenstein of Jerusalem, “murdered Sara Alexander in a cornfield” in what “is now a portion of the 26^th ward.”

1878: Joseph Pulitzer begins publishing "St Louis Dispatch." Pulitzer’s father was Jewish. His mother was Roman Catholic.

1880(10^thof Tevet, 5641): Asara B’Tevet

1880: Today, Abraham Marcus who had been born in Prussia in 1851 and came to the United Sates in 1870 married Sophia Marcus who had come to the United States from Germany in 1875 which created a union that produced three children – Henry, Bertha and Retta Marcus – the most of whom was “Pulp publisher Henry Markus.

1880(10^thof Tevet, 5641): Fifty-year old Hyman Vollenburg, a Jewish tailor was found dead in his room on Baxter Street in New York. He was said to be so observant that he refused to accept anything which had been purchased from Jews who worked on Shabbat.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A02E4DB123FEE3ABC4B52DFB467838B699FDE

1880: It was reported today that among Mrs. Jacob Hess, Mrs. A.H. Allen, Mrs. J.J. Bach, Miss Alice Solomon and Miss Essie Content (who portrays the Biblical Rebecca at the well) are among the young ladies the Mrs. Isaac Phillips has enlisted to work during the ten day long Hebrew Charity Fair in New York.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F07E6DB123FEE3ABC4A52DFB467838B699FDE

188!: In the Polish part of the Russian Empire, Benjamin Wonsal and Pear Leah Eichelbaum gave birth to Hirsch Moses Wonsal who came to the United States in 1889 where he gained fame as Harry Morris Warner, one of the Warner brothers who formed the film studio of Warner Brothers.

1881

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9904E1DD163AEF33A25751C1A9649D94609FD7CF

1881: “Solomon’s Temple”

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C0DE1DD163AEF33A25751C1A9649D94609FD7CF

1881: According to reports published today the burial of the victims of the theatre fire in Vienna that claimed the lives of 580 people was public ceremony that began with speeches by a Rabbi, a Catholic Prior and an Evangelical Provost. The Jewish victims were the first to be buried with their ceremonies beginning at daybreak.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F0DE2DD163AEF33A25751C1A9649D94609FD7CF

1881: In Krasnosielc, “a village a short distance from Warsaw”Benjamin Wonsal, a shoemaker born in Krasnosielc, and Pearl Leah Eichelbaum gave birth to Hirsch Moses Wonsal who gained fame as Harry Morris Warner, one of the Warner brothers who created Warner Bros. a major studio during the early days and golden era of motion pictures.

1882: Sarah Bernhardt had a major marital row with her husband Jacques Damala during she which she would no longer support his dissolute lifestyle. This marital breakup came while she was starring in the hit play Fedora by Victorien Sardou. Sardou refused to let him have a part in the play so Sarah let him serve as manager of the theatrical company, a position that he was totally unfit to hold. Following his dismissal he turned to drugs and humiliating her at every turn. The role of “Mr. Sarah Bernhardt” was one that he could not play.

1882: The settlers at Rosh Pina experienced “their first significant rainfall of the year which meant they could now sow their first crop.” Some use this date as marking the founding of Kibbutz which is not totally accurate because an earlier attempt had been made 1878.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/natural-cornerstone-the-blossoming-of-rosh-pina/

http://israelsdocuments.blogspot.com/search/label/1882

1882: Birthdate of famed chess player Akiba Rubenstein.

1884: In New York, Marx Cohen, who has already been charged with receiving “$7 worth of goods” stolen from Bates, Reed & Cooley, is expected to be charged with more serious crimes today. According to the police, is a Fagan-like figure who organizes youngsters into gangs of thieves and then fences the stolen merchandize. The Jewish store owner has denied all allegations.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F20B17FE3A5C15738DDDAB0994DA415B8484F0D3

1884: It was reported that in Russia, the Minister of Interior, Count Tolstoi, “has ordered the expulsion of all Jews living in Odessa, Kiev and other cities” if they hold foreign passports and do not have special permits from the government. This has caused a great deal of concern for Jews doing business in this city who are afraid the new rules will force them into liquidation.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FB0B16FE3A5C15738DDDAB0994DA415B8484F0D3

1884: It was reported today that fighting has broken out among Jewish and anti-Semitic university students in Vienna

1885: In New York, Rabbi S. Schocher, of Russ, a city near Memel, Prussia gave a lecture at Or Chaim in the classical style of the old-fashioned Derashot.

1886: In New York, four undercover officers arrested for Polish Jews for selling dry goods in violation of the Sunday Closing Laws.

1886:

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F10916FC385B10738DDDAB0994DA415B8684F0D3

1887: Philip Stein and Matilda Beave of Manchester gave birth to Leonard Jacques Stein OBE “a British Liberal Party politician, writer, barrister and President of the Anglo-Jewish Association.”

1887: It was reported today that the Hebrew Free School Association which had been providing services to 520 students in 1876 had grown to providing 2,581 students ten years later (1886).

1887: It was reported today that the Hebrew Free School Association had chosen new officers for the following year including: President – M.S. Isaacs; Vice President – Uriah Herman; and Treasurer – Newman Cowen.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F50D15F8385C10738DDDAB0994DA415B8784F0D3

1888: Birthdate of Lieutenant General Sir Philip Neame who served as Commander of the Palestine Command “which was formed with objective of controlling all British forces in Mandatory Police from 1940 to 1941.

1888: “Four Couples Made Happy” which was published today reported that two Jewish couples were among what was described as the four “fashionable weddings” that occurred in New York City.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F07E6DB123FEE3ABC4A52DFB467838B699FDE

1889: Birthdate of Phillip Carl Katz, the San Francisco native who earned the Medal of Honor while serving as a Sergeant in the U.S. Army

1889: Poet Robert Browning the author “Rabbi ben Ezra” passed away today. The poem is based on the life Abraham ibn Ezra. Ibn Ezra lived from 1092 until 1167 and was a leading figure in what was known as the Golden Age in Spain. Ibn Ezra was second only in fame to Rashi as Torah commentator. He was the first two attribute that the last section of Deuteronomy describing the death of Moses was written by Joshua. He was also the first two attribute the last 26 chapters of the Book of Isaiah to a different writer now known as the Second Isaiah. The poem begins with the famous line “Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be…” The belief that “Jewish blood coursed in his veins” was so common that a biography written two years after his death began by disproving this theory which was based on Browning’s “interest in Hebrew language and literature and his friendship for many members of the London Jewish community.”

1889: Birthdate of Lithuanian native “Frances Naomi Harrison” who come to the U.S in 1893 where after studying at NYU, Columbia and New York School of Social Work went on to a career that including serving as the “assistant director of the Graduate School for Jewish Social Work.

1890(1^st of Tevet, 5651): Rosh Chodesh Tevet, sixth day of Chanukah and erev Shabbat.

1890: In New York, The Board of Estimates and Apportionment appropriated $12,700 the work of converting the Hebrew Orphan Asylum Building into a school.

1890: In Duluth, MN, Samuel and Anna (Karon) Mark gave birth Marquette and University of Wisconsin trained physician Louis Mark, the tuberculosis specialist and Republican who was the husband of Fanny Karon with whom he had three children – Charlotte, Rae Louise and Roy Lloyd.

1890: As Americans seek a way to register their displeasure with Russian treatment of the Jews, several prominent Jews met at the home met at the home if Rabbi Jacob Joseph where “it was suggested that instead of hold a mass meeting, a meeting of the leaders of the synagogues and Jewish benevolent intuitions should be help to consult as to the best means to adopt to put a stop to the persecutions.”

1890: The eldest of Moses Winterstein’s children who were living in New York came to the Barge Office and agreed to assume responsibility for his Russian Jewish father and his family so that they could enter the country instead of being denied entrance because they would become “public charges.”

1890: Harris and Rachel Moldofsky gave birth to Samuel Moldofsky, the cabinet maker turned rifleman who was killed during the Third Battle of Ypres during WW I.

1892: When Treasury agents searched a ship appropriately named the Wandering Jew in Boston today they found boxes of cigars and opium.

1892: A list of the newly elected officers of the Hebrew Free School Association published today includes President Albert F. Hochstadter, Vice President Henry Budge and Treasurer Newman Cowen

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F20717F8385C17738DDDAB0994DA415B8285F0D3

more 2014

1892: “Curious Novel of Jewish Life In London” published today provided a review of Children of the Ghetto: Being Pictures of a Peculiar People by Israel Zangwill.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F20F17F8385C17738DDDAB0994DA415B8285F0D3

1893: In Bucharest, Sarah (née Guttman) and Morris Goldenberg gave birth to Emanuel Goldberg known to American movie audiences as Edward G. Robinson who came to the United States in 1902 and gained early fame playing in gangster movies including the classic Little Caesar and Key Largo but whose worst performance is oddly enough when he portrays the grumbling Jew in “The Ten Commandants.” http://www.nytimes.com/1973/01/27/archives/edward-g-robinson-79-dies-his-little-caesar-set-a-style-man-of.html

1894: At the convention of the American Federation of Labor in Denver, President Samuel Gompers “announced the committees on Resolutions, Organization, Grievances and Local Federated Bodies.

1895(25^th of Kislev, 5656): Chanukah

1895:In New York, the Hebrew Fair continued to draw “immense crowds” and enjoy three days of increasing financial success.

1895: Rector Herman Ahlwardt, “who is proud of his German title of anti-Semitic agitator” dodged eggs as he delivered his first address at Cooper Union where among other things he referred to the Jews as “a disease.”

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F07E4D8113AE533A25750C1A9649D94649ED7CF

1895: Birthdate of prolific Russian born American Yiddish author Saul Saphire who was a graduate of Columbia University’s Teachers College and the husband of the former Bessie Rubin with whom he raised a son, William.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1974/08/17/79373524.html?pageNumber=26

1895: Policemen carried Louis Silverman out of Cooper Union and locked him up in the East Fifth Street Police Station after he threw eggs at Herman Ahlwardt, the German anti-Semite who was speaking at Cooper Union.

1895: The investigation into charges of voter fraud brought by Eugene Frayer, a member of the Good Government Club that revolved around the residents of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews resumed today.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9B02E2D8113AE533A25750C1A9649D94649ED7CF

1896: In Russia, Nehemiah and Bailey Gitelson gave birth Moses Leo Gitelson, a member of Phi Beta Kappa, holder of a doctorate from NYU and WW I veteran who was a partner in Nehemiah Gitelson and Sons, a member of the “board of overseers of JTS and the husband of Miriam Silverman.

http://prestohost54.inmagic.com/Presto/content/GetDoc.axd?ctID=ZGUwYmFjM2ItNjI1NC00N2FlLWEyZTUtYTUwYmE3NzFhMzBl&rID=MTgz&pID=MTYwOA==&attchmnt=RmFsc2U=&rdp=RmFsc2U=

1897: Anti-Jewish violence broke out in Bucharest, Romania.

1897: The Katzenhammer Kids comic strip which Rudolph Block, the “editor of the comic supplements of the Hearst newspapers” who under the pen name Bruno Lessings helped to create appeared for the first time today.

1900: Birthdate of Warsaw native and Yiddish author Yoysef Vinyetski.

http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2016/06/yoysef-vinyetski-jose-winiecki.html

1901: Birthdate of Howard E. Koch, playwright, screen writer and victim of the Hollywood Blacklist.

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/18/obituaries/howard-koch-a-screenwriter-for-casablanca-dies-at-93.html?pagewanted=1

1901 Rabbi B.A. Elzas officiated at the wedding of Ida Maude Mose, the “youngest daughter of the late B.F. Moise” and “Moise De Leon of New Orleans, LA at the home of the bride’s mother in Charleston.

1901: In New York City, Katherine (nee Moden) and artist Frederick William Menken gave birth to Helen Menken

http://jwa.org/thisweek/mar/28/1966/this-week-in-history-death-of-helen-menken-notorious-and-accomplished-actress

1902(12^thof Kislev, 5663): Seventy year old Edwin Warren Moise passed away in his native South Carolina.

http://sc150civilwar.palmettohistory.org/edu/people/Moise-EdwinW.htm

1903(23rd of Kislev, 5664): Solomon Loeb, one of the founders of the banking firm of Kuhn, Loeb &Co., passed away this evening in New York City at the age of 74.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9902E4DD1539E433A25757C1A9649D946297D6CF

1904: Birthdate of Nicolas Louis Alexandre, Baron de Gunzburg the Parisian native who served as editor at Vogue, Harper’s Bazar and Town & Country.

1904(9^thof Tevet, 5665): Sixty-nine year old Jacob Caro the German Jewish historian who wrote extensively about the history of the Jews Poland passed away today at Breslau where he been serving as history professor at the University of Breslau.

1904(9^thof Tevet, 5665): Fifty-four St. Petersburg native Emanuel Schiffers who became a leading Russian chess master passed away today in his home town

1905:Birthdate of Manès Sperber an Austrian born French novelist, essayist and psychologist who also wrote under the pseudonyms Jan Heger and N.A. Menlos. He was also the father of Italian historian Vladimir Sperber and French anthropologist and cognitive scientist Dan Sperber.

1905: Birthdate of Iosif Solomonovich Grossman who gained fame as Soviet author and journalist Vasily Semyonovich Grossman.

1905: A dispatch from the Neue Freie Presse today reported that “the town of Elizabethgrad, Russia, has been burning and that a mob has been killing and plundering in the Jewish quarter.”

1905: Most of the five hundred Jews who recently arrived in New York after escaping Russia are expected to be admitted into the United States today.

1906(25^thof Kislev, 5667): First Day of Chanukah

1906(25^thof Kislev, 5667): Sixty-five year old Italian musician and composer Frederico Consolo, the author of “Libro dei Canti d’Israele” passed away today in Florence. (There is some confusion about the date of his death. Source is The Year Book of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.)

1906: The Brownsville Retail Kosher Butcher’s Association was meeting at the same time that the women of Brownsville were holding a mass meeting designed to gain support for a boycott of the Beef Trust. The mass meeting was chaired by Israel Reichman. There were 350 butchers at the Kosher Butcher’s meetings, 100 of whom have closed their shops in support of the attempts to end the Beef Trust.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9407E6DC1331E733A25750C1A9649D946797D6CF

1906: Leopold Greenberg, owner of a successful British advertising agency, publisher of “The Jewish Yearbook” and an ardent Zionist writes Jacobus Kann, his friend a Dutch Zionist, that “The Jewish Chronicle” is for sale and he has begun negotiating for its purchase.

1907: One day after he had passed away, Abraham Simon Freeman, the husband of Rhoda Freeman with whom he had had five children, was buried today at the “Belfast Jewish Cemetery” in Northern Ireland.

1908: Five immigrants from Russia – Miriam, Blumah and Michael Wolf, Pesach Leib Ronin and Schije Kuperstein -- bordered the SS Ashton at Antwerp on what they thought was the next leg of their trip to the United States.

1909: Birthdate of Hans Alex Keilson, “a Jewish German/Dutch novelist, poet, psychoanalyst, and child psychologist who wrote about traumas relating to what happened in Europe during WWII. In particular, he worked with traumatized orphans. Some of his novels deal with the same time period, though his first one was published in 1934. He was also active in the Dutch Resistance. Francine Prose has called him one of ‘the world’s very greatest writers.’" (As reported by William Grimes)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/02/books/hans-keilson-novelist-of-life-in-nazi-run-europe-dies-at-101.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

http://www.jewishideasdaily.com/5885/features/life-goes-on/?utm_source=jta_widget&utm_medium=jta_widget&utm_campaign=life-goes-on&jtahome

1909: Birthdate of Chicago native and University of Chicago alum, Louis Cowan the husband of the former Pauline Spiegel of Spiegel catalogue fame whose success in radio and television led him to the presidency of the CBS television network.

https://www.nytimes.com/1976/11/19/archives/louis-cowan-killed-with-wife-in-a-fire-created-quiz-shows-louis.html

1910: Julian “Mack was nominated by President William Howard Taft to a joint appointment to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and the United States Commerce Court, both new seats having been created by 36 Stat. 539.”

1911: The Council of Jewish Women, which was organized in September, 1893 and is led by President Marion L. Misch, the husband of Caesar Misch of Providence, R.I. held its sixth triennial convention doay in Philadelphia, PA.

1911: During the days of the British Empire, Delhi replaced Calcutta as the capital of India. Shalom Aaron Cohen who came to India from Aleppo in 1790 was one of the first Jews to settle in Calcutta. The arrival of Jews from Baghdad during the 19^th century marked an upturn in their economic and social power that lasted until the power World War II rise of Indian nationalism.

1911: Dr. Gustav Steinbach who had passed away at the age of 63 on December 6 was laid to rest today.

1912(2^ndof Tevet, 5673): Seventy-seven year old Baltimore, MD merchant Isaac Strouse passed away today.

1912: James Creelman, the national famous American journalist and Vice President of the Citizens’ Committee to Protest Against Russia’s Discrimination said today, in response to Russia on-going refusal to recognize the passports granted to American Jews said today “Russia has got to come to a decision very soon in agreeing to a new treaty which makes no discrimination against citizens of the United States, regardless of where they were born or what their religious views.”

1912: Mrs. Joseph Fish presided over this afternoon’s meeting of the Deborah Woman’s club whose attendees included Miss Marion Stadcker.

1912(2^ndof Tevet, 5673): Eighth Day of Chanukah

1912(2^ndof Tevet, 5673): Fifty-seven year old Barry Dantzig, the husband of “Anna Kasor Dantzig” passed away today and we buried in the Sheffield Cemetery in Kansas City, MO.

1913:Hebrew language officially used to teach in schools located in Eretz Israel.

1914(24^th of Kislev, 5675): Parashat Vayeshev

1914(24^th of Kislev, 5675): In the evening Jews kindle the first Chanukah light during World War I.

1915: Birthdate of Frank Sinatra.Sinatra “may have been one of America 's most famous Italian Catholics, but he kept the Jewish people and the State of Israel close to his heart, manifesting life-long commitments to fighting anti-Semitism and to activism on behalf of Israel . Sinatra stepped forward in the early 1940s, when big names were needed to rouse America into saving Europe's remaining Jews, and he sang at an "Action for Palestine” rally (1947). He sat on the board of trustees of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and he donated over $1 million to Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, which honored him by dedicating the Frank Sinatra International Student Center. (The Center made heartbreaking headlines when terrorists bombed it in 2002, killing nine people.) As the result of his support for the Jewish State, his movies and records were banned in some Arab countries. Sinatra helped Teddy Kollek, later the long-serving mayor of Jerusalem but then a member of the Haganah, by serving as a $1 million money-runner that helped Israel win the war. The Copacabana Club, which was very much run and controlled by the same Luciano-related New York Mafia crowd with whom Sinatra had become enmeshed, happened to be next door to the hotel out of which Haganah members were operating. In his autobiography, Kollek relates how, trying in March 1948 to circumvent an arms boycott imposed by President Harry Truman on the Jewish fighters in Eretz Yisroel, he needed to smuggle about $1 million in cash to an Irish ship captain docked in the Port of New York. The young Kollek spotted Sinatra at the bar and, afraid of being intercepted by federal agents, asked for help. In the early hours of the morning, the singer went out the back door with the money in a paper bag and successfully delivered it to the pier. The origins of Sinatra's love affair with the Jewish people are not clear, but for years, the Hollywood icon wore a small mezuzah around his neck, a gift from Mrs. Golden, an elderly Jewish neighbor who cared for him during his boyhood in Hoboken, N.J. (Years later, he honored her by purchasing a quarter million dollars' worth of Israel bonds). He protected his Jewish friends, once responding to an anti-Semitic remark at a party by simply punching the offender. Time magazine reported that Sinatra walked out on the christening of his own son when the priest refused to allow a Jewish friend to be the godfather. As late as 1979, he raged over the fact that a Palm Springs cemetery official in California declared that he could not arrange the burial of a deceased Jewish friend over the Thanksgiving holiday; Sinatra again -- threatened to punch him in the nose. Sinatra famously played the role of a Jewish pilot in Cast a Giant Shadow, the 1966 film filmed in Israel and starring friend Kirk Douglas as Mickey Marcus, the Jewish-American colonel who fought and died in Israel's War for Independence (Sinatra dive-bombs Egyptian tanks with seltzer bottles!) He donated his salary for the part to the Arab-Israeli Youth Center in Nazareth, and he also made a significant contribution to the making of Genocide, a film about the Holocaust, and helped raise funds for the film. Less known is Sinatra in Israel (1962), a short 45-minute featurette he made in which he sang "In the Still of the Night "and "Without a Song". He also starred in "The House I Live In" (1945), a ten-minute short film made to oppose anti-Semitism at the end of World War II, which received an Honorary Academy Award and a special Golden Globe award in 1946.”

1916:No vote will be taken on the bill limiting immigration to the United States, which if passed would have a negative impact on Jews, who after the World War, will seek to escape the persecution being suffered in various parts of Europe by coming to the United States.

1917: Four days after the British arrival in Jerusalem, Dr. Yaakov Thon, convened a meeting of Jewish leaders with an eye toward establishing a City council of Jerusalem Jews.

1917: While working in the Judean hills to build a temporary breastwork “enjoyed fresh meat, bread, vegetables, and rum” for the first time in a long time.

1917: It was reported today that Al Jolson told the leaders of the drive to raise five million dollars for Jewish war relief and welfare work in the army and navy that “he remembered enough of his early life in Shrednik near Kovno to realize how much the money was needed” and then closed by telling William Fox that he was raising his contribution from one thousand dollars to two thousand dollars.

1917: A bazar “given under the auspices of Temple Emanu-El” which is designed to raised fund to go to the “relief of Jewish war sufferers and for welfare work among American soldiers and sailors is scheduled to open tonight at the home of Adolph Lewisohn at 881 Fifth Avenue – a location made possible do to Mr. Lewisohn’s generosity which means none of the funds raised will have to be spent on renting a hall for the activity.

1917: With only two days to go, the committee trying to raise five million dollars for Jewish war relief suffered its worst day for collections today when it raised only $161,900 which means they have raised $3,048, 252 leaving them almost two million dollars short of their goal.

1917: Birthdate of Worcester, MA native and Methodist minister John Stanley Gruel who served as aboard the “Exodus” in 1947 and who earned the praise of Golda Meir for his testimony before the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine which was critical in the their support for the Partition Resolution of November 1947.”

https://www.israelanswers.com/sites/israelanswers.com/files/files/images/Grauel.pdf

1918: “Reports of the team Captains and workers at the headquarters of the Jewish War Relief, in the Hotel Biltmore indicated that” as of tonight, “almost one of the five million dollars sought for the suffering Jews in Europe had been raised.”

1918: It was reported today that the Y.M.H.A. of Washington Heights had raised $1,143 to aid the suffering Jews of war torn Europe while a soldiers’ committee at Camp Hancock had raise an additional $108.35 for the same cause.

1919: Victor Cross winner Leonard Maurice Keysor who had enlisted in 1914 and served in Egypt and Gallipoli before fighting on the Western Front was discharged today.

1919: Birthdate of Abraham Hirschelf, the native of Tarnow, Poland, who became a successful real estate investor, producer and New York City political candidate.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/10/nyregion/abe-hirschfeld-a-millionaire-and-an-eccentric-dies-at-85.html?_r=0

1920: Over a year after premiering in Germany, “Madame DuBarry” a bio-pic directed by Ernst Lubitsch opened in the United States.

1920: “The Seventh Annual Flag Day of the Jewish National Fund” is scheduled to be held today.

1920: Dr. Wise is scheduled to deliver an address on “Breathes There a Jewish With Soul So Dead” at “the Union Maccabean Service of the Free Synagogue.”

1920: The Union of American Hebrew Congregations are scheduled to sponsor “two big mass meetings” this evening, one in Brooklyn and one in New York, for the purpose of bringing “the message of Judaism in its modern aspects to the Jews…”

“Two big mass meetings” are scheduled to be held this evening – one in New York and one in Brooklyn –

1920: Terese L. Nathan, the daughter of New Yorker Mr. and Mrs. J.P. Nathan is scheduled to marry Joseph M. Sydeman after which the couple will honeymoon “on the Continent and the Far East.”

1920: The Histadrut Ha-ovdim (General Labor Federation) was founded in pre-state Israel. Its founder, Berel Katznelson, a disciple of Ber Borochov, combined various labor groups to form a federation.

1921: Birthdate of Anita Nathan Bayer the mother of Carole Bayer Sager Daly and Grandmother of Christopher Elton Bacharach.

1922: Ralph E. Heilman, the Dean of the Northwestern School of Journalism is scheduled to “give his first of a series of lectures on ‘The Newer Ideas in Business and Industry’” today “at the first monthly tea sponsored by the Educational Department of the Chicago Woman’s Aid.”

1922: Sisterhood President Mrs. Gerson B. Levi is scheduled to oversee an exhibit and sale of work made the blind at B’nai Sholom Temple Community House in Chicago.

1922: Thirty-one year old Maurice Bloch the NYU trained attorney and New York State Assembly married Madeline Neuberger today.

1924: In the Bronx, Yetta (or Joyce, née Silpe) and Louis (Leib) Koch, immigrants from Uscieczko in Eastern Galicia gave birth to Edward Irving “Ed” Koch who served as Mayor of New York City from 1977 to 1989.

1924(15^thof Kislev, 5685):In Berlin, fifty-seven year old Alexander Israel Helphand, the man who negotiated with the German’s during World War I to gain Lenin’s return to Russia from Switzerland which brought about the Communist Revolution and took Russia out of World War I passed away.

1925(25^thof Kislev, 5686): Parashat Vayeshev; First Day of Chanukah

1925: Birthdate of Russian composer Vladimir Shainsky.

1925: The Majlis of Iran votes to crown Reza Khan as the new Shah of Persia. The new Shah removed “removed restrictions on Jews and other religious minorities.’ He prohibited the mass conversion of Jews and “Jews were allowed to hold government jobs.” But the Shah’s sympathetic view of Nazi Germany, along with an under-current of anti-Jewish sentiment, left the community with a sense of discomfort.

1926: “Palestine Comes Into the Modern Word” published today provides a detailed review of Palestine Awake: The Rebirth of a Nation by Sophie Irene Loeb.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1926/12/12/98526538.html?pageNumber=43

1927: “Jerusalem Ten Years Ago” published today marks the decennial of Allenby’s entrance into Jerusalem.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1927/12/12/96683923.html?pageNumber=22

1928: In Manhattan State Supreme Court Judge Alfred Frankenthaler and his wife Martha gave birth to abstract expressionist painter Helen Frankenthaler

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Helen_Frankenthaler-1956.jpg

http://jwa.org/thisweek/dec/12/1928/this-week-in-history-soak-stain-artist-helen-frankenthaler-is-born

1931: Dr. Alexander Rosenfeld, vice president of the World Maccabee Association, spoke this afternoon over WLPH from the Lyric Theatre, Brooklyn. He talked about the forthcoming Maccabee Jewish Games which will be held in Tel Aviv in March, 1932 and in which more than 3,000 Jewish athletes from all parts of the world are expected compete.

1932: “Biography” a play written by S.N. Behrman premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre.3.

1932: The NBC Blue Network broadcast episode number three of “Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel” starring Groucho and Chico Marx,

1933: In Strasbourg, Polish born Rabbi Oscar (Ovadia) Eisenberg and his wife gave birth to French television producer Josy (Yossef ) Eisenberg.

1934: In New Orleans, the sale of the Roosevelt Hotel to The New Orleans Roosevelt Corporation headed by Seymour Weiss was finalized today.

1935: Heinrich Himmler begins the Lebensborn Project.

1936(28^thof Kislev, 5696): Parashat Miketz; Fourth day of Chanukah

1936: At Temple Emanu-El, Rabbi Nathan Perilman is scheduled to deliver a sermon “A Strange Call to Arms.

1936: At West End Synagogue, Rabbi Gustave Falk is scheduled to deliver a sermon “Synagogues, Old and New.”

1936: At Temple Rodeph Sholom, Rabbi Louis I. Newman is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “What Is Worth Dying For?”

1936: At Temple Israel, Rabi William F. Rosenblum is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “One Drop of Blood and Many Drops of Water.”

1936: In Chur, Switzerland, Dr. Eugence Curti, the attorney for David Frankfurter who has been charged with murdering the leader of the Nazi Party in Switzerland, delivered his summation which included a plea for mercy saying that “the sentence of eighteen years demanded by the prosecution was ‘too severe’ and pleaded with the court of ‘justice and humanity.’”

1936: U.S. premiere of Camille, “an American romantic drama directed by George Cukor and produced by Irving Thalberg and Bernard H. Hyman.

1937: Jewish writer Arch Oboler caused more controversy with his script contribution to today’s edition of The Chase and Sanborn Hour. In Oboler's sketch, host Don Ameche and guest Mae West portrayed a slightly bawdy Adam and Eve, satirizing the Biblical tale of the Garden of Eden. On the surface, the sketch did not feature much more than West's customary suggestive double-entendres, and today it seems quite tame. But in 1937, that sketch and a subsequent routine featuring West trading suggestive quips with Edgar Bergen's dummy Charlie McCarthy cause a furor that resulted in West being banned from broadcasting and from being mentioned at all on NBC programming for 15 years.

1937: The Palestine Postreported numerous assassinations, attempted murders, hold-ups and robberies perpetrated by Arab terrorists all over the country. In Haifa, Elimelech Gromet, 13, the victim of a terror attack in the Hadar Hacarmel quarter, died of his wounds. Sheikh Khatib, an Arab notable, and his bodyguard were murdered in the town's Arab quarter. In Jerusalem all gates of the Old City, except for the well-guarded Jaffa and Damascus gates, were closed from early in the evening until late the following morning.

1937: The Polish Dombrowski Brigade (part of the 13th IB) formed a Jewish Company from the 2nd PalafoxBattalion (Palafox was a Spanish patriot from the Napoleonic invasion), called The Botwin Company, today at Tardadientes, and named after Naftali Botwin (a famous Polish Jewish radical, executed in 1924 for assassinating a Polish Secret police agent).

http://www.alba-valb.org/resources/lessons/jewish-volunteers-in-the-spanish-civil-war/jewish-volunteers-in-the-spanish-civil-war

https://www.thejc.com/lifestyle/features/the-jews-of-the-spanish-civil-war-a-forgotten-story-1.60438

1938: Friedrich Münzer, the German classical scholar who had lost his teaching position and most of his friends after he was classified as a Jews and who would eventually die at Theresienstadt wrote to his colleague Ronald Syme at Oxford University “that the changed situation ‘deeply depressed’ him, but that he still considered himself better off than many others.”

1938: Birthdate of David Gurfinkel, the Tel Aviv native who became a leading Israeli cinematographer.

http://www.cinematographers.nl/PaginasDoPh/gurfinkel.htm

1939:In eastern areas of Greater Germany, two years of forced labor is made compulsory for all Jewish males aged 14 to 60.

1939: Jews are expelled from Kalisz in the Warthegau region of Poland; many flee to Warsaw.

1940: The Salvador, a ship that set out from Varna, Bulgaria, a month ago, with 350 Jewish refugees aboard sinks in the Sea of Marmora with 250 Jewish refugees, including 75 children being drowned. T. M. Snow, head of the British Foreign Office's Refugee Section, notes that "there could have been no more opportune disaster from the point of view of stopping this [Jewish refugee] traffic [to Palestine]."

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/this-day-in-jewish-history/.premium-1.631302

1941: “The Wolf Man,” a horror film written by Curt Siodmak was released today.

1941: Adolf Hitler announced plans for the extermination of the Jews at a meeting in the Reich Chancellery

1941: In the second action in two weeks, the Germans killed another estimated 12,000 inhabitants of the Riga Ghetto.

1941: The German Army of Occupation began a house to house search in Paris looking for Jews.

1941:The SS Struma set sail from Constanţa, on the Black Sea

1941: Romania declared war on the United States.

1942(4^thof Tevet, 5703): Parashat Miketz

1942(4^th of Tevet, 5703): Fifty-nine year old Benjamin Pinkowitz, the husband of Mollie Finkelstein Pinkowitz and the father of George Pinkowitz, the World War II veteran who supplemented his income as a teacher by working as a pharmacist after having married Cecelia Glick Pinkowitz, passed away today after which he was buried at the Baron Hirsch Cemetery on Staten Island.

1942: MGM released “White Cargo” starring Hedy Lamarr to the cinematic audience.

1942: The Jews of Volhunia revolt against a German round-up.

1942 Jewish prisoners at a labor camp in Lutsk, Ukraine, armed with knives, bricks, iron bars, acid, and several revolvers and sawed-off shotguns, revolt against Germans and Ukrainians. The uprising is crushed.

1942: The U.S. Army Medical Corps established an evacuation hospital at Tlemcen, the Algerian city whose “most important place pilgrimage of all religions was the Jewish cemetery on the outskirts of town.”

1943: The chairman of the Jewish Council in Wlodzimierz Wolynski, Poland, the site of street massacres in 1942, assures the remaining ghetto residents that they will be safe

1943(15th of Kislev, 5704): The day after his 57^th birthday, Nice born, French composer Marcel Lattès was murdered at Auschwitz today.

1943: Birthdate of Hana Spitzer, the native of Kfar Pines who gained famed as Rabbi Hanan Porat, Israeli educator and MK.

1943(15^thof Kislev, 5704): Thirty-six year old Wanda Abenaim Pacifici, the wife of Riccardo Reuven Pacifici who was murdered at Auschwitz, was murdered today at the same death camp.

1944(26^thof Kislev, 5705): Second Day of Chanukah

1944(26^thof Kislev, 5705): Forty-two year old Regina Jonas, the Berlin native who was “the first woman ordained as a rabbi, was murdered at Auschwitz today.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/commentary-obscure-no-more-worlds-first-woman-rabbi-receives-recognition/2014/07/25/f0efe7dc-1433-11e4-ac56-773e54a65906_story.html

1944(26^thof Kislev, 5705): Sixty-seven year old Columbia trained lawyer and life-long music aficionado Lewis Montefiore Isaacs, the son of Meyer and Maria Solomon Isaacs and the husband Edith J. Rich “the editor of Theatre Art Monthly, who found time to serve as the Borough President of Manhattan and to write guides to “Koenigskinder” and “Hansel and Gretel” passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1944/12/13/86738953.pdf

1944: “After sustaining very heavy casualties from enemy artillery fire and the cold weather, the entire First Division,” including Samuel Fuller of the 16^thInfantry Regiment “was sent to a rest camp today.”

1945: The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved a resolution of U.S. aid to open Palestine to Jewish refugees.

1946: Arabs call for a general strike to protest the alleged abduction of an Arab in Salame, Palestine by the Haganah.

1946: Two illegal Arab Armies were merged by the Arab High Committee into the Arab Youth Movement.

1946: Birthdate of Steve Goldsmith, Harvard professor and former mayor of Indianapolis, Indiana.

1947: Gordon P. Merriam, chief of Division of Near Eastern Affairs, refers Dr. Irving E Medoff of New Jersey to the United Nations after he had written to the U.S. State department concerning his interest in organizing an air force group to operate in Palestine. Merriam’s referral is based on the U.S. view that matters pertaining to Palestine are under the control of the UN.

1947: Birthdate of Irving Azoff, the native of Danville, Illinois who went from booking bands while in high school to being named the “most powerful person in the music history” in 2012.

1947: King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia promised that the Arabs will protect and maintain American oil operations at the same time expressing the hope that the U.S. will correct its “mistake” on the issue of Palestine Partition

1947: British foreign minister Ernest Bevin asks the Jews for a moratorium on “illegal immigration” while the mandate is still in power.

1947:UN Trusteeship Subcommittee announces that internationalized Jerusalem will only have a police force which can call on UN Security Council if more order is needed. Legislature is legally "rigged" so a minority group will keep a balance of power between Jewish and Arab factors.

1947: The Arab League voted to provide funds, weapons and volunteers for an impending Palestine war designed to thwart the United Nation’s partition vote. An Arab Liberation Army under the command of an Iraqi staff officer named Ismail Safwat Pasha established its headquarters outside of Damascus and gave field command to Fawzi al-Qawujki a veteran terrorist leader of the uprisings during the 1930’s.

1947(29th of Kislev, 5708): An Arab gang stopped a BOAC truck leaving Lydda Airport. The Arabs told the Arabs on the truck to run away. The three Jews – Yitzhak Jian, David Ben Ovadia and Joseph Litvak - were then shot dead.

1948: “Bicycle Thieves” an Italian film was released today in the United States thank to the distribution efforts of Joseph Burstyn and Arthur Mayer through their company Burstyn-Mayer, Inc.

1948: Israel and Transjordan let Christians travel to Bethlehem for Christmas pilgrimages

1948: “Less than two weeks after the signing of the final cease-fire, the ‘Valor Road’ was opened by Ben-Gurion as a secure by-pass for travel from Jerusalem to the coast. The road replaced the famous ‘Burma Road’ and made it possible for Jews to travel the fifteen miles from the Judean hills to the coastal settlements without having to brave Arab sniper attacks.

1949: The U.S. asks Israel and Jordan not to do anything which would disrupt relations with other Arab states or the Vatican.

1949: Birthdate of Anglo-Jewish historian David Samuel Harvard Abulafia who is married to another famous historian Anna Sapir Abufia. (Can you imagine what a Shabbat dinner would be like at their house?)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Abulafia

1950: One day after he had passed away, funeral services were held for 72 year old Herbert Marcus, Sr. the Louisville, KY born son of Jacob and Delia Marcus and high school troop, who after moving went from janitor in a Hillsboro, TX general store, to life insurance salesman in Dallas to being the co-founder of Neiman-Marcus Department Store and philanthropic community leader as can be seen by his service as President of Temple Emanuel, founder of the Southwestern division of the National Conference of Christians and Jews and “primary fund raiser for S.M.U.

1950: Paula Ackerman became the interim "spiritual leader" of Temple Beth Israel in Meridian, Mississippi after her husband, who was the congregation's rabbi, passed away. (As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archives)

http://jwa.org/thisweek/dec/12/1950/paula-ackerman

1951: Yosef Sprinzak, the Speaker of the Knesset became acting President of Israel when Chaim Weizman became so ill he could not fill the position.

1952:The Jerusalem Post reported that the Political Committee of the UN General Assembly passed, by 32 votes to 13, with 13 abstentions, a strongly-worded resolution calling for direct Arab-Israeli negotiations.

1952: As HUAC continued its investigation of Rutgers Professor Moses Finley, the Board of Trustees adopted a resolution declaring "It shall be cause for immediate dismissal of any member of faculty or staff to fail to cooperate with government inquiries.”

1952(24^th of Kislev, 5713): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah light

1953: Birthdate of Ben Shalom Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.

1955(27^th of Kislev, 5716): Third day of Chanukah; kindle 4^thcandle in the evening.

1955: “The Rose Tattoo” a film version of the play by the same name written by Hal Kanter, directed by Daniel Mann and produced by Hal Wallis was released today.

1955(27^th of Kislev, 5716): Operation Olive Leaves, under the command of Ariel Sharon came to a successful conclusion with the destruction of all the Syrian gun emplacements attacked by the IDF. Among the casualties were ten wounded including Rafael Eitan and six dead including Yitzchak Ben Menachem, a hero of Israel's War of Independence “who was killed by a Syrian hand grenade.” “Casualties in the operation included Rafael Eitan (wounded in his stomach) and Yitzhak Ben Menachem (surnamed “Gulliver” because of his height), an Independence War hero who had replaced Motta Gur as Company Commander.

1956(8^th of Tevet, 5717): Sixty-four year old German born screenwriter and director E.A. (Ewals Andre) Dupont who fled to the United States when the Nazis came to power passed away today in Los Angeles.

1957(19^th of Kislev, 5718): Sixty-nine year old Harvard educated lawyer and veteran of the American Expeditionary Force Arthur E. Manheimer, “the former president of the National Jewelers Association” and husband of Ruth Manheimer with whom he had two sons – William and Kent – passed away today.

1960(23^rd of Kislev, 5721): Eighty-five year old to Estelle A. May Affedler, the wife of Louis J. Affelder, the Pittsburgh civil engineer and civic leader with whom she had three children Mrs. Emanuel, Mrs. S. Lewis Merritt and Paul B. Affelder, the music critic for the Brooklyn Eagle passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/12/13/99901883.pdf

1962: U.S. premiere of “Freud: The Secret Passion,” an “American biographical film drama based on the life of the Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud” with music by Jerry Goldsmith and featuring David Kossoff as “Jacob Freud.

1963: Kenya gains its independence from the United Kingdom. Jews began to settle in Kenya in the early years of the 20^th century.In 1904, The Nairobi Hebrew Congregation was established in 1904 and the 20 families living in Nairobi built the country’s first synagogue in 1913. The community saw some growth after World War II. In 1955, “Israel Somen, the president of the Board of Kenya Jewry, was elected mayor of Nairobi.” A small Jewish community has continued to exist which has not been always been the case of former colonies in sub-Saharan Africa. Israel and Kenya continue to enjoy positive relations.

1963: “The Cardinal” the movie version of the novel with the same name directed by Otto Premininger, with music by Jerome Moross and promotional posters by Saul Bass was released in the United States today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cardinal#/media/File:The_cardinal.jpg

1964: “Casablan,” or “Kazablan” a film adaptation of a play of the same name that substitutes Ashkenazim and Sephardim for Montagues and Capulets, premiered in New York.

1966: A 27 year member of Local 338 writes to the national union headquarters expressing his despair over the deteriorating conditions in the bagel industry which are leading to cuts in pay, benefits and the number of jobs available for bakers.

1966: “A Man for All Seasons” the film version of the Broadway play directed and produced by Fred Zinnemann was released in the United States today.

1967(10^th of Kislev, 5728): Forty-nine year old City College graduate and WW II Marine Corps Veteran, Irving Gitlin, the New York born son of Jacob and Celia Gitlin who was a leading producer of documentaries for CBS and NBC passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/12/13/84922044.pdf

https://www.emmys.com/bios/irving-gitlin

1968: In response to repeated terrorist attacks against Israeli aircraft “a heliborne paratroop force raided Beirut Airport and destroyed Lebanese aircraft today.”

1970(14^th of Kislev, 5731): Parashat Vayishlach

1970(14^th of Kislev, 5731): Just days before his 81^stbirthday “Russian and Soviet avant-garde artist, Cubist painter, stage designer and book illustrator” Nathan Isaevich Altman passed away today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Altman#/media/File:Natan_Altman_(selfportrait,_1911,_GRM).jpg

1970: Birthdate of Jennifer Connelly who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress 2002 for A Beautiful Mind and the 2002 Golden Globe 2002 for same role.

1971(24th of Kislev, 5732): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah light.

1971(24th of Kislev, 5732): David Sarnoff, CEO of RCA and founder of NBC, passed away. Born in Russia 1891, Sarnoff reportedly studied to be a rabbi before joining the Marconi Wireless Company as a telegraph operator. He became the leading figure in the creation of RCA.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989773,00.html

1971(24^thof Kislev, 5732): Sixty-two year old philologist and linguist Yechezkel Kutscher, the native of Sloavkia who made Aliyah in 1931 and pursued a career which earned him the Israel Prize in 1961 passed away today.

1973: “The Last Detail” featuring Gilda Radner and with music by Johnny Mandel was released today in the United States.

1973(17^thof Kislev, 5734): Seventy-three year old Warsaw born composer Chemjo Vinaver passed away today in Jerusalem.

http://www.emanuelnyc.org/composer.php?composer_id=93

https://www.google.com/search?ei=Ti8PXNqiBqXMjwScm5KgBw&q=Chemjo+Vinaver%2C+obituary&oq=Chemjo+Vinaver%2C+obituary&gs_l=psy-ab.3...3437.6992..7690...0.0..1.749.2102.5j3j4-1j0j1......0....1..gws-wiz.......0i22i30j33i160.YjRNaiWW05k

1974: Thirteen people were injured lightly or moderately In Jerusalem when an explosive device went off in Ben Yehuda Street

1974: “The Godfather Part II” featuring Less Strasberg, James Caan and Abe Vigoda and edited by Peter Zinner premiered in New York City.

1975(8^thof Tevet, 5736): Eighty-nine year old Elias H. Margolis, the Polish born son of Abraham Isaac Margolis and Chaya Feigel "Fanny" Margolis, and husband of Dora / Dorothea Margolis passed away today in Akron, OH.

1975: In San Diego, CA, Barry Bialik and Beverly Winkelman gave birth to actress Mayim Bialik, who played Blossom Russo on “Blossom” and Amy Farrah Fowler on “The Big Bang.” “Hayim Nahman Bialik, Israel's national poet, was Mayim Bialik's great-great-grandfather's uncle”

1977(2^nd of Tevet, 5738): 8^th day of Chanukah

1977(2^nd of Tevet, 5738): One person was killed and 25 were injured during a grenade attack at Beersheba.

1977(2^nd of Tevet, 5738): Eighty-six year old French filmmaker Raymond Bernard passed away today/

1978(12th of Kislev, 5739): American painter Norman Raeben died of heart attack in the lobby of his apartment. Born in Russia in 1901, he was “the youngest of the six children of Yiddish author Sholom Aleichem.” “The pen-name 'Raeben' is probably derived from his family-name 'Rabinowitz'. Raeben moved to New York City with his family in 1914. He studied painting from Robert Henri, George Luks and John French Sloan, who all belonged to the Ashcan School. His studio was on the 11th floor of Carnegie Hall. His students include Bob Dylan, Bernice Sokol Kramer, Carolyn Schlam, Andrew Gottlieb, Janet Cohn, John Smith, Diana Postel, Lori Lerner and Rosalyn (Roz) Jacobs. Raeben's mission was to teach the art of painting through intuition and feeling, instead of through conceptualization.”

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://onlinemusicnews.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/bob-dylan.jpg%3Fw%3D270%26h%3D350&imgrefurl=http://onlinemusicnews.wordpress.com/2010/02/12/bob-dylans-first-paintings-exhibited-at-london-art-gallery/&h=350&w=270&sz=10&tbnid=_iux545og55DOM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=69&zoom=1&usg=__qw-YbB6DAXy_MGDsQIdAdoQMo4A=&docid=MKC71nuTN27GiM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=nL_HUN7oDsSi2QWUoIGADw&sqi=2&ved=0CCoQ9QEwAw&dur=1139

1979(22nd of Kislev, 5740): Elka de Levie, the only Jewish gymnast of the triumphant 1928 Dutch ladies’ gymnastics team, which won the Olympic title in Amsterdam in 1928 to survive the horrors of the Holocaust, passed away.

1986: “¡Three Amigos! “ a spoof the Magnificent Seven directed by John Landis, produced by Lorne Michaels who wrote the script along with Randy Newman who in turn created the music along with Elmer Bernstein was released in the United States today.

1986: Frank Rich’s review of “Dream of a Blacklisted Actor” Conrad Bromberg’s play about his father, Edward Bromberg whose career was destroyed during the McCarthy era was published today.

http://www.nytimes.com/1986/12/12/theater/stage-dream-of-a-blacklisted-actor.html

1988:Foreign Minister Shimon Peres urged the Palestine Liberation Organization today to direct its diplomacy toward Israel rather than the United States. ‘We criticize the Palestinian position and their declarations because they have been looking for expressions that travel well in Washington rather than for positions that make sense in Jerusalem,'' Mr. Peres told a meeting of American and Israeli officials and academics. ''The Palestinians must remember, as we do that coexistence between the Palestinians and Israel must take place in the Middle East and not in North America,'' Mr. Peres said. ''The Palestinians must not only talk peace - and I appreciate statements in favor of peace - but behave peacefully,'' he said.

1988: European countries are pressing the Palestine Liberation Organization and its Arab allies to moderate plans to seek United Nations recognition of an independent Palestinian state, diplomats said today. The effort came on the eve of a special meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. Yasir Arafat, the P.L.O. chairman, is to be the main speaker Tuesday when the Assembly holds its first meeting in Geneva. The Assembly decided to move here for its annual debate on the Palestinian question after the Reagan Administration refused to give Mr. Arafat a visa to address the Assembly in New York.

1989: In an article entitled “Soviets Trying to Become Team Player in Mideast” published today, Alan Cowell describes the change in Russian Middle East policy from one of confrontation to “partnership with Washington in the diplomacy of the region.”

http://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/12/world/soviets-trying-to-become-team-player-in-mideast.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

1990(25^th of Kislev, 5751): Chanukah

1990: A fund-raising dinner and dance is held at the Pierre to further the restoration of the Eldridge Street Synagogue on the Lower East Side. The event also honors the founders of the Eldridge Street Project, who include Brooke Astor, Joan K. Davidson, Simon Rifkind and Joanna and Daniel Rose.

1990: The 1991 fund-raising campaign of the UJA-Federation of New York opens with the Lawyers Division annual Proskauer Award Dinner during which Ira M. Millstein, a senior partner in the New York law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, receives the award.

1990: The Young Professionals of the American Friends of Tel Aviv University sponsor a concert at Steinway Hall to raise money to help replace the instruments Soviet émigré musicians in Israel could not take from the Soviet Union. The pianist Dina Joffe and her husband, the violinist Mikhail Vaiman, and the pianist Byron Janis, an officer of American Friends, are among those who help to provide the evening’s entertainment.

1991(5^thof Tevet, 5752): Israeli artist Moshe Elazar Castel, the native of Jerusalem born in 1909 and son or Rabbi Yehuda Castel and his wife Rachel passed away today.

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0004_0_04040.html

http://www.soussanart.com/artist.php?id=4

http://www.soussanart.com/liste.php?artist=4

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:qzoD7W6JSBAJ:www.castelmuseum.com/%3Fpid%3D7%26t%3Ds%26s%3D1+castel+married+to+bilhah&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk

1993: Today Mr. Rabin and Yasir Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, agreed in Cairo that they needed more time to resolve complex security issues before self-rule could begin in roiling Gaza and placid Jericho, and they gave themselves at least another 10 days.

1993: Rabbi Helene Ferris officiated at the wedding of Robert Stanley Bannister and Celia Ingrid Farber, the freelance author who wrote extensively about HIV and AIDS and is the daughter of radio talk show host Barry Farber.

1993: Under attack by some political leaders for dealing far less firmly with Jews who commit acts of violence than with Palestinians, the Israeli Army today ordered soldiers to take "strong action" against law-breaking settlers in the occupied territories, including possible arrests and curfews.

1994(9^thof Tevet, 5755): Yosef Harmelin, the native of Vienna who came to Israel as a teenager in 1939 and served two tours as director of Shin Bet passed away today.

1994: Israel and Jordan fleshed out their new peace treaty some more today, opening temporary embassies in each other's country and saying they would exchange ambassadors next month. For the first time, an Israeli flag flew openly in Amman, and in a separate ceremony a few hours later, the Jordanian flag was raised in Tel Aviv, where almost all countries put their missions to Israel. Both embassies are in hotels for now, until permanent locations are found. Israel has yet to name its ambassador to Jordan, which on Oct. 26 became the second Arab country, after Egypt, to sign a peace treaty with the Jewish state. Amman has appointed Marwan Muasher, a former spokesman for the Jordanian delegation to peace talks in Washington, as its ambassador, but he will not begin his assignment for several more weeks.

1995(20^thof Kislev, 5756): Rabbi Moshe-Zvi Neria, the native of Łódź who became an Israeli educator and MK passed away today.

1995(20^thof Kislev, 5756): Eighty-seven year old David Saul Marshal “a politician and lawyer from Singapore who served as Singapore's first Chief Minister from 1955 to 1956” passed away today in Singapore.

1995: Israeli PM Shimon Peres addressed both houses of the US Congress.

1996: “After only 14 months at Disney, Michael Ovitz was fired” today.

1997: “Hugo Pool” a comedy featuring Richard Lewis was released in the United States today.

1997: “Deconstructing Harry” a comedy directed and written by Woody Allen, co-produced by Letty Aronson and starring Bob Balaban, Richard Benjamin, Billy Crystal, Amy Irving and Julia Louis-Dreyfus among others was released today in the United States.

1997: John Marks, the former Berlin bureau chief for U.S. News & World Report wrote an essay cautioning against letting the hunt for the stolen assets hoarded by the Swiss and other European dangers overshadow the reality of the primary villain of the Holocaust, Nazi Germany. “’No one would argue that German evil absolves Swiss cupidity or French collaboration. But it would be a very odd paradox indeed if the partial eclipse of German culpability became a permanent historical fixture” as the heirs of the Holocaust seek to regain the property of their progenitors.

1999: The New York Times book section includes a review of Jacob H. Schiff: A Study in American Jewish Leadership by Naomi W. Cohen.

1999(3rd of Tevet, 5760): Author Joseph Heller passed away. He is best remembered as the author of Catch-22. a book whose title has entered the English language (As reported by Richard Severo and Herbert Mitgang)

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/14/books/joseph-heller-darkly-surreal-novelist-dies-at-76.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

2000: “Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker” featuring Michael Rosenbaum was released in the Uited States today.

2001: Yasser Arafat bowed to long-standing Israeli demands by ordering the closure of the offices of the militant Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The supposed closing had no effect in ending the terrorism which enjoyed Arafat’s continued support.

2001: Four people were injured when at Neve Dekalim as a result of Hamas bombing.

2001: Irv Rubin, JDL Chairman, and Earl Krugel, a member of the organization, were charged with conspiracy to bomb private and government property. The two allegedly were caught in the act of planning bomb attacks against the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, California and on the office of U.S. Representative Darrell Issa, who is Arab-American. The two were arrested as part of a sting operation after an FBI informant named Danny Gillis delivered explosives to Krugel's home in L.A

2001(27^thof Kislev, 5762): Three terrorists attacked a #189 Dan bus and several passenger cars with a roadside bomb, anti-tank grenades, and light arms fire near the entrance to Emmanuel in Samaria at 6:00 p.m. Ten people, including two teenagers, were killed and 30 others were injured. The victims: Yair Amar, 13, of Emmanuel; Esther Avraham, 42, of Emmanuel; Border Police Chief Warrant Officer Yoel Bienenfeld, 35, of Moshav Tel Shahar; Moshe Gutman, 40, of Emmanuel; Avraham Nahman Nitzani, 17, of Betar Illit; Yirmiyahu Salem, 48, of Emmanuel; Israel Sternberg, 46, of Emmanuel; David Tzarfati, 38, of Ginot Shomron; Hananya Tzarfati, 32, of Kfar Saba; Ya’akov Tzarfati, 64, of Kfar Saba. Both Fatah and Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

2002:Austria failed in its attempt to block a lawsuit by an 86-year-old American citizen who fled the Nazis in 1942 and whose uncle owned the works. In a promising ruling, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said that Austria was not immune from a suit in American courts when the interests of justice outweigh the inconvenience to a foreign country.

2003: “Something’s Gotta Give” a delightful if improbable romantic comedy directed, produced and written by Nancy Meyers with music by Hans Zimmer was released in the United States today.

2003: Italy’s Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, president of the European Union, proclaimed the body’s deep concern at the increase in instances of anti-Semitic intolerance and strongly condemns all manifestations of anti-Semitism, including attacks against religious sites and individuals.”

2003:Irwin Cotler, Canada's Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada from 2003 until the Liberal government of Paul Martin lost power following the 2006 federal election was sworn into Cabinet today.

2004: The New York Times features a review of A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz; translated by Nicholas de Lange

2004(29^thof Kislev, 5765): One hundred-one year old “Bernada Bryson Shan, the widow of painter Ben Shahn” passed away today.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/16/arts/16shahn.html?_r=0

http://whitney.org/Collection/BernardaBrysonShahn

2005:Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. honored Gerald Schoenfeld and four city leaders at his annual Jewish Heritage celebration today. The event was co-sponsored with the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York (JCRC) and The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty. Addressing several hundred people at City Hall, Thompson said: "Today, we may be far removed in time from the days of the first Jewish settlers and early immigrants. But we have much to learn from their example. Their dreams, their resilience, and their courage are a source of inspiration as we meet the challenges of today, at home and abroad." Thompson continued: "Our honorees this evening are all New Yorkers who have inspired those around them and contributed tremendously to the quality of life in our city. They include publishers, arts leaders, educators, entrepreneurs, and community leaders. They are all role models, and they have all brought vision, leadership, and dedication to their endeavors." Comptroller Thompson presented his Lifetime Achievement Award to Gerald Schoenfeld. Schoenfeld is Chairman of the Board of the Shubert Organization, which owns and operates theaters in New York, Philadelphia, Washington and Boston. He also is Chairman of the League of American Theatres and Producers, is a member of the Board of NYC & Company, and serves as Chairman of the Mayor's Midtown Citizens Committee. "Throughout his career, Mr. Schoenfeld has brought vision, dedication, and expertise to the world of New York theater," Thompson said. The second award went to media and community leader Jerry Greenwald. Greenwald is the Chief Operating Officer and Managing Editor of the Jewish Press, the world's largest independent English language Jewish weekly newspaper. He also serves as President of the Yeshiva of Manhattan Beach and as President of Congregation Shaarey Torah in Manhattan Beach, and is a Board Member of Manhattan Beach Jewish Center and Shorefront Community Council. Thompson called Greenwald "a dedicated leader and an inspiring role model.” Dr. Charlotte K. Frank was the third honoree of the evening. Dr. Frank is Senior Vice President of Research and Development for McGraw-Hill Education of The McGraw-Hill Companies. She represents McGraw-Hill at the National Business Roundtable's Education Taskforce Initiative and coordinates the Harold W. McGraw Jr. Awards for those who have made a difference in education. Dr. Frank also is co-chair of the educational initiative "Don't Laugh At Me: Operation Respect.""Dr. Frank has provided outstanding leadership and demonstrated exceptional dedication to creating quality educational materials," said the Comptroller, presenting the award "in recognition of her contributions to the field of publishing and the quality of life in New York City." Dr. Bernard Lander received the next award. Dr. Lander is Founder and President of Touro College. Under his leadership, the college has grown to become an international university, with campuses in Moscow , Israel , and Berlin . Dr. Lander served as New York City’s first Commissioner of Human Rights and has long been involved in civil rights initiatives. Dr. Lander also has served as a consultant to three U.S. Presidents, and was a member of the commission that shaped the historic "War on Poverty" campaign. Thompson praised Dr. Lander for working " to improve higher education in New York City and beyond, bringing vision, dedication, and expertise to the effort." The final honoree of the evening was social service and community leader David Mandel. Mandel is the Chief Executive Officer of OHEL Children's Home and Family Services. OHEL and its affiliates, Bais Ezra and the Lifetime Care Foundation for the Jewish Disabled, serve children and adults with mental illness, developmental disabilities and families in crisis. "Mr. Mandel is a dedicated leader and an inspiring role model," said the Comptroller. The Yeshiva of Flatbush High School Chamber Choir provided the entertainment portion of the evening.

2005: The Israeli government voted to increase financial help for needy Holocaust survivors. The aid comes in the form of increased rent subsidies and 75% discount on drug purchases.

2006:Germany hosts a Holocaust conference in Berlin featuring Raul Hilberg, considered one of the leading experts on Holocaust studies who wrote the comprehensive multi-volume book, "The Destruction of European Jewry."

2007: As part of Chanukah festivities, the last of 18 performances of “Around the World in 80 Days” directed Yaron Kafkafi takes place at the Nokia Stadium in Yad Eliahu.

2007: Opening session of the 46^th Assembly of Women of Reform Judaism (WRJ) in San Diego, California.

2007:Union for Reform Judaism 2007 Biennial Convention opens in San Diego, CA. On the eve of the conference, Meir Azari, rabbi of the Beit Daniel synagogue in Tel Aviv, expressed his concern over the future of relations between the Reform Movement in the United States and Israel.

2007: The New York City Police arrested ten individuals suspected of carrying out an anti-
Semitic attack against four Jewish students on the previous Friday night, the fifth night of Chanukah.

2008: “Nothing Like the Holidays” co-starring Debra Messing was released in the United States today.

2008: USA Network broadcast the final episode of “The Starter Wife” starring Debra Messing who was Bat Mitzvahed in 1981.

2008: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Temple Judah Friday Night Services features, the Second Musical Shabbat of the 2008-2009 Season.

2008: “Adam Resurrected” which follows the life former Berlin magician and circus impresario Adam Stein opens at the Quad City Cinema in New York City. A highly theatrical performance by Jeff Goldblum, traces the life of Stein an enthralling, enigmatic patient at the Seizling Institute, a remote Israeli rehabilitation outpost for Holocaust survivors. Entertainer, clairvoyant, sophisticate and lothario, Stein veers from brilliance to eroticism, horror and madness, with flashbacks to the physical and psychological demoralization he endured under Commandant Klein, played by Willem Dafoe, in the Stellring death camp. Stein appears to have everyone stymied and overawed, but an unusual new patient seems to have the magnetic power to break him free of the grip of his relentless torment.

2008:The Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation based in Salem, Mass., shut its doors after saying it had lost all its money -- $8 million -- by investing with Bernard Madoff self-confessed creator of the largest Ponzi scheme in history

2008:Reacting to an increasingly perilous economic outlook, the leader of the Reform movement proposed that some of the movement's synagogues could consider merging with Conservative congregations as a cost-saving measure. Rabbi Eric Yoffie, in a speech to the Union for Reform Judaism's board of trustees, said that while he generally views American Jewish pluralism as a source of strength, communities in the current crisis may no longer be able to afford multiple synagogues. “In a small town it may be that a struggling Reform and a struggling Conservative synagogue will have to overcome their differences and join in cooperative programming, and even formal mergers,” Yoffie said today in Tampa, Fla. “And in a large city, with two or five or 10 Reform congregations, it may be that the time has come to share social services, buildings and staff.”

2009 (25 Kislev, 5770): First Day of Chanukah.

2009: The estate of songwriter Jack Lawrence which includes memorabilia from S.S. Andrea Doria which sank off the coast of Nantucket in 1956 with the kind of fanfare connected to the sinking of the Titanic is scheduled to go on sale today.

2009: The 20^th Washington Jewish Film Festival features a screening of “The Wedding Song,” a film that tells the story of two adolescent girls – one Jewish, one Moslem – living in Tunis in 1942 when the Nazis occupy the city.

2009: The 24th Annual New York Israeli Film Festival features screenings of “A Matter of Size” and “Adam Resurrected” starring American actor Jeff Goldblum

2009: Opening night of the Sephardic Music Festival in New York City.

2009: The Hub of the JCCSF and San Francisco’s Contemporary Jewish Museum present “Super 8 Hanukkah Festival.”

2009:Five Hamas men were arrested today, while trying to infiltrate Israel from Egypt, carrying explosives, a gun, a silencer and $15,000 in counterfeit bills, according to the announcement. During the arrest, two of the operatives were wounded.

2009: A tour to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Les Misérables the tuneful version of the 19^th century novel with music by Claude-Michel Schonberg, French lyrics by Alain Boubil and English Lyriscs by Herbert Kretzmer began today, at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff.

2010:The Women's League Convention 2010 is scheduled to hold its opening session at the Marriott Waterfront located in Baltimore, MD.

2010: Andy “Samberg and the other members of the Lonely Island debuted their next digital short, titled "I Just Had Sex."

2010: The Los Angeles Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including And the Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris by Alan Riding.

2010: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently released paperback edition of Ayn Rand and The World She Made by Anne C. Heller.

2010: “Freedom” by Jonathan Franzen, .Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff, “Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) With Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes

by Stephen Sondheim are listed on The New York Times list of the 10 Best Books of 2010

2010(5^th of Tevet, 5771): Eighty-eight year old “Dan Kurzman, who wrote military histories that illuminated little-known incidents in World War II and an exhaustively reported account of the first Arab-Israeli war, passed away today Manhattan. (As reported Daniel E. Slotnik)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/arts/26kurzman.html

2010(5^th of Tevet, 5771):Eighty-two year old “Jacob Lateiner, a concert pianist renowned for his interpretations both of Beethoven and of 20th-century music, passed away today in Manhattan. (As reported by Margalit Fox)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/arts/music/14lateiner.html?_r=0

2011: Gabriel Bass, Rabbi Joanne Heiligman and Nina Bonos are scheduled to participate in “Objects and Spaces that Influence Jewish Memory” a panel discussion presented by Shaare Tefila in Olney, Maryland.

2011(16^th of Kislev, 5772): Seventy-eight year old Bert Schneider who produced such hits as “Easy Rider” “Five Easy Pieces” and “The Last Picture Show” passed away today.

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec/14/local/la-me-bert-schneider-20111214

2011: The Israeli daily Israel Hayom reported that Rabbi YonaMetzger had received an offer to serve as Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland after Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sachs ends his term of office in 2013.

2011: The ReGroup Theatre Company staged 2 sold-out staged readings of Kurt Weill’s “Johnny Jonson today at the 47th St Theatre, in New York

2011: “A Happy End” Israeli playwright IIddo Netanyahu’s play that follows acclaimed Jewish physicist Mark Erdmann, head of the atomic lab at the University of Berlin, and his wife Leah through the arduous decision of whether or not to leave Germany following the notorious elections of 1932 is scheduled to be performed at the Martin E.. Segal Center at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City.

2011: Israel's new ambassador to Egypt arrived in Cairo today, Egyptian airport officials told the Associated Press, three months after rioters ransacked the Israeli Embassy in the Egyptian capital.

Amitai, the new envoy, replaces Yitzhak Levanon, who was ambassador when the embassy was stormed in August after six Egyptian guards were killed by Israeli troops pursuing militants responsible for the deaths of eight Israelis on the border. Amitai, a fluent Arabic speaker who has previously served at the embassy in Cairo, will join the small Israeli diplomatic staff still on in the Egyptian capital. Levanon, who had been scheduled to complete his term shortly after the storming, briefly returned to Egypt in November for farewell meetings with foreign and Egyptian diplomats. Following the September incident in Cairo, Foreign Ministry officials and the Shin Bet security services decided that the building housing the embassy was unfit from a security point of view. Since then, efforts have been made to find an alternative location. For now, Amitai is expected to work from his residence with the assistance of two Israeli diplomats. Over the weekend Defense Minister Ehud Bara, addressed an international conference in Vienna, saying that Israel hopes that "despite the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood in the first round of the Egyptian election, reason and economic needs will win and the peace between the two countries will be kept".

2012: In New York, Jonathan Karp, the Executive Director of the American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to present “Culture Brokers’ Music Produces and Labels” a program that “traces the history of small independent record labels that pioneered new forms of popular music from the 1960s to today, including rock & roll, Latin pop, and hip-hop.

2012: A public menorah lighting is scheduled for the Ped Mall in Iowa City, Iowa

2012: Sufganyot and latkes will be served at the scheduled pubic menorah lighting at the Grand Cities Mall in Grand Forks, North Dakota

2012: “Football is God” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival. (Attention American readers – this is a movie about you call soccer, not the pigskin game)

2012: Mika Karney and the Kol Dodi Ensemble, Zion80 + Hasidic New Wave & Yakar Rhythms are scheduled to perform at the Sephardic Music Festival’s closing event.

2012: Pedro Hernandez “pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one count of kidnapping the case of Etan Patz.

2012: “Settlement ends bitter battle over Mel Simon Estates” published today”

http://www.ibj.com/articles/38466-settlement-ends-bitter-battle-over-mel-simon-estate

2012: King Abdullah II of Jordan announced that Jordan would host Israeli-Palestinian meetings in February with the backing of the European Union and the United States, a leading Arab daily reported today.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/israelis-and-palestinians-to-meet-in-jordan-in-february-king-abdullah-says/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=3029e290fc-2012_12_12&utm_medium=email

2012: Today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday condemned two “price-tag” vandalism acts carried out overnight in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/price-tag-graffiti-defaces-jerusalem-monastery/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=3029e290fc-2012_12_12&utm_medium=email

2013: The Pears Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism is scheduled to sponsor a discussion led by Professor Mary Fulbrook and Professor Jane Caplan entitled “A Small Town near Auschwitz – Ordinary Nazis and the Holocaust.”

2013: Eighty-nine year old German born, British educated and prize winning Israel “molecular and cancer researcher” passed away today.

https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/tags/leo-sachs

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28621410

https://www.pnas.org/content/111/5/1664

2013: Five U.S. families who were victims of the Iran-backed suicide bombing that took place on Ben Yehuda Street in 1997 were “awarded $9 million in federal court.”

2013: “Ex-FBI agent who disappeared in Iran was on rogue mission for CIA, officials say” published today provides an update on the status of Robert Levinson.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/ex-fbi-agent-who-went-missing-in-iran-was-on-rogue-mission-for-cia/2013/12/12/f5de6084-637b-11e3-a373-0f9f2d1c2b61_story.html

2013: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to present a panel discussion “Do Words Kill? Hate Speech, Propaganda & Incitement to Genocide”

2013: “The Herd” and “Guilt by Fire” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.

2013: Today’s meeting of the URJ Biennial is scheduled to end with a Biennial Music Festival that will include performances by Larry Milder and Rocky Mountain Jewgrass at Taste and Thirst and Rick Recht and Max Jared performing at the Old Spaghetti Factory

2013: The 20-state council of CERN, the Center of European Nuclear Research that operates the Large Hadron Collider under the Swiss- French border, voted unanimously tonight to accept Israel as a full member. (As reported by Judy Siegel-Itzkovich)

http://www.jpost.com/Enviro-Tech/Israel-voted-full-member-of-CERN-first-non-European-country-to-be-admitted-334866

2013: As snow falls in Jerusalem, Arab youth find a way to turn it into a terrorist event by throwing snowballs wrapped around a stone at Jews. (As reported by Gil Ronen)

2013: Due to “snow and the danger of skidding” “Highways 1 and 443, which connect Jerusalem to the coastal plain, were closed today by police to traffic in both directions until 6:00 a.m. (As reported by Gil Ronen)

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/175115#.UqpIhJuA2po

http://www.timesofisrael.com/as-snow-begins-to-fall-in-jerusalem-school-called-off/

2014:Ridley Scott’s “Exodus: Gods and Kings,” which is scheduled to open in movie theaters across the United States today “will include, most famous of all biblical miracles: the parting of the Red Sea. But its depiction will look quite different from the one in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 classic “The Ten Commandments.” (As reported by Bruce Parker)

2014: The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to present a performance by The Singers of the Israeli Opera’s Meitra Opera Studio.

2014: The Museum of Jewish Heritage is scheduled to “Birth of a Neighborhood: The History of Battery Park City”

2014:“Seven people, including a family of five with young children, were lightly wounded in the West Bank this afternoon when a Palestinian man hurled acid into their car, before being shot and seriously wounded.”(As reported by Itmar Sharon)

http://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-attacks-family-with-acid-in-gush-etzion-wounds-four/

2014:“Unidentified assailants opened fire on the Israeli embassy in Athens with a Kalashnikov assault rifle in the early hours this morning but no injuries or damage were reported.”

http://forward.com/articles/210814/shots-fired-at-israeli-embassy-in-greece/?utm_content=DailyNewsletter_BreakingNews_Position-2&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Weekly%20%2B%20Daily&utm_campaign=Weekly_Newsletter_Friday%202014-12-12

2014: “Monologues from the Kishke,” a Yiddishpiel Theater musical celebrating Eastern European food and culture “is scheduled to be performed at Tel Aviv’s Beit Hatfusot.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/a-yiddish-play-that-speaks-from-the-gut/

2015: In Arlington, VA, Congregation Etz Hayim is scheduled to host Ein Lanu Z’man, the official band of Agudas Achim and Jewish radio rock star Hannah Spiro.

2015: The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to host a new tour “Women of the Holocaust”

2015: Stage 48 is scheduled to host Dor Chadash and Hadag Nahash - one of Israel's most popular hip-hop bands - for an unforgettable Hannukah party!

2015: A memorial service is scheduled to held for today in honor of Christopher Duggan, the author of Fascist Voices: An Intimate History of Mussolini’s Italy

2015(30^thof Kislev, 5776): Parashat Miketz, 6^th day of Chanukah, Rosh Chodesh Tevet I

2015(30^thof Kislev, 5776): Seventy-one year old former school teacher, “Evelyn Lieberman, who was the first woman to serve as deputy chief of staff to a president” passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/15/us/politics/evelyn-lieberman-aide-who-moved-monica-lewinsky-from-white-house-dies-at-71.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

2016: Israel received the first shipment of the advanced F-35 which is part of the on-going to American commitment regardless of administration to help the Jewish state maintain a technological edge over its hostile neighbors.

2016: At the JCC in Manhattan, Lorraine Aronowitz Danzig is scheduled to facilitate a “stimulating, breezy discussion of Hell and Good Company (The Spanish Civil War and the World it Made) by Richard Rhodes

2016: Congress is scheduled to “formally end its session” this afternoon “without taking acting on a bill targeting campus anti-Semitism” which had been unanimously passed by the Senate but which Republican Congressman Bob Goodlatte, “chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary did not advance…through his committee.”

2017(24^thof Kislev, 5778): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah – Party On!

2017: Dikla Katz is scheduled to deliver a noon-time lecture at The Simon Dubnow Insitute.

2017: Janet Yellin is scheduled to preside over the Federal Reserve’s penultimate meeting of 2017.

2017: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to offer the fourth and final part of Yitzhak Lewis’ “Introduction to Gershom Scholem”

2017: Jewish Book Month is scheduled to come to an end today. (Editor’s note – There is no better way to end this event than by considering the works of Isabella Ginor and Gideon Remez the authors Foxbats over Dimona which provided a unique view of the Six Day War. Their latest work, The Soviet-Israeli War 1967-1973 takes advantage of their unique understanding of the Soviet and Middle East cultures and the documents made available due to the fall of the Soviet Union to create a thought-provoking tome which proves that just when you think you know all there is to know about a subject, somebody comes along and opens a new window.)

2018: In Columbus, OH, Tifereth Israel is scheduled to “Dinner, Drinks and Drash” during which Rabbi Ale Braver will lead a discussion on “The Meaning of Kaddish.”

2018: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host The Orchestra of St. Lukes performing “Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos.”

2018: “Israeli security forces apprehended four Palestinians today suspected of conducting a shooting attack this week outside the West Bank settlement of Ofra…”

2018: While Jews in Toledo, OH are digesting the thwarting of an a planned attack on their synagogues pattered the slaughter in Pittsburg, James Alex Fields, Jr. the white supremacist who ran over a counter-protestor at the Neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, VA is starting to serve his life without parole sentence after having been found guilty by a jury in the college town tightly connected to Thomas Jefferson, the President who coined the phrase “separation of church and state.”

2018: In, London, Stephen Laughton’s “One Jewish Boy” which is doubly controversial because it deals the issue of rising anti-Semitism in the UK and because the author “has arranged for a collection be made at the end of each performance Medical Aid for Palestinains, Rabbis for Human Rights and Yad Vashem is scheduled to be shown for a second night at the Red Lion Theatre in Islington.

2018: The GPJFF and the National Museum of American Jewish History are scheduled to host a screening of “The Ancient Law” at the Museum of American Jewish History.

2018: In London, the Jewish Museum is scheduled “Roman Vishniac Rediscovered,” a curator’s tour that examines “the behind scenes story” of his “extraordinary photographs.”

https://culture.pl/en/gallery/selected-photographs-by-roman-vishniac-image-gallery

2019: In Silver Spring, MD, Leisure World Clubhouse II is scheduled to host a screening of “The Spy Behind Home Plate,” and Aviva Kemper film.

2019: In San Francisco, the JCRC is scheduled to kick off its “yearlong Democracy Initiative with a resource fair and sets by “You’re Funny But You Don’t Look Jewish” comedians Joe Nguyen and Samson.”

2019: At the URJ Biennial in Chicago, Rabbi Neil is scheduled to lead a session on “Community Organizing: Running an Effective Social Justice Campaign.”

2019: In Los Gatos, CA, the Addison-Penzak JCC is scheduled to host a “group construction of what organizers say will be California’s largest Lego menorah.”

2019: The opening night reception for Utopia: Visions and Traditions, an exhibition co-curated byDeborah Ugoretz and Tine Kindermann to see how visual artists grapple with diverse traditions of envisioning a better future is scheduled to take place this evening in Manhattan at the Stanton Street Shul.

2019: In the wake of the failure to form a government, today “the people of Israel are left without a functioning government, resulting in stagnation, red tape, unbearable bureaucracy, underpaid paid workers” and a dysfunctional health system whose lack of funds poses a threat to the very lives of some of the society’s most vulnerable people. (As reported by YNET)

2019: In the wake of the anti-Semitic attack on Jews in a Jersey City kosher market, Jews are left to shopping at a grocery store to the list of deadly Jewish activities which have included going to the synagogue and wearing a kippah.

December 13

522 BCE: Darius I, the Persian monarch who allowed the Jewish people to re-build the Temple at Jerusalem strengthened his hold on his kingdom when he defeated Nebuchadnezzar III in a battle at the Tigris and that at the Euphrates.

519 BCE: According to some sources this is the day that, the foundations for the Second Temple were laid during the second year of the reign the Persian ruler, Darius with the support of Haggai and Zachariah. It would take four years to complete the project.

1124: End of the papacy of Callixtus II who issued an updated version of Sicut Judaeis, the papal bull that reiterated the need for protecting the Jews of Europe “in the wake of the persecutions of the First Crusade”

1250: Frederick II passed away. During his reign as Holy Roman Emperor Frederick created a secular government in Palermo, feat without parallel in the middle ages, with a written constitution that guaranteed the rights of his subjects, be they Christian, Arab, or Jew, and the religious freedom that went along with it.” When he founded the University of Naples in 1224, “he took care that its faculty included Christians, Muslims and Jews, and that all of these languages were taught, together with the laws and literature of these cultures. Equally remarkable considering the times was Frederick's edict ordering religious toleration for Christians, Muslims and Jews throughout his realm.” During the Sixth Crusade, he dealt with the issues through negotiations and not military action. His rule of Jerusalem was marked by a period of “religious toleration for Muslims, Christians and Jews.”

1360: “Emperor Karl IV confirmed the right of the Austrian dukes to keep Jews in all places in their dominion, and made a treaty with the dukes of Austria, in his capacity as king of Bohemia, that neither party would allow Jews who had left their country to settle in that of the other.”

1521: Fifty-two year old Manuel I the Portuguese monarch who released all the Jews imprisoned by his predecessor John II and during whose reign Levi ibn Habib, also known as HaRaLBaCh, was “compelled to submit to Baptism” passed away today.

1495: The reign of Manuel I the Portuguese monarch who released all the Jews imprisoned by his predecessor John II came to an end today.

1521: King John III succeeded his father as King of Portugal. Like his predecessors, John III maintained the ban on Jews living in his kingdom and persecuted conversos and marranos alike. The only time he wavered in this policy came in 1525 when he was negotiating with David Reubeni, the Jewish adventurer who was seeking a fleet and an army from the monarch so he could fight Selim I.

1521: Manuel I, the Portuguese monarch who “decreed that all Jews had to convert to Christianity or leave the country without their children passed away. In 1496, he “exiled thousands of Jews to São Tomé, Príncipe, and Cape Verde.”

1521: Birthdate of Sixtus VI, who from the point of the Jews, was one of the better Popes. He issued a bull that lifted the restrictions his predecessors had placed on the Jews. He gave them permission to live in all of the cities in the Papal States. He ordered the Knights of Malta to stop enslaving Jews traveling by sea to and from the Middle East. He allowed Jews physicians to treat Christian patents and made provision for new printing of the Talmud.

1532(Tevet, 5293):Solomon Molcho, ("Solomon His Angel"), originally Diogo Pires, passed away. He was a "New Christian" who converted back to Judaism, declared himself the Messiah, and was burned at the stake for apostasy. Molcho was born a Christian to Marrano parents in Portugal about 1500. His baptismal name probably was Diogo Pires. He held the post of secretary in one of the higher courts of his native country. When the Jewish adventurer David Reubeni came ostensibly on a political mission from Khaibar (Peshawar) to Portugal, Molcho wished to join him, but was rejected. He then circumcised himself, though without thereby gaining Reubeni's favor, and emigrated to Turkey. Intellectually talented, a visionary and believer in dreams, he studied the Kabbalah with Joseph Taytazak and became acquainted with Joseph Caro. He then wandered, as a preacher, through the Land of Israel (then a province of the Ottoman Empire), where he achieved a great reputation and announced that the Messianic kingdom would come in 1540. In 1529 Molcho published a portion of his sermons under the title Derashot, or Sefer ha-Mefo'ar. Going to Italy, he was opposed by prominent Jews including Jacob Mantino ben Samuel who feared that he might mislead their co-religionists, but he succeeded in gaining the favor of Pope Clement VII and of some Judeophile cardinals at Rome. He is said to have predicted to the pope a certain flood which inundated Rome and various other places. After his many cabalistic and other strange experiments, Molcho felt justified in proclaiming himself the Messiah, or his precursor. In company with David Reubeni, whom he came across in Italy, he went in 1532 to Ratisbon, where the emperor Charles V was holding a diet. On this occasion, Molcho carried a flag with the Hebrew word Maccabi, the four letters מכבי which also signify an abbreviation for Exodus 15:11 "Who among the mighty is like unto God?". The emperor imprisoned both Molcho and Reubeni, and took them with him to Italy. In Mantua an ecclesiastical court sentenced Molcho to death by fire. At the stake the emperor offered to pardon him on condition that he return to the Catholic Church, but Molcho refused, asking for a martyr's death.

1545: The Council of Trent which produced The Tirdentine Mass begins. The Tridentine Mass, a Latin ritual the rubrics of which were set by the Council of Trent in the 16th century. The mass reflected the traditional Christian goal of converting Jews to Jesus including “praying on Good Friday that God "lift the veil" from "Jewish blindness.” This changed at the time of Vatican II, with the declaration "Nostra Aetate," which condemned the idea that Jews could be blamed for the murder of Jesus, and affirmed the permanence of God's Covenant with Israel. The "replacement" theology by which the church was understood as "superseding" Judaism was no more. Corollary to this was a rejection of the traditional this version of the Mass would be discontinued as the Catholic Church affirmed a more positive view of Judaism and the Jewish people. The Vatican would reintroduce the Tridentine Mass in 2008 with Catholics praying that God "enlighten" the hearts of Jews "so that they recognize Jesus Christ, Savior of all mankind."

1585(Kislev, 5346): Eliezer (Lazer) ben Elijah Ashkenazi who first became a rabbi in Egypt before making his way to Europe via Cyprus where he led congregations in Cremona and Posen before moving to Cracow where he passed away today.

1619: “Under the rule of Prince Maurice of Orange, it was decided that each city could decide for itself whether or not to admit Jews. In consequence, the position of Jews differed greatly between cities In those towns where they were admitted, they would not be required to wear a badge of any sort identifying them as Jews.” (As reported by The History of the Jewish People)

1642: A Dutch explored named Abel Janszoon Tasman reached New Zealand. Jews would not reach New Zealand until the 1830’s when it was under British control.

1663: Mattahthias Calahora, “a renowned physician” was “accused by Friar Servatius of ‘blaspheming the virgin.’ Although there was no testimony aside from the Friars, he was tortured and burned at the stake. His ashes were dispersed to prevent him from having a proper Jewish burial. Despite this, enough of his remains were found for a burial to take place” (As reported by The History of The Jewish People

1748(22nd of Kislev 5509): Mozes Marcus Mordechai Drukker passed away in Amsterdam and was buried in the Muiderberg Cemetery.

1754; Mahmud I, Ottoman Sultan passed away. During his reign, two Jewish doctors, Isaac Tchelebi and Hekim Joseph were appointed to serve at his palace. In 1739, Mahmud signed the Treaty of Belgrade that gave citizenship rights to the Ottoman Jews. Austrian Jews were so impressed with the grant of rights that many of them applied for citizenship in Mahmud’s empire.

1756: Birthdate of Muehlbach native Loeb Jacob Fleischer, the husband of Hindel Seligmann and the father of David Loeb Fleischer.

1762(27^thof Kislev, 5523): Third Day of Chanukay

1762: In German Juettle and Jakob Weil gave birth to Frommet Weil, the wife of David Hirsch Lindauer and the mother of Jakob, Bessie and Mayer Lindauer.

1765(1^stof Tevet, 5526): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah

1769: Dartmouth College founded by the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock. Today Dartmouth has approximately 450 Jewish students out of an undergrad population of over four thousand students. There are approximately 100 Jewish students among its 1,300 grad students. Dartmouth offers ten courses in Jewish studies. Dartmouth also has a special Hebrew Studies semester transfer credit arrangement with the Hebrew University and with Oxford University.

1770(26^th of Kislev, 5531): Second Day of Chanukah

1770: As Jews prepared to kindle the third light of Chanukah, in Boston, the four civilians accused of killing Americans during the Boston Massacre were tried today and later found not guilty.

1773(28^th of Kislev, 5534): Fourth Day of Chanukah

1773: As Jews prepare to kindle the fifth Chanukah candle, Americans are making plans for the “Boston Tea Party” which will take place in three days

1774(10^th of Tevet, 5535): Asar B’Tevet

1774: As Jews fasted on the 10^th of Tevet, Paul Revere rode to Portsmouth, NH to warn the patriots that the Britsih were coming which led to the Colonials seizing Fort William and Mary the next day and distributing its military supplies among various units of what would become the Minute Men who faced the British the following year to start the American Revolution.

1775: In Buchau, Helena Neuburger and Heinrich Maendle gave birth to Rosalie Maendle.

1776(3^rd of Tevet, 5537): In London on a day of national fasting proclaimed by King George III the Portuguese and Spanish Congregation offered a special prayer in they “implored forgiveness for our sins” and asked for “divine assistance” to help our forces on sea and land to “restore peace and prosperity to these kingdoms” followed by a sermon given by Moshe Cohen d’Azevdeo.

1778(24^th of Kislev, 5539): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah candle.

1778: On the same day that Jews prepared to celebrate Chanukah, with the Revolution entering into its fourth year Abigail Adams wrote her husband John, a future President of the United States, that “this year has not been a very glorious one to America” but that “our Enemies however have nothing to boast of since they have not gained one inch of territory more than they possessed a year ago.”

1779(4^th of Tevet, 5540): Zipporah bat. Menahem, wife of Issachar ben Abraham 'from the Holy Congregation of Edinburgh' passed away today.

1791: Esther Lucka and Benjamin Wolf Bondi gave birth to Elias Bondi, the husband of Caroline Lichtenstadt.

1797: In Dusseldorf, Peira (known as "Betty"), née van Geldern and Samson Heine, a textile merchant gave birth to the first child author and poet Heinrich Heine. The German author converted in 1825. Heine said, “The baptismal certificate is an admission ticket to European culture.” Unfortunately for Heine, things did not work. Christians saw him as an opportunist. Jews saw him as a turncoat and in the end, he supposedly regretted his decision. “It is extremely difficult for a Jew to be converted, for how can he bring himself to believe in the divinity of another Jew?” “Experience is a good school, but the fees are high.” “The Jews trudged around with the Bible all through the Middle Ages, as with a portable fatherland.” And in words that almost seem to foretell the coming of the Nazis he wrote, “Where men burn books, they will also burn people.”

1797: In the first attempt to remove the qualification that office holder’s in Maryland had to be Christians, a petition signed by Solomon Etting, Bernard Gratz, and others was presented to the General Assembly at Annapolis; the petitioners averred "that they are a sect of people called Jews, and thereby deprived of many of the valuable rights of citizenship, and pray to be placed upon the same footing with other good citizens." The petition was read and referred to a committee of three persons, who upon the same day reported that they "have taken the same into consideration and conceive the prayer of the petition is reasonable, but as it involves a constitutional question of considerable importance they submit to the House the propriety of taking the same into consideration at this advanced stage of the session." This summary disposition of the petition put a quietus upon further agitation for the next five years. (As reported by Cyrus Adler and J. H. Hollander)

1800(26^th of Kislev, 5561): 2^nd day of Chanukah; Shabbat; kindle three candles in the evening

1800(26^th of Kislev, 5561): Saul ben Meir Margolith who was a rabbi at Zbaraz, Galicia, Komorn, and Lublin and was the father of Zebi Hirsch, passed away at Lublin today.

1807: Birthdate of Levi Bodenheimer, the native of Karlsruhe who served as a rabbi at Krefeld and Hildesheim.

1807: Birthdate of Charleston, SC, native Philip Philipps who opposed nullification while practicing law in his home town, moved to Alabama where practiced law and served as a member of the U.S. House Representatives before finally settling in Washington, D.C. where he resumed his practice of law.

1807: Thirty-four year old Joseph Philipson, opened his general merchandising store and permanently settled in St. Louis. Joseph was reportedly the first Jew to settle in St. Louis, He was the first Jewish merchant to settle in St. Louis and the first American merchant to establish a permanent store in St. Louis. In 1808, Joseph's brother Jacob arrived in St. Louis and established his own store. Their remaining brother Simon remained in Philadelphia, traveling occasionally to St. Louis. Until 1816 the Philipsons were the only Jews known to live in St. Louis. Jacob died about 1858, buried in the City Cemetery

1813: Birthdate of David Spangler Kaufman. Kaufman was the first Jewish Congressman from Texas. He died in 1851. Kaufman County, Texas and the city of Kaufman, Texas are named for him.

1815: Birthdate of Arthur Stanley, the Dean of Westminster who wrote “Lectures On The History of the Jewish Church”.

1816: In Gehaus, Germany, Jacob Mandelbaum and Bella Epstein gave birth to their third child, David Mandelbaum.

1819(25^thof Kislev, 5580): As the Unites States endures its first peacetime major economic and financial crisis, known as the Panic of 1819, Chanukah is observed.

1820: Michael Moses married Julia Davis today at the Great Synagogue.

1821: In Tomaszów Lubelski, Kingdom of Poland, Simchah Pinsker, a Hebrew language writer, scholar and teacher and his wife gave to Leon Pinsker, a physician by training and a “lover of Zion” best known for writing “Auto-Emancipation.”

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Zionism/pinsker.html

http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Pinsker_Simhah_and_Lev

https://streetsofisrael.wordpress.com/2014/10/01/8-things-you-need-to-know-about-leon-pinsker/

1845: In Sulzburg, Samuel and Hina Henritte Kahn gave birth to Rosa Kahn who after her marriage became Rosa Hirschel.

1847: The Portuguese congregation of New Orleans held its first annual meeting.

1852: Birthdate of Moravian native Emanuel Schriber, the Hungarian and German educated Rabbi who filled several pulpits in the United States including one in Little Rock Arkansas from 1889 to 1891 before finally settling in at Congregation Emanu-El in Chicago

1855: During the thirty-fourth session of the United States Congress, a special act was passed, which provided that “all the rights, privileges, and immunities heretofore granted by the law to the Christian churches in the city of Washington be and the same hereby are extended to the Hebrew Congregation of said city.”

1856: Birthdate of Albert Hessberg, the native of Albany, N.Y. who became a partner in the law firm of Peckham, Rosendale and Hessberg and who served as president of the Albany Jewish as well as Recorder of Albany for two terms.

1856: Birthdate of Abbott Lawrence Lowell, who served as President of Harvard from 1909 to 1933. Thanks to reforms Lowell made in the admission policies where merit was the driving factor, Jewish enrollment rose from 6% in 1908 to 22% in 1922. Lowell had not intended for his reforms to bring this many Jews to his university and he worked vigorously and successfully to institutionalize other criteria that drove down the Jews representation to the point that when he left in 1933 Jews made up less than 10% of the undergraduate student body. Lowell also was an outspoken critic of Wilson’s decision to nominate Louis Brandeis to the Supreme Court. Like so many of his ilk, Lowell did not limit his bigotry to Jews – he had no use for African-Americans or homosexuals either.

1857: In Berlin, Paul Alexander Franz* von Mendelssohn and Marie Antoinette Enole Mendelssohn gave birth to Robert Georg Alexander von Mendelssohn,

1860(4^th of Tevet, 5654): Seventy-year old Hanna Bodenheimer, the widow of Emanuel Bodenheimer passed away today after which she was at the Durbach Jewish Cemetery in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

1860: The New York Times reported that “A private letter from Jerusalem states that an American Jew at New Orleans has bequeathed £10,000 for the building and endowment of almshouses for infirm and destitute Israelites in the Holy City. An agent had already arrived to carry out the bequest, and the houses intended to be used for the purpose mentioned are expected to be ready for occupation before the expiration of the coming winter.”

1861(10^th of Tevet) Asara B’Tevet

1862: During the Civil War, Army of the Potomac suffered one of its worst defeats at the Battle of Fredericksburg where they were commanded Ambrose Burnside. Company C of the 82^nd Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment which had been formed by a group of Jewish volunteer soldiers under the name of the Concordia Guards was one of the units engaged in the battle. The regiment would be commanded by Colonel Edward S. Salomon, a Jewish immigrant from Germany, who may have been Chicago’s first Jewish lawyer and was the alderman for the Sixth Ward when the war broke out. Among other Jews serving during the battle was Jacob Ezekiel Hyneman, a native of Richmond, who was a solider with the Union Army and was wounded at Fredericksburg.

1862: Nineteen year old Richmond born Jacob Ezekiel Hyneman, the resident of Philadelphia who had been serving with Company G of the 119^th Regiment was wounded today during the Battle of Fredericksburg.

1863(3^rdof Tevet, 5624): Eighth Day of Chanukah

1865(25^thof Kislev, 5626): Chanukah is celebrated for the first time in four years without the sound of cannons and the hollering of the wounded and dying.

1866: Birthdate of Philadelphia native Olga Simon, the wife of Solomon Grinsfelder with whom she had two children – Joseph and Flora Grinsfelder.

1869: In Lida, Russia, Bernard and Aida Pollock gave birth to David B. Pollock the “editor and manager of Zion Messenger, the official organ of the Knights of Zion” in Chicago, Illinois, who organized the Junior Knights of Zion Military Band of Jewish Boys to provide “a musical education for Jewish children without means.

1873: It was reported today that most of the Jews of Paris attended the funeral of French banker and philanthropist Louis Raphael Bischoffsheim which was held last month. The large filled the synagogue and then followed the coffin to the cemetery. A native of Germany, this highly successful financier founded schools for Jewish children, established hospitals and asylums for the general population and supported soup kitchens every winter.

1874: Birthdate of Joseph Arkadievich Levin, the Russian pianist who gained fame as Josef Lhévinne, a name given to him by his manager.

1877: In “Chernihiv, Ukraine, Chana and Naphthalia Hertz Shiplacoff gave birth to Abraham I. Shiplacoff, the husband of “Yetta Ettle Itta ‘Henrietta’ Shiplacoff who moved to the United States where he became a labor leader and the first Socialist to be elected to the New York State Assembly.

1880: A charter was granted today marking formally incorporation of Hebrew Union Congregation in Greenville, MS. Twenty-five to thirty families had been acting as a congregation since 1870 going so far as to hire a Charles Rawitzer of Memphis as their Rabbi. HUC built their first temple in 1881 and hired Joseph Bogen as their Rabbi. In 1962 H.U.C. was the largest Jewish congregation in the state of Mississippi with almost 200 families. At last report, the Temple is home to about 50 Jewish families in the area.

1881: A Pogrom begins in Warsaw that leaves approximately 1,500 Jewish homes, shops and synagogues in ruins.

1882: Jacques Damala left for North Africa today after his wife, Sarah Bernhardt told him she would no longer support his dissolute life-style. He left her to pay off his debts that arose from, among other things, gambling and drugs.

1885(5th of Tevet, 5646): Sixty-eight year old “Russian Talmudist” and author Mathias Strashun who “spent a great part of his considerable fortune in collecting a magnificent library” and whose “house became a rendezvous for scholars and students from all parts of Europe” passed away today.

https://yivo.org/Strashun-Conference

1885: Birthdate of Romanian born University of Michigan Professor of Economics Max Handman who had earned his Bachelor’s degree at the University of Oregon and Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 1917 after which served as a professor of sociology and economics at several universities including Texas and Minnesota

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1939/12/27/113375993.pdf

1885: It was reported today that the funeral of Wolfgang Strassmann, a member of a prominent Jewish family who was the President of the Municipal Council in Berlin “was made the occasion of a demonstration against Jew-baiters.” Thirty thousand people attended the funeral and the Emperor sent two wreaths. (The Emperor would seem to be somewhat conflicted since one of his court chaplains was a leader of the anti-Semitic forces)

1885: The New York Times published a review of The Rabbi’s Spell: A Russo-Jewish Romance by Stuart C. Cumberland

1886: As police are arresting merchants selling goods on Sunday in violation of the Sunday Closing Laws, the question is asked how can a Jewish peddler “arrested on the Sabbath” who pleads that he has kept the previous day holy, be punished under a law that allows a businessman “to select the one day out seven on which to abstain from business.”

1888:Telemachus (Telemaque) Thomas Timayenis, the author of The Original Mr. Jacobs: A Startling Exposé,‎ was charged with grand larceny by Mrs. Emma Dickson his partner in the Minerva Publishing Company. (Timayenis denied reports that he was Jewish and his books were decidedly anti-Semitic in nature.

1889: It was reported today that the B’nai B’rith has taken a leading role in the education fair currently taking place at the American Institute Building in New York City.

1889: Moritz Ellinger, editor of the Hebrew Standard delivered a lecture entitled “A New Departure” in New York City

1890: The “juvenile orchestra” of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum is scheduled to perform at the Teachers’ Fair today.

1890: Rabbi Jacob Joseph delivered a sermon at the Beth Hamedrasch Hagol, an Orthodox synagogue on Norfolk, in which he addressed “the persecution of the Russian Jews and said that necessary steps should be taken to urge the United States Government to use its influence with the Czar for the cessation of the persecution.

1890: Rabbi Kaufman Kohler, a leading Reform rabbi, delivered a sermon at Temple Beth EL, in which he said “that Jews had proved that they were the equals of the highest races of the age in all countries except Russia where they had been subjected to the greatest hardships.”

1891: Jacob Rubino, a New York Life Insurance policy holder filed suit again a trustee of New York Life who is also a member of the Finance Committee seeking the return of “exorbitant commissions.”

1892: In Duluth, MN, founding of Congregation Tifereth Israel whose members included Jacob Levine, Joseph Oreckovsky, Henry Caploiv, William Goldstein and Isidra Lieberman.

1892: Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Straus and Mr. and Mrs. Edward Lauterbach and their daughter were among those who attended a meeting of the Nineteenth Century Club where they listened to a lecture on “The Significance of the New-England Transformation.

1893(4^thof Tevet, 5654): Raphael Dreyfus, the father of Alfred Dreyfus passed away today.

1893: Justice Ryan of the Essex Market Police court committed “three destitute little children” ranging in age from 7 to 2 to the Hebrew Children’s Guardian Society because their mother Sarah Polskie could not care for them.

1894: The Hebrew Orphan Asylum of Brooklyn won a competition among all the orphanages in Brooklyn and New York sponsored by the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany of Brooklyn by 700 votes which means it will receive “100 dressed dolls and other toys.”

1894: This evening members of the University Settlement Society heard the report of Helen Moore, the librarian at Guild House in which she noted that the young Jewish readers show “discrimination” “always wanted the best literature. They always have the library’s 83 histories of the United States checked out but they “show a passion for stories about…patriotism and fairy tales. (The purpose of the society is “to being men and women of education into closer relation with the laboring classes so that they might meet on a common ground for education purpose.”)

1895: In Chicago, “three drunken poles” attacked Abraham Mar, a Jewish vegetable peddler, and hung him three times with a clothes line, threatening him each time with death unless “he prayed according to the Christian fashion.”

1895(26^thof Kislev, 5656): Second Day of Chanukah; in the evening kindle three candles

1895: Two days after she had passed away, Sarah Davis, the wife of David Marcus Davis and the father of Alice and Ernest Davis was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1895: Today’s session of the Educational Fair sponsored by the Jewish community opened at 2:30 this afternoon and closed at 5 p.m. because this evening is the start of the Sabbath. Although it was only open for 2 and one-half hours, the fair was so well attended that the total receipts for the fair has now risen to over one hundred thousand dollars.

1895: It was reported that during this past month the average attendance in the industrial school supported by the United Hebrew Charities was 238 girls who produced 175 garments while learning sewing and dressmaking.

1896: Four days after he had passed away, Elias Mocatta, who was married twice, first to Augusta Goldsmid and then to Rachel Goldsmid was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1898: Privates James W. Rosenberger and Taylor H. Rosenberger of Winchester were among the members of Company who were mustered out of U.S. Service after having served with the 2^nd Virginia Volunteer since May of 1898.

1899: Birthdate of publisher Harold Guinzburgfounder of Literary Guild and head of Viking Press.

1899(11^thof Tevet, 5660): “Commerzienrath Julius Isaac” passed away today at Berlin.

1899: Thirteen year old Michalina Araten was kidnapped and taken to convent in Cracow where she was raised as a Catholic

https://www.amazon.com/Michalina-Daughter-Rachel-Sarna-Araten/dp/0873064127

https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/collections/oral-histories/excerpts/woh-ex-0003556/woh-ex-0003556

1900: In Ograda, Romania, Victor Perlea and Margarethe Haberlin gave birth to conductor Jonel Perlea who spent part of WW II at the Mariapfarr Concentration Camp.

http://www.soundfountain.org/rem/remperlea.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1970/07/31/archives/jonel-perlea-69-conductor-dies-founder-of-bucharest-radio-orchestra.html

1900: Birthdate of New York native and composer Arthur Herzog, Jr. who collaborated with the legendary Billie Holiday on several songs including “God Bless the Child and was the father of author Arthur Herzog III and grandfather of playwright Amy Herzog.

1900: Birthdate of Budapest native László Radványi whose escape from Nazi Europe led to his becoming a labor activist and university professor in Mexico.

1903(24^thof Kislev, 5664): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah

1903: At today’s meeting of the United Zionists of Greater New York a resolution was adopted that expressed opposition to trying to establish a Zionist colony in Uganda. The 250 delegates expressed their dissatisfaction with Israel Zangwill and expressed their support that the Zionist dream could only be fulfilled in Palestine

1903: Isidor Strauss read the eleventh annual report at tonight’s meeting of the Educational Alliance. Andrew Carnegie attended the meeting and engaged in light-hearted banter with Strauss, who is the President of Alliance.

1903: In New York, the B’nai Zion is holding its “annual ball in Tammany Hall.

1903: Four hundred guests attended the Carmel Chanukah dinner tonight which sponsored by the Carmel Wine Company. The sponsors of the dinner were trying to develop support for the Jews who are working to establish agricultural settlements in Palestine. Professor Richard Gottheil and Cyrus L Sulzberger were among the speakers at the event.

1905: “Russian City Burning: Jews Being Massacred” published today described the attacks on the Jews of Odessa and Elzabethgrad.

1905: In London, “The Times, this morning published a long letter signed by Israel Zangwill, the President of the Jewish Territorial Organization and other officials of the organization in which they reply to the recent letter of Lord Rothschild and others relating to Jewish colonization.”

1905: It was reported from St. Petersburg that “the League of Leagues has passed a resolution demand equal rights for the Jews.”

1905: It was reported today that William Ellis Corey, President of the United States Steel Corporation “has already given $20,000 to the persecuted Jews of Russia” but plans on donating an additional $100,000 to the Jewish Relief Fund.

1905: It was reported today that the Pope has described as “excesses, unworthy of a civilized people” the “massacres of Jews which are condemned and detested by evangelical law.”

1908: In Austria, Gershom Bader, the son of Izaak Moyzesz Bader and Helene Bader and Etta (Joanna) Bader) gave birth to Milton Bader

1908: Birthdate of Berlin native Wolfgang Reinhardt who was “nominated for an Academy Award for Original Screenplay in 1962 for the film Freud.”

1909(1^stof Tevet, 5670): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah

1909(1^stof Tevet, 5670): Thirty-nine year old Ezra Hurwitz, the Lithuanian born son of Nachum and Freida Leah Hurwitz and the husband of Bertha Hurwitz passed away today in New York City.

1910: Four days after she had passed away, “Rachel Mocatta” the daughter of Alexander Goldsmid and Eliza Israel and the wife of Elia Mocatta with whom she had one child – Percy Mocatta – was buried to at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1910: Birthdate of Sol Saks, who is most famous for writing the first episode of the highly popular sitcom “Bewitched.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)

1910: In Boston, Katie Silverman and Arthur Rutstein gave birth to Lillian Rutstein who gained fame as the actress and singer Lillian Roth, who would convert to Catholicism in 1948 although “she later said she could really forget her Jewish heritage.

1912(3^rdof Tevet, 5673): “Mrs. Minna Glaser, the wife of the late Julius Glaser of New York City” with whom she had three children was interred today Washington Cemetery following her funeral.

1913(14th of Kislev, 5674): Abraham J. Laredo a prominent Gibraltar merchant passed away.

1914(25^thof Kislev, 5675): Chanukah

1914: Birthdate of Larry Park, the native of Joliet, Illinois who starred in the film biography of Al Jolson before falling victim to the Hollywood Black list.

1915: Birthdate of Vilnius native Yitzhak Zuckerman, a deputy commander of the ZOB who survived the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, helped smuggle refugees in Palestine founded two kibbutzim with his wife Ziva and other survivors, testified at the trial of Adolf Eichmann and was the grandfather of Roni Zuckerman, “the Israeli Air Force's first female fighter pilot.”(Please read the items below. There is no way for me to do justice to this man)

https://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206398.pdf

https://spartacus-educational.com/2WWzuckerman.htm

http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Zuckerman_Yitshak

1916: In Philadelphia, Jacob da Silva Solis-Cohen, Jr married Marion Gimbel Labe with whom he had two daughters, Mary and Ann Solis-Cohen Rosentahl the wife of Charles Rosenthal.

1917: In Crown Heights, Brooklyn, textile company owner Abraham Shapior and his wife, “the former Jrena Fromberg, a founder of the Mizrachi Women’s Organization of America,” gave birth to Rhoda Shapiro who gained famed as children’s author Rhoda Blumberg. (As reported by Sam Roberts)

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/15/books/rhoda-blumberg-whose-childrens-books-bought-history-to-life-dies-at-98.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

1917: The Bazaar sponsored by Temple Emanu-El which was being held to raise money for the fund providing relief for “the Jewish war sufferers and for welfare work among American soldiers and sailors” continued for a second day at the Manhattan mansion of Adolph Lewisohn.

1917: “Jacob Schiff, Louis Marshal, Jacob Wertheim, Cyrus Sulzberger” and the other leaders of the campaign to raise five million dollars for Jewish war relief gave “three cheers for the labor unions of the east side” today following the announcement that the Jewish labor unions have agreed to contribute one day’s pay to the fund which will mean a total contribution of $1,250,000.

1917: After meeting with officials of the State Department yesterday, “Henry Morgenthau, the former Ambassador to Turkey announced” today “that American consular officers were to be sent at one to Jerusalem to supervise the distribution of relief funds collected by American Jews for their coreligionists in Palestine.”

1918(10^thof Tevet, 5679): Asara B’Tevet

1918: Jacob H. Schiff received a cable today from Rabbi Sternberg in Vienna describing “attacks made on Jews in Western and Central Galicia” in which “the Jewish population has been murdered, robbed and the women ravished.”

1918: Dr. I Edwin Goldwasser, the direct of the Jewish Relief campaign said tonight he especially appreciated the services of the volunteer workers – “both Jews and non-Jews” --- who have been untiring in the efforts and asking “nothing but a chance to help.”

1919: Per the instructions of the British government, as described Andrew Bonar Law, the British Military Mission in Russia is doing call it can do “in its power to prevent” further attacks on the Jews like the ones the Pogrom carried out by the Cossacks outside of Kiev.

1920: Rabbi Naftali Riff “submitted his intentions papers in the Common Pleas Court of Camden County, NJ to become a U.S. citizen” today which “stated that he was 5’ 8” tall, weighed 115 pounds, had black hair and brown eyes and lived at 507 Mt. Vernon Street in Camden.

1920: Today, the House of Representatives ignored the objections of Congressman Isaac Siegel and his allies and passed the Johnson Immigration Bill by a vote of 293 to 41. (Editor’s note - Those engaged in the immigration debate of the 21^st century, especially Jews, might find it instructive to study the history of this legislation. The more things change, the more they stay the same.)

1921: An order was issued by King George V for Sir Edgar Speyer to be struck off the list of the Privy Council.

1921: “One of the largest charity social affairs of the season” is scheduled to take place this evening at the Astor Hotel, when the New York Section Council of Jewish Woman host a concert and dance with the proceeds going to the organization’s Americanization work.

1922: Professor Frederick Starr of the University of Chicago is scheduled to deliver a lecture on Japan at the Washington Boulevard Temple.

1922: For a third night in a row the Jewish People’s Institute offered assistance to those filing papers seeking to help relatives gain admission to the United States.

1922: In Des Moines, Harry Levine, a butcher and his wife gave birth to Bernard Levine, the WW II veteran and husband of Ruth Nagorner who owned and ran two Ben Franklin variety stores.

1922: “A Jewish Manifesto to the Arabs” published today contains the second statement by the Jewish National Council of Palestine in which it pleads for a peaceful co-existence between Jews and Arabs.

http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/ZIONIST_Manifesto_British-Palestine_growth_pdf

1923: This evening, an anti-Jewish open air meeting was held by Royalist students in the Latin Quarter of Paris. Copies of "L' Action Francaise", the Royalist Organ, were on sale. The speakers denounced the Jews as the chief obstacle to the restoration of the Monarchy in France. The Jews, they declared, were Communists; the Jews were the counselors of President Wilson and were responsible for his Fourteen Points, which had brought about the isolation of France. The first step towards the destruction of the Republic must be the annihilation of the Jews. (As reported by JTA)

1923: Birthdate of William Bernard Kannel a cardiovascular epidemiologist whose work helped to identify and sought to rout the culprits behind heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular diseases. (As reported by Margalit Fox)

1923: “Two Jews Innocently Imprisoned in France Seven Years” published today described the fate of two Jews who were falsely imprisoned during World War I.

http://www.jta.org/1923/12/13/archive/two-jews-innocently-imprisoned-in-france-seven-years

1924(16th of Kislev, 5685): Samuel Gompers, the famed American labor leader, passed away.

http://www.aflcio.org/About/Our-History/Key-People-in-Labor-History/Samuel-Gompers-1850-1924

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1747.html

1925(26^thof Kislev, 5686): Eighty-year old Caroline von Gomperz-Bettelheim, the sister of Anton Bettelheim and the wife of Julius Ritter von Gomperz who was an “Austrian court singer and member of the Royal Opera in Vienna, passed away today.

1925: Birthdate of painter Itshak Holtz, the son of a Polish “hat maker and furrirer who made Aliyah in 1935 and who “has stated that his artwork, which primarily but not exclusively depicts scenes of Jewish spirituality and tradition, is driven by his Orthodox Jewish beliefs”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itshak_Holtz#/media/File:Itshak_Holtz_Yerusalem_Wedding_2010.jpg

1926: “Shave Cost Homes” published today described how “the management committee of Sharrei Hesed ,a Jewish suburb of Jerusalem has instructed its tenants to eject from their premises ‘all occupants having shaven chins or shorn sidelocks or committing similar offences against strict orthodoxy.”

1927: In Philadelphia, Joseph Needleman, a furniture salesman and “former Sonia Shupak…who family owned a pickle business” gave birth to Herbert Leroy Needleman, the doctor who sounded the alarm when it came to children’s exposure to lead. (As reported by Benedict Carey)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/science/herbert-needleman-dead-lead-poisoning-in-children.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=1

1928: “Catholics, Jews and Protestants joined in a good-will meeting” tonight “at Temple Emnau-El under the auspices of the Congregation’s Men’s Club which was the “final meeting in the old Temple at 5^th Avenue and 66^thStreet.

1928: George Gershwin's musical work ''An American in Paris'' had its premiere, at Carnegie Hall in New York.

1929: Ted “Kid” Lewis won his bout tonight on a TKO.

1929: “Katharina Knie” a silent film featuring Vladimir Sokoloff was released today in Germany.

1930(23^rdof Kislev, 5691): Parashat Vayeshev

1930: At City Hall this afternoon, Mayor Jimmie Walker welcome Professor Albert Einstein and gave him the keys to the city.

1931: Author and journalist Emil Ludwig (born Emil Cohn) interviewed Joseph Stalin.

1931: After a week of celebration, festivities marking the 10^thanniversary of Congregation Beth El in Camden, NJ came to a close with a banquet this evening.

1932: “Dr. Arthur Kraus, an instructor in philosophy at City College’ was scheduled to continue his hunger strike begun two days ago “in protest against the apathy of intellectuals toward anti-Semitic excess in Polish universities.”

1933: In a foretaste of what was to come in Hungaryd, Zoltan Mesko and Count Alexander Festetis, leaders of rival Hungarian Nazi sections, attacked Premier Goemboes in Parliament today for an anti-Nazi statement in a speech yesterday at a meeting of the Governmental party.

1934: “Music in the Air” a movie “based on Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's Broadway musical of the same name” directed by Joe May was released in the United States today

1935: “Para Vigo me voy” (Say Si Si) with English lyrics by Al Stillman was record today.

1935: Birthdate of St. Louis native and University of Wisconsin educated “real estate developer” Lewis N. Wolff, the holder of an MBA from Washington University who used his wealth to buy the Oakland Athletics and who was the husband of Jean Wolff with whom he had “three children.”

1935: Jews were excluded from the medical profession in Germany.

1935: “Your Uncle Dudley” with a screenplay by Dore Schary was released today in the United States.

1936: Andy Devine appeared on the Jack Benny (Benjamin Kubelsky) where he scored the longest laughter pause in the history of the program.

1936: It was reported today that Rabbi Harry Halpern of the East Midwood Jewish Center will deliver a talk entitled “The Significance of Chanukah” at the upcoming meeting of the Women’s League of the United Synagogue of America.

1936(29^thof Kislev, 5697): Fifth Day of Chanukah

1936: “More than 1,000 members or guests of the Jewish Education Association attended the fifteenth annual Chanukah dinner held” tonight “at the Hotel Astor” where they “heard Supreme Court Justice Samuel I. Rosenman urge a ‘rebirth of interest’ in Jewish religious education” and “Mark Eisner, chairman of the Board of Education called for the mobilization of all ‘Jewish forces in America, to give Jewish education its proper status in relation to the life of the whole American community.’”

1936: After leaders in the effort to provide financial relief for European Jewry meeting at the Hotel Astor “heard speakers describe the plight of Jews in foreign lands” the “five hundred delegates from 25 states voted” today “to increase the 1937 quota of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee to a figure ‘much higher’ than the $3,500,000 set as the goal of the campaign ending this month.”

1936: At Temple Emanu-El, Rabbi Samuel H. Goldenson is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “How a Big City Tests Characters.”

1936: At Temple Rodeph Sholom, Rabbi Louis I. Newman is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Divorce, Remarriage, the Church and the State: Are New Morals Possible Today?”

1936: At Temple B’nai Jeshurun, Rabbi Israel Goldstein is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The Courage to Be Yourself.”

1936: This morning at the Free Synagogue in Carnegies Hall, Dr. Abram Leon Sachar is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Five Patterns of Jewish Life.”

1936: At the Jewish Science Society, Rabbi Morris Lichtenstein is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The Source of Jewish Energy.”

1936: The Women’s League for Palestine is scheduled to hear an address this evening by Henry Schorr at their meeting in Carnegie Hall.

1936: “The Metropolitan Conference of Temple Brotherhoods” is scheduled to “hold its tenth annual Hanukkah dinner” this “evening in the Hotel Pennsylvania.”

1937: The Palestine Post reported that Solomon Baum, 23, a student at the Hebrew Teachers' Seminary, was seriously wounded by an Arab assailant in the Beit Hakerem quarter of Jerusalem. British troops and police fought a gang of 50 Arab terrorists in Galilee. The same gang was reported to have murdered and robbed an Arab villager living in Kafr Kara who refused to hand over the requested sum of money.

1937: The Palestine Post reported that n Paris the Council of German Jews, headed by Viscount Samuel, announced that during the first half of 1937, 3,641 Jews left Germany, including 1,363 for Palestine. Four hundred of them made their aliya on the strength of the "capitalist" category immigration certificates, obtained by the committee.

1938: One hundred deportees from Sachsenhausen build the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg.

1938(20^thof Kislev, 5699): Just 13 days before his 84^th birthday, Leopold (Lehmann) Schloss, the husband of Karoline Schloss was murdered today in Wurzburg, Germany

1939(1^stof Tevet, 5700): Rosh Chodesh Tevet

1939(1^stof Tevet, 5700): In the evening, kindle the 8^th Chanukah light

1939(1^stof Tevet, 5700): In New York, Joseph Josephs passed away.

1939: Hans Frank issued order of the establishment of Jewish councils in Polish Jewish communities over 10,000. Jews referred to these councils as the “Judenrat.”

1940: U.S. premiere of “Comrade X” a American spy-spoof co-starring Hedy Lamar, filmed by cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg with a script co-authored by Ben Hecht and Herman J. Mankiewicz.

1941: For two days 14,300 Jews were killed in the Crimean city of Simferopol by the Einsatzkommando. The killing started on December 13 and ended on the 15^th.

1941: The last six Jews living in Warendorf, Germany, are deported to Riga, Latvia, and killed.

1941: Jews living in Muenster, Germany were deported to the Riga Ghetto in Latvia today. [A photo of this is part of the Yad Vashem archives]

http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/december/05.asp

1942: Borough President Edgar J Nathan Jr., Jacob O. Zabronsky, J. David Delman, and Rabbi Leo Jung spoke at the annual Chanukah celebration of the National Council of Young Israel at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

1942: German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels complains in his diary about Italy's halfhearted persecution of Jews.

1942: “My Sister Eileen,” a comedy written by Joseph A. Field and Jerome Chodorov and produced by George S. Kaufman which had opened on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre, transferred to the Broadway Theatre where it opened tonight.

1943: As the SS began its extermination of the local population of Vladimir-Volynski, Poland, they were attacked by 30 armed Jews. A number of the SS officers were killed as well as half of the attacking force. The remainder fled to the forests to join the partisans.

1943: In Greece, Nazis murder all males over age 14 in the village of Kalávrita.

1943: Birthdate of Victor G. Kac, a Soviet and American mathematician at MIT, known for his work in representation theory. Kac received a Sloan Fellowship in 1981 and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1986.

1944(27^thof Kislev, 5705): Third Day of Chanukah

1944(27^thof Kislev, 5705): Sixty-six year old Gustav Cohn, the German born son of Sophie and Seligman Lazarus Cohn and husband of Henriette Cohn passed away today in Buenos Aires.

1944: “The best‐known production staged by the Bernard Hart‐Joseph Hyman team was “Dear Ruth,” which opened at Henry Miller's Theater today” and “played more than 700 performances during the next two years.

1945: Thirty-six of the 40 defendants in “the Dachau Camp Trials” were sentenced to death today “including the former commandant Martin Gottfried Weiss and the camp doctor Claus Schilling.”

1946: Jewish political leader Léon Blum was chosen French premier.

1946: Future Nobel Prize winner Joshua Lederberg married Esther Miriam Zimmer today.

1946: Cessation of hostilities between the United States and Germany was announced by US President Truman

1946: Moshe Sneh, the reputed head of Haganah, repudiates activities of Irgun and Stern Group. He calls for a responsible resistance. He urges Zionists to stay away from London conference.

1947(30^thof Kislev, 5708): Parashat Miketz; Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah

1947(30^thof Kislev, 5708): Seventy year old Austrian born David Alter the “publisher of Jewish weekly magazines in Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Youngstown and Toledo” passed away today in Pittsburgh, PA.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1947/12/14/87565672.pdf

1947: The Jewish Agency, representing a majority of Palestinian Jewry denounced the rising tide of Irgun reprisals, calling them spectacular acts to gratify popular feeling.

1947: Several Irgun members driving in two cars near the Damascus Gate bus station hurled two bombs into the crowd and opened fire with automatic weapons killing five Arabs including a fourteen year old boy.

1947: The Arab League tells U.S. and Britain that partition would be considered a hostile act toward Moslems.

1947: The Zionist Organization of America urges that the U.S. provide ships for Jews going to Palestine and help arm Jewish Agency defense forces.

1948: The Transjordan Parliament authorizes King Abdullah to accept sovereignty over Arab Palestine and Transjordan defying a warning by council of Ulemas (a group of scholars and highest spiritual authority in Moslem

1949: Knesset votes to transfer Israel's capitol to Jerusalem.

1950: James Grover McDonald, the first U.S. Ambassador to Israel, left his post today.

1951: Foreign Service Officer John S. Service, who was not Jewish fell victim to the right wing anti-Communist witch hunt that destroyed the careers of so many Jews in several fields of endeavors, when he was dismissed today “from the Department of State following a determination by the Civil Service Commission’s Loyalty Board that there was “reasonable doubt” concerning his loyalty to the United States.”

1951: Movie producer Walter Wanger shot his wife’s agent and lover today.

http://www.cobbles.com/simpp_archive/walter-wanger_shooting.htm

1952(25^thof Kislev, 5713): First Day of Chanukah

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the government announced an ambitious settlement program the establishment of some 100 new villages within one year.

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that ten infiltrators from Jordan crossed the border, wounded the guard of a defense post and stole arms and ammunition. Elsewhere, on the same border, two marauders were killed and 26 arrested within one week. Israel demanded an emergency meeting of the Israeli-Jordanian Mixed Armistice Commission.

1953: Birthdate of economist Ben Shalom Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.

1954: Eighteen year old Michael Rabin made his first London today when he played the Tchaikovsky Concerto in D at the Royal Albert Hall with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/michael-rabin-mn0001203069/biography

1955(28^th of Kislev, 5716): Third Day of Chanukah

1955(28^th of Kislev, 5716): French author Leon Werth, the son draper Albert Werth and Sophia Rauh, who had a son name Claude with his wife Suzanne and was the inspiration for The Little Princepassed away today.

http://littleprince.8m.com/werth.html

http://forward.com/culture/346962/the-secret-jewish-history-of-the-little-prince/?utm_content=daily_Newsletter_MainList_Title_Position-1&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New%20Daily%202016-08-06&utm_term=The%20Forward%20Today%20Monday-Friday

1955: A cinematic version “Richard III” produced by Alexander Korda, co-starring Clair Bloom and filmed by cinematographer Otto Heller was released today in the United Kingdom.

1956: “The Rainmaker,” the movie version of the Broadway play by N. Richard Nash (Nathan Richard Nusbaum), produced by Hal Wallis and with an Oscar nominated score by Alex North (Isadore Soifer) was released today in the United States.

1957: “Peyton Place” the movie version of the novel of the same name directed by Mark Robson, produced by Jerry Wald, with music by Franz Waxman was released today in the United States.

1961: Beatles sign a formal agreement to be managed by Brian Epstein. Yes, there is a Jewish connection to Ringo, Paul, John, et al.

1961: In London, world premiere of “The Young Ones” a musical choreographed by Hebert Ross whose suggestion to have Barbra Streisand star in the film was rejected by

1961: In Jerusalem, prosecuting attorney Gideon Hausner demands death penalty for Adolf Eichmann

1965: “A Thousand Clowns” the movie version of the Broadway play featuring Martin Balsam as “Arnold Burns,” Barry Gordon as “Nick Burns” and Gene Saks as “Leo ‘Chuckles the Chipmun’ Herman and filmed by cinematographer Arthur Ornitz was released today in the United States.

1967: In Canada, premiere of “The Fox” directed by Mark Rydell with music by Lalo Schifrin.

1968: “Urban Picaresque” published today provides a review of Murray Schisgal's Jimmy Shine

http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,839680,00.html

1970: Neil Simon's "Gingerbread Lady" premieres in New York NY

1970(15^thof Kislev, 5731): Eighty-three year old Baruch Zuckerman, a long time Zionist leader who was one of the founders of Yad Vashem passed away today in Jerusalem.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9E00E2DE1431EE34BC4D52DFB467838B669EDE

1971(25^thof Kislev, 5732): Chanukah

1971: “Nicholas and Alexandra” a film version of the novel produced by Sam Spiegel with a screenplay by James Goldman and co-starring Janet Suzman was released today in the United Kingdom.

1971:Milton Glick, 15th president of the University of Nevada, Reno, became a father for the second time when his wife Peggy gave birth to his son Sandy.

1971: Two months after opening in the United Kingdom, “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” a musical fantasy with a score by Robert and Richard Sherman was released today in the United States.

1972(8^thof Tevet, 5733): Seventy-two year old cellist Maurice Eisenberg suffered a mortal heart attack at the Juilliard School.

https://www.nytimes.com/1972/12/14/archives/maurice-eisenberg-cellist-dies-while-teaching-juilliard-class.html

http://www.cello.org/heaven/bios/eisenap.htm

1975: As the Russians continue their offensive against the refuseniks, “the French Communist Party challenged the Soviet authorities to deny the existence of forced labor camps for political prisoners in the USSR.”

1976: Release date for “Victory at Entebbe” a made for television movie based on the raid that had taken place in July of 1976.

1977(3^rdof Tevet, 5738): Seventy year old Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons graduate Dr. Alvan Leroy Barach, the so-called “father of oxygen therapy” and the husband of “the former Fredrick Pisek” with whom he had two children – Jeffrey and John Paul – passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/14/archives/dr-alvan-barach-breathing-expert.html

1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that a top-level Israeli team, leaving for Cairo, was told by Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan that President Anwar Sadat of Egypt expected, and had to gain, an early success in the forthcoming negotiations. An 82-man Arab delegation left the Gaza Strip for Cairo while their mayor, Rashid Shawwa, said that Sadat ought to be praised for strengthening moderate Arabs. However, US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance failed to persuade King Hussein of Jordan to join the planned Israeli-Egyptian conference in Cairo

1979: Roger and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!" opens at the Palace Theater in New York City for the first of 301 performances.

1984: In a seemingly never ending fight to nibble away at the doctrine of the separation of church and state which is critical to the Jewish community in the United States, Ronald Reagan’s Justice Department filed a friend of the court brief in support the state of Alabama in Wallace v Jaffree, a case that would decide the mandated moment of silence at the start of each school day. The Supreme Court would declare the Alabama statute unconstitutional because it violated the “first prong of the Lemon Test i.e., that the statute was invalid as being entirely motivated by a purpose of advancing religion.

1985(1st of Tevet, 5746): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah

1985(1^stof Tevet, 5746): Eighty-four year old Washingtonian and featherweight Wilburn Cohen who fought a seemingly amazing 130 bouts passed away today.

1987(22^ndof Kislev, 5748): Eighty-one year old Yonah Ephraim Caplan, the Montreal born son of “Shlomo Chaim Caplan and Chaya Bluma Routtenberg” and the husband of Lena Herman passed away today in New York.

1988: Yasir Arafat, the P.L.O. chairman, is to be the main speaker today when the U.N. General Assembly holds its first meeting in Geneva.

1991: “Bugsy” a movie based on the life of Jewish gangster Bugsy Siegel directed and co-produced by Barry Levinson and featuring Elliot Gould, Harvey Keitel and Bebe Neuwirth was released in the United States today.

1991: Birthdate of Jay "Bluejay" Greenberg composer of “Overture to 9-11.”

1992: In a daring challenge to Israel's authority in the occupied territories, Islamic militants kidnapped an Israeli soldier today and threatened to kill him unless the army quickly released the imprisoned founder of a dominant Muslim group in the Gaza Strip. The abductors' deadline passed tonight with their demand unmet, but there was no sign that they had carried out their threatened slaying.

1992: The New York Times published the following letter from Rabbi Harold M. Kamsler of Phoenixville, Pa. entitled “It May Help to Be Jewish to Love Turkey” which claimed that the word “Turkey,” the fowl of Thanksgiving fame was rooted in Hebrew.

“May I add another linguistic note to the colorful "One Strange Bird" by Margaret Visser (Op-Ed, Nov. 26)? The concurrence of the voyages of Columbus and the expulsion from Spain of its Jewish population after centuries of mutually advantageous co-existence has been widely aired in this 500th year of commemoration of both events. One of the key personnel making the first voyage was Luis de Torres, employed by Columbus as an interpreter since he had wide knowledge of Chaldean and Arabic, the languages of the areas they expected to reach. A "Converso," one of the Jews who had converted to Catholicism under the pressure of the Inquisition but remained a secret adherent of his own faith, de Torres also knew Hebrew well. It was natural that de Torres was in the first boats sent to shore on Oct. 12, 1492. In a letter written to a friend in Spain, he described the strange bird seen in this new land. As Ms. Visser notes, during the courting season the bird gobbles, struts and puffs, and his tail feathers display in the manner of a peacock. De Torres gave it the name that appears in the biblical book of I Kings, 10:22, the Hebrew word for peacock: tuki. Surely there is a much more direct line to "turkey" than the various other speculations at hand.”

1992:Islamic militants kidnapped an Israeli soldier today and threatened to kill him unless the army quickly released the imprisoned founder of a dominant Muslim group in the Gaza Strip.Today’s pre-dawn kidnapping of Sgt. Maj. Nissim Toledano in Lod, southeast of Tel Aviv, was likely to increase the sense among Israelis that they are under siege.

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/14/world/arabs-seize-and-vow-to-kill-israeli-if-sheik-isn-t-freed.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm

1994(10th of Tevet, 5755): Asara B'Tevet

1994(10^th of Tevet, 5755): The day before his 84^thbirthday labor historian and professor Philip Sheldon Foner passed away today. (As reported by Lawrence Van Gelder)

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/15/obituaries/philip-s-foner-labor-historian-and-professor-84.html

1995(20th of Kislev, 5756): Rabbi Roland B. Gittelsohn, a scholar on religious and governmental issues who was a Marine Corps chaplain during the battle of Iwo Jima, died at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. He was 85. He was the first Jewish chaplain the Marine Corps ever appointed. Rabbi Gittelsohn was rabbi emeritus at Temple Israel in Boston, where he served from 1953 to 1977. From 1936 to 1953, he served the Central Synagogue of Nassau County in Rockville Centre, L.I. He was awarded three combat ribbons for his service with the Fifth Marine Division on Iwo Jima. His sermon at the dedication of the division's cemetery, titled "The Purest Democracy," attracted wide attention and was read by many radio and television announcers during and after the war. In February, Rabbi Gittelsohn gave the benediction at the Iwo Jima Memorial in Arlington, Va., at a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the landing. Rabbi Gittelsohn was appointed by President Harry S. Truman to a committee studying civil rights issues. Later, he studied and lectured on United States involvement in Vietnam, and on euthanasia, Israeli politics and family relationships. He wrote numerous articles and books on civic and religious issues. He was president of the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis from 1958 to 1960; president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis from 1969 to 1971, and president of the Association of Reform Zionists of America from 1977 to 1984. A native of Cleveland, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Western Reserve University in Cleveland in 1931. He studied at Columbia University and Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati and was ordained in 1936.

1996: The president of Reform Judaism's synagogue organization has called for expanding the movement's small presence in Israel, to develop a liberal religious alternative within a nation overwhelmingly dominated by secular and Orthodox Jews. In a prepared speech he gave in Los Angeles today to trustees of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, its president, said, ''We intend nothing less than to bring into being a new Israeli Judaism, which will draw Israelis with irresistible force to a renewal of practice and belief.''

1996: “The Preacher’s Wife” a movie version of Robert Nathan’s novel and with music by Hans Zimmer was released today in the United States.

1997: A revival of “Chips with Everything” a play by Arnold Wesker came to a close at the Royal Nation Theatre.

1998(24th of Kislev, 5759): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah.

1998(24^thof Kislev, 5759): Ninety-one year old Lew Grade who went from being Lithuanian immigrant Louis Winogladsky to being media mogul and impresario The Right Honorable Lord Grade passed away just days short of his 92^ndbirthday.

http://www.economist.com/node/180361

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/14/nyregion/lew-grade-91-flamboyant-shaper-of-british-tv-and-movies.html

1998: An historic and emotion-filled event took place in Jerusalem on the eve of the first day of Hanukkah. The restored synagogue of Shimon Hatzadik (Simon the Righteous) in the Jewish neighborhood of Shimon Hatzadik in eastern Jerusalem was rededicated in the presence of former residents of this and surrounding neighborhoods. According to tradition, the high priest, who was among the last members of the Great Assembly, was buried in a cave built into these sloping Sheikh Jarrah hills, where dozens of Hassidim can be found praying and learning throughout the day. The land surrounding the burial caves had lain barren of inhabitants for almost two millennia. The graves, however, were continuously visited by Jewish pilgrims. In modern times, Jews started this neighborhood in 1895 and lived there until they were evicted by the British army during the Arab riots in 1947, says a source in Lomdei Shalem, an organization responsible for the renewed Jewish presence in the area. In the interim, the Jordanian government took over the land and permitted Arab families to move into the Jewish homes, where many still remain. After acquiring power of attorney from the Sephardic Community Council, the original owner of the property, MK Benny Elon shepherded a group of young yeshiva students to the old synagogue. They cleaned it up and began to study there regularly. The rededicated synagogue has also become a kollel, where men study Torah on a daily basis.

1998: The New York Times book section included a review of Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the Talmudsby Donald Harman Akenson.

2000: Al Gore who received 79% of the Jewish vote conceded defeat to George W. Bush in the most contested Presidential election in U.S. history.

2000: In a seemingly never ending fight to nibble away at the doctrine of the separation of church and state which is critical to the Jewish community in the United States, the city of Elkhart, Indiana in Elkhart v Brooks was told today by the U.S. Court of Appeals said that the city had acted unconstitutionally when it accepted a Ten Commandments Monument from the Elks.

2001(28th of Kislev, 5762): Charles Michael "Chuck" Schuldiner singer, songwriter, rhythm and lead guitarist of the band Death passed away as a result of a rare form of cancer.

2001: Hollywood premiere of “A Beautiful Mind” the academy award winning film co-produced by Brian Grazer, with a screenplay by Akiva Goldsman and featuring Judd Hirsch.

2002: Three months are premiering at the TIFF, “Evelyn” co-starring Julianna Margulies was released in the United States today.

2002: “Drumline” produced by Wendy Finerman and Jody Gerson who fourteen years later would be “honored as one of Universal Music Group’s female executives named to Variety’s Power of Women L.A.”

2004: “The obituary and photograph” of Harry Danning who “played his entire Major League career as a catcher for the New York Giants” appeared in today’s Sports Illustrated.

https://www.si.com/vault/2004/12/13/8215557/for-the-record

2005: Israel's consul-general in Los Angeles criticized Steven Spielberg's "Munich," saying that the new film drew an incorrect picture of the Mossad's hunt for the PLO terrorists who carried out the 1972 Olympic massacre, and taking the legendary director to task for morally equating the Israeli agents and their Palestinian terrorist targets.

2006: Sotheby’s annual sale of Judaica in New York includes a collection of the 18^thcentury ritual silver objects from the Jewish community of Amsterdam and an 18^thcentury decorated manuscript honoring physician and poet Dr. Isaac Luzzato.

2006: The Sci Fi Channel broadcast the final episode of “The Lost Room,” a min-series co-starring Julianna Margulies and Peter Jacobson.

2006: Prime Minister Ehud Omert met with Pope Benedict XVI during the Israeli Prime Minister’s visit to Europe.

2007: In Jerusalem, a screening of The Jews in the Warsaw Uprising. This 57 minute long documentary explores the subject of the Jewish involvement in the struggle and includes Interviews with witnesses that are enriched by the archive materials and the historian reports.

2007: In New York City, the 92^nd Street Y hosts cellist Steven Isserlis and pianist Kirill Gerstein as part of the Distinguished Artist Series.

2007: Greek historian Costas Plevris was sentenced to 14 months in prison for inciting racial hatred with the publication of The Jews: The Whole Truth, a book that denies the Holocaust took place.

2008: Jeff Marx “premiered a new song he wrote, ‘White Kwanzaa,’ on the CNN show D.L. Hughley Breaks the News”

2008:Itzhak Perlman plays chamber music at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

2008: The 10^th Annual Jerusalem Film Festival opens. Highlights of this year's festival include:
Daniel Burman's new film, “The Empty Nest,” a premiere screening of the acclaimed PBS series, “The Jewish Americans,” and a tribute to Meyer Levin, the American-Jewish journalist and filmmaker who made “The Illegals” and “My Father's House.”.

2008: In Washington, D.C. the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue (formerly the home of Adas Israel), hosts Shalshelet's 3rd International Festival of New Jewish Liturgy.

2008 (16 Kislev 5769) Ann Gilbert (Chana Zylberstajn), 84, of Cedar Rapids and Los Angeles passed away in Cedar Rapids at the age of 84. Ann is survived by her husband of 62 years, Fred; a son, Jack Gilbert of Albany, Calif.; and two daughters, Doris (Gary) Gilbert-Stieger of San Francisco and Lena Gilbert of Springville. She was preceded in death by her parents; and brothers and sisters, who all perished during World War II. Ann was born in Szydlowiec, Poland, to Josek and Laja Zylberstajn. Ann was a Holocaust survivor. She spent over four years in concentration camps and was liberated in April 1945. She married Fred Gilbert (Felek Gebotszrajber) on Jan. 2, 1946, in Scwabisch Hall, Germany. Ann was a consummate homemaker, an accomplished seamstress, and devoted to her family. She and Fred lived in Cedar Rapids from 1949 to 1986, where she was an active member of Temple Judah and in the community. She was a lifetime member of Hadassah. From 1986 to 2003, Ann and Fred lived in Los Angeles, where she was a much sought after seamstress to film and motion picture stars. Ann and Fred were also very active in the survivor community. They were regular speakers at the Simon Wiesenthal Center-Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. She and Fred lectured frequently about their experiences. In 2003, she and Fred returned to Cedar Rapids to be near to Lena. Ann remained a constant source of inspiration and will be greatly missed.

2009: In Iowa City, the Agudas Achim Players present ”Zayda Was A Cowboy” which, along with a catered Latkes dinner adds to the enjoyment of the third night of Chanukah.

2009:Adele Steiner read from her work as part of the Iota Poetry Series held at the Iota Club & Café in Arlington, Virginia.

2009: Closing night of the 20^th Annual Washington Jewish Film Festival includes a showing of “The Gift of Stalin” and a Chanukah Party.

2009: The 24th Annual New York Israeli Film Festival comes to a close with the screening of several cinematic offers including “Jaffa,” the featured closing night film.

2009: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Why The Dreyfus Affair Mattersby Louis Begley and Emancipation:How Liberating Europe’s Jews From the Ghetto Led to Revolution and Renaissance by Michael Goldfarb.

2009: Wonderland Express Hanukkah Dinner and Concert featuring the local Jewish band Spirit Orchestra takes place at the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe, Illinois

2009: In Philadelphia Chana Rothman, Naomi Less and Sarah Aroeste are the featured musicians in Lights Ignite Change at the World Café.

2009: At the Sephardic Musical Festival it is Ladino Night featuring Rivka Amado & Elie Massias at the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue.

2010:Damon Linker is scheduled to present a program entitled “The Religious Test: Why We Must Question the Beliefs of Our Leaders” at the Historic 6^th& I Synagogue in Washington, DC.

2010: Mollie Berch is scheduled to deliver a talk entitled “American Jews and the Great Depression” in Silver Spring, MD.

2010: Lord Sacks’ retirement as Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom was announced today

2010: In a story entitled “Faith in The Game,” Sports Illustrated reviews Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story, “a new film that illuminates the Jewish to the national pastime.” Written by Ira Berkow, narrated by Dustin Hoffman the film includes a rare interview with Dodger great Sandy Koufax and Al Rosen, the Cleveland all-star third basemen who spoke frankly about dealing with anti-Semitism.

2011: “Grace Paley: Collect Shorts” is scheduled to be shown at the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, PA.

2011: “Tea and Talmud” sponsored by the Touro Synagogue Sisterhood is scheduled to take place in New Orleans, LA.

2011: Anat Hoffman, Director of the Union for Reform Judaism’s Religious Action Center in Jerusalem for the past ten years, is scheduled to deliver a talk on the struggle for equality and women’s rights in Israel at the Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation in Reston, VA.

2011: Jerry Abramson “took office as the 55th Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky.”

2011: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called an emergency discussion with Israeli defense officials today, following an attack by right-wing activists on an IDF base in the West Bank.

2012: “Susan Sontag – The Glamour of Seriousness” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival today.

2012: Under the leadership of Lena Gilbert, a Chanukah Menorah Lighting Ceremony is scheduled to take place in Springville, Iowa.

2012: In what is the third and final public menorah lighting in North Dakota, this ceremony is scheduled to take place tonight at Bismarck, the state capital.

2012:Violinist Pinchas Zukerman, cellist Amanda Forsyth and pianist Angela Cheng are scheduled to perform in Palm Beach, FL at a benefit sponsored by the American Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

2012(29^thof Kislev, 5773): Fifth Day of Chanukah

2012: “UCLA announced that David Geffen had donated another $100 million in addition to his 2002 donation of $200 million, making him the largest individual benefactor for the UC system.”

2012(29^thof Kislev, 5773): Ninety-three year old French mountain climber Maurice Herzog passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/15/world/europe/maurice-herzog-93-dies-led-historic-himalaya-climb.html?hpw&_r=0

2012: Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman denied that he was guilty of charges brought by Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein that he was guilty of fraud and breach of the public trust.

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=295860

2012: The border policewoman who fatally shot a Palestinian teen in Hebron today is content with how she performed her duty, even as it emerged that Muhammad al- Salaymeh was armed only with a toy pistol. Nobody has explained why he was carrying a toy pistol, let alone why he would point it at the Border Police. (As reported by the Jerusalem Post)

2012: President Obama is scheduled to host a Chanukah party in the White House. Per the request of the President, “a 90-year-old menorah from a temple on Long Island that was ravaged by Hurricane Sandy will be displayed at a Hanukkah party…as a symbol of perseverance and hope for the holidays.” (As reported by Michael Schwirtz)

2013: In Iowa City, Penfield Books is schedule to host a reception for several local authors including three members of Agudas Achim: Arthur Canter for his World War II memoir, Flap Dog: A World War II Odyssey of a Communications Interceptor, Miriam Canter for her newly revised cookbook Dazzling Desserts and ,and Vida Brenner author of the book for children The Magic Music Shop.

2013 The Maxwell Street Klezmer Band is scheduled to perform at the UIHC.

2013: In keeping with its annual tradition, Keren Kayemet LeIsrael-Jewish National

Fund (KKL-JNF) is scheduled to start distributing Christmas trees at Ras El E'ain next to Kfar Rama (Wadi Salama)

2013: “Copying Beethoven” and “Bethlehem” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.

2013(10^thof Tevet): Asarah B'Tevet,

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/102698/jewish/10-Tevet.htm

http://www.ou.org/chagim/roshchodesh/tevet/fast.htm

2013(10^thof Tevet, 5774): Yarhrzeit Judith “Judy” Rosenstein (nee Levin) a woman of valor – gone too soon but always remembered

2013(10^thof Tevet, 5774): Eighty year old Hugh Nissenson whose “books were immersive journeys that often explored religion, particularly Judaism” passed away today. (As reported by William Yardley)

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/17/books/hugh-nissenson-novelist-dies-at-80.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&_r=1&

2013: US Secretary of State John Kerry met with Prime Minister Benjamin this morning in Jerusalem amid a severe winter storm which has left thousands without power and stranded hundreds of travelers on roads leading to and from the capital.

2013: Jerusalem experiences a “White Shabbat”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/14/world/middleeast/a-disappearing-american-spy-and-the-cia.html?hp&_r=0&pagewanted=print

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/175130#.UquM_ZuA2po

2014: Shabbat Va-yayshev

2014(21^stof Kislev, 5775): Ninety-five year old photographer Phil Stern passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/16/movies/phil-stern-hollywood-and-war-photographer-dies-at-95.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=1

http://variety.com/2014/film/news/phil-stern-dead-photographer-1201379157/

http://www.philsternarchives.com/

2014: The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio is scheduled to perform at the 92^ndStreet Y.

2014: At NYU’s Kimmel Center The Workmen’s Circle is scheduled to host its Annual Winter Reception where it will honor Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, “distinguished professor, scholar, author, and Program Director of the brand-new Core Exhibition at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.”

2014: “The Israeli bridge delegation won the gold medal at the Sportaccord World Mind Games in Beijing today. This is the first time in the history of the games that Israel has won first place, and the delegation beat out some of the best card players in the competition.” (As reported by Roi Yanovksy)

2014: “A Palestinian driver slammed his car into a concrete barrier at a hitchhiking post popular with IDF soldiers near a military post in the southern West Bank.”

2015(1^stof Tevet, 5776): Rosh Chodesh Tevet

2015(1^stof Tevet, 5776): Eighty-nine year old “Donald Weinstein, one of the pioneering postwar American historians who made the Italian Renaissance a premier area of study” passed away today in Tucson, Arizona

http://www.rsa.org/blogpost/856879/235182/Donald-Weinstein-Historian-of-Civic-Religion

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/31/books/donald-weinstein-influential-historian-on-the-renaissance-dies-at-89.html?_r=0

2015: In North Bethesda, MD, B’nai Israel Congregation is scheduled to host a meeting of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington which will included a presentation by Barry Nove on “The Ellis Island Immigrant Experience.”

2015: US, Canadian, and Israeli envoys in Budapest joined a crowd of Jewish organizations today protesting the erection of a statute of Balint Homan “ an interwar period historian and politician, known for his eight volume history of Hungary, the drafting of the anti-Jewish laws adopted in Hungary, and his support of the German invasion of the USSR in 1941.

2015: Stage 48 is scheduled to host Dor Chadash and Hadag Nahash - one of Israel's most popular hip-hop bands - for an unforgettable Chanukah party!

2015: The 47^th Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies is scheduled to open at the Sheraton Hotel in Boston, MA.

2015: Donald Burris is scheduled to deliver an address on “Unresolved Issues of the Twentieth Century - The Quest for the Repatriation of Nazi-Looted Art” at the 55^th annual meeting of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington.

2015: “In a lecture-concert, Orin Grossman (Fairfield University) and the artists of the Sidney Krum Concert Series are scheduled to explore three giants of American music and the Jewish influences on their work: Aaron Copland (1900-1990), George Gershwin (1898-1937), and Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990).”

2015: Curator Shiri B. Sandler, U.S. director of the Auschwitz Jewish Center at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, is scheduled to present a gallery talk in conjunction with the visiting exhibit A Town Known as Auschwitz at the Yiddish Book Center.

2016: The YIVO Institute is scheduled to present “The Yiddish Theatre in America and Poland Between the Two World Wars” during which “Scholar-in-Residence, Alyssa Quint, will share her impressions of YIVO’s vast Esther Rachel Kaminska Theater Museum Archive and will offer insights about the colossal achievement of the trans-Atlantic interwar Yiddish stage, focusing on the most important theater centers in New York, Warsaw, Lodz, and Vilna.”

2016: The Foundation for Jewish Studies and the Jewish Historical Society are scheduled to present a screening of “Bulgarian Rhapsody,” that tells “a story of teenage love and friendship told against the backdrop of the Holocaust, which was Bulgaria's submission for the Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film” as part of the Washington Jewish Film Festival.

2017: Janet Yellin , “the first woman to serve as the head of the Federal Reserve Board” is scheduled to preside over the Board’s “last meeting of the year.”

2017(25^th of Kislev, 5778): As rockets are fired from Gaza into Israel, observance of the first day of Chanukah

2017(25^th of Kislev, 5778): Eighty year old Bette Howland, a “recently re-discovered author” who was a protégé of Saul Bellow passed away today. (As reported by Neil Genzlinger)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/17/obituaries/bette-howland-author-and-protege-of-bellows-dies-at-80.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

2017(25^th of Kislev, 5778) Eighty-four year old historian and author Gerald Tulchinsky passed away today in Kingston, Ontario.

https://www.cjnews.com/news/canada/gerald-tulchinsky-historian-canadian-jewry-dies-84

2017: Ninety year old New Orleans born producer Martin Ranshoff who was responsible for one of the best movies ever – “The Americanization of Emily” – as well as some of the corniest sit-coms passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/17/arts/martin-ransohoff-producer-dies.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

2017: Six13 and The Maccabeats are among the groups scheduled to perform at Temple Emanu-El Chanukah Party

2018: Thanks to support of the Stravinsky Institute Foundadtion and the Blavatnik Family Foundation, the Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host “Unique Voices: Songs and Piano Trios” featuring the Phoenix Chamber Ensemble.

2018: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host “The Holocaust and North Africa, during which “Dr. Boum, Associate Professor of Anthropology at UCLA, and a native of Morocco, will discuss this little known, yet pivotal episode of the Holocaust, as it unfolded off the European continent across North Africa.”

2018: Prof. Anita Norich (2018-19 NEH Senior Scholar at CJH, University of Michigan) is scheduled to deliver keynote lecture, “If Not Now, When? Turning to Gender in Jewish Studies” as a part of the colloquium “The Gender Turn in Jewish Studies” at the New School.

2008: The world premiere of Academy Award winner Aaron Sorkin’s new play, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, is scheduled to take place this evening at the Sam S. Shubert Theatre in New York this evening.

2018(5^th of Tevet, 5779): Ninety-two year old “Noah Klieger, a journalist for the Yedioth Ahronoth daily and an Auschwitz survivor who wrote for decades about the Holocaust” passed away today.

https://www.jpost.com/Jerusalem-Report/Holocaust-hero-Noah-Klieger-as-I-remember-him-575934

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israeli-journalist-and-holocaust-survivor-noah-klieger-dies-at-92-1.6744272

2018:As Jews arise this morning, they can contemplate the dizzy events of the last twenty-four hours that included burial of “an infant boy” who had been delivered prematurely after his mother had been wounded in terrorist attack last weekend, the sentencing of Michael Cohen and the declaration by the rioters in France that Jews are the cause of all their woes (except in Salzburg where a Islamist gunman attacked the city’s famed Christmas market).

2019: In Boston, “the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center in partnership with the Jewish Arts Collaborative is scheduled to host “Growing up Jewish Indian: A Shabbat Experience with Siona Benjamin.”

2019: In Chicago, this evening, the URJ Biennial is scheduled to include Kabbalat Shabbat, followed by Shabbat Dinner and Song Session.

2019: In Boston, “Shabbat at TimeOut Market” is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

2019: It was reported today, that yesterday, Gurbir Grewal, the New Jersey Attorney General has said the attack on the kosher market in Jersey City “is being investigated as an act of domestic terrorism.”

DECEMBER 14

164 BCE (3597): On the secular calendar date on which Judah Maccabee restored the service in the Temple in Jerusalem.

1243: “King Henry III turned a confiscated synagogue into the chapel of St. Mary. Many other synagogues were also confiscated and turned into churches, including one which became St. Thomas' Hospital.”

1293: The reign of Al-Ashraf Khalil, the eighth Mamluk Sultan best known for driving the Crusaders from Palestine when he captured Acre came to an end today when he was attacked and murdered while “walking with his friend Emir Shihab ad-Din Ahmad.”

1503: Birthdate of Michel de Nostradame, the native of St. Remy de Provence better known as Nostradmus who, according to some sources was born Jewish but later baptized as part of forced conversion commanded by the King of France or who was not born Jewish because his grandfather had converted under duress

https://www.age-of-the-sage.org/historical/biography/nostradamus_prediction.html

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/nostradamus

https://www.amazon.com/Nostradamus-Revealer-Lost-History-Prophecy-ebook/dp/B004OA6L3M

1546: Birthdate of Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe who spent time with Jewish astronomer David Gans while visiting in Prague and who wrote Path to God which Franz Rosenzweig said “should be considered a ‘Jewish book’” but which said should be called a “Jewishlike book.”

1584: According to a document with this day’s date, “Isaac (Isaiko) Shachovich, a Jew of Brest, visited Moscow on business in 1581, notwithstanding the prohibition of Ivan the Terrible, and en route stopped in Mohilev at the house of his friend, the tax-collector Isaac Jacobovich.”

1655: “Some must have changed concerning the re-admission the Jews to England because today, “John Evelyn wrote in his diary, ‘Now were the Jews admitted.”

1670: In Denmark, “The privilege of 1657,” under which “the Portuguese professing the Hebrew religion" were permitted to travel everywhere within the kingdom, and to trade and traffic within the limit of the law “was specially ratified in an open letter today, at the instance of Gabriel Gomez, who was in the service of the king.”

1754: Mahmud I, Sultan of Turkey, passed away at the age of 58. Under the reign of Mahmud I, the treaty of Belgrade was signed (September 18th, 1739). This gave rights to the Ottoman Jews. Their situation was so good that Austrian Jews applied for Ottoman citizenship.

1760: The Board of Deputies of British Jews was founded. The Board of Deputies was composed of elected Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews.

1762(28^thof Kislev, 5523): Fourth Day of Chanukah

1763: In New York, Jessie Jonas and Samuel Judah gave birth to Sarah Judo, the wife of Samuel Myers.

1765(2^ndof Tevet, 5526): Parashat Miketz; Seventh day of Chanukah

1755: In New York City, Benjamin Myers and his wife gave birth to Benjamin Myers, who married Hannah Hays, the mother of Sarah and Abigail Myers, after having first been married to Rachel Hays.

1773(29^th of Kislev, 5534): Fifth Day of Chanukah

1778(25^th of Kislev, 5539): Chanukah

1780: Birthdate of Count Karl Robert Nesselrode, the Russian foreign minister who successful thwarted the plan of Jacques Isaac Altaras to settle 40,000 Russian-Jewish families in Algeria.

1790: Two days after he had passed away, Abraham ben Nathan was buried at the “Alderney Road (Globe Rd) Jewish Cemetery” today.

1792: In New York, Zipporah Levy and Benjamin Mendes Seixas gave birth to Hayman Levy Seixas, the husband of Abigail Nunez Cardozo with whom he had nine children.

1798: Abraham bar Samuel was buried today at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”

1798: “Hancah (Hannah) Weil and Hirsch Weil gave birth Sophia Loeser who was married in Kentucky where her parents had moved to from their respective homes in Germany and France.

1799: President George Washington passed away. Washington’s letters of acceptance to Jewish communities in the early days of the United States set the tone for acceptance that has made it possible for the Jewish community to flourish.

1803: In Georgetown, SC, Savanah, GA merchant Isaac Minis married the “eldest daughter of Solomon Cohen.”

1807: In Hamburg, Israel Abraham Meyer and his wife gave birth to Meyer Isler who wrote a these on the Greek poet to earn his doctorate and who was a follower “of the new science of Judaism” as presented by Leopold Zunz and Isaak Markus Jost.

1808(25^thof Kislev, 5569): Chanukah celebrated for the last time during the Presidency of Thomas Jefferson

1808(25^thof Kislev, 5569):Abraham ben Elijah of Vilna the son of Elijah, the Vilna Gaon passed away today in Vilna.

http://thesaurus.babylon.com/Abraham%20ben%20Elijah%20of%20Vilna#!!ARV6FUJ2JP

1812: With Napoleon having “abandoned his army on December 5 to deal with the aftermath of an attempted coup d'état in France” the shrunken “the Grande Armée” left Russia – a move that would lead to the downfall of the French Emperor and an to many of the reforms made possible in the aftermath of the French Revolution that were beneficial to the Jews of Europe.

1814: Alexander Solomon married Esther Lyons today at the Great Synagogue.

1816: Birthdate of Ban, Hungary, native Abraham Hochmuth, the “principal of the newly founded Jewish school at Miskolcz who served as the rabbi in Kula and Veszprim while playing a prominent role in the Hungarian Jewish Congress.

1819: Alabama becomes the 22^nd state to join the Union. For those of you who think that Jews only made a contribution on the eastern seaboard, please take note. Abram Mordecai came to Alabama in 1785 and is credited by some with the founding of Montgomery, the state capital. He was described as “’an intelligent Jew who lived fifty years in the Creek nation.’” (The Creeks were an Indian tribe made famous by their battles with Andrew Jackson and Davey Crockett.) He traded with the Creeks, married a Creek woman and found what he considered proof positive that the Creeks were descendants of the ten lost tribes. The first congregation in Alabama was formed in Mobile in 1844 and a second congregation was founded in Montgomery in 1852.

1825: A group of disgruntled Russian Army officers begin what is now known as the Decembrist Revolt, an uprising against the newly installed Czar, Nicholas I. The Jews had nothing to do with the revolt. The officers were animated by the tainted road to throne followed by Nicholas and their desire for a more liberal regime. The unsuccessful revolt reinforced the despot’s drive to follow in the reactionary footsteps of his father. Among other things he increased the drive to remove the Jews from Russian society by forcing growing numbers into the Pale of Settlement and by enforcing draft laws that forced young Jewish boys to serve 25 years in the Russian Army.

1827(25th of Kislev, 5588): First Day of Chanukah.

1827: Three days after she had passed away “Rosetta Cowan,” the wife of George Cowan was buried today at the “Lauriston Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1828(8^thof Tevet, 5589): Forty year old Charleston native Isaac Harby, the son of Solomon and Rebecca Moses Harby and the husband of Rachel Harby, the editor of the Charleston Mercury and playwright whose “Alberti” premiered with President Monroe in the audience passed away today while living in New York.

1829: A day after he had passed away, 29 year old Mark Benjamin was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”

1831: Birthdate of Zevi Hirsch Dainow, the native of Russia and magid (teacher) who settled in London.

1834: Two days after she had passed away, 66 year old Maria Isaacs, the wife of Samuel Isaacs was buried at “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”

1842: David Woolf Marks married Cecilia Sarah Woolf in London today.

1846(25^thof Kislev, 5607): Chanukah is observed for the first time during the Mexican-American War.

1846: Birthdate of Isidor Abisdid, the resident of London and husband of Flora Henriette Raphael.

1849: Following the revolution in Hungary during which he had been arrested Rabbi Judah Leib "Leopold" Löw was pardoned by General Julius Jacob von Haynau

1850: Birthdate of Jean (Jan) Taubenhaus, the native of Warsaw who became a “French chess master.” He was the brother of Godfrey Taubenhaus and Joseph Taubenhaus both of whom would become rabbis in the United States.

1851: Rabbi Isaac Leeser of Philadelphia gave a speech “to more than a hundred people at United Hebrew temple on Fifth Street in St. Louis” in which “he pointed out the absurdity of” the St. Louis Jewish community “maintaining three separate congregations” which led to the merger of B’nai B’rith Congregation, Congregation Emanu-El and United Hebrew in 1852.

1852: In Curaçao, Sarah Jesurun De Leon and Daniel de Leon, the descendant of Spanish-Dutch Jews gave birth to Daniel De Leon the future lead of the Socialist Labor Party of America.

1853: Three days after she had passed away, Hanna Schloss, a native of Bamberg, Bavaria, and wife of Joseph Schloss was buried today at “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1854(23^rdof Kislev, 5615): Just 12 days before his 71^st birthday Emanuel Baruh Lousada a West Indies merchant and member of prominent Sephardi family that had settled in England in the 17^th century who developed Sidmouth, in Devon, as a popular resort passed away today leaving an estate valued at one hundred thousand pounds.

1856: In Syracuse, NY, Zilli Strauss and Jacob Marshall gave birth to Louis Marshall, prominent lawyer and leader of the United States Jewish community.

http://www.jrbooksonline.com/intl_jew_full_version/ij76.htm

http://syracuseuniversitypress.syr.edu/fall-2012/louis-marshall.html

1862: Following the crushing Union defeat at Fredericksburg caused by the ineptness of General Burnside, Lieut. G.L. Snyder, Company B, of the 104^thN.Y. was among the group of Jewish members of the Army of the Potomac who were buried near the hospital that had been set up across the river from the battlefield.

1865(26^thof Kislev, 5626): Second Day of Chanukah

1868: A Hungarian Jewish Congress was convened today which created Neolog Judaism a “mild reform movement” that was concentrated in the “Hungarian speaking regions of Europe”

1869: In Pittsburgh, PA, Mina and Louis Israel Aaron gave birth to Marcus the Aaron, the husband of Stella Aaron, the brother of Charles Aaron and the father of Marcus Lester Aaron and Fanny Friedman.

1870: Birthdate of South Carolinian Julius Levin, the husband of Etta Karesh Levin and the father of Sidney L. Levin

1870: A large number of Jews and Christians including several governmental dignitaries attended today’s cornerstone laying ceremony for Ahavath Chesed on the corner of Lexington Avenue and 55^th Street in Manhattan In his introductory remarks, Ignatz Stein traced the history of the congregation which began with a few Jews from Bohemia holding High Holiday services at house on Ludlow Street. The congregation’s real growth began in 1848 when large number of Jews fled Europe following the failure of the liberal revolutions.

1873: In Egeln, Germany Selig and Juliane Blumenthal gave birth to Oskar Michael Blumentahal the husband of Dora Blumenthal with whom he had two children – Margot and Ilse – who died at Theresienstadt.

1874: One day after he had passed away, Prussian born Lewis Haines, the wife of Catherine Haines, was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”

1877: Cesare Porec helped to engineer today’s resignation of the Interior Minister in Italy.

1877: It was reported that the few Jewish families who had fled last summer as the Russian Army crossed into the Balkans last summer have been proven right in fearing the treatment they could expect from the Czar.

1879: Four days after he had passed away, 67 year old French born Lambert Samuel was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1879: Mr. Isaac Rosenwald chaired the annual meeting of the Society of the Home for Aged and Infirmed Hebrews in New York City today. The home is providing shelter for 44 women and 32 men. The election of officers was held which included the re-election of Mr. Rosenwald as President

1880: Mrs. Lizzie Wenke appeared in Essex Market Police Court today to answer charges that she had horse-whipped Isaac Stern, a Jewish tenant living in the same tenement.

1881: Birthdate of Nicholas M. Schenck, the Russian born American movie mogul who headed MGM.

1882: Julius W. Kaskel, an early Jewish settler of Leadville, was an active member of the Reception Committee for the charity ball held today in the Colorado bootown

1883(15th of Kislev, 5644): Ignatz Fischl, a 23 year old German Jewish immigrant was found dead in his room at the Great Northern Hotel, in the Bowery.

1883(15^thof Kislev, 5644): Naphtali Mendel Schoor, the “Galician Hebrew writer” who in 1861 founded a Hebrew weekly who wrote a three part history of the Medieval Jews.

1883: In Rochester, NY, for the first time in the history of Berith Kodesh, Rabbi Max Landsberg led the Friday night service using the newly printed English language order of service. (They prayed in \English and not Hebrew. One of the tenants of Reform Judaism was that people should pray in the vernacular – Germans in German, French in French, Americans in English)

1884: The Hebrew Free School Association held its annual meeting today at their building on East Broadway.

1884: Professor Felix Adler delivered an address at Chickering Hall where he condemned the conditions of those living in tenements on the Lower East Side, blamed them on the landlords and called for the establishment of inspection committees as the first step in improving conditions.

1887: It was reported today that of the twenty-eight hospitals in New York represented by The Hospital Saturday and Sunday Association, two of them have “a Jewish connection,” “are of distinctively Jewish origin and depend for their maintenance almost exclusively upon Jewish support.”

1888: Rabbi Gustave Gottheil of Temple Emanu-El was among the clergymen appointed by Elbridge T. Gerry to organize the church services to be held on April 30, 1889 as part of the Centennial Celebration of the Inauguration of George Washing as President of the United States.

1888: In New York, Justice Patterson is scheduled to hear evidence on the charges that Telemaque T. Timayneis “doctored” the books of Minerva Publishing Company. The complaining witness in this case of grand larceny is his partner, Emma Dickinson. Timayenis is the author of three very popular books aimed at discrediting the Jewish people - The Original Mr. Jacobs: A Startling Exposé, ‎The American Jew: An Expose of His Career‎, and Judas Iscariot: An Old Type in a New Form.

1889: Birthdate of Leopold Philipp who was buried at Adath Jeshurun Cemetery in Philadelphia when he passed away in 1982.

1889: “New Departures” published today summarized the views of newspaper editor Moritz Ellinger which included the advocacy of “a departure from many of old forms and ceremonies used by Hebrews for centuries, some of which characterized as superstitions. Mr. Ellinger felt that such reforms were the only to attract the “new blood” needed to strengthen Jewish congregations.

1890: “The Jews In Russia” published today described “the mass meeting recently held in London to protest against the persecution of the Jews in Russia” which was attended by many prominent Christian Englishman who “made speeches denouncing the obnoxious laws” aimed at the Jews which American Jews hope will emulated in this country including outspoken support by prominent Christian Americans.

1890: The residents of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews will be able to attend an afternoon of music starting at 3 p.m.

1890: In Poland, “Abraham Solomon Taxon and Gruna (Hailperin) Taxon gave birth to Morris Nathan Taxon the REIT trained rabbi who got his secular education at CCNY, Ohio State and Omaha University and who held several pulpits starting with Augudas Achim in Columbus, OH, before settling in at Shaareth Israel in Dallas where he also served President of the Texas State Zionist Association and as amember of the directorate of the Jewish Federation for Social Service in Dallas while raising a family with the former Edyth Irene Schotenstein.

1890: In Berlin, the stock marked “closed weak” today due to many chaotic situations in Europe included the “stringent measures” taken against the Jews.

1891: “An Indictment of Russia” described the abusive treatment of the Jews in the Czar’s empire including their recent expulsion from St. Petersburg that came without warning. Among those affected were “Moses Mordechai Feinberg, a gold and silversmith whose right of residence” in St. Petersburg “dated from 1871 and Eidel Solomon Gissing, whose permit extended back to 1868” reducing them and there co-religionist “to beggary.”

1891: Birthdate of Jozef Hecht, the native of Cracow who gained fame as “painter and printmaker” Joseph Hecht.

https://www.annexgalleries.com/artists/biography/984/Hecht/Joseph

1892(25^thof Kislev, 5653): Chanukah observed for the last time during the Presidency of Benjamin Harrison.

1892: In Decatur, GA, Henry and Mathilda Hamburger Bachrach gave birth to Louis Bachrach, a graduate of Decatur High School who had gone to work in a department store in Philadelphia where died tragically at the age of twenty.

1893: Sarah Polskie, whose three children were turned over to the Hebrew Children’s Guardian Society by order of the court, said that she had been unable to provide for the youngsters since her husband had been sent to the penitentiary and she had been out of work for five weeks.

1894: Birthdate of New York native Barney Pressman, the founder of the famous Barney’s clothing store.

https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/27/nyregion/barney-pressman-retailing-legend-is-dead-at-96.html

1895: The Allen Memorial Church on Rivington Street played host an overflow crowd that come to protest the visit to American by Hermann Ahlwardt the German anti-Semite who has been delivering speeches in New York.

1895: “Against Cuba’s Rebels” published today described a pamphlet that has been circulated among members of Congress that demonizes their leaders including Carlos Roloff “the most inhuman and ferocious of them all” a Polish born Jew who is “a Nihilist and dynamiter.” (According to Ben Frank, Roloff was “a Ukrainian Jewish adventurer” and “became the first finance minister of Cuba after she gained her independence. For more see “Carlos Roloff:A Cuban Jewish Patriot” by Isidoro Aizenberg in the Judaica Philatelic Journal

1895: After Shabbat, the charity fair sponsored by leading Jewish New York families reopened this evening at 8 p.m.

1895: At the charity fair sponsored by the leading Jewish New York families, the Aguilar Library book was given one of the first copies of The American in Paris by Eugene Coleman Savidge which it would be able to sell to raise funds.

1895: At the Hebrew Charity Fair, Mrs. Joseph L. Buttenweiser has raised $5,650 at the Candy Booth.

1895: Birthdate of King George VI of the United Kingdom, whose reign covered the dark days leading up to World War II and the war itself. According to documents published in the Guardian in 2002, in the spring of 1939 George VI instructed his private secretary to write to Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax: “Having learnt that ‘a number of Jewish refugees from different countries were surreptitiously getting into Palestine’, the King was ‘glad to think that steps are being taken to prevent these people leaving their country of origin.’” Halifax’s office telegraphed Britain’s ambassador in Berlin asking him to encourage the German government ‘to check the unauthorized emigration’ of Jews.” Halifax’s telegraph in 1939 initiating the request that Hitler not allow “unauthorized” Jews to leave Germany was thus a direct result of George VI’s letter to him. “When it came to anti-Semitism, King George VI did not stutter at all!” King George Street in Israel is named for George V not George VI.

1895: A copy of the Hebrew Scriptures is among the items placed in the bronze box which is in a cavity of the cornerstone of the Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Science which the mayor will lay this afternoon at 3 p.m.

1897: In Riva del Garda, Tyrol, Austria-Hungary, Austrian General Artur von Schuschnigg and his wife gave birth to Kurt Schuschnigg, the last Chancellor of an independent Austria whose opposition to the Anschluss earned him imprisonment at Dachau until the end of the war.

1898(1^stof Tevet, 5659): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; 6^th day of Chanukah

1898: Two days after he had passed away, 65 year old Emanuel Thierman was buried at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.

1898(1^stof Tevet, 5659): David Marks, the benefactor of many Jewish charities, passed away today in New York City.

1900: In Romania, the issue of Lazăr Șăineanu's naturalization was also revisited by the lower chamber, and the proposal defeated with 44 votes to 31 (from an insufficient quorum of 75) despite the fact that he had converted to Christianity to facilitate the process.

1900: Six days after she had passed away, the former Sophia Goldsmed, the “widow of David Viscount de Stern” with whom she had had five children was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1900: Max Plank publishes his study on quantum theory. His greatness as a scientist is transcended as his greatness as man. He protested Hitler’s treatment of Jewish scientists. At great personal risk he resigned in protest but stayed in Germany.

1901: Birthdate of Cincinnati, OH native and Harvard Ph.D Charles Louis Kuhn, the expert on German art who served with Naval Intelligence during WW II before becoming one of “The Monuments Men.”

https://www.monumentsmenfoundation.org/the-heroes/the-monuments-men/kuhn-lt.-cdr.-charles-l.

1902: Julie Dent Grant, the widow of Ulysses S. Grant, whose general officers during the Civil War included several Jews and who was the first President to attend the dedication of a synagogue (Adas Israel) passed a way today.

1903(25th of Kislev, 5664): First Day of Chanukah

1903: Herzl explains his position on Uganda in a letter to Sir Francis Montefiore, President of the English Zionist Federation.

1903: The United Zionists of Greater New York continued its semi-annual meeting today. The 250 delegates representing 74 Zionist societies were scheduled to deal with “routine business.”

1903: Belle Mandel, the daughter of Simon Mandel who with his brothers Solomon, Leon and Emanuel formed Chicago’s Mandel Brother’s department store married Ben Altheimer, the Arkansas born lawyer and philanthropist who was the driving force behind the creation of Flag Day. (Carolyn Gray LeMaster)

1905: In Lodz, this afternoon “a band of roughs attacked Jewish shops and residences in Zielczna Street.”

1905: During a session of the Reichstag, Adolf Stocker called “the Jews a revolutionary element which is responsible for socialism.

1906(27^thof Kislev, 5667): Third Day of Chanukah

1906(27^thof Kislev, 5667): Sixty-five year old Ancona native Federico Consolo, the “Italian violinist and composer who created “the national anthem of San Marino” passed away today.

1908: In Chicago, “Max and Jennie (Finder) Amsterdam, Jewish immigrants from Austria-Hungary” gave birth to Moritz Amsterdam who gained fame as comedian Morey Amsterdam.

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/29/arts/morey-amsterdam-comedian-and-joke-encyclopedia-dies.html

1909: Marcus M. Marks, President of the Tuberculosis’ Prevenotrium at Lakewood, NJ met with Samuel Untermeyer, counsel for Max Nathan in an attempt to reach an agreement on the disposition of Mr. Nathan's share of the Lakewood Hotel Property which is valued at $300,000.

1910(13^thof Kislev, 5671): Sixty-six year old Aaron E. Greenewald the husband of Sallie Gimbel passed away today after which he was buried at Mount Sinai Cemetery in Philadelphia.

1911: Roald Amundsen, of whom Apsley Cherry-Garrard, the author who described the ill-fated trip of his rival Robert Scott wrote “The truth was that Amundsen was an explorer of the markedly intellectual type, rather Jewish than Scandinavian . . .” reached the South Pole today.

1912(4^thof Tevet, 5673): Parashat Vayigash

1912: Dr. Hirsch “spoke at the annual meeting of the Education Alliance of New York” today.

1912: It was reported today, that plans are being made to move the Jews’ College from London to either Oxford or Cambridge so that students may combine university courses with their “rabbinical studies.”

1912: Birthdate of “rubber technologist” and “Labour MP for Bolton and Bolton West” John Lewis.

1912: It was reported today that “synagogue of the Bikur Cholim Congregation in Seattle Washington, on which construction work was stopped two years ago due to lack of funds will soon be completed now that the necessary moneys have been raised.

1913: A very pregnant Myra Lyons Rukeyser was one day away from giving birth to her daughter Muriel.

1914(26^thof Kislev, 5675): Second Day of Chanukah

1914: Dr. Nathan Blaustein was unable to save Mrs. Sadie Mager a widow who was brought to the Flower Hospital after having suffered a heart attack, but thanks to his quick thinking was able to save her unborn child by performing a Caesarian operation and then alternately immersing her in basins of hot and cold water for 30 seconds at a time until she was able to breath on her own.

1914: Birthdate of Jack Donald Foner and Philip S. Foner two brothers who were both academics and activists in the labor and social movements.

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/15/obituaries/philip-s-foner-labor-historian-and-professor-84.html

http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/foner-obit.html

1914: In an address given this afternoon to students of the Atlanta Law, Hooper Alexander, the United States District Attorney and “an authority on constitutional law” said “that Leo M. Franks still has a ground of appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States on a writ error.”

1914: Solomon Rabinowitz who writes under the name of Shalom Aleichim and is known as the “Jewish Mark Twain” is scheduled to lecture at Cooper Union where last spoke in 1908 when he his family had come to the United States to escape the anti-Semitic violence in his native Kiev.

1914: Birthdate of Solomon Spiegelman, an American microbiologist and geneticist who discovered that only one of two strands of molecules that make up DNA, carried the genetic information to produce new substances. The carrier was called ribonucleic acid (RNA). In 1962, he developed a technique that allowed the detection of specific RNA and DNA molecules in cells. This technique, called nucleic acid hybridization, is credited for helping to lay the groundwork for current advances in recombinant DNA technology. Much earlier, his Ph.D. thesis (1944) was the first work to establish that genes are activated and deactivated by compounds that he called inducers, which thus radically affect the pattern of proteins that a cell fabricates without actually altering the genes themselves. He passed away in 1983.

1915: The Allies were making preparations to evacuate from Gallipoli, where the Zion Mule Corps had served with distinction.

1915: Having prepared to launch the first gas attack of WW I, the Germans spent today waiting for favorable weather. (Editor’s note – the effect of gas was so horrible that nobody used it in combat during WW II but it was not horrible enough for Hitler, who had suffered from a gas attack, to use it on the Jews)

1916: The Senate voted 64 to 7 in favor of the highly restrictive Burnett Immigration Bill that had sparked a debate on whether Jewish immigrants could be exempted from the literacy requirement.

1917(29^thof Kislev, 5678): Fifth day of Chanukah

1917: Abram I. Elkus, the former Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, “issued a special plea for aid for sufferers everywhere, especially in Turkey” in which he said he wished he could find the words to make the plight of the sufferers more “vivid” for those living in New York.

1917: Congregation Temple Rodeph Sholom is scheduled to begin the celebration of its 75^th anniversary today.

1917: After Montrose Strassburger spoke at the Palace Theatre “he was showered with silver” to donated to the fund trying to raise five million dollars for Jewish relief.

1917: Today, the Palace Theatre, the Bushwick Theatre in Brooklyn and the Morris Theatre in Harlem gave their total receipts to the Jewish relief fund.

1917: Harry H. Rosenfeld, the assistant executive director of the American Jewish War Relief Committee which is raising ten million dollars across the United States reported that in Tulsa, OK, where oil man Marion Travis has led the campaign, $150,000 has been raised including contributions from Travis himself.

1917: A Reuters’ telegram to Amsterdam reported that the population of Palestine is suffering terribly; and that the population has been reduced to one third because of hunger, sickness and distress. Only 23,000 of the 60,000 Jews are left in Jerusalem.

1917: In Warsaw, “municipal authorities took control of all bakeries and declined to allow Jewish bakeries to close on Saturdays and work on Sundays.”

1917: In Kharkov, “in response to appeals from rabbis,” the local military commander posted guards at Jewish burial grounds “to prevent Bolsheviki and deserters from molesting funerals ton the pretext that Jews bury hidden stores” in their graves.

1917: In Moghilev, peasants who are dividing “pasture ground” allotted “land to Jews possessing cattle with the proviso that Jews work on the land themselves and do not hire” laborers.

1917: Today in Russia, “Jewish communal leaders in many towns appealed to educational authorities to excuse Jewish pupils from writing on Saturday when secondary schools are open.”

1917: the Franfurter Zeitung reported today about preparations “by ant-Semitic organizations for a strong anti-Jewish campaign after the war.”

1917: In Germany hundreds of thousands of copies of “a work entitled A Knife for the Jews are being distributed”

1918: “Rabbi Samuel Schulman preached a sermon” today at Temple Beth-El “in which he point out the American Jewish Congress” which begins its meetings tomorrow “has of uniting the Jews in the United States on behalf of the great work of complete emancipation of their co-religionists in the world by presenting a perfect solidarity of opinion before the” Peace Conference which is going to convene to settle the issues of the World War.

1918: Today, “the Federation of Russian Societies ended the second day of its three day convention” in New York where “the Jews were both reviled and defended.”

1919: Tonight, “at a meeting of the Judeans in the Hotel Pennsylvania,” “Henry Morgenthau, who head President Wilson’s special to Poland to investigate” reports of Pogroms described “the horrors which had been revealed to the commission and also some of the constructive proposals which he had made to the Polish Government in order to save the people, thousands of whom he predicted will die of starvation this Winter.”

1920: In San Antonio, TX, Morris Stern was elected President of the Chamber of Commerce.

1920: In “Bryan on the Protocols” published today, the failed Democratic Presidential candidate and former of Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan wrote “The libel that is being circulated against the Jews, based on the so-called ‘protocols’ is absurd as well as cruel” and that “it is astonishing that anyone would build upon an anonymous publication an indictment against one of the greatest races in history.”

1921: Members of Gdud HaAvoda, “a socialist Zionist work group” went to work at Tel Yosef to help develop the fledgling Kibbuz.

1922(24th of Kislev, 5683): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah

1922: In New York City, “Frieda (née Pike) and Ely S. Hewitt” gave birth to Donald Shepard “Don” Hewitt, the creator of Sixty Minutes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/business/media/20hewitt.html

1922: The Anshe Emes Sisterhood is scheduled to host a theatre party this afternoon at the DeLuxe Theatre in Chicago with all proceeds going to the Building Fund.

1922: In Berlin, Leo and Lotte Jachmann gave birth to their first son Isadore Seigfried Jachman the Baltimore raised U.S. Army Staff Sergeant who killed in 1945 after “defending the town of Flamierge in Belgium” – an action for which received the Congressional Medal of Honor.

1923: Sir William Graham Greene wrote Churchill congratulating him on finally being cleared of charges that he issued misleading reports about the Battle of Jutland that benefited Jewish financiers to whom Churchill owed a greater allegiance than he did to the British people.

1924:Dedication of the Beth El’s new synagogue took place today in Camden, NJ. Participating in the ceremonies were Mayor Victor King of Camden, Dr. A. A. Neuman of Philadelphia's Adath Jeshurun, Judge William M. Lewis of Philadelphia and Rabbi Samuel Freedman of Beth EI in Philadelphia. Rabbi Grayzel and Cantor Mickleman officiated at the service. The Cantor was accompanied by a choir under the direction of Gedalia Rabinowitz.

1924: Martin Henry Glynn, the first Irish American Roman Catholic governor of New York and a staunch defender of the rights of Jewish immigrants living in his state, passed away.

1925: At Atlantic City, in a case of Jew versus Jew Benny Shwartz defeated featherweight Wilbur Cohen

1925: “Wozzeck,” an opera which Alban Berg had completed in 1922, was performed for the first time today in Berlin.

1926: Louis Marshall is honored on his seventieth birthday for his success as a lawyer, a philanthropist who raised millions, supporter of forest conservation and immigration reform, statesman and champion of Jewish causes.

1926: Birthdate of German native Arnulf M. Pins, the “director for the Middle East Region of the Joint Distribution Committee, and associate director of JDC-Israel…”

https://www.jta.org/1978/02/10/archive/arnulf-m-pins-dead-at-51

1927: President Coolidge his express “sympathy with the Zionist movement” in its attempts “to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine” when he met with “Rabbi Uzziel, a patriarch of the Jewish synagogue in Palestine.”

1928: “Nathan Chanin, the Secretary of the Jewish Socialist Ferband of America who has just returned from Russia where he visited the Jewish agricultural colonies said in an address at the Rand School” tonight “that the Jews in Russia were on the verge of starvation.”

1929: After 519 performances the curtain came down at the Casino Theatre on the original Broadway production of “The New Moon,” “an operetta with music by Sigmund Roberg and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II…”

1930(24th of Kislev, 5691): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah

1930: 74^thanniversary of the birth of Louis Marshall.

1930: Dr. Nathan Krass delivered a sermon at Temple Emanu-El “on the significance of the festival of Chanukah and on the problem of human suffering.”

1930: Murray Seasongood, the Jewish former Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio and Rabbi Samuel S. Cohen of Hebrew Union College are two of the speakers scheduled to address tonight’s fourth annual dinner of the metropolitan conference of Temple Men’s Club at the Emanu-El Community House in New York City

1931: In New York, Fay and Rita Gelman gave birth award winning chemist Charles Gelman the holder of a BS from Syracuse and MS from the University of Michigan, who after serving in the United States Army founded Gelman Instrument Company led to being a “recipient of the Michigan Science and Technology Trailblazer Award.”

1932(15th of Kislev, 5693): Dr. Angel Pulido y Fernandez, Spanish researcher of the Sephardim passed away. In 1904 he wrote Espanoles sin Patria (Spaniards Without A Home) which sparked the idea of the Sephardim returning to Spain. He became a member of the Spanish Parliament, and later the King made him a Senator. He spent the latter part of his life writing, holding meetings and passionately advocating for the return of the Sephardim.

1933: Forty-five year old composer Max Steiner and Audree Van Lieu whom had married in 1927 were divorced today

1934: In Nuremberg, Julius Streicher, “the Franconian Nazis leader” “demanded new anti-Semitic legislation” tonight saying that “sexual intercourse between a Jew and a non-Jewish woman must be punched with death.”

1935(18th of Kislev, 5696): Science fiction writer Stanley G Weinbaum passed away.

1935:Lillian Hellman's "The Children's Hour" was banned in Boston1936(30th of Kislev, 5697): Rosh Chodesh Tevet

1936: “Crack-Up” a dramatic film written by Sam Minz, with music by Samuel Kaylin and starring Peter Lorre was released in the United States today.

1936: “You Can’t Take It with You” a comedy written by those two Jewish giants of the stage, George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, opened at the Booth Theatre for the first of what would prove to be 837 performance. The play won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

1936:The original production of “You Can't Take It with You” a comedic play in three acts by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart opened at the Booth Theater tonight and played for 837 performances. The play won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

http://forward.com/articles/206594/you-cant-take-it-with-you-returns-to-broadway-with/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily_Newsletter_Mon_Thurs%202014-10-01&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_term=The%20Forward%20Today%20%28Monday-Friday%29

1936: Twenty-seven year old Jewish medical student David Frankfurter began serving an 18 year prison sentence tonight after having been found guilty of murdering Wilhelm Gustloff the Nazi leader in Switzerland.

1936: Tonight, “the German press announced” that now that the verdict has been handed down at Chur, Switzerland in which David Frankfurter was convicted of leading the Swiss Nazi leader, “Germany will now undertake an its own investigation of the case” with the aim of doing “something” about “the hidden men behind Frankfurter who are alleged to have been responsible for the murder.”

1936: Dr. Maurice B Hexter “summed up Jewish grievances when testified before the Royal Commission. These include a complaint that survey and settlement of titles to land take too long to be completed are required and a demand to accelerate the pace of the work.

1936: The Palestine Post reported that despite official assurances further instances of violence and arson were carried out by various Arab armed bands throughout the country. There was arson in Tel Aviv port, bus passengers were robbed on roads, and trees in Jewish settlements were uprooted. Moslem youth boycotted the Christian-owned National Bus Company, claiming that it had offered assistance to the British army and police during the Arab strike. But both the Jerusalem Mufti, Haj Amin el-Husseini, and the Arab Higher Committee appealed to both Jerusalem's Moslems and Christians to settle their differences.

1937: It was reported today, that the “American Joint Distribution Committee has said that as of January 1, 1937, there was 39,000 Jewish school children still in Germany” and that “of this total, 23, 670 were attending special Jewish Schools.

1938: “The Novel of Werther” a film based on a 1774 French novel directed by Max Ophuls, with music by Paul Dessau was released in French today.

1939: Raymond Samuel married Lucie Bernard today “after he warned her that it might be dangerous for her to marry a Jew.” He would take the nom de guerre of Raymond Aubrac. (As reported by Douglas Martin)

1939: Heydrich issued a modified directive ordering all rural and small-townJews in the General Government (occupied Poland) to be transported to the larger Polish cities where they would be quarantined from the rest of the Polish population and kept under tight SS surveillance.

1939: The League of Nations expelled the Soviet Union for its attack on Finland in what is known as the Winter War which would result in Jewish soldiers fighting on the same side as the Wermacht.

1940: British military intelligence confirmed that the effect of the Patria decision on the Arabs had been “remarkably small.”

1941: The German military commander of Kharkiv, Ukraine ordered the Jewish population to move to the city periphery within 2 days and to occupy the barracks of the works of a machine factory. In the next days, 15.000 Jews were shot at Drobitsky Yar.

1941:Jews by the hundreds are dying from hunger and the cold in the Warsaw Ghetto. Two Jews were shot dead at a funeral for a friend

1941: A Jewish ghetto at Kharkov, Ukraine, is established.

1942: In a letter made public today, “Representative Hamilton Fish told Secretary of State Cordell Hull that he was ‘profoundly shocked’ by statements of the ‘alleged slaughter of 7,000 Jews daily by the Nazis in conquered territories’ and asked ‘Is there not some action that may be taken by the United States Congress and the Administration that will these pogroms of Jews in Poland and Eastern Europe?’”

1943(17^thof Kislev, 5704): Fifty-eight year old New York born and Columbia trained gynecologist Samuel H. Geist, the husband of Juliet Beecher Geister and father of Joyce B. Jacobson passed away today.

1944(28^thof Kislev, 5707): Fourth day of Chanukah

1944(28^thof Kislev, 5707): 1^st Lt. Joseph Levine, a bombardier with the 20^thAir Force was killed today.

1944(28^thof Kislev, 5707): 1^st Lt. Chester E. Paul, a co-pilot was killed today while flying with the 20^th Air Force.

1944: A funeral service is scheduled to be held this morning for sixty-seven year old Columbia trained lawyer and life-long music aficionado Lewis Montefiore Isaacs, the son of Meyer and Maria Solomon Isaacs and the husband Edith J. Rich “the editor of Theatre Art Monthly, who found time to serve as the Borough President of Manhattan and to write guides to “Koenigskinder” and “Hansel and Gretel”

1944: Birthdate of Mitchel Jay Feigenbaum, a mathematical physicist whose pioneering studies in chaos theory led to the discovery of the Feigenbaum constants. In 1983 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, and in 1986, he was awarded the Wolf Prize in Physics "for his pioneering theoretical studies demonstrating the universal character of non-linear systems, which has made possible the systematic study of chaos".

1945: Josef Kramer known as "beast of Belsen", and 10 others were hanged for crimes committed at the Belsen and Oswiecim Nazi concentration camps.

1945(10th of Tevet, 5706): Asara B'Tevet

1945(10th of Tevet, 5706): Ten years after her husband passed away, Lucie Hadamard Dreyfus passed away. She had remained in France at the behest of her granddaughter who worked with the Resistance. Ultimately she took refuge in a convent in Valence where her benefactors did not know her identity. Her death so close to the end of the Shoah served as a reminder that the road to Vichy and Drancy had begun a half century before when her husband was convicted because he was Le Juif, the Jew

http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/this-day-in-jewish-history/this-day-in-jewish-history-dreyfus-s-widow-dies-1.484861

1945: The Broadway production of “Dream Girl” by Elmer Rice opened at the Coronet Theatre

1945: Ruth (Pincus) Koch and Howard Winchel “Hawk” Koch, Sr. gave birth to movie producer Howard Winchel “Hawk” Koch, Jr.

1946: Birthdate of Michael S. Ovitz, the Chicago native who began as a talent agent and rose to serve as President of the Walt Disney Company.

1946: After almost a month, the curtain comes down on the final performance of “A Flag Is Born” at the Broadway Theatre.

1947(1st of Tevet, 5708): Rosh Chodesh Tevet

1947: Oswald Rothuag, the Nazi jurist who sought to provide over the trial of Leo Katzenberg whom he gladly sentenced to death, was sentenced to life imprisonment today after being found guilty of “crimes against humanity.”

1947: Birthdate of entertainment mogul, Michael Ovitz.

1948: At a meeting today with Jordanian commander Abdullah el-Tell, Elias Sasson “recorded el-Tell saying ‘strike the Egyptians as much as you like. Our attitude will be totally neutral.’

1949: In keeping with a resolution adopted by the Knesset, the Israeli government moves from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

1951: Birthdate of Norton A. Schwartz, a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, the 19^th Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force and the first Jew to hold this position.

http://www.af.mil/information/bios/bio.asp?bioID=7077

1951: The Jerusalem Post announced that for the third successive year the Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller Palestine Archaeological Museum refused to admit the participation of Prof. E.L. Sukenik of the Hebrew University, the board's sole Jewish representative, to its deliberations. Since the museum was located in the Jordanian-occupied part of Jerusalem, Prof. Sukenik suggested that meetings should be held at the Mandelbaum Gate, on the border, but his offer was turned down.

1952: In Little Rock, Arkansas, on the third day of Chanukah, Agudas Achim dedicated its new synagogue.

1952: "Makin' Whoopee!" a jazz/blues song, first popularized by Eddie Cantor in the 1928 musical Whoopee!” with lyrics by Gush Kahn was re-released today.

1952:“Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl” a radio drama written Jewish journalist Meyer Levin who had visited the concentration camps after the war and had contacted Anne's father Otto Frank to request the rights to create a play based on the diary of Anne Frank, appeared on The Eternal Light series, produced by the Jewish Theological Seminary on the NBC network.

1952: In Manhattan, Hugo Levy, who had been a textile merchant before fleeing the Nazis after which owned a hardware store in New York and his wife Alice gave birth to Harold Oscar Levy, the Citicorp executive who served as “chancellor of New York City’s public school system. (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/27/obituaries/harold-levy-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

1953: The Brooklyn Dodgers signed pitcher Sandy Koufax.

1954: Governor Stratton is scheduled to speak at a dinner meeting of the Jewish Federation of Chicago in the Morrison Hotel where 600 people are expected to be in attendance.

1955:Arthur M. Loew, the son of Marcus Loew, succeeded Nicholas Schenck as the President of MGM, although Schenck remained Chairman of the Board

1957: U.S. premiere of a remake of “Farewell To Arms” the cinematic version of the novel of the same name directed by Charles Vidor produced by David O. Selznick with a screenplay by Ben Hecht.

1957: At Adas Israel in Washington, DC, Bar Mitzvah of Avraham Elimelech ben Yosef Dov

1957: The City of Paris awarded the Gold Medal of the City of Paris to David Feuerwerker the French Rabbi and Jewish historian who fought against the Nazis as a member of the French Army at the start of WW II and then joined the Resistance after Petain and Vichy came to power.

1957: “Bridge On The River Kwai” a WW II epic produced by Sam Spiegel with a script co-authored by Carl Foreman was released in the United States, two months after first being shown in the United Kingdom.

1959: “The World of Sholom Aleichem” produced by Henry T. Weinstein was broadcast as “The Play of the Week.”

1960: U.S. premiere of “Esther and the King” an Italian made movie based on the Book of Esther starring Joan Collins whose father was Jewish in the title role.

1960(25^th of Kislev, 5721): Chanukah is observed for the last time during the Presidency of Dwight David Eisenhower.

1960(25^th of Kislev, 5721): Sixty-three year old Gregory Ratoff, the Russian born American actor and director best known for his role as “Max Fabian” in “All About Eve” and as director for the film “Oscar Wilde” passed away.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gregory-Ratoff

1961: Louis Jacobs who had been named the rabbi at the New West End Synagogue in London in 1953 was forced to resign from the staff of Jews’ College.

1961: “El Cid” an epic film produced by Bessarabian born American Jew Samuel Bronston who was a nephew of Leon Trotsky, directed by Anthony Mann and with a script by Yordan was released in the United States today.

1962(17^th of Kislev, 5723): Fifty-one year old Robert Clyde “Bob” Katz whose “entire major league career consists of 6 appearances for the 1944 Reds” in a season which he was 0-1 passed away today.

1963: Gustav Machatý, the movie director who gave Hedy Lamar her big break in “Ecstasy” passed away today. He was not Jewish but she was.

1965: Simon and Garfunkel recorded “Homeward Bound” which appeared on the album “Sounds of Silence” in the UK and “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme” in the U.S.

1965: Simon and Garfunkel re-recorded Paul Simon’s “I Am a Rock” which had originally been “recorded and released” the previous August.

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 Kingdom.

1967(12^th of Kislev, 5728): Fifty year old University of Michigan basketball and baseball player Herman Fishman, the co-founder of Camp Michigama and Director of the Detroit Pistons passed away today.

1967: U.S. premiere of “In Cold Blood” the movie version of the novel of the same name directed and produced by Richard Brooks who also wrote the screenplay and edited by Holocaust survivor Peter Zinner.

1967: The first synthesis of biologically active DNA in a test tube was announced at a press conference by Arthur Kornberg who had worked with Mehran Goulian at Stanford and Robert L. Sinsheimer of MIT. Kornberg chose to replicate the relatively simple DNA chain of the Phi X174 virus, which infects bacteria (a bacteriophage). It has a single strand of DNA only about 5500 nucleotide building blocks long, and with about 11 genes, it was easier to purify without breaking it up. Having isolated the Phi X174 DNA, they used the DNA from E. coli, a common bacterium in the human intestine that could copy a DNA template from any organism. The viral DNA template thus copied was found to be able to infect bacteria - it was error-free, active DNA.

1968: Birthdate of Franklin High (New Orleans) and Brandeis graduate Theodore H. “Ted” Frank the University of Chicago trained lawyer who is “a nephew of author Hurwitz” and who helped launched the national career of Sarah Palin when he wrote the vetting report on her for Senator John McCaian.

1969: “John and Mary” the movie version of a novel by Mervyn Jones starring Dustin Hoffman was released in the United States today.

1969: “La Strada,” “a musical with lyrics and music by Lionel Bart, with additional lyrics by Martin Charnin” and featuring Larry Kert as “Mario” opened today on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatres.

1970: Joseph B. Levin represented the National Assn. of Securities Dealers, Inc. when arguments opened before the Supreme Court in INVESTMENT COMPANY INSTITUTE et al., Petitioners, v. William B. CAMP, Comptroller of the Currency, et al. NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SECURITIES DEALERS, INC., Petitioner, v. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION et al.

1971: “Diamonds Are Forever” one of the James Bond movies co-produced by Harry Saltzman with a screenplay by Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz was released in Germany today.

1971: “The Hospital” directed by Arthur Hiller, a Canadian born Jew for which Paddy Chayefsky won the 1972 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and featuring Stephen Elliot was released in the United States today.

1973(19th of Kislev, 5734): Composer Yitzhak Edel passed away.

http://www.jewish-music.huji.ac.il/thesaurus6fe4.html?cat=9&in=9&id=649&act=view

1974(30th of Kislev, 5735): Rosh Chodesh Tevet

1974(30th of Kislev, 5735): Eighty-five year old American journalist and political philosopher Walter Lippmann passed away. (As reported by Alden Whitman)

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F20D17F63B5A13718DDDAC0994DA415B848BF1D3

1974: In New York, WNYC is scheduled to broadcast “The Story of Chanukah” adopted by Pearl Klein

1975: “The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother” a musical comedy film with Marty Feldman, Madeline Kahn and Gene Wilder who also wrote the script and directed the film was released in the United States and the United Kingdom today.

1975: “A National Council on Soviet Jewry was established at the conclusion of the first National Conference on Soviet Jewry held in Great Britain.”

1976: “Sly Fox” a comedic play by Larry Gelbart premiered on Broadway today at the Broadhurst Theatre with a cast that included Jack Gillford.

1976:The Jerusalem Post reported from Washington that the US State Department, Pentagon and industry were becoming concerned over Israeli use of foreign military sales credits (from the US) not only to obtain US weapons for its inventory, but also to import technical data packages that eventually could be exported in competition with American products. Syrian troops moved into East Beirut where two Christian militias continued to fight each other.

1976: “A new wave of searches and interrogations of members of the organizing committee of the symposium on Jewish culture in Moscow, Kiev, Leningrad, Gorky, Minsk, Tbilisi and other cities” which would last until December 20 began today.

1977: U.S. premiere of “Saturday Night Fever” based on “Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night” a New York Magazine article by Nik Cohm with a screenplay by Norman Wexler with Donna Pescow as “Annette” and Fran Drescher as “Connie.”

1977: Representatives of Egypt and Israel gathered in Cairo for their first formal peace conference.

1978: After having been first premiered in the United States, “Force 10 from Navarone,” the movie version of the novel by the same name with a story created by Carl Foreman was released today in the United Kingdom.

1979(24^thof Kislev, 5740): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah light

1979(24^thof Kislev, 5740): Seventy-five year old Milton Harold Bren, the St. Louis born son of Sadie Simon and Henry Simon the movie producer whose most famous work was the screw-ball comedy “Topper” who was married to actress Claire Trevor passed away today.

1980(17^thof Tevet, 5741): Seventy-seven year old Isadore Efron, the son of Morris Efron passed away today after which he was buried in the Sons of Israel Cemetery in Aiken, SC.

1981: Israel annexed the Golan Heights which had been captured from Syria in 1967. The Syrians had shelled Israeli farmers from the Golan Heights for almost twenty years. The IDF took the heights in an amazing exercise of physical courage at the end of the Six Days War.

1981: “Silkwood,” a biopic directed and co-produced by Mike Nichols with a script co-authored by Nora Ephron was released in the United States today.

1984:Howard Cosell retired from Monday Night Football. The Carolina Israelite via Brooklyn was no longer the third man in the booth.

1986: It was reported today that “whatever the fate of day schools among the non-Orthodox” attendance at the afternoon Hebrew schools in the New York City which had reached a high of 96,000 in the 1960’s “was now steadily declining.”

1988: “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” a comedy directed by Frank Oz, with music by Miles Goodman was released in the United States today.

1988: U.S. premiere of “Torch Song Trilogy” written and co-starring Harvey Fierstein, produced by Ronald K. Fierstein with music by Peter Matz.

1989:Joel Brinkley, writing in the New York Times, reported that Soviet Jews are leaving at a record pace, with many of them opting to settle in Israel.

1990: U.S. premiere of “Look Who’s Talking Too” directed by Amy Heckerling

1990: “Captain America” a film based on the Marvel comic super-hero created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby produced by Menahem Golam and Stan Lee and with music by Barry Goldberg was released in the United Kingdom today.

1991(7^thof Tevet, 5752): Parashat Vayigash

1991(7^thof Tevet, 5752): Eighty-nine year old Hartford, CT native Edward Allen “Ed” Suisman who played as a guard and forward for Yale from 1923 to 1925 passed away today.

1993:As a closely watched target date came and went with no change in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin suggested today that there could be still further delays in withdrawing Israel's soldiers and introducing Palestinian self-rule.

1993: In Pittsburgh, PA, Miron Bisnowaty a Sabra raised in Rishon Lezion “who came to the U.S. at the age of 27” and his wife Randi gave birth Adam Bisnowaty who played tackle for the University of Pittsburgh before going to the NFL with the New York Giants.

1994: Alfred Moses presented his credentials today as the U.S. Ambassador to Romania.

1995: “After a private audience with Pope John Paul II,” Leah Rabin, the widow of Yitzhak Rabin said today that the Pope “had acknowledged Jerusalem's "double role" as capital of Israel and a holy city to Jews, Christians and Muslims”

1997(15th of Kislev, 5758): Seventy-nine year old musical comedy “second banana” Stubby Kaye, passed away. Two of his more famous film credits were “Guys and Dolls” and “Cat Baliou.” (As reported by Myrna Oliver)

http://articles.latimes.com/1997/dec/16/news/mn-64593

1997: The New York Times book section included a review of Gloria Steinem by Sydney Ladensohn Stern

1998: President Clinton stood witness as hundreds of Palestinian leaders renounced a call for the destruction of Israel. Based on what has happened since then, the deeds did not match the word.

1998(25th of Kislev, 5759): First Day of Chanukah

1998(25th of Kislev, 5759): Actor Norman Fell passed away.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-norman-fell-1191859.html

1998(25th of Kislev, 5759): Seventy-four year old Annette Strauss, the former Mayor of Dallas, passed away.

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/21/us/annette-strauss-74-former-mayor-of-dallas.html

1999: U.S. and German negotiators agreed to establish a $5.2 billion fund for Nazi-era slaves and forced laborers.

2000: Marty Glickman underwent heart bypass surgery.

2000: “The Family Man” a comedy directed by Brett Ratner, with a script by David Diamond and David Weissman and music by Danny Elfman was released in the United States by Universal Pictures.

2000: The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation presented the Raoul Wallenberg 2000 Award. This award, which is being offered for the first time, was presented to Oscar Vicente, CEO of Perez Companc Holding and Peter Landelius, Swedish Ambassador to Argentina. This new distinction was created with the purpose of recognizing the exemplary conduct of individuals with rectitude and outstanding performance in their respective occupations as well as their thorough and continuous support of non-governmental organizations.

2001:In what some considered an unusual turn of events, the men who gathered for the funeral of a local boy killed by a Palestinian attack spoke little about revenge or military reprisals. Instead the talk was about God's mysterious ways and about what many saw as a divine signal that Jews had strayed from their faith in their own land.

2002(9^thof Tevet, 5763): Seventy-eight year old multi-talented actress and native of Des Moines, IA, Ruth Kobart passed away today in San Francisco.

http://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/news/12-2002/ruth-kobart-of-forum-and-how-to-suceed-fame-dies-i_2919.html

2003: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about subjects of Jewish interest including Unsettled: An Anthropology of the Jewsby Melvin Konner and The Conspiracy Club by Jonathan Kellerman.

2004: “I, Robot” a sci-fi thriller based on the work by Isaac Asimov, with a screenplay co-authored by Akiva Goldsman and featuring Shia LaBeouf was released today on VHS and DVD.

2004: Molly Tambor gave birth to Mason Jay Moore Jeffrey Michael Tambor’s first grandchild.

2004: Gary Shaprio reviews Ron Rubin’s book on the New York City Marathon's co-founder, Anything for a T-Shirt: Fred Lebow and the New York City Marathon, the World's Greatest Footrace .The book - the first biography of Lebow - has been published on the 10th anniversary of his death.

2005(13th of Kislev, 5766): Israeli archaeologist Ruth Amiran passed away. Born in 1914 she was the author of Ancient Pottery of the Holy Land: From Its Beginnings in the Neolithic Period to the End of the Iron Age and a 1982 recipient of the Israel Prize.

2005(13th of Kislev, 5766): Eighty-one year old“Dr. Herman Roiphe, a psychoanalyst who explored the notion of sexual identity in early childhood development, passed away today.(As reported by Jeremy Pearce)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/26/obituaries/26roiphe.html

2005(13th of Kislev, 5766):Nathalie Babel Brown, a daughter of Isaac Babel, the illustrious Russian-Jewish storyteller of the Soviet era, whose literary work she edited, died in Washington at the age of 76. (As reported by Wolfgang Saxon)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/13/arts/13babel.html

2006: The Jerusalem Post reported that Ha’eda, the official organ of th fiercely anti-Zionist Eda haharedit, characterized those Jews attending the Teheran Holocaust denial conference as a ‘tiny group of insane people, who are liable to incited hatred against Haredi Jews.’ The paper’s editor lambasted them for having ignored the ‘opinion of Torah Sages’ in pursuit of their distorted anti-Zionist zealotry.

2006: In Boston, The Improv Asylum presents its new production, "Andy Warhol's Christmas Special, or, How Hanukkah Stole Christmas." It's a story narrated by Andy Warhol about a sick, young Jewish woman who makes a wish for Hanukkah to replace Christmas. Sadly, it comes true.

2006: The Roundabout Theatre Company’s revival of “The Apple Tree” a Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick musical of began today.

2007(5^th of Tevet, 5768): Eighty-eight year old Hank Kaplan, an American boxing historian and writer who was the founder and editor of Boxing Digest, passed away today, at his home in Florida. (As reported by Matt Schudel)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/15/AR2007121501821.html

2007: In New York City The 92nd Street Y School of Music presents a recital by pianist Laura Barg as part of its series of one-hour faculty concerts in the Weill Art Gallery.

2007: The Washington (D.C.) Jewish Community Center continues “Theater J,” its successful series of informal play readings, with a presentation from “Forgiveness” by David Schulner, directed by Daniella Topol, featuring Tim Getman, Conrad Feininger, Helen Hedman, Kimberly Gilbert and Julia Proctor.

2008: Final performance of The Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theater production of “The Very Sad Story of Ethel & Julius, Lovers and Spies, and About Their Untimely End While Sitting in a Small Room at the Correctional Facility in Ossining New York.”

2008: In Washington, D.C., the 3rd Shalshelet International Festival continues for its second and final day when the composers and performers will provide a day of free creative workshops beginning at 10:00 am, also at the Sixth & I historic Synagogue.

2008: At the Chabad House in Little Rock, AR, Rabbi Pinchas Ciment facilitates the beginning of the writing of a Sefer Torah as part of this special year of Hakhel. . This momentous occasion will take place as Mrs. Ruth Itzkowitz will be celebrating her 90th birthday and is being partially underwritten by the Itzkowitz family in loving memory of Bob Itzkowitz (obm).

2008: The Washington Post book section featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics uniquely related to the Jewish people including The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler by Thomas Hager Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean byEdward Kritzler and American Priestess: The Extraordinary Story of Anna Spafford and the American Colony in Jerusalem by Jane Fletcher Geniesse.

2008: Funeral services are held for Holocaust Survivor and long time resident of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Ann Gilbert (Chana Zylberstajn) at Tempe Judah with burial at Eben Israel Cemetary.

2008: Avraham Infeld, President of the Chais foundation confirmed today that the California-based foundation that doles out about $12 million per year was forced to close as a result of the securities scheme orchestrated by Bernard Madoff, The Chais Family Foundation, which gives away approximately $12.5 million annually to Jewish causes in Israel, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, closed Sunday because all of its assets were invested with Madoff. The United Jewish Communities and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee were among its main beneficiaries.

2008: Jack Black hosted the Spike Video Games.

2009(27^thof Kislev, 5770): Third Day of Chanukah

2009(27^thof Kislev, 5770): Ninety-three year old Sol Price who as the founder of PriceSmart is considered the pioneer of stripped down bargain warehouse store passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/business/16price.html

2009(27 Kislev, 5770): On the Jewish calendar, Yahrzeit of Harvey David Luber. He will always be missed and never be forgotten.

2009: The Center for Jewish History, American Sephardi Federation and Center for Traditional Music and Dance present: “Ilyas Malayev: Remembering the Poet Laureate of the Bukharian Jews.” Born in 1936 Ilyas Malayev “was an immensely popular musician across Uzbekistan, deeply loved by the Bukharian Jewish community. He was a master of the Central Asian classical music cycles known as "Shash maqâm," and a major innovator of traditional forms through his musical compositions, poetry and theatrical works.” The evening’s program includes a discussion led by Walter Zev Feldman and Evan Rapport with a special performance of Malayev's compositions by Ochil Ibragimov.

2009: Gary Schmitt and Washington Post columnist David Ignatius take part in a discussion of "The Essential Herman Kahn: In Defense of Thinking" with one of the book's editors, Kenneth Weinstein, at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C.

2009: Israel's top-ranked player won the 2009 Chess World Cup. Boris Gelfand, a grand master from Rishon LeZion, defeated former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine in a playoff today in the Russian town of Khanty-Mansiysk to take the $120,000 top prize. Gelfand, 41, was the No. 1 seed among 128 players in the event, which had a prize pool of $1.6 million. Ranked sixth in the world, Gelfand is now eligible to compete in the 2010 World Championships as one of the eight best players in the world. He immigrated to Israel from Belarus in 1998.

2009: Kinky Friedman announced “that he was leaving the gubernatorial race and would the Democratic nominated for Texas Agriculture Commissioner.”

2010: The Historic 6^th& I Synagogue is scheduled to present “Food for Thought: Digesting Ethics, Mysticism, and Philosophy” with Rabbi Yosef Edelstein of MesorahDC

2010: In New York, the YIVO is scheduled to present a program entitled “Ukrainian-Jewish Relations in the Aftermath of the Schwarzbard Trial.”

2010: In Hawaii, The Kahului Union Church is scheduled to host a program entitled “A Voice for Israel” featuring Nora Finberg the wife of Pastor Robb Finberg of Grace Church in Pukalani.

2010: Today Israeli officials canceled a ceremony planned to honor the Palestinian firemen who assisted in battling the Carmel fire last week, after a number of crew members were refused permits to cross the border.

2010: It was reported today that Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is off to an early lead in the race for Chicago mayor, but there is plenty of room for other contenders in the crowded field as the fluid contest takes shape, a new Tribune/WGN poll found.

2011: Opening session the Union for Reform Judaism Biennial is scheduled to take place today at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Session in suburban Maryland.

2011: “Yiddle with His Fiddle” is scheduled to be shown today at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage in Beachwood, Ohi

2011: Arsonists set fire to a deserted mosque in central Jerusalem during the night.

2011: Dozens of right-wing activists clashed with police officers in Jerusalem today, amid attempts to arrest suspects linked to recent so-called price tag attacks.

2012: Ninety-eight year old “Joe Simon, a writer, editor and illustrator of comic books who was a co-creator of the superhero Captain America, conceived out of a patriotic impulse as war was roiling Europe,” passed away today (As reported by Bruce Weber)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/16/books/joe-simon-a-creator-of-captain-america-is-dead-at-98.html

2011(14^thof Kislev): Ninety-eight year old “Norman Krim, an electronics visionary who played a pivotal role in the industry’s transition from the bulky electron vacuum tube, which once lined the innards of radios and televisions, to the tiny, far more powerful transistor” passed away today. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/21/business/norman-krim-who-championed-the-transistor-dies-at-98.html?_r=0

2012(1^stof Tevet, 5773): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth day of Chanukah; Kindle the 7 candles.

2012(1^stof Tevet, 5773): Six year old Adam Posner was the youngest of the victims murdered today at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT.
2012(1^st of Tevet, 5773): Seventy-two year old China scholar and UCLA professor Richard Baum passed away today. (As reported by Meg Sullivan)

http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/prominent-china-scholar-richard-241975.aspx

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/26/world/asia/richard-baum-72-dies-presided-over-chinapol.html?hpw&_r=0

2012: “Call me a Jew,” a documentary about Austrian treatment of Jews during World War II is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.

2012: Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis is scheduled to bring her unique message to members and guests of Park East Synagogue.

2012: In Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah is scheduled to host its second Musical Shabbat in the 5773 season.

2012: Report of ’80s Sexual Abuse Rattles Yeshiva Campus

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/14/nyregion/report-of-sexual-abuse-rattles-manhattan-yeshiva-campus.html

2012: Avigdor Liberman announced today he would resign from his position as foreign minister and vice premier in the current government in light of a pending indictment against him for fraud and breach of public trust

2012: Bob “Benmosche announced that the U.S. government and American taxpayers received their full investment in AIG, plus a $22 billion positive return.”

2013: Two days before his 90^th birthday, Israeli pianist Menahem Pressler is scheduled to perform on the Tully stage of the Lincoln Center

2013: Weather permitting, “Francis Ha” and “Life Sentences” will be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.

2013: The Union of Reform Judaism Biennial Convention is scheduled to host a centennial celebration “Extraordinary Women Shaping Reform Judaism: A celebration of the 100th anniversary of Women of Reform Judaism” followed by a concert featuring Neshama Carlebach and Josh Nelson.

2013: As thousands of Gazans suffer from record flooding, Israel relaxes restrictions at the border crossing to allow the shipment of water pumps and gas for heating to relieve the human misery.

2013: Israel faced another freezing night, with fears of icy roads nationwide, but the worst storm in decades was winding down. Late tonight, much of Jerusalem and northern Israel were still deep in snow, the authorities were working to open roads in and out of the capital, and much of the rest of the country was still grappling with stormy conditions. Four Israelis were known to have died since the storms began

2014: Musician David Broza is scheduled to perform in the Mintz Auditorium of the Uptown Jewish Community Center as part of the Community Chanukah Celebration in New Orleans.

2014: The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to host a program with Ruth W. Messinger, President of the American Jewish World Service

2014: At the Berman Museum, Emory Professor and WW II veteran Dr. Mort Waitzman is scheduled to speak in third installment of the Bearing Witness series.

2014: After today’s performance of “Fiddler on the Roof” Miriam Isaacs who taught Yiddish at the University of Maryland for 15 years is scheduled to speak on the literary antecedents to the show based on Sholom Aleichem's "Tevye" short stories.

2014: Ambassador Mal Berisha is scheduled to deliver “a talk on the role of U.S. Ambassador Herman Bernstein (1930-1933) in championing positive Albanian Jewish relations and how this set the stage for Albania sheltering its Jews during the war.

2014: “State Aid Formula Said to Hurt in a District Where Most Go to Yeshivas” published today described the behavior of an Orthodox Jewish community in Rockland County.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/15/nyregion/state-aid-formula-said-to-hurt-in-a-district-where-most-go-to-yeshivas.html?hpw&rref=education&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

2014: “The Labor Party voted unanimously in favor of merging with Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua party this evening, sealing the deal for a rotation premiership in a bid to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a large center-left bloc.” (As reported by Marissa Newman)

2014: In a statement issued today, the Women of the Wall said that Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbinic authority of the Western Wall and holy places, denied its request to hold a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony in the women’s section of the holy. (As reported by JTA)

Read more: http://www.jta.org/2014/12/14/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/women-of-the-wall-

2014: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Jby Howard Jacobson and Gangsterland by Tod Goldberg.

2014(22^ndof Kislev, 5775): Eighty-year old Rabbi Dr. Yitzchok Meyer Abramson, the Chicago native who was the husband of Ruth Abramson passed away today in St. Louis, MO.

2014(22^ndof Kislev, 5775): Ninety-one year old Sy Berger, “the father of the modern-day baseball trading card” passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/15/sports/baseball/sy-berger-91-dies-created-the-modern-baseball-trading-card.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

2014(22^ndof Kislev, 5775): Ninety-year old Bess Myerson, the first Jewish “Miss America” passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/06/nyregion/bess-myerson-miss-america-and-new-york-official-tarnished-in-scandal-dies.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=1

2014: Today’s New York Times list of the 10 Best Books of 2014 included Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin and Sadat at Camp David by Lawrence Wright.

2015(2^ndof Tevet, 5776): Eighth Day of Chanukah

2015(2^ndof Tevet, 5776): On the Jewish calendar, Yahrzeit of Rabbi Aharon Kotler.

http://www.aish.com/dijh/Kislev_2.html

2015(2^nd of Tevet, 5776): Eighty-eight year old Lillian Vernon, the refugee from Nazi Europe who made her name into a women’s fashion brand passed away today. (As reported by Lynn Povich)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/15/business/lillian-vernon-creator-of-a-bustling-catalog-business-dies-at-88.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

2015: Today, “just after the new government voided the Argentine pact with Iran to jointly investigate the AMIA attack,” prosecutor Paul Plee “filed a request today to reopen the case with the Federal Criminal Cassation Court” in which “the late special prosecutor Alberto Nisman had charged that former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner covered up Iran’s role in the 1994 AMIA Jewish center bombing.” (JTA)

2015: The American Sephardi Association is scheduled to host “The Silk Road Experience: a Night of Food, Fashion and Music.”

http://cjh.org/event/2745

2015: Juilliard faculty member and alumnus Itzhak Perlman is scheduled to lead “the Juilliard Orchestra in a brilliant program of iconic Tchaikovsky masterworks for their only Geffen Hall appearance of the season.”

2015: At the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia Susan Barocas, Founding Director of the Jewish Food Experience is scheduled to “share stories of several immigrant families from diverse backgrounds who all lived in the same tenement building — 97 Orchard Street — on the Lower East Side of New York, between 1863 and 1935. Their stories will be told through the foods they ate.”

2015: “The Dove Flyer” and “The Guardians of Remembrance” are scheduled to be shown this evening at the AJS 47^th Annual Conference in Boston, MA

2016: In Memphis, TN, Temple Israel, Rabbi Feivel Strauss is scheduled to enlighten attendees with the teachings of Reb Meir.

2016(14^thof Kislev, 5777): Ninety-seven year old “Edwin Goldwasser, a physicist who co-founded the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill., and helped build one of the world’s most powerful particle accelerator” passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/science/edwin-goldwasser-died-fermi-national-accelerator-laboratory.html?_r=0

https://apnews.com/efef70a5f94a4918af0e61fb825fd248/fermi-lab-co-founder-physicist-dr-edwin-goldwasser-dies

2016: In “Klezmer: Music, History and Memory” Walter Zev Feldman is scheduled to discuss the emergence in 16^th century Prague of klezmer which “became a central cultural feature of the largest transnational Jewish community of modern times.”

2016 Alon Oleartchik who “is considered among Israel's most important and inspiring musicians, with an exciting and creative career spanning more than 40 years” is scheduled to “perform his greatest hits from all time including; "Ba La Schuna Bahur Hadash" , "Hi Holechet Badrachim", "Eretz Melach" and many, many more” at the Highline Ballroom.

2017: In Omaha, the Chanukah Art and Soul Festival The Annual Menorah Parade at Boys Town.

2017: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Educational Center is scheduled to host a screening of “Summer of Love” followed by discussion “led by Michael J. Kramer, Professor of history and American Studies at Northwestern University.”

2017: “Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. said today it plans to cut 14,000 positions globally – over 25 percent of its total workforce – over the next two years.”

2017: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host another session of Peter G. Weintraub’s “Introduction to Judaism.”

2017: Omri Tubi, “a PhD candidate in the Sociology Department at Northwestern University and the recipient of the 2017 Martin and Rhoda Safer/JDC Archives Fellowship” is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “What Can Malaria Eradication Teach Us about the History of Israel?” at the Center for Jewish History in New York.

2017: The professional conference “The Book and the Desert” at which the import of recently discovered Hasmonean era coins, pottery and ritual baths was to be discussed was held today at the Susya Tour and Study Center.”

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/239259

2017(26^thof Kislev, 5778): 2^nd day of Chanukah

2018: In Georgia, Or VeShalom, a congregation “established by refugees primarily from Turkey and the Isle of Rhodes, is scheduled to host its Congregational Shabbat Dinner.

2018: In Columbus, OH, Tifereth Israel is scheduled to host a “conversation between two feminist theologians, Judith Plaskow and Carol P. Christ, as they debate the nature of divinity in the world, beginning from the premise that the transcendent, omnipotent, male God of traditional theologies must be re-understood.”

2018: And in one final example showing the ways American congregations make erev Shabbat special, in Chevy Chase, MD Ohr Kodesh Congregation is scheduled to host “USY Friday Night Lights.”

2019(16^thof Kislev, 5780): Parashat Vayishlach; for more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/

2019: In Boston, today’s session of the URJ Biennial is scheduled to include a full schedule of Shabbat related activities beginning with a Sabbat Breakfast and end with “Havdalah and a Song Session.”

2019: In San Jose, CA, Addison-Penzak JCC and Silicon Valley Federation are scheduled to co-host “Legacy Project Shabbat,” “a service for a program that aims to strengthen local synagogues, Jewish agencies and the community.

2019: The Boston Synagogue is scheduled to host its “Family Chanukah Party” complete with “latkes, dreidels, donuts, singing, live music and more.” (Editor’s note – never sure what “more” consists of)

2019: In Walnut Creek, CA, Congregation B’nai Shalom is scheduled to host a screening of “Defiant Requiem,” a 2012 documentary that “uses archival footage and animation to tell the story of Terezin inmates learning and performing Verdi’s “Requiem” during the Holocaust.”

2019: In Los Gatos, CA, the Addison-Penzak is scheduled to host “Vodka and Latkes,” a Chanukah party featuring a “7-piece band, dreidel spinning, libations, sufganiyot and latke bar with toppings.

2019: “The Grant Monument Association is scheduled to commemorate the 117^thanniversary of the date of Julia Dent Grant today. For more about her husband and the Jewish people see When Grant Expelled the Jews by Jonathan Sarna

DECEMBER 15

37: Birthdate of Nero Claudius Augustus Germanicus 5th emperor of Rome. While legend remembers him as the emperor who fiddled while Rome burned, Jews will remember him as the ruler who was emperor when the Great Revolt began in 66. Nero had appointed several of the incompetent governors who had helped create the conditions for the revolt. He also chose Vespasian as the general to put down the rebellion. Nero died in 68 during the rebellion. His untimely death bought the Jews some breathing space as Vespasian broke off the combat to take part in a coup that would put him on the throne. It was his son, Titus who actually destroyed the Temple when combat.

921(6th of Tevet, 4682): Rav Saadiah Gaon cautioned today cautioned the Jews of Egypt to reject the religious calendar adopted by Rabbi Aaron ben Meir, head of the Palestinian yeshiva in Ramleh

1467: Stephen III of Moldavia who “treated the Jews with consideration” and appointed Isaac ben Benjamin to successively more responsible positions defeated Matthias Corvinus of Hungary at the Battle of Baia.

1583(30^thof Kislev, 5334: Fifty-year old Judah Abravanel, the grandson of Judah Abravanal and the brother of Jacob Abravanel passed away at Ferrara. (He is one of a long line of Sephardic Jews to have this name which is not unusual given the naming customs used by the Jewish people)

1640: Coronation of King John IV of Portugal. Don Fernando Mendes, a Marrano, was his court physician. He was also the court physician to Catrina, King John's daughter who married King Charles II of England. Don Fernando also served the English King making him one of the few physicians to ever serve three reigning monarchs.

1647(18^thof Kislev, 5408): Isaac de Castro was put to death at an auto-de-fe by the Inquisition for the crime of teaching Judaism to conversos. De Castro had arrived in Bahia (then under Portuguese control) from Amsterdam through Dutch Brazil. After being ‘recognized as a Jew he was arrested by the Inquisition and sent to Lisbon.” On the day of his death he “was led, together with five fellow-sufferers, to the stake. In the midst of the flames he called out in startling tones, "Shema' Yisrael! [Hear, O Israel!] The Lord our God is One!" With the word "Echad" (One), he died.”

1734: Daniil Pavlovich Apostole who was the Hetman of the Cossacks on both sides of the Dnieper River passed away. When Catherine I expelled the Jews from the Ukraine in 1727, Apostol led a move to modify the law. He and the other Cossacks had learned the hard way that they needed Jewish merchants if their economy was to grow. Thanks to his efforts, the edict was modified so that the Jews could participate in the various fairs held in the area.

1751: Benedict XIV issued “Probe te memisse,” a papal bull establishing the rules for baptizing Jews. In case there was any doubt about this Pope’s attitude towards Jews, 4 years later he published “Beatus Andreas” which beatified Andreas von Rinn a child who was the alleged victim of a ritual murder committed by Jews in 1462. The allegation of ritual murder was the key requirement for this beatification,

1762(29^thof Kislev, 5523): Fifth Day of Chanukah

1762: As Jews prepare to kindle the sixth Chanukah, Benjamin Franklin wrote to James Bowdoin today expressing his “great pleasure” with the College Poems that his future comrade in the American Revolution had sent him.

1765(3^rdof Tevet, 5526): Eighth Day of Chanukah

1767(24^thof Kislev, 5528): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah

1772 (19th of Kislev, 5533): Reb Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezeritchsecond leader of the Chassidic movement, successor to the Baal Shem Tov and spiritual mentor of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, known for his scholarship, piety, and asceticism passed away. There is no way that we can do justice to the contribution of this sage and urge you to spend time studying about him.

1773(1^stof Tevet, 5534): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah observed as Colonials in Boston decide what to do about the tea laden ship sitting in the harbor.

1778(26^thof Kislev, 5539): Second Day of Chanukah

1779: While “serving as a volunteer in Captain Verdier's regiment under Count Pulaski during the siege of Savannah” Benjamin Nones, the native of Bordeaux who had moved to Philadelphia, “received a certificate for gallant conduct on the field of battle” today.

1787: The Bristol Journal reported that Lord George Gordon, the English noblemen who converted to Judaism with the name of Yisrael bar Avraham Gordon, has been living in Birmingham since 1786 where “unknown to every class of man but those of the Jewish religion, among whom he has passed his time in the greatest cordiality and friendship...he appears with a beard of extraordinary length, and the usual raiment of a Jew... his observance of the culinary preparation is remarkable.” Furthermore, “He was surrounded by a number of Jews, who affirmed that his Lordship was Moses risen from the dead in order to instruct them and enlighten the whole world...It appears that (he) has officiated as a chief of the Levitical Order..."

1791: The Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, took effect following ratification by Virginia. From a parochial point of view, the First Amendment with its statement on religion was the most important of the ten amendments to the Jews of the new nation. Unlike Europe, with its deeply rooted anti-Semitism, acceptance of Jews was a given from America’s earliest days. Jews have been very vigilant in using the First Amendment to ensure separation of church and state. Unfortunately, there are some shortsighted Jews who have been willing to blur the line for short term political or financial gains.

1797: In Germany, Eva Katz and Salomon Reiss gave birth to “Salomon Reiss” who died at the age of three.

1800(28^thof Kislev, 5561): Fourth Day of Chanukah

1800(28^thof Kislev, 5561): Three year old Salomon Reiss passed away today.

1806: Rothschild wrote to the Landgrave pledging his support to the German prince and offering to intercede on his behalf when Napoleon visits Frankfurt.

1810: Birthdate of Philadelphia publisher Abraham Hart who later went into the manufacture of “button-hole” machines after marrying Rebecca Cohen Isaacks and who was President of Congregation Mikvah Israel,

1812: In London, Helena Moses and Moses Levy gave birth to Joseph Moses Levy the editor and publisher who turned the failed Daily Telegraph & Courier into the famous and highly successful Daily Telegraph.

1816(25^thof Kislev, 5577): Chanukah is celebrated in the United States for the last time under President James Madison as the country enters into “the era of good feelings.”

1819: Birthdate of Daniel Abramovich Chwolson the native of Vilna who became a noted Orientalist with a proficiency in Arabic. He also was a staunch defender of his co-religionists especially when it came to Blood Libel accusations at Saratov and Kutais which spurred several of his works including “On Several Medieval Accusations Against The Jews.”

1820: In London, Esther Daninos and Solomon Abecasis gave birth to Aaron Abecasis, the husband of Esther Rodrigues Brandon.

1824: Lewis Jacobs married Ranyer Simmons at the Great Synagogue today.

1827: Birthdate of Joseph Halévy, the native of Adrianople who gained famed as a French Orientalist and traveler

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/41219385?uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21105449288733

1828: In Newington, London, Amelia and Morris Harris gave birth to Louisa Harris

1831: Seventy-six year old Hannah Adams, a Christina author who wrote History of the Jewsin 1812, passed away in Brookline Mass.

1831: Joel ben Moses HaCohen married Shprintze bat Ashe HaLevi today at the Western Synagogue.

1835: Two days after she had passed away, Alice Abraham, the wife of Michael Abraham and mother of Samuel Abrahams was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.

1837: Wilhelm Wolfsohn began the study of medicine in Leipzig today.

1849: The third lodge of the Free Sons of Israel was formed under the name Ruben Lodge No. 3.

1857: The opera “Travatore” was performed tonight in New York with proceeds for the evening going to the Hebrew Benevolent Society.

1857: In Spitafields, London, Jane Silver and Henry Woolf gave birth to Charles Woolf.

1858: Abraham Freedman married Maria Jacobs today at the Great Synagogue.

1858: During “The Mortara Affair,” the New York Times published a letter U.S. Secretary of State Cass had written to Mr. Hart in which he compared President Buchanan’s decision not to join with the nations of Europe to bring pressure on the Catholic Church to return the boy to his parents with the activisits behavior of the United States during “the persecution of the Jews of Damascus” in 1840.

1859: Birthdate of Dr.Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof, the Russian born Jewish linguist who created Esperanto.

http://www.infoplease.com/biography/var/ludwigzamenhof.html

1860: In Manchester, England, Marcus and Rebecca (Vogel) Myers gave birth to Radcliffe graduate Esther Myers who became Esther Myers Andrews when she married Julius Andrews and who was active in the Council of Jewish Woman and Republican politics in Boston, MA.

1861: President Abraham Lincoln wrote a letter to Arnold Fischel of New York's Congregation Shearith Israel, saying “"I find there are several particulars in which the present law in regard to chaplains is supposed to be deficient, all which I now design presenting to the appropriate Committee of Congress. I shall try to have a new law broad enough to cover what is desired by you in behalf of the Israelites." Fischel had gone to Washington to get Lincoln’s support to change the law so that Jews could serve as Chaplains in the Union Army.

1862: During the Civil War, Army of the Potomac commanded by Ambrose Burnside suffered one of its worst defeats at the Battle of Fredericksburg which came to an end today. Company C of the 82^nd Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment which had been formed by a group of Jewish volunteer soldiers under the name of the Concordia Guards was one of the units engaged in the battle. The regiment would be commanded by Colonel Edward S. Salomon, a Jewish immigrant from Germany, who may have been Chicago’s first Jewish lawyer and was the alderman for the Sixth Ward when the war broke out. Among other Jews serving during the battle was Jacob Ezekiel Hyneman, a native of Richmond, who was a solider with the Union Army and was wounded at Fredericksburg.

1863: Birthdate of Latvian native Israel Unterberg, who came alone to the U.S. in 1910 to join his parents and went on to become the “president of the National Butchers and Drovers Bank” and the president of the Jewish Education Association” while raising two sons and four daughters with his wife.

1864: During the Civil War, the Battle of Nashville (TN) begins. Among the Union units are the 79^thIndiana commanded by Colonel Frederick Knefler.

1865(27^th of Kislev, 5626): Third Day of Chanukah

1866: In Greensberg, PA, Charles and Sara Falk gave birth to Maurice Falk the founder, with his brothers of Weirton Steel who married Selma Wertheimer after his first wife Laura Klinordlinger passed away and who, with his brother “established the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies at Pittsburg in 1912

1867: Esther Hellman Wallenstein, the founding President of the Hebrew Infant Asylum in New York and Solomon Wallenstein gave birth to Max Wallenstein.

1869: Esther Hellman Wallenstein, the founding President of the Hebrew Infant Asylum in New York and Solomon Wallenstein gave birth to Joseph Solomon Wallenstein

1870: Sir Saul Samuel completed his first term as Treasurer of New South Wales.

1871(3rd of Tevet, 5632): 8^th day of Chanukah

1872: Eighty-year old Mary Anne Disraeli, 1^st Vicountess Beaconsfield, the wife of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, the Earl of Beaconsfield passed away today.

1873: It was reported today that The Jewish Chronicle has expressed support for conferring peerages on Sir Moses Montefiore and Baron Lionel Rothschild

1874: Birthdate of Russian native Michael Sherbrook, the actor known as Michael Shewzik who came to England at the age of 12 and “made his debut as an actor in productions of the Elizabethan Stage Society in 1898” before marrying Alice Isaac the second daughter of H.P. Isaac in 1903.

1875: Birthdate of Salt Lake City native William G. Watters, the owner of the Hospital Supply Company and the Watters Laboratories who was married to Lucille Watters with whom he had two daughters – Margaret and Ann.

1875: Birthdate of Kiev native Samuel Paley, the founder and long-time president of the Congress Cigar Company and the father of William S. Paley, the chairman of the board of C.B.S.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9A00EFDA143CEF3BBC4953DFB2668388679EDE

1876: It was reported today that a translation of the Greek New Testament into Hebrew is about to be published at Leipzig “for the use of the Orthodox Jews of Eastern Germany and Poland.” [No mention is made of why an Orthodox Jew would want a copy of the New Testament.]

1877: Birthdate of Bernhard Maissner, the Russian born ancestor of Cantor Benjamin Maissner and his nephew Israel Alter who was also a Cantor.

1879(30^thof Kislev, 5640): Rosh Chodesh Tevet

1879: It was reported today that the Young Men’s Hebrew Association will celebrate Chanukah with a reception at the Academy of Music.

1880: It was reported today that “the third reception” hosted by “the Young Men’s Hebrew Union will be held on Christmas evening.”

1880: Justice Kilbreth ordered Mrs. Lizzie Wenke to post a $200 bond to guarantee her good behavior or more specifically, that she would not attack Isaac Stern again.

1880: Birthdate of Rumanian native Mois H. Avram, the NYU trained engineer who in 1899 came to the United Sates where as President of Fox Brothers International Corporation “took part in planning the reconstruction of the Port of Versailles” wrote several books including Patenting and Promoting Inventions while raising a son and two daughters with his wife Ernestine.

https://www.amazon.com/Launching-Enterprise-Avram-Mois-Herban/dp/1313273597

https://www.nytimes.com/1971/02/06/archives/oi-ayra-90-lob6-an-engineer-onsultant-to-governments-and-companies.html

1881: “A very large assemblage of ladies and gentlemen, representing the best class of the Hebrew population” of New York “gathered in the Academy of Music” this “evening at the annual ball commemorating the celebration of Chanukah” sponsored by the Young Men’s Hebrew Association who raised over $6,000 for their building fund.

1881: Jacques Offenbach’s “The Tales of Hoffman” was performed for the one hundredth time today at the Salle Favart.

1881: The Young Men’s Hebrew Association hosted its annual Chanukah Ball this evening at the Academy of Music. (The celebration was held today, a Thursday, because Chanukah in 1881 began on Friday night and you could not have a ball on Shabbat)

1882: Birthdate of Helena Rubinstein famed American cosmetic manufacturer.

1883: Birthdate of David Abel, the native of Amsterdam who was the husband of Eva “Chava” Rayevskyand who served as cinematographer for over 110 films for RKO Pictures.

1883: Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, the President of the Hebrew Union College delivered a lecture tonight on the subject of intermarriage in which he said “such marriages are not forbidden Mosaic law.”

1883: In Rochester, NY, Sabbath morning services at Berith Kodesh will be conducted in English for the first time.

1883: In a note published today, Ignatz Fishcel, a 23 year old unemployed German Jewish immigrant blames his decision to commit suicide on his sister and her husband

1883: In Paris, French Egyptologist Gaston Maspero and his wife gave birth to Henri Paul Gaston Maspero the sinologist who died in Buchenwald.

1884: It was reported today that the Hebrew Free School Association is now serving 1,959 children as compared to the 520 that it served when it began in 1876.

1884: It was reported today that newly elected officers of the Hebrew Free School Association included President M.S. Isaacs, Vice President Uriah Herrmann and Secretary Henry S. May.

1884: It was reported today that while speaking at event marking the 16^thanniversary of the Presbyterian Hospital in New York, Reverend John Paxton said, “We are indebted to the Jews for many things, for human law and their teaching of the sacredness of life but not for hospitals. These are the sole creation of Christianity.” And then, in what can only be considered a bit of genteel anti-Semitism, he said that the “first hospital was founded…by the Good Samaritan.”

1884: It was reported today that the officers of the newly formed Tenth Ward Society include: Joseph Blumenthal – President; Isaac Bernheimer and E.R.A. Seligman – Vice Presidents; Frederick Nathan – Treasurer; Lee Kohns – Secretary. The society will be conducting an audit of conditions of tenements in an area surrounded by Houston Street, Division Street, Norfolk Street and the Bowery. A report of the needed improvements and/or the failure to make them will be sent to the Board of Health and the Grand Jury. (This was part of an over-all attempt to improve conditions for immigrants. This particular ward had a large Jewish population which may have accounted for the makeup of the officers.)

1884: It was reported today that Ludovic Halevy, the son of Leon Halevy, has been elected as a member of the French Academy.

1885: Birthdate of Lithuanian native Rebecca Kushner Paiewonsky, the wife of Isaac Paiewonsky and the mother of Ralph and Isidor Paiewonsky who was buried at the Altona Jewish Cemetery in the U.S. Virgin Islands when she passed away in 1963.

1885: In New York, Barnett and Dora Kriss Feinberg gave birth to Celia Feinberg who became Celia Rosenthal when she married Harry Rosenthal in 1913.

1885: The Ladies’ Fair, a fund-raiser designed to raise money for the Kindergarten and Industrial Schools of the Hebrew Free School Association opened this evening at the Metropolitan Opera House.

1886: “Hattie Kahn,” a “young and pretty French Jewess disappeared mysteriously from her employer’s residence at No. 46 West One Hundred and Twenty-sixth street” today.

1887: Morris L. Kramer and Rcahel Elka Stikan gave birth to Sadie Kramer.

1887: It was reported today that in London a barber named Serne who is a Flemish Jew is on trial having been charged with setting fire to his shop on the Strand to collect on the insurance. Unfortunately, both of his sons died in the fire as well.

1888: “The model of the Nicaragua Interoceanic Canal which had been built by Vauix Carter, a Professor of Mechanics at the Hebrew Technological Institute” in Brooklyn has proven to be one of the most popular items on display at the annual fair sponsored by the American Institute.

1888: In “Kovno, Poland,” “Abraham Gershon and Rose (Glizer) Menacker gave birth “educator, author and Zionist Jacob Judah Ackerman the husband of Channa Emma Ginsberg who worked taught Hebrew School in Portland, ME and New Bedford before becoming the principal the Hebrew Institute in Wilkes-Barre, PA while “authoring a book of Biblical poems” and writing a “dramatic version of the Book of Esther.”

1889: “Musical Notes” published today described the upcoming performance of Halevy’s “La Juive” in New York as being “novelty of the week.”

1890: “Literary Notes” today described the upcoming publication of Memoirs of My Mayoralty, an illustrated work complete with photographs by Sir Henry Isaacs, the former Lord Mayor of London.

1890: Louis “Brandeis defined modern notions of the individual right to privacy in a path-breaking article he published with his partner, today in the Harvard Law Review on "The Right to Privacy."

1890: “Stringent orders have been sent to Russian Government officials in the Caucasus for the expulsion of all Jews who are not authorized to reside there.”

1891(14th of Kislev, 5652): Thirty-six year old accountant and author Jacob Judelsohn, a native of Marionpol, Russia and a resident of the United States since 1879 who served as Secretary of the Jewish Immigrant Protective Society and became a leader in the Jewish community taking an active role in meeting the needs of the newly arrived immigrants from Russia and Poland, passed away today in New York City.

1891: In Louisville, KY, Erna and Hilmar “Hillel” Ehrmann gave birth to Herbert Ehrmann, “the husband of Sara R. Ehrmann” who was the Harvard educated lawyer responsible for defending Sacco and Vanzetti which was the subject of his book The Untried Case.

https://www.nytimes.com/1970/06/19/archives/hb-ehrmann-77-in-famous-trial-sacco-and-vanzetti-counsel-in-payroll.html

https://www.amazon.com/Herbert-Brutus-Ehrmann/e/B0034QAP0M

1891: James Naismith introduces the first version of basketball, with thirteen rules, a peach basket nailed to either end of his school's gymnasium, and two teams of nine players. While Basketball may have had quintessential gentile origins it quickly became a part of Jewish life. According to Peter Levine, “Jewish involvement in basketball, especially between 1900 and 1950 was greater than in any other sport.” “By the late 1930’s...sportswriter identified it as the ‘Jewish’ game. According “Paul Gallico, the longtime sports editor the New York Daily News ... ‘Jews flock to basketball by the thousands’ because it placed ‘a premium on an alert, scheming mind… flashy trickiness, artful dodging and general smart alikeness’’ traits naturally appealing to the ‘Hebrew with his Oriental background.’”

1892(26th of Kislev, 5653): Second Day of Chanukah

1892(26^thof Kislev, 5653): Sixty-one year old Boston clothing store owner Leopold Morse and Democratic Party leader who represented Massachusetts in the House of Representatives passed away today.

1892: A petition is being circulated to gain the endorsement of prominent businessmen and professionals for the candidacy of Jacob P. Solomon, editor of the Hebrew Standard, to fill “the vacancy left on the police bench by Police Justice Daniel O’Reilly.

1892: The American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to meet in Philadelphia at which papers will be read by Professor Charles Gross of Harvard, Professor Cyrus Adler of the National Museum and Henrietta Szold from Baltimore.

1892: The Monetary Conference at Brussels which has considered a plan put forth by Austrian banker Albert de Rothschild is scheduled to come to an end without resolving any of the issue surrounding bimetallism.

1893: Plans for the upcoming meeting of the American Jewish Historical Society at Columbia University were published today.

1893(6^thof Tevet, 5654): Thirty-three year old Gottlieb Adler who earned a Ph.D. from the University of Vienna in 1882 and who served as a professor there while working on matters related to electricity and magnetism, passed away today.

1894: In Jerusalem, Moshe Peretz and his wife gave birth to Haym Peretz, who fled to the United States in 1917 when the Turks discovered he was an Allied intelligence agent and after graduating from Johns Hopkins pursed a career in Jewish social work and education that included serving as the UJA director for the Bronx while raising his son Don with his wife Josephine.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/12/06/87278334.pdf

1894: Register Ferdinand Levy, Justice Alfred Steckler and Emanuel Friend were among those who attended the 20^th“annual reception and ball of the New York Hebrew Mutual Benefit Association at the Central Opera House on East 67^thStreet.

1894: Sir Julian Goldsmid a member of the House of Commons for the South Division of St. Pancras presided at a meeting of the Russo-Jewish Committee today where “private communications with relation to the condition of the Jews in Russia were presented.”

1894: A revival of “Quite an Adventure,” a one-act comic opera by Edward Solomon opened at the Savoy Theatre.

1894: Birthdate of Minsk born American feminist Fania Esiah Mindell, a pioneer in the movement to give women control over their own reproductive organs.

https://jwa.org/thisweek/oct/26/1916/fania-mindell-arrested-for-distributing-birth-control-material

1895: “The Hebrew Mechanics Association” is reported to be the sponsor of tonight’s concert at the Thalia Theatre in the Bowery.

1895: “A crowd of indignant men and women lined the sidewalk and the street in front of the Thalia Theatre tonight” upset by the additional charges being added for the tickets they were holding to see “a grand popular concert” given by the Hebrew Mechanics Association under the management of Maxz Hirsch.

1895: Among those performing tonight at “the second of the season’s concerts of the Arion” was Louis Blumenberg “who played for his first solo Max Bruch’s transcription of ‘Kol Nidre’” which with “his breadth of tone and smooth legato brought out the full sentiment of this sacred composition.”

1895: Those working at the booths of Educational Charity Fair sponsored by leading members of the Jewish community will have the day off today because Madison Square Garden, the venue where the fair is taking place, will be closed for the day.

1895: Excise Commissioner Julius Harburger of New York and Colonel W. L. Strong spoke at the dedication of the newly erected Temple Ahavath Sholom Beth Aaron in Brooklyn

1895: Plans were published today for a fund raiser to be held later this week for the benefit of the Hebrew Technical Institute.

1895: Birthdate of Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho

http://blogs.forward.com/the-arty-semite/128555/oscar-niemeyer-israel-and-two-jews-named-jacob/

1895: “Herter’s Heine Fountain” published today described the decision of the citizens of Dusseldorf and aMayence to reject a fountain in honor of the poet “because he was a Jew.”

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F30810FD355911738DDDAC0994DA415B8585F0D3

1895: “Herr Ahlwardt Denounced” published today described the meeting at Allen Memorial Church where speakers including Methodist minister George Van Alystayne and Episcopal minister Frank M. North spoke out against the visiting German anti-Semite and defending the role of Jews as American citizens.

1897:The Federation of American Zionist Societies of New York, (FAZ) was formed today with Richard Gottheil as President and Herman Rosenthal and Rabbi Joseph T. Bluestone as vice presidents. Most remarkable and fortunate for the nescient American Zionist movement was the choice of secretary for the FAZ. Gottheil had been advisor, sponsor and friend to a young Columbia student who energetically and dynamically became the first Zionist secretary. His name was Rabbi Stephen Wise. For the next 45 years, Wise would become one of the enshrined, respected leaders of the American Zionist and World Zionist movements.

1899: Birthdate of Harold Abrahams, English athlete and Olympic gold medalist. Abrahams passed away in 1978. Abrahams gained posthumous fame when his Olympic exploits were portrayed in the film hit “Chariots of Fire.”

1899: Lieutenant General Sir Louis Jean Bols, the “Chief Administrator of Palestine” for the first six months of 1920 served today at the Battle of Colensco during the Boer War.

1900: In Hungary, following yesterday’s preliminary vote, members of the lower chamber of the parliament cast the “definitive vote” denying Lazăr Șăineanu's naturalization even though he had converted to facilitate his bid for citizenship.

1902: Birthdate of Kiev native Nuta Kotlyarenko who gained fame as American fashion designer Nudie Cohn

http://www.nudiesrodeotailor.com/

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/nudie-19690628

https://www.jta.org/jewniverse/2017/nudie-cohn-glittery-jewish-tailor-to-elvis-and-the-grand-ole-opry?utm_source=jewniverse_maropost&utm_campaign=jewniverse&utm_medium=email&mpweb=1161-4151-39206

1902: Robert Georg Alexander von Mendelssohn and Giulietta von Mendelssohn gave birth to Angelica von Mendelssohn

1902(30^thof Kislev, 5678): Parashat Miketz; Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah

1902(30^thof Kislev, 5678): Sixty-three year old Solomon Hirsh, “one of the founders of Fleischner, Mayer and Co., the largest wholesale dry goods company on the West Coast,” president of the Oregon State Senate and Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Ottoman Empire who along with his wife Josephine were early leaders of the early Portland, Oregon Jewish community passed away today.

1903: Funeral services for Solomon Loeb who passed away on December 12^thare scheduled to be held at his residence in New York at 9:30 this morning.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F03E2DD1539E433A25756C1A9649D946297D6CF

1904: In Brooklyn, Zemad and Annie Groden Bloomgarden gave birth to Kermit Bloomgarden, the CPA who became a successful producer.

1905: It was reported today that in Lodz, Cossacks dispersed the rioters who attacking Jewish shops and residences.

1905: The Jewish Chronicle reported today that “John Burns charged the Jews with oxlike submission to authority.

1905: As the violence against the Jews continues to escalate, a bomb was thrown at the postal telegraph offices at Radom, Poland.

1906: Today,the National Geographic Society of the United States, which was primarily known for publishing a popular magazine, certified Peary's 1905-6 expedition” the crew of which included the surgeon Dr. Louis J. Wolff of Silverton, Oregon who had given up his work at the Cornell Dispensary and the Bellevue Dispensary to serve as the medical officer “with its highest honor, the Hubbard Gold Medal.”

1906: During the strike aimed at breaking the Beef Trust the butchers in Brownsville who have been on strike will continue to keep their shops closed today if the Williamsburg Retail Kosher Butchers and the New York and Harlem Retail Kosher Butchers have joined in the strike.

1907(10th of Tevet, 5668): Asara B'Tevet

1907: In Helsinki, Finland, future Russian Foreign Minister Nikolai Avksentev and his wife gave birth the artist Alexandra Pragel the wife of Alexander Pregel, an international dealer in radium and uranium and the sister-in-law of Boris Pregel.

http://www.bnphoto.org/pregel/Bio.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/28/us/alexander-pregel-uranium-dealer-dies-at-91.html

1909: In New York City "Miss Julia Richman, Superintendent of Schools on the Lower East Side has sent out an appeal for clothing for school children." Miss Richman is concerned that children lack warm clothing which is contributing to poor health.

1911: “In recognition of his scientific research and services in advancement of medical sciences,” the Directorate of International Hygiene Exhibition in Dresden” awarded Dr. Myer Coplans, the Demonstrator in Public Health and Bacteriology at the University of Leeds” with an honorary diploma today.

1911: In Commemoration of his coronation, the King conferred “baronetcy on Sir Jacob Sassoon and appointed Robert Nathan, C.I.E., companion of the Order of the Star of India.

1912: In Philadelphia, founding of Shaari Shamayim Synagogue.

1912: Birthdate of “Monuments Man” Wolfgang Maehler.

https://www.monumentsmenfoundation.org/maehler-sgt-wolfgang

1912: Jacob P. Adler is scheduled to appear for the final time this evening at the Haymarket Theatre where he and his fellow Yiddish actors have be performing such works as “The Wild Man,” “Men and Women,” “The Stranger” and “God’s Punishment.”

1913: Two days after he had passed away, 54 year old Solomon Michaelson, the husband of Leah Michaelson whom he had wed in Russia and with whom he had had four children was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.

1913: The Georgia Supreme Court heard Leo Frank’s appeal for a new trial.

1913:Birthdate of Muriel Rukeyser a challenging poet whose work mixed together radical politics and a spiritual quest. Rukeyser grew up in a middle-class home in New York City that for her was marked by silences and the absence of books. Rukeyser sought to experience the richness and messiness of life and to depict that richness and mess in her poetry. Her father's bankruptcy during the Great Depression cut short her college education, but in 1935, at the age of 21, she won the Yale Younger Poets Award for her first book, Theory of Flight. Her poetry brought her much success and much criticism. Embracing left-wing politics, she covered the second Scottsboro Boys trial and the Spanish Civil War. She traveled to North Vietnam and Korea and was jailed for protesting the war in Vietnam. She confronted the red-baiting of the McCarthy era and the strictures of conventional sexuality. Her poem "Letter to the Front" (1944) presented the challenge of modern Jewish identity with these words:

To be a Jew in the twentieth century

Is to be offered a gift. If you refuse,

Wishing to be invisible, you choose

Death of the spirit, the stone insanity.

Accepting, take full life.

1914(27^thof Kislev, 5675): Third Day of Chanukah

1914: It was reported today that “the Jewish Relief Committee’s Executive Committee has appropriated $100,000 for immediate transmission for war relief as follows: $50,000 for Russia, $25,000 for Galicia and $25,000 for Palestine.

1914: When a Russian cruiser appeared outside the port of Jaffa today all “non-Moslems were ordered” by the Turkish government “to stay in their dwellings under the pain of death.” (This order really applied to the Jews many of whom were of Russian origins and whom the Turks did not trust because they feared the Jews were a “fifth column” that would help their Czarist enemies.)

1914: Birthdate of Anatole Abragam, the Latvian born French-physicist who wrote The Principles of Nuclear Magneism and 1982 winner of the Lorentz Medal.

1914: “Entire Nation Behind Frank” published today quotes an opinion from the Houston Chronical that “there is in the heart of the American people an inherent love of justice and fair play, and they are stirred with indignation if they believe any citizen has not received a square deal in the courts” and “the case of Leo M. Frank strikingly illustrates the truth of this statement” since “it is essential to recognize the right of any man to a fair trial -- which Leo Frank assuredly did not get.”

1914: “Frank Can Appeal Again, Says Lawyer” published today provided the opinion of Hooper Alexander the United States District and “an authority on constitutional law” that “Leo M. Frank can take his case before the United States Supreme Court on a writ of error from the first decision” by the Georgia Supreme Court.

1915: A fund raising campaign headed by Jacob Schiff is scheduled to come to an end.

1915: Allied forces began a full retreat from the shores of the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey, ending a disastrous invasion of the Ottoman Empire during which the Zion Mule Corps served with distinction along with individual Jewish soldiers including Sir John Monash of Australia.

1916: Greeks call up all Jews ranging from age19 to 30 for military service. The response was overwhelming.

1916: The Senate passed an immigration bill today that did not contain the exemption for the victims of religious discrimination – Armenians and Jews from Russia and Rumania – which had been part of the bill passed by the House of Representatives.

1916: French troops defeated the Germans at the Battle of Verdun during World War I. In the 1930’s monuments were erected to Jewish and Christian soldiers who were killed at Verdun. In May of 2004the memorial to Jewish soldiers who died in the Battle of Verdun was vandalized. Nazi slogans and symbols were scrawled on the memorial. In November 2004, a 22-year-old man was sentenced to a year in prison for perpetrating the attack. In June of 2006, a concert by the Ensemble Musique Oblique was held at the Verdun synagogue in memory of the Jewish soldiers of Verdun. French forces were commanded by General Petain. The victory at Verdun cemented his position in the pantheon of French military prowess. Petain would use this reputation to make peace with the Germans in World War II and to lead the government at Vichy which actively collaborated with the Nazis in bringing the Holocaust to France.

1916: Following a meeting of the Joint Distribution Committee it was reported today that all synagogues and temples would hear sermons on Shabbat calling for contributions for the fund to aid Jews suffering from the war.

1917(30^th of Kislev, 5678): Parashat Miketz; Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah

1917: In New York City, Pauline “Paula” Munwies and David Ben Gurion “went before the clerk at City Hall… and were married in a brief, civil ceremony” which was not attended by any of their family or friends.

1917: Thanks to the half million dollars raised today which included a contribution of $41,421 from Jacob Schiff, “the campaign to raise $5,000,000 in New York for Jewish war relief and welfare work in the army and navy came to a triumphant close” today “when at the end of two weeks of labor, the five million was in hand with a slight margin over and more to come.”

1917: “According to a cablegram received” today in New York “by the Jewish Daily Forward from its Petrograd correspondent” that “Sholem Jacob Abramowitch, known to Jews all over the word as the ‘grandfather’ of modern Jewish literature, a title given to him by the late Sholem Aleichem” and who wrote under the the pen name of Mendele Moikher Seforim died last week in Odessa at the age of 81.

1917: Russia concluded an armistice with the Central Powers. Over 350,000 Jews served in the Russian army and an estimated 70,000 were killed during World War I. This armistice would take the new Communist Russian government out of the war. It would help ensure the Communist rule over Russia and all that that meant for Russian Jewry. At the same time, it enabled the Germans to move their troops to the Western Front where they made one last push to defeat the Allies. This effort failed which led to the defeat of Germany, the Versailles Treaty, the rise of Hitler and the Final Solution.

1917: “The successful close” today “of New York’s campaign for $5,000,000 for Jewish war relief and welfare work in the army and navy also bring to a successful conclusion the national campaign for $10,000,000 for war relief, to which total fourth of fifths of the money in New York is to be devoted.”

1917: John L. Bernstein, the President of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society of America said today that in almost every case that the people seeking news about family and friends living on the Eastern front and those they are seeking are, all “in dire distress.”

1917: Congregation Temple Rodeph Sholom is scheduled to continue the celebration of its 75^th anniversary for a second day.

1917: “In the village of Komorow, near Lublin, Poland, Irving and Rachel Edelstein, gave birth Harry Edelstein, the husband of “the former Frances Trost” with whom he had two children and shared the ownership of the Polish Tea Room. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi) https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/nyregion/15edelstein.html

1917: In Bromberg, the Province of Posen which was part of Germany at this time, Elizabeth (Freundlich) and Alex Zadek gave birth to opera star Hilde Zadek.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2019/02/27/hilde-zadek-first-jewish-opera-singer-appear-vienna-state-opera/

1918: In Brooklyn, Anna (née Herman) and Phillip Grossel gave birth to their only child Ira Gossel who gained fame as Jeff Chandler the classically handsome matinee idol played everything from the Indian chief Cochise Broken Arrow to the workaholic skipper in the World War II thriller Away All Boats. To paraphrase one critic, goyisha face on a yiddisha kup.

1918: First meeting of the American Jewish Congress. An advocacy group, the American Jewish Congress supports a variety of causes including civil rights for all minorities and women as well as causes one might normally associate with a Jewish organization.

1918: Efforts to break the monolithic opposition to Zionism of Jerusalem’s Orthodox community met with success at the founding meeting of a group of senior rabbis, who in defiance of the ultra-Orthodox rabbis set up a Joint Sephardic - Ashkenazi Council which was the first breach in the Orthodox community’s strong and united opposition to Zionist institutions.

1918(12^th of Tevet, 5679): After 21 years of marriage, Clara Engels the wife of German classical scholar Friedrich Münzer passed away during the Influenza Epidemic.

1918: Addressing the campaign workers for the $5,000,000 Jewish War Relief drive at the Hotel Biltmore, Felix M. Warburg, Chairman of the Campaign Committee, advocated that campaigns of a sectarian character be hereafter abolished and announced that the drive would be extended for two days.

1919: Birthdate of Max B. Yasgur, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants whose farm was the site of the famous Woodstock Happening in 1969.

1919: “Felix M. Warburg, Chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee for American Funds for Jewish War Sufferers announced that a commission of three Americans will leave shortly for the Ukraine to investigate conditions of the Jews there and to take steps toward carrying out relief.”

1920: Today, Bishop Bonaventure F. Broderick wrote a letter expressing his “abhorrence of the anti-Jewish campaign now being conducted in this country” which is surely an “attempt to stir up race and religious prejudices.

1921: In Providence, Rhode Island, Jack and Sadie Davis gave birth to Maurice Davis, the Reform Rabbi active in the Civil Rights movement and combating the impact of cults who was the husband of Marion Cronbach, the son-in-law of Rose Hentil and Abraham Cronbach.

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/16/obituaries/rabbi-maurice-davis-a-cult-authority-72.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/16/obituaries/rabbi-maurice-davis-a-cult-authority-72.html

1921(14^th of Kislev, 5682): Just 19 days before his 39^th birthday, Edward Isaac Ezra, “a wealthy Jewish businessman who was the first Chinese-born member of the Shanghai Municipal Council” passed away in Shanghai.

1922(25^th of Kislev, 5683): Chanukah

1922: Birthdate of DJ Alan Freed, the man who claimed to have coined the term “rock-n-roll” and who lost out in the payola scandal of the 1950’s.

1922: Birthdate of Professor Phillip Rieff, author of Freud: The Mind of the Moralist and the father of author David Rieff.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/us/04rieff.html

http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/ead/detail.html?id=EAD_upenn_rbml_PUSpMsColl1006

1922: Birthdate of Buffalo, NY native and Indiana University graduate Elliot Joseph Cohen who gained fame as novelist and screenwriter Elliot Baker, author of A Fine Madness.

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/obituaries/21baker.html?searchResultPosition=2

1923: In Bavaria, Rachel Hellman, the daughter of Rabbi Isaac Seckel Bamberger and Julie Judith Bamberger and Mortiz Hellmann, gave birth to Norbert Hellman

1923:Birthdate of Gotthard Glass who would gain famed as Uziel “Uzi” Gal. The German-born Israeli gun designer best remembered as the designer and namesake of the Uzi submachine gun. Gal was born in Weimar, Germany. When the Nazis came to power in 1933 he moved first to England and later, in 1936, to Kibbutz Yagur in the British Mandate of Palestine. In 1943 he was arrested for illegally carrying a gun and sentenced to six years in prison. However he was pardoned and released in 1946, serving less than half of his sentence. Gal began designing the Uzi submachine gun in 1948, shortly after the Israel War of Independence. In 1951 it was officially adopted by the Israeli Defense Force and was called the Uzi after its creator. Gal did not want the weapon to be named after him but his request was ignored. In 1955 he was decorated with Tzalash HaRamatkal and in 1958, Gal was the first person to receive the Israel Security Award, presented to him by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion for his work on the Uzi. In 1975 Gal retired from the IDF, and the next year he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, so that his daughter Tamar, who had serious brain damage, could receive special medical attention. Gal continued his work as a firearms designer until his death from cancer in 2002.

1924: Birthdate of Polish-born British violinist Ida Haendel.

1925: “The Plastic Age” a silent film produced by B.P. Schulberg was released in the United States today.

1926: Sixty-seven year old Paul Haupt, the German born Professor of Semitic languages at Johns Hopkins University who “projected and edited the Polychrome Bible, a critical edition of the Hebrew text of the Old Testament, and a new English translation with notes. A unique feature of this edition is the use of different colors to distinguish the various sources and component parts in the Old Testament books” passed away today in Baltimore, MD

1927: In Pottstown, PA, Max Strom, “a foreman at a bakery” and his wife Bessie gave birth Earl “Yogi” Strom the Coast Guard Veteran who in 1957 began his career as an NBA referee – a role in which he was considered to be one of the best of all times.

http://www.hoophall.com/hall-of-famers/earl-strom/

1927: The struggle for work turned violent during the citrus harvest in Petah Tikvah. Jewish workers, seeking employment, protest against the hiring of Arab labor by the farmers. Demonstrations and an attack on the Agricultural Committee lead to the intervention of the British police. Workers are beaten and injured. Some are arrested and sentenced to several weeks’ imprisonment.

1928(2^nd of Tevet, 5689): Parashat Miketz; 8^th Day of Chanukah

1928: Birthdate of Ida Haendel, the native of Chelm who became a world-class violinist in Great Britain where she played for factory workers and military personnel

http://www.thirteen.org/publicarts/violin/haendel.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGXArQJA3Po

1928: In New York City, Anna and Irving Rosenthal gave birth to Stanley Herbert Ross, the producer-engineer who co-founded Hollywood's Gold Star Recording Studio, which has a storied place in rock history as the home of Phil Spector's innovative "Wall of Sound" technique.

1929: In Manhattan, Bernard K. Marcus, the President of Bank of the United States, a lower East Side financial institution and the former Libby Phillips gave birth to James S. Marcus the future chairman of the board of the Metropolitan Opera.

1930(25^th of Kislev, 5691): As the Great Depression worsens, the first day of Chanukah

1930: Seventy-five year old Meier Dizengoff sought re-election as Mayor of Tel Aviv in contest that pits him against Laborite Joseph Aronwitz. Dizengoff was one of the original founders of the city in 1909 and is noted for donating his salary to municipal projects not funded by the city.

1932: Birthdate of composer Elaine Barkin.

1933:”The Tunnel” a “French-German science fiction film directed by Curtis Bernhardt” was released in Germany and France today.

1933: After having already been released in the United Kingdom, “I Was a Spy,” a “British thriller” produced by Michael Balcon with music by Louis Levy was released today in the United States

1933: Five hundred people including Rabbi Joshua Trachtenberg of Easton, PA and Rabbi Harry Caplan of Allentown, PA attended the ceremonies marking the installation of Rabbi Samuel Perlman as the new spiritual leader of the Brith Sholom Community Center of Bethlehem, PA.”

1933: After premiering in the UK in September, “I was a Spy” a British thriller produced by Michael Balcon was released in the United States today.

1934: Birthdate of Maquoketa, IA native Henry George von Mauer, a member of the family that founded the department store chain that bore the family name.

https://qctimes.com/news/local/obituaries/henry-g-von-maur/article_670797bf-6f78-5ea3-9f48-7f51c673ad03.html

1934: “Murder in the Clouds” which “was notable as the screenplay and original story was written by Dore Schary” the future head of production at MGM and produced by Samuel Bischoff was released in the United States today by Warner Brothers.

1935: “Disorder Spread in Poland” published today predicted that “anti-Jewish riots in the Fall may become a tradition in Warsaw colleges” since “new students just out of his school still drunk with their newly won freedom are easy prey to nationalist anti-Semitic propaganda.

1936(1st of Tevet, 5697): Rosh Chodesh Tevet

1936: “A conference of Christian leaders interested in finding a refuge in Palestine for Jews suffering persecution abroad” is scheduled to “take place in the Hotel Astor from 1:30 to 5 P.M. under the auspices of the Pro-Palestine Federation of America.”

1936: “The Pro-Palestine Federation of America, a Christian organization, criticized British policy” in Palestine “in a resolution adopted” today “at a luncheon conference on ‘the Jewish problem’ at the Hotel Astor.”

1936: “Zionist worries over one of the two dangers confronting the future development of the Jewish national home -- the proposed law restricting Jewish land purchases, a danger equal only to the suggested curtailment of Jewish immigration in Palestine -- loomed large at today's session of the British Royal Commission. Dr. Bernard Joseph…testified that he believed there was no justification for restricting the sale of land by small holders…He that in fifty years Jews had bought about 5 per cent of the total area of Palestine. At that rate…it will take 150 years to buy half the land in the country if Beersheba is excluded.”

1937: The Palestine Post reported that 13 Jews were wounded when Arab terrorists ambushed a bus between Haifa and Nahalal. Another bus was fired on near Castel. Arab terrorists tried to kill the mayor of Nablus, Suleiman Tukan.

1937: A Jewish guard, Haim Berger, was wounded in Tiberias, and Eliahu Gadi was shot and wounded near Kibbutz Ramat Rahel. Two Arabs were sentenced to death for the murder of Mendel Mintz on February 1, 1937.

1938: The Dutch government closed its border to refugees which had an especially detrimental effect on Jews seeking to escape from Hitler’s Germany, its next door neighbor.

1939: Gauleiter Hans Frank launched an action aimed at shipping rural Jews to large Polish cities where they would be the tight control of the SS. Tens of thousands of Jews would be rounded up, transported or force-marched into specially designated urban ghettos.

1939: World premiere of "Gone with the Wind" in Atlanta, Georgia. This is another example of Jews creating a pop culture icon. Consider the following: David O. Selznick was he Producer. Leslie Howard played Ashley Wilkes. Ben Hecht helped to write the screenplay. And Max Steiner wrote the music. There may be more but this is all that I could find for sure. Leslie Howard was an English Jew born Leslie Howard Steiner who was reportedly involved in anti-Nazi activities including clandestine work for British intelligence that may have been the cause for his civilian aircraft being shot down by the Nazis over the Bay of Biscay. Hecht was a Zionist whose work to aid the suffering Jews of Europe included two notable efforts “We Will Never Die” and “A Flag is Born.” Such were his efforts that one of the ships smuggling supplies to pre-state Israel was the S.S. Ben Hecht.

1939: In his continued challenge of the White Paper, Churchill, who is now a member of the British War Cabinet, wrote to Malcolm MacDonald seeking to limit the “draconian restrictions on future Jewish land purchases” contained in the new Land Ordinance.

1939: The Jews are required to pay “an additional installment of 200,000,000 marks” to the Reich which will probably be paid, in part, in shares of stock.

1940: “Led by Inky Lautmean who scored 10 points, the Philadelphia Sphas defeated the New York Jews in American Basketball League game at the St. Nicholas Palace tonight.

1940: Birthdate of Gabriel Oliver Koppell the Bronx native and the son of refugees from Nazi Germany who served on the New York City Council and as New York State Attorney General.

1941(25th of Kislev, 5702): First Day of Chanukah; in the evening kindle the second candle

1941: After Germans and “local Ukrainian nationalists” had killed 1,000 intellectuals and professionals in August, and “10,000 more on the night of October 12,” the Germans established a ghetto today at Stanislawow which would lead to the extermination of a Jewish population that had lived “in the town since 1662.”

1941: Members of a Latvian SD guard platoon, units of the 21st Latvian police battalion, and members of the Schutzpolizei-Dienstabteilung (German security police) under the command of the local SS and Police Leader Fritz Dietrich began a two day killing spree during which they murdered almost 3,000 Jews at Skede, Latvia. (As recorded at Yad Vashem)

http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/december/06.asp

1941: In Latvia, “the largest of the Liepāja massacres” began today.

1941: On this first day of Chanukah, 15 Jews are shot to death in the courtyard of the Warsaw Ghetto prison.

1941: Forty Polish Jews were shot by the Nazis on Chanukah in Paris.

1942: Faked, upbeat postcard messages arrive at Jewish homes in Holland from friends and relatives interned at Auschwitz and the Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia, camp/ghetto.

1943: It was reported today that “Rabbi Barnett R. Brickner, the administrative chairman of the Committee on Army and Navy Religious Activities of the National Jewish Welfare Board” has said that the “morale among troops he has visited is surprisingly good’ and that although “they have their gripes, none of them are serious”

1944: The Keys of the Kingdom, the movie version of the novel by the same name directed by John Stahl and produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz who also co-authored the script and with music by Alfred Newman was released today in New York.

1944:In a speech given on the floor of the United States Senate, Guy M. Gillette of Iowa urged that all possible steps be taken to rescue the approximately 1,500,000 Jews whom he said were still living in territory held by the Axis. Senator Gillette also urged that the Allies adopt a resolution making crimes against Jews in Europe punishable as war crimes

1945: Birthdate of Fiamma Nirenstein, Italian born journalist who, although a resident of Gilo would be elected to the Italian Parliament in 2008.

1945: Robert Merrill (born Moishe Miller) made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Germont” today.

1945: At approximately 1:45 P.M., about 20 fighters of the Haganah - the pre-state underground Jewish militia - seized a British truck south of Acre. The men, armed but wearing civilian clothing, confiscated about half a ton of documents, packed into eight sealed steel containers and 12 sacks of diplomatic mail. The documents had been sent from the British legation in Beirut to Haifa Port, from which they were to be transported to Britain. The truck was taken to an unknown location. The driver and armed guards were later found in an abandoned building near Kiryat Ata. The British tried to minimize the importance of the captured documents, claiming that most of them concerned economic matters of the British Mission in Beirut, headed during World War II by General Edward Spears. But the reaction of the British, the French and the Haganah itself to the event clearly suggests that the papers removed from the truck were, in fact, of far greater consequence. Immediately after the incident, the French consul in Jerusalem came to Tel Aviv. The French were given classified documents from the truck that were of great operational importance to them. The British Mandate authorities censored reports of the event, prohibiting Hebrew or British newspapers from publishing any details about the Haganah operation. The documents were eventually returned to the British, but about one percent of them remained in the hands of the Haganah. The French considered the remaining so documents to be so valuable that they entered into with the Yishuv to get more of them. The British were so determined to get their hands on the remaining documents that they attempted to seize them through clandestine military action in May and June of 1948

1946(22nd of Kislev, 5707): Eighty-four year old Maud Nathan passed away. Born in 1862, she was an American social worker, labor activist and suffragist for women's right to vote. “She came from a prominent New York family, descended from Gershom Mendes Seixas, minister of New York's Congregation Sherith Israel during the Revolutionary War. Her sister was the author and education activist Annie Nathan Meyer and her cousins the poet Emma Lazarus and Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo. Her nephew was the author and poet Robert Nathan.”

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/12/16/88394153.pdf

1946: The World Zionist Congress suspends six members of Zionist Revisionist Union of America for unauthorized request to UN for discussion of Palestinian problem.

1946: Six weeks after premiering in London, “A Matter of Life and Death,” co-directed, co-produced and co-written by Emeric Pressburger was released today in the United States.

1947:Nearly 25,000 children, the number brought to Palestine through the Hadassah Youth Aliyah immigration movement since its inception thirteen years ago, will enter Palestine in the coming year, Dr. Vera Weizmann, wife of Dr. Chaim Weizmann, scientist and Zionist leader, said today

1948: A flight of Spitfires took off from Czechoslovakia as part of a clandestine operation to bring modern aircraft to Israel.

1948:Israel breaks off negotiation for local truce agreements and demands future peace talks for all of Palestine.

1949: The UN Trusteeship Council proposes to censure Israel for moving its government. It also asks Israel to help UN draft charter for city.

1950: Birthdate of Jeffrey Katzenberg, former Disney executive who help found DreamWorks.

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Israeli army headquarters compiled a list of all US citizens serving in the IDF who would lose their US citizenship on December 24, 1952, in accordance with the McCarran Act. The army announced that all such reservists would be released and all other cases would be judged on their merits. Many soldiers applied to the US Consulate for guidance and were supplied with letters endorsing their plea for an immediate release.

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that Dov Shilansky was sentenced to 21 months' imprisonment for trying to bomb the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in Jerusalem in protest against the acceptance of German reparations.

1952: “Two’s Company” a revue “directed by Jules Dassin and choreographed by Jerome Robbins” opened at the Alvin Theatre where it ran for 90 performances.

1953(9^th of Tevet, 5714): Fifty-two year old Everett, MA native Abraham Theodore Alpert who earned was awarded an A.B. from Harvard in 1922 passed away today.

1954: “The Country Girl” the movie version of Clifford Odets play produced by William Pearlberg had its world premiere tonight at the Criterion Theatre in New York City.

1955: A torch commemorating the victory of the Maccabees over their Syrian oppressors was kindled at a special Hanukkah festival at Madison Square Garden.

1955: “The Man with the Golden Arm” the movie version of the Nelson Algren’s award novel of the same name directed and produced by Otto Preminger, with music by Elmer Bernstein and co-starring Arnold Stang was released in the United States today.

1958(4th of Tevet, 5719): Wolfgang Pauli passed away. Born in 1900, Pauli was an Austrian-born American winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1945 for his discovery in 1925 of the Pauli Exclusion Principle, which states that in an atom no two electrons can occupy the same quantum state simultaneously. This principle clearly relates the quantum theory to the observed properties of atoms.

1959: NBC broadcast “Cindy’s Fella” the eleventh episode in the Startime series for which Music Corporation of America under the leadership of Lew Wasserman got performers who did not usually do television to perform on the small screen.

1960: Release date for the film “Exodus.”

1960: In a testament to the popularity the products produced by Isaac Heller and his company Remco, it was reported today that ‘while the snow fell this morning paralyzing New York City, a little boy climbed in Santa’s lap and piped ‘I wanted Fighting Lady battleship by Remco.’”

1961: United Artists released “One, Two, Three” a comedy written by I.A.L. Diamond and Billy Wilder and directed and produced by Wilder.

1961: Former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann was sentenced to death by an Israeli court. Eichmann had been convicted of crimes against humanity and would be the only person sentenced to by Israel to date.

1962: Final production of “Harold” directed by Larry Blyden.

1963: Birthdate of actress Helen Slater. Born Helen Schlacter she is best known for her work in Supergirl.

1964: U.S. premiere of “Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte” the successful horror film with a script co-authored by Lukas Heller.

1964: “I Had a Ball” a Jack Lawrence and Jerome Chodorov musical starring Buddy Hackett “opened on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre.”

1965: “The Flight of the Phoenix” a movie version of the novel of the same name with a screenplay by Lukas Heller was released in the United States today by 20^thCentury Fox.

1968(25^thof Kislev, 5729): As the country awaits the transition from Lyndon Johnson to the newly elected Richard Nixon, first day of Chanukah

1969: NBC broadcast the 15^th episode of “My World and Welcome to It” a sitcom created by Melville Shavelson.

1969: Shlomo Hillel replaced Eliyahu as Minster of Public Security.

1969:Ze'ev Sherf succeeded Mordechai Bentov and Minster of Housing and Construction.

1969: Yosef Goldschmidt became an MK as a replacement for Yosef Burg.

1970: Joseph B. Levin represented the petitioner National Assn. of Securities Dealers, Inc before the Supreme Court today.

1970: “There’s a Girl in My Soup” co-starring Goldie Hawn and Peter Sellers, a descendant of Daniel Mendoza was released in the United States today.

1970:Sylva Zalmanson and Eduard Kuznetzov were among those who went on trial today in the Soviet Union because they wanted to hijack a plane so they could fly to Israel and live “freely as Jews.”

1971(27th of Kislev, 5732): Paul Pierre Lévy passed away. Born in 1886, he was a French mining engineer and mathematician. He contributed to probability, functional analysis, partial differential equations and series. He also studied geometry. In 1926 he extended Laplace transforms to broader function classes. He undertook a large-scale work on generalized differential equations in functional derivatives.

1972(10^th of Tevet, 5733): Asara B’Tevet

1972: One day after he had passed, funeral services are scheduled to be held at Temple Sinai in Summit, NJ for seventy-two year old cellist Maurice Eisenberg who had suffered a mortal heart attack at the Juilliard School.

https://www.nytimes.com/1972/12/14/archives/maurice-eisenberg-cellist-dies-while-teaching-juilliard-class.html

https://academic.oup.com/ml/article-abstract/XXXIX/2/185/1072033?redirectedFrom=PDF

http://www.cello.org/heaven/bios/eisenap.htm

1973: Under the leadership of newly elected president Dr. Alfred M. Freedman, the board of trustees the American Psychiatric Association voted 13 to 0, with two abstentions, in favor of the resolution, which stated that “by itself, homosexuality does not meet the criteria for being a psychiatric disorder.” This was a landmark step on the path to declaring that homosexuality was not a mental illness.

1974(1st of Tevet, 5735): Rosh Chodesh Tevet

1974(1^stof Tevet, 5735): Seventy-two year old Anatole Litvak, Ukrainian-born, American filmmaker passed away. “Anastasias” – a film based on the myth that one of the Czar’s daughter survived starring Yul Brynner, Ingrid Bergman and Helen Hayes – was one of his more lasting cinematic efforts.

1974(1st of Tevet, 5735): Cartoonist Harry Hershfield, the native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa who was called “the Jewish Will Rogers” passed away at the age of 89.

http://www.lambiek.net/artists/h/herschfield_h.htm

1974: U.S. premiere of “Young Frankenstein” directed by Mel Brooks, written by Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks, and starring Gene Wilder, Mary Feldman and Madeline Kahn.

1974(1st of Tevet, 5735): Erich Walter Sternberg German-born Israeli composer passed away in Tel Aviv at the age of 83. The Berlin native was one of the early contributors to what would become the Israeli musical world having begun his work in the pre-state days of the 1930’s and 1940’s.

1975: Dr. Immanuel Jakobovitz, the Chief Rabbi of the British Commonwealth, began a nine day visit to the Soviet Union.

1975: Today Fred “Freiberger was confirmed as both script editor and producer for the second series of the British science-fiction TV series Space: 1999, recruited in part to make the series more appealing to the American market.”

1977: Today, the Detroit Pistons fired Herb Brown, the brother of legendary coach Larry Crown, “after a 9-15 start to the 1977-1978 NBA season

1978:After having premiered five days ago in Washington, DC, “Superman” the movie that brought to the big screen the comic hero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster and directed by Richard Donner (born Richard Donald Schwartzberg) was released throughout the United States today.

1979(25^thof Kislev, 5740): Parashat Vayeshev First day of Chanukah

1979: Two Palestinians connected to the Munich Olympics Massacre, Ali Salem Ahmed and Ibrahim Abdul Aziz, were killed in Cyprus

1979: Birthdate of actor Adam Bordy whose film credits include “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” and “American Pie 2.”

1980: Through a Warranty Deed, James A. and Betty J. McClellen conveyed the Temple Israel property in Leadville, CO to Harvey/Martin Construction.

1983: In Tiberias, Israel, Brigadier General Richard Heaslip who was serving with UNIFL and his wife gave birth to Irish rugby player Jamie Heaslip.

1983(9^th of Tevet, 5744): Sixty-one year old “Nat Shapiro, a writer, record producer and artist manager who was active in numerous aspects of the music and recording fields, died” of an apparent heart attack today. (As reported by John S. Wilson)

http://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/16/obituaries/nat-shapiro-writer-producer-of-records-and-artist-manager.html

1983: “Gorky Park” film version of the book by the same name co-produced by Hawk Koch and Uri Harkham was released in the United States today.

1983:Wendy Wasserstein's "Isn't It Romantic" premiered in New York.

1983: Refusnik Vladimir Albert went on trial today.

1983: After being released more than eight weeks ago in the United States “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 Kingdom today.

1984(21^stof Kislev, 5745): Sixty-five year old Bernard Lebovitz, the Toledo, OH, born son of “Adolph and Charlotte ‘Sadie’ Lebovitz” passed away today in Los Angeles.

1984(21st of Kislev, 5745): Eighty year old cantor turned operatic tenor Jan Peerce passed away today. (As reported by Harold C. Schonberg)

http://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/17/obituaries/jan-peerce-dies-at-age-of-80-tenor-sang-at-met-27-years.html

1987(24^thof Kislev, 5748): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah.

1987: It was reported today that “Manhattan's most troubled families often wind up in Family Court before Judge Judith B. Sheindlin” who would gain fame as television’s Judge Judy

1989: “We’re No Angels” a comedy with a script written by David Mamet was released in the United States today.

1989(15^thof Kislev, 5750): Seventy-nine year old scriptwriter and victim of the “blacklist” Ben Barzman passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/21/obituaries/ben-barzman-dead-scriptwriter-was-79.html

http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/culture/tender_comrades.htm

1990: In “Candles In Saudi Arabia” Ari L. Goodman described the observance of Chanukah in the desert oil kingdom.

Tonight is the fifth night of Hanukkah and, in a few select spots in Saudi Arabia, American soldiers who are Jewish will be discreetly lighting candles on their menorahs to celebrate the holiday, as they have since Hanukkah began Tuesday night. In accordance with military policy, celebrations of Hanukah as well as Christmas will be muted in deference to the Muslim nation's beliefs. There are from 500 to 800 Jewish soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen in the American force in Saudi Arabia, according to Rabbi David Lapp, director of the JWB Jewish Chaplains Council. He said there are currently two Jewish chaplains on the land and two at sea in the Persian Gulf area. Hundreds of menorahs, candles and Hanukkah gifts were sent by Jewish organizations, schools and individuals in advance of the holiday, although, again out of deference to the Saudis, some were careful not to ship products made in Israel. The Saudis have allowed the shipments. Margery Wise, the owner of the Jewish Quarter, a Judaica shop in White Plains, N.Y., that shipped 300 menorahs to members of the armed forces, said she got the idea after watching a news program about Christmas gift packages being prepared for shipment. "People don't think there are many Jews in the military, but there are a lot more than we think," she said. "And because the whole celebration is low key, we wanted to be sure they wouldn't get lost in the shuffle."

1990: Three Israelis were stabbed and killed in an aluminum factory in Jaffa today, the police said, and widespread anti-Arab rioting followed. The police set up roadblocks and closed off an area surrounding the factory in this city adjacent to Tel Aviv, saying they were looking for two Palestinian assailants from the occupied Gaza strip whom they refused to identify.

1991: In “The Man in The Glass Closet,” published today, Andrew Sarris reviewed a biography of the Hungarian born Jewish director George Cukor – George Cukor: A Double Life by Patrick McGilligan.

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/15/books/the-man-in-the-glass-closet.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

1992(20th of Kislev, 5753): Hamas terrorists kidnapped Nissim Toledano, an Israeli Army Sergeant.

1992(20th of Kislev, 5753):Ninety-six year old “Simon M. Jaglom, a New York businessman and financier, died today at New York University Medical Center. http://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/19/obituaries/simon-m-jaglom-financier-96.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm

1993: Rena Sofer appeared for the first time on “General Hospital” in the role of Lois Cerullo, a part she would play for almost three years.

1993: After having premiered in Washington, DC in November, “Schindler’s List” was released in the United States.

1994: As part of free phone lines set up for the holidays by the Teleport Communications Group, 91 year old Ann Kaufmann was able to call friends in Israel today.Through her call, Olga Reichman learned that she had become a great aunt, her niece in Tel Aviv having given birth three weeks ago to a daughter, Noa.

1994: In Ireland, Mervyn Taylor began serving Minister for Equality and Law Reform.

1995: “Heat” a crime film directed, produced and written by Michael Mann was released in the United States by Warner Bros.

1996(5^thof Tevet, 5757): Eighty-eight year old mystery writer Harry Kemelman creator “Rabbi David Small” passed away today. (As reported by Eric Pace)

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/18/books/harry-kemelman-88-mystery-novelist-dies.html

1996(5th of Tevet, 5757): Ninety-five year old “Joseph Ades, a self-made businessman and investor who was a leading supporter of Sephardic Jewish life and philanthropy in Israel and the New York City area, passed away today at his home in Kings Point, L.I. (As reported by Wolfgang Saxon)

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/18/nyregion/joseph-ades-95-businessman-who-financed-schools-and-causes.html

1997: Janet Rosenberg Jagan, the widow of Cheddi Jagan and the daughter of middle class Jewish parents from Chicago was elected President of Guyana

1998: “The Very Best of Carly Simon: Nobody Does It Better” “singer-songwriter Carly Simon's 23rd album” was released today.

1999: In a press release issued today, Eden Springs said that the agreement to sell up to 25 percent of the company to Aqua International Partners, a $300 million investment fund in San Francisco, happened to be made public on the day peace talks between Syria and Israel began in Washington was “a mere coincidence.” Eden Springs Israel's biggest water-bottling plant last and is located on the Golan Heights.

2000(18th of Kislev, 5761): Ninety-seven year old W. (Bill) Birnbaum, Professor Emeritus of mathematics and statistics at the University of Washingtonkm the Lwow born son of Isaac Lina Birnbaum and husband of Hilde Birnbaum with whom he had two children – Richard and Ann –passed away today.

2000: “What Women Want” a romantic comedy directed and co-produced by Nancy Meyers and featuring Bette Midler, Mark Feuerstein, Lisa Edelstein, Logan Lerman and Eric Balfour was released in the United States today.

2000: “Quills” a biopic based on the life of the Marquis de Sade directed and co-produced by Philip Kaufman

2002: The New York Timesbook section featured books by Jewish authors and/or about subjects of Jewish interest including Girl Meets God:On the Path to a Spiritual Lifeby Lauren F. Winner and Jew In America:My Life and a People's Struggle for Identityby Arthur Hertzberg.

2003: Hamodia revolutionized the American community with its introduction of a daily edition.

2003: New York-based Bank Leumi USA, a subsidiary of Israel's Bank Leumi le-Israel, announced it opened an office in Los Angeles as part of its expansion. The new Los Angeles office, together with the bank's already existing operations in Beverly Hills and Encino, will aim to bring the bank's international, private and commercial banking services to the Los Angeles community, a bank statement said.

2004(3^rdof Tevet, 5765): 8^th and final day of Chanukah

2005: Today Jeff “Zucker was promoted by NBC to Chief Executive Officer of NBC Universal Television Group.”

2006(24th of Kislev, 5767): In the evening, Jews all of the world light the first candle marking the start of Chanukah.

2006: The owners of Bens De Luxe Delicatessen and Restaurant agreed to sell to SIDEV Realty Corporation and officially announced the closure, bringing the restaurant's long history to an end. Ben and Fanny Kravitz had opened what would become a Montreal landmark famous for its smoked meat sandwich in 1908.

2007: In Jerusalem, a screening of a documentary entitled “Sendler’s List” It tells the story Irina Sendler a compassionate Polish nurse who endangered her life to save 2,500 children from the Warsaw Ghetto during WWII and the three American high school students who heard about Ms. Sandler’s heroic acts decide to travel to Poland in order to meet her.

2007: In Brooklyn, NY, at Congregation B'nai Avraham, a screening of “Yippee: A Journey to Jewish Joy.” Directed by award-winning American filmmaker, actor, and scriptwriter Paul Mazursky, “Yippee” chronicles the director’s whirlwind journey to Uman, a small Ukrainian town that is the site of a unique, annual gathering of Jewish men making pilgrimages to the burial place of Rabbi Nachman (1772-1810).

2007: In his Shabbat morning sermon at the San Diego Biennial Convention of the Reform Movement, Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie calls for a return to more traditional observances in general while calling for a renewed commitment to attending Shabbat Moring Services.

2008 (18 Kislev): On the Hebrew Calendar, Yahrzeit of Rabbi Abraham Maimuni HaNagid who passed away on the 18th of Kislev of the Hebrew year, 4998, which corresponds to the secular year 1237. Called "Rabbi Avraham ben HaRambam" he was the only son of Maimonides. Born in 1185, he succeeded his father as the leader of the Jewish community in Fostat (old Cairo), Egypt, at the young age of 19. He wrote many responses and commentaries explaining and defending his father's writings and Halachic rulings.

2008: Time magazine reports that Linda Lingle, the first Jewish governor of Hawaii has endorsed plans for California based battery maker Better Place to build more than 70,000 recharging stations for electric vehicles by 2012. Better Place which is headed by Tel Aviv entrepreneur Shai Agassi, is seeking a similar deal with other countries including Israel where there is a real “drive” to became an electric car nation.

2008: President Bush recalled Harry Truman's legacy at a reception marking Hanukkah.

Bush's Hanukkah reception featured the hanukkiyah David Ben Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, gave to Truman in 1951, three years after the then-U.S. president was the first world leader to recognize Israel. "A decade after President Truman received this gift, he visited Prime Minister Ben-Gurion for one of the last times," Bush said before the hanukkiyah was lit by Clifton Truman-Daniel and Yariv Ben-Eliezer, the grandsons of both leaders. "As they parted, Ben-Gurion told the President that as a foreigner he could not judge President Truman's place in American history, but the president's courageous decision to recognize the new state of Israel gave him an immortal place in Jewish history." Attending the event were Jewish Bush administration officials and Republican Jews whose loyalty to the president has been unflagging, including Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate and major donor to the party and to Jewish causes.

2008: The Washington Post featured a review of Bones by Jonathan Kellerman (the latest in the Alex Delaware series)

2008: The IPO and counter tenor David De’or perform a special concert dedicated to the 70^th anniversary celebration of Reuth a non-profit organization located in Tel Aviv that coordinates the activities of various medical centers

2009: The 1935 production of prominent Yiddish playwright Jacob Gordin’s 1892 play “The Yiddish King Lear” will be screened in Manhattan at CUNY’s Martin E. Segal Theatre Center today.

2009: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced that Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry would receive the Ahmet Ertegun Award in March 2010.

2009: Opening of “Letters of Conscience: Raphael Lemkin and the Quest to End Genocide” an exhibition organized jointly with the American Jewish Historical Society and the Center for Jewish History that “focuses on the activities and legacy of Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-American Jewish lawyer who coined the term genocide, working relentlessly and inventively to protect the rights and survival of specific groups targeted for destruction.”

2009: A King County jury this morning found Naveed Haq guilty of eight counts, including aggravated first-degree murder, in the 2006 shootings at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.

2009: The Google logo was draped in a green flag today to mark the 150^th anniversary of the birth of L.L. Zamenoff.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/books-and-arts/ll-zamenhof-and-the-shadow-people

2009(28th of Kislev, 5770): Ninety-five year old “Dr. Herbert Spiegel, a New York psychiatrist who treated pain, anxiety and addictions by putting people into a trance,” passed away today. (As reported by Benedict Carey)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/health/10spiegel.html

2010: A memorial garden in honor of William Cooper of the Yorta tribe is scheduled to be unveiled at the national Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem today. Cooper was an Aboriginal elder who protested the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis. Cooper was 77 years old when he led a small march to deliver a petition to the German consul general in Melbourne just weeks after Kristallnacht. Although Cooper and his Australian Aborigines League were denied entry to the consulate their protest did not go unnoticed, even though they were half a world away from Europe. He died in 1941 at the age of 80. He will become the first indigenous Australian to be honored by Yad Vashem.

2010: Israeli classical pianist, Ran Dank is scheduled to perform at the Morgan Museum and Library in New York City.

2010: The Women’s League Convention is scheduled to come to an end.

2010: Center for Jewish History, Yeshiva University Museum and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research are scheduled to present: “Living Record: Prewar Poland Preserved on Film”

2010: It was reported today that Time magazine had named Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg Person of the Year for 2010.

2010: According to reports published today, "The stormy weather that hit Israel this week had an unexpected consequence when an ancient Roman statue was unearthed on an Ashkelon beach. A passer-by noticed the headless marble statue, thought to be at least 1700 years old, after the storm left it exposed in the sand. The white marble figure, which is 1.2 metres tall and weighs 200 kilograms, is wearing a toga but no longer has arms. A spokesman for the Israel Antiquities Authority said that what was thought to be part of a Roman bathhouse was also unearthed. The violent winds were believed to have caused some damage to the ancient Roman ruins further north in Israel at Caesarea.

2011(19^thof Kislev, 5772): “Rosh Hashanah of Chassidism.” The 19th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev is celebrated as the "the New Year of Chassidus (Hasidism)."“It was on this date, in the year 1798 that the founder of Chabad Chassidism, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (1745–1812), was freed from his imprisonment in czarist Russia. More than a personal liberation, this was a watershed event in the history of Chassidism, heralding a new era in the revelation of the “inner soul” of Torah. The public dissemination of the teachings of Chassidism had in fact begun two generations earlier. The founder of the chassidic movement, Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov (1698–1760), revealed to his disciples gleanings from the mystical soul of Torah which had previously been the sole province of select kabbalists in each generation. This work was continued by the Baal Shem Tov’s disciple, Rabbi DovBer, the “Maggid of Mezeritch”—who is also deeply connected with the date of “19 Kislev”: on this day in 1772, 26 years before Rabbi Schneur Zalman’s release from prison, the Maggid returned his soul to his Maker. Before his passing, he said to his disciple, Rabbi Schneur Zalman: “This day is our yom tov (festival).” Rabbi Schneur Zalman went much farther than his predecessors, bringing these teachings to broader segments of the Jewish population of Eastern Europe. More significantly, Rabbi Schneur Zalman founded the “Chabad” approach—a philosophy and system of study, meditation, and character refinement that made these abstract concepts rationally comprehensible and practically applicable in daily life. In its formative years, the chassidic movement was the object of strong, and often venomous, opposition from establishment rabbis and laymen. Even within the chassidic community, a number of Rabbi Schneur Zalman’s contemporaries and colleagues felt that he had “gone too far” in tangibilizing and popularizing the hitherto hidden soul of Torah. In the fall of 1798, Rabbi Schneur Zalman was arrested on charges that his teachings and activities threatened the imperial authority of the czar, and was imprisoned in an island fortress in the Neva River in Petersburg. In his interrogations, he was compelled to present to the czar’s ministers the basic tenets of Judaism and explain various points of chassidic philosophy and practice. After 53 days, he was exonerated of all charges and released. Rabbi Schneur Zalman saw these events as a reflection of what was transpiring Above. He regarded his arrest as but the earthly echo of a Heavenly indictment against his revelation of the most intimate secrets of the Torah. And he saw his release as signifying his vindication in the Heavenly court. Following his liberation on 19 Kislev, he redoubled his efforts, disseminating his teachings on a far broader scale, and with more detailed and “down-to-earth” explanations, than before. The nineteenth of Kislev therefore marks the “birth” of Chassidism: the point at which it was allowed to emerge from the womb of “mysticism” into the light of day, to grow and develop as an integral part of Torah and Jewish life.”

2011(19^thof Kislev, 5772): Yahrtzeit of Rebbe Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezritch, the successor to the Baal Shem Tov

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

2011: The third weekend of Hamshoushalayim is scheduled to begin today.

2011: Second day of the Union for Reform Judaism Biennial is scheduled to take place in suburban Maryland

2011: U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice denounced the treatment Israel receives in the United Nations today, adding that American support of Israel's security was an "essential truth”

2011: The Israel Defense Forces is forming a command to supervise "depth" operations, actions undertaken by the military far from Israel's borders, the army announced today.

2011:Minister Binyamin Netanyahu vowed that Jewish extremists would not be allowed to spark a religious war, after a West Bank mosque was vandalized at dawn today. “We won’t let them [Jewish extremists] attack our soldiers, start a religious war, set fire to mosques [and] attack Jews or non-Jews,” the prime minister told a Likud central committee meeting in Tel Aviv tonight.

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=249662

2012: “Not in Tel Aviv” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.

2012: The Daniel Zamir Band led by Daniel Zamir “Israeli Jazz superstar and virtuoso saxophonist” is scheduled to perform in New York City.

2012: In New York, the New Shul is scheduled to sponsor “Let There Be Light!” a flashmob Chanukah celebration that will gather at “8 Points of Light” to bring the menorah glow to the Village.

2013: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Leonard Bernstein Lettersedited by Nigel Simeone, My Mistake: A Memoir by Daniel Menaker and America’s Great Game: The CIA’s Secret Arabists and the Shaping of the Modern Middle Eastby Hugh Wilford.

2013: YIVO is scheduled to sponsor “Music Treasures of the American Yiddish Theatre” part of the Sidney Young Artist Concert Series featuring the works of big four of Second Avenue:” Abraham Ellstein, Alexander Olshanetsky, Sholom Secunda and Joseph Rumshinsky

2013:The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to show the Emmy Award winning film “Skokie: Invaded, But Not Conquered”

2013: Rabbi Alexis Berk is scheduled to officiate at the graveside services at Hebrew Rest Ceremony for Attorney Milton Cohen, a lifelong resident of New Orleans and Tulane alum. (As reported by Crescent City Jewish News)

2013: The Union for Reform Judaism Biennial is scheduled to come to an end today in San Diego, CA.

2013: Police finally fully reopened the main roads to and from Jerusalem this afternoon, after more than two-and-a-half days of closures because of heavy snow in one of Israel’s worst-ever storms.

2013(12^thof Tevet, 5774): “A Lebanese army sniper killed an Israeli soldier at the border fence near Rosh Hanikra tonight.” (As reported by Yaakov Lappin)

2013: A new production of “Stars of David” which transforms interviews with Jewish figures like Gloria Steinem, Aaron Sorkin and Joan Rivers into songs” is scheduled to come to an end after opening on November 13.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/14/theater/stars-of-david-to-return-in-concert-form.html

http://www.starsofdavidsongs.com/

2014: The Berman Jewish DataBank is scheduled to co-sponsor the first of two sessions on Jews and urbanism at the annual conference of the Association for Jewish Studies in collaboration with the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry.

2014: Funeral services Rabbi Yitzchok Meyer Abramson are scheduled to take place this at the Berger Memorial Chapel followed by burial at Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in Chesterfield, MO.

2014(22^ndof Kislev. 5775): Eighty-four year old political pitchman and consultant David Garth passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/16/nyregion/david-garth-pioneer-of-the-political-ad-dies-at-84.html?_r=0

http://nypost.com/2014/12/15/political-guru-david-garth-dies/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/15/david-garth-dead-dies_n_6329498.html

2014: “Itamar Zorman, winner of the 2011 Tchaikovsky Competition and the 2010 Freiburg Violin Competition,” is scheduled to perform this evening at the Good Shepherd Church in New York.

2014: Shin Bet reported foiling a suicide bomber’s plot in Tel Aviv based on disguising the suicide bomber as a pregnant woman in need of medical help.

2014: “The Israel Antiquities Authority announced today that archaeologist have uncovered a farmhouse that is 2,800 years old consisting 23 rooms “in the area of modern day Rosh Ha’ayin. (As reported by Lazar Berman)

2015(3^rd of Tevet, 5775): On the Jewish calendar, Yahrzeit of HaRav Avraham Brandwein of Stretyn who had succeeded his father as the rabbi of Stretyn, after his father’s death in 1854,

2015: A 39-year-old Palestinian construction worker stabbed a foreman and another worker at a construction site in the Israeli city of Modi'in today, marking the first attack of its kind in the city since the start of the Palestinian wave of terror. One of the victims was seriously wounded and the other sustained moderate injuries. They were rushed to a hospital.

2015(3^rdof Tevet, 5775): On the Jewish calendar Yahrzeit of Rabbi Chaim Shmulevitz , dean of the Mir Yeshiva for more than 40 years.

2015: “More than 300 Jewish activists in Boston marched for the Black Lives Matter movement, including members of Jewish Voice for Peace.”

2015: The Association for Jewish Studies’ 47^th Annual Conference is scheduled to come an end today in Boston, MA.

2016: On tonight’s episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, “Gad Elmaleh appeared as the show's stand-up act

2016: In New Orleans, the Jewish Children’s Regional Service is scheduled to hold its “Latkes with a Twist” a “community-wide celebration” that will include a silent auction designed to raise funds for an organizations that really does the good that it promises.

2016: Today, President-elect Donald Trump is nominated “a top Jewish surrogate, David Friedman, to be ambassador to Israel, with a statement saying Friedman will serve from Jerusalem and describing the city as “Israel’s eternal capital.”

2016: The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at the Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a “presentation that will walk attendees through the history and legal basics of FOI laws, and will teach researchers how to file their own state FOI requests for any genealogical or archival records they may want to see returned to the public domain.”

2017(27^thof Kislev, 5778): Third Day of Chanukah; in the evening, kindle the fourth light and erev Shabbat

2017: Seventy five year old Canadian businessman and philanthropist Bernard Charles “Barry” Sherman and his wife were “murdered today” by person or persons unkown.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michelatindera/2017/12/15/canadian-pharmaceuticals-billionaire-and-wife-found-dead-in-toronto-mansion/#470c717fe262

2017: In Omaha, Yachad is scheduled to “at Temple Israel for their services and party.”

2017: “Omaha Yachad & KC Kollel's Ahoovim are scheduled to present: A Winter Shabbaton hosted by Chabad of Omaha

2017: The Maccabeats are scheduled to perform this evening at Congregation Ahavas Achim in Highland Park, NJ.

2017: In Atlanta, The Breman Museum, the Center for Puppetry Arts and High Museum of Art are a scheduled to present a program featuring a talk with puppet builders about they create art used for performance.”

2017: “The Worlds of Arthur Szyk” is scheduled to close today at the University of California, Berkley.

http://magnes.berkeley.edu/exhibitions/worlds-arthur-szyk

2018(7^thof Tevet, 5779): Parashat Vayigash; for more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/

2018: Israeli “visual artist Keren Anavy” “in collaboration with Valerie Green/Dance Entropy” is scheduled to explore “the idea of Utopia through dance and visual art” this evening as part of the Dancespace Project.

2018: In Chevy Chase, MD, Ohr Kodesh is scheduled to host the “Sixth Annual Lewis Rushefsky Yiddish Film Series,” featuring films of the Yiddish theatre this evening

2018: As of today, exactly one year to the day on which the bodies of “billionaire couple and philanthropic powerhouses” Barry and Honey Sherman were found, the police have no viable suspect or motive for the crime but their four children – Jonathon, Lauren, Alexandra and Kaelen – have continued their parent’s good works and charity through the “Honey and Barry Foundation of Giving” they created to honor their memory.

2018: Kaddish is recited today for Sgt. Yoseph Cohen and Staff Sgt. Yovel Moyosef who were buried yesterday after having been murdered by Palestinian terrorists two days ago, December 13.

2019: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Man Who Solved The Market by Gregory Zuckerman, Battling Bella: The Protest Politics of Bella Abzugby Leandra Ruth Zarnow and Return to the Reich: A Holocaust Refugee’s Secret Mission to Defeat the Nazis by Eric Lichtblau.

2019: In Chicago, The URJ Biennial is scheduled to come to a close today.

2019: In Atlanta, the Breman is scheduled to host a walking tour of “The Temple,” the city’s oldest Jewish house of worship.

2019: The Illinois Holocaust Museum is schedule to host “Lodz Ghetto Through the Eyes of a Survivor” which is an exhibition of the work of photographer Henryk Ross.

2019: The Straus Historical Society’s Silent Auction is scheduled to come to an end today.

2019: The American Sephardi Federation with the Jewish Community of Urmia, Iran and participants from Iraq, Iran, Azerbaijan, and Turkey are scheduled to present: International Nash-Didan (Judeo-Aramaic) Day.”

2019: It was reported today that “the price tag for the next election is NIS 3.8 billion and the cumulative cost for all three national ballots is an estimated NIS 10 billion - enough to raise old-age stipends for one million pensioners in need.” (YNET)

December 16

1316: Öljaitü, the eighth Ilkhanid dynasty ruler in Tabriz, Iran, whom the former vizer Rashid-al-Din Hamadani the Jewish convert to Islam was found of guilty of trying to poison, passed away today.

1431: King Henry VI of England named King of France following the death of his grandfather, Charles VI, King of France. Charles VI was the French king who expelled the Jews from France.

1485: Birthdate of Catherine of Aragon, future wife of Henry VIII and Queen of England. This daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella failed to produce a male heir which changed the religious face of Christian Europe. As for the Jewish view, Henry’s father had to promise his future Spanish in-laws that Jews would not be permitted to live in England as a condition for marriage to Catherine.

1584: Birthdate of John Seldon the English scholar and jurist who developed an interest in an Jewish laws and customs that led to the development of a “theory of international law” based on seven Noahide Laws as well as a “treatise on marriage and divorce among the Jews entitled “Uxor Ebraica.” For more see Renaissance England's Chief Rabbi: John Selden by Jason P. Rosenblatt http://blogs.loc.gov/law/2011/12/john-selden-as-an-early-modern-maccabee/and http://jcpa.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/john-selden.pdf

1603: A De revolutionibus manuscript of Nicolaus Copernicus passed via Rheticus to others and was marked today by Jakob Christmann, the Jewish born orientalist who had converted to Christianity, with Nicolai Copernick Canonici Varmiensis in Borussia Germaniae mathematici…

1653: Oliver Cromwell became lord protector of England, Scotland and Ireland. Regardless of what others may have thought of him, Cromwell did work to allow the Jews to return to England.

1684: The first room for prayer meetings of was opened in Copenhagen which was the home of the newly founded Ashkenazi community

1737(23^rdof Kislev, 5498): Anna Channa Isaac Brisker the wife of Itsak ben Simon Shamash and daughter of Isaac Itsak Brisker and Sara Samuel Brisker who gave birth to her in Amsterdam in 1702 passed away today.

1741: Birthdate of Nathan Adler, a German Kabbalist from Frankfurt, who passed away in 1800 and is not to be confused with the British rabbi of the same name.

1750: Birthdate of David Friedländer “the son-in-law of banker Daniel Itzig, and a friend, pupil, and subsequently intellectual successor of Moses Mendelssohn, who occupied a prominent position in both Jewish and non-Jewish circles of Berlin.”

1760: Jacob Pinto the son of Abraham and Sarah Pinto and his first wife, Thankful Pinto, gave birth to Yale University graduate and member of the Continental Army William Pinto “who became a prominent West India merchant” who “seems to have had no Jewish affiliations

1762(30^th of Kislev, 5523): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah

1762: As the Jews prepared to light the seventh Chanukah candle, in Barnstable, MA, Adino Hincley married Mercy Otis today.

1762: Final date for the Journal of the Upper House of Assembly in the state of Georgia.

https://www.google.com/search?q=December+16,+1762&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjah9Xz6rbmAhUEJKwKHWeOCVcQsAR6BAgGEAE&biw=910&bih=662&dpr=1.25#imgrc=PeQzqfhCnFhrVM:

1767(25^th of Kislev, 5528): First Day of Chanukah

1767: Jews begin observing Chanukah during the second month of Lord North’s, the man who would lead England throughout most of the American Revolution, 15 years as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

1769: Dr. John Sequeyra, scion of a distinguished Sephardic family of physicians in England, treated George Washington's daughter "Patsy" who was ill. Patsy was actually his step-daughter, the child of his wife, Martha who was a widow when he married her. Patsy’s untimely death was a great personal blow to Washington. The “Father of our Country” had no children of his own.

1750: Birthdate of David Friedländer, (Friedlander) a German Jewish banker, writer and communal leader.

1773(2^nd of Tevet, 5534): Seventh Day of Chanukah

1773: As Jews kindle the 8^th light of Chanukah, a group of American patriots, the Sons of Liberty, boarded an English ship in Boston harbor and threw its cargo of tea overboard, giving us the Boston Tea Party, a milestone event on the way to the American Revolution

1776: In Great Britain, declaration of an official fast “to wish success against the rebels in America.”

1778(27^thof Kislev, 5539): Third Day of Chanukah

1778: Birthdate of Liepmann Levin, who converted and gained fame as German dramatist Ludwig Robert and was the brother of Rahel Antonie Friederike Varnhagen,

1786(25^thof Kislev, 5547): Chanukah and Shabbat

1786: In Harford, CT, as the Jews began their observance of Shabbat New York and Massachusetts signed the Treaty of Hartford which settled the boundary disputes between the two states but which also showed how weak the national government was – a weakness that would lead to the creation of the U.S. Constituion.

1789: Lilie Marx and Samuel Suss Strauss gave birth to Lammle Straus, the husband of Baden native Zelma Hochstetter with whom he had six children.

1790: Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and Countess Augusta Reuss-Ebersdorf gave birth to their youngest son Leopold, the First King of the Belgians who counted among his friends and advisors Senator J.R. Bischoffsheim, the father-in-law of Baron Maurice de Hirsch.

1800(29^thof Kislev, 5561): Fifth Day of Chanukah

1800: As the Jews prepared to kindle the sixth Chanukah candle, Alexander Hamilton wrote to Oliver Wolcott, that either Jefferson or Burr would become the next President – a reality that existed because both men had received the same number of votes in the electoral college even though the voters had thought they were voting for Jefferson for President and Burr as Vice President. (This would be remedied by the 12^th amendment to Constituion)

1805(25^thof Kislev, 5566): Chanukah

1805: On the same day that Jews prepared to kindle the second Chanukah candle, the Lewis and Clark Expedition was trying to stay dry as rain fell on their encampment in Oregon.

1807(15^thof Kislev, 5568): Seventy-seven year old Marianne Abraham passed away in her home town of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

1806(15^thof Kislev, 5568): Marianne Abraham who had married Jochem David de Mets-Maarsen in 1750 passed away today in Amsterdam.

1815: In the UK, the Western Synagogue purchased the site for the Brompton Jewish Cemetery for £400.

1818: Birthdate of Moritz German, the native of Nikolsburg who from 1844 until his death in 1892 was the “cantor of the synagogue in Wroclaw” and who was the father of “industrialist Felix German.”

1819: Birthdate of Simon von Winterstein, the native of Prague who was a successful businessman, member of the Imperial Council and a leader of the Vienna Jewish Community.

1825: Birthdate of Bavarian native Myer Strouse who in 1832 came to the United States where he settled in Pottsville, PA where he practiced law, served two terms in the U.S House of Representatives as a Democrat and represented the Molly Maguires, a secret society of coal miners feared and despised by the mine owners>

http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S001026

1830: Rachel Gomes and John Messena gave birth to Esther Meseena.

1832(6^thof Tevet, 5586): “Gitlel bar Abraham” was buried in the “Hope Street old burial ground” after she had passed away today.

1832: Birthdate of French painter and illustrator Jules Worms who “made his debut at the Salon of 1859 with his painting “Dragoon Making Love to a Nurse on a Bench in the Palace Royale” followed by “Arrest for Debt.”

http://www.rehs.com/Jules_Worms_Bio.html

1835:L'éclair (The Lightning Flash), an opéra comique in 3 acts by Fromental Halévy was premiered today by the Paris Opéra-Comique at the Salle de la Bourse with an orchestra that included Jules Offenbach (born Jakob Offenbach) as a cellist.

1842: In Pilsen, Bohemia, Jonas and Charlotte Goldscheider Adler gave birth to Emma Adler who became Emma Mandl when she married Bernard Mandl with whom she had two children – Sydney and Etta – while working on a variety of philanthropies and “good works’ including Jewish Home Finding Society for Children, the Home for Jewish Orphans and the Baron Hirsch Woman’s Club which founded and led as its first president.

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/emma-b-mandl

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/Mandl-Emma-B

1847: Birthdate of Dorum, Germany native Justus Heyn, the husband of Manchester, England native Caroline Franc.

1847: In Paris, General Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy and his wife gave birth to Ferdinand Esterhazy, the French officer who was a spy for the German and “the perpetrator of the acts of treason for which Captain Alfred Dreyfus was wrongfully convicted.

1847: A bill was introduced in the House of Commons that would have changed the oath of office so that Lionel de Rothschild could take his seat in Parliament.

1850(11^thof Tevet, 5611): Nathaniel Samuel Jacobs, the son of Isaac and Catherin Jacobs and the husband of Frances Russell was buried today in the “Hope Street burial ground” on the same day he had passed away.

1851: In Hungary, Joseph Newman and his wife gave birth to Julius Newman the long time Rabbi at the Montefiore Congregation at Thomas and North Robey Street in Chicago, Illinois.

1854(25^thof Kislev, 5615) Chanukah.

1857: In Buetthard, Bavaria, Simon Sichel and Malie Hirsch gave birth to Portland, Oregon Police Commissioner Sigmund Sichel, the Vice President of the First Hebrew Benevolent Association, Grand President of B’nai B’rith’s District 4 and husband of Sarah Solomon.

1858: Birthdate of Yiddish singer, actor, and composer Sigmund Mogulesko.

1858: “Gen. Cass and the Mortara Affair” published today examined the American response to the Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara and the Pope’s refusal to return the child to his parents. “Gen. Cass” is Lewis Cass, the American military leader who carved out a successful political career that including serving as Secretary of State under James Buchanan starting in 1857. According to the article, Cass conceded that an injustice had been done but that the United States could not be expected to officially interfere any time a matter of injustice in a foreign land was brought to its attention. According to Cass “The President full participates in the public feeling and he cannot refrain from expressing equal surprise and pain that, in this advanced age, such unnatural practices should be ascribed to any part of the religious world and such barbarous measures resorted to.” Regardless of the President’s personal feelings, he still cannot bring himself to join the protests of other governments including England, France, Sardinia Holland and Austria. The author of the article wonders if Cass would intervene if the Jews were suffering at the hands of the inquisition. [Considering the international clamor that arose over the issue, President Buchanan’s reluctance may seem a little mystifying to some especially when you consider that one of August Belmont was reported to be one of his major supporters. For those who know anything about the days leading up to the American Civil War, Buchanan’s behavior is not a matter of anti-Semitism but merely another reflection of a President who had no will to act no matter what the cause.]

1863: Birthdate of George Santayana the philosopher and writer best known for the quote “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Witty though he may have been a reading of Chapter 25 of George Santayana: A Biography by John McCormick entitled “Moral Dogmatism: Santayana as Anti-Semite gives one a different view of the famous Spaniard. While it would appear that his negative view of Jews was a slowly evolving one, starting in the late 19^th century it took full form during the 1930’s as can be seen from his reading of and comments about Lecole des Cadavres written by “the pro-Hitler, Jew-baiting fascist Louis-Ferdinand Celine.

1864: On the second and final of the Battle of Nashiville , Colonel Frederick Kneifler and his brigade of Hoosiers turned a possible defeat into victory by charging the on-coming Rebels, “forcing them to retreat” in such confusion that they left much of their equipment on the field of Battle.

1865: In Newark, NJ, Alexander and Fannie (Fleisher): Schlesinger gave birth businessman and philanthropist Louis Schlesinger, the co-founder of the Union Building Company, vice president of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, board member of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun who married the former Sophie Levy with whom he had two sons – Alexander L. and Joel L. Schlesinger.

1866: In Baltimore, MD, Selig G. Putzel and Sophie Neuberger gave birth to Lewis Putzel, the University of Maryland law school graduate and Republican politician who served in both the House of Delegates and the State Senate and was the husband of Birdie Rosenberg with whom he had two children – Edward G. Putzel and Margaret Ney/Hummel. (Some sources show 1867)

1866: Birthdate of Alexander Protopopov who as Russian Minister of the Interior said in 1916 that he believed “in equal rights for Jews” and that this would be part of the move to abolish “everything that hinders further progress” in Russia.

1870: Birthdate of Eugene Hugo Paul, the native of Jersey City, NJ, who became a “banker and clothier in New York City as well as an officer with the Young Men’s Hebrew Association and the Young Folks League for Aid to Hebrew Infants.

1870: Two days after he had passed away, “Ferdinand Leopold Emanuel,” the son of Harry and Rosalie Emanuel was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemtery.

1870:Dr. Isaac Mayer Wise, founder of American Reform Judaism, preached the dedicatory sermon at the laying of the cornerstone of the Central Synagogue, Lexington and Fifty-Fifth Street.

1873: Today, in Barbados, a petition was presented to the House of Assembly” where it was requested that the Jews “be relieved of payment of taxes of £20 to £25 annually imposed by the Vestry on a house belonging to the congregation, the small rental which was used for the upkeep of the synagogue and for the help of poor Jews.”

1874: “Property Exempt From Taxes” published today described the decision of Judge Van Brunt exempting a lot adjacent to the Hebrew Free School from taxes even though the school is only renting the property and does not own it.

1875:“The National Assembly nominated” Auguste Scheurer, a future ardent defender of Dreyfus, “as a permanent Senator.”

1875: The children from the Hebrew Orphan Asylum were taken to the Hebrew Charity Fair, which is now in its second week. So far, the fair has raised nearly $100,000.

1875:The H.M.S. Malabar set sail from Egypt, bound for Portsmouth, England, with a precious cargo stored in seven zinc boxes: 176,602 shares of stock in the Suez Canal Company, recently sold by the Khedive of Egypt. The buyer was the British Government, bolstered by a timely advance of 4 million [pounds] from N.M. Rothschild & Sons in London. Spiced with intrigue and flush with flamboyant figures, the affair has all the flair of a thriller. There have been bigger real-estate bonanzas -- notably the $15 million deal that won the Louisiana Purchase from France and the $7 million payment that wrested Alaska from Russia. But none have had quite the elegance, speed and daring of the Suez Canal transaction. It briefly established the House of Rothschild as a sovereign state on a par with -- or perhaps even slightly ahead of -- Her Majesty's Government. Two decades earlier, the British were strangely myopic about the value of a proposed canal that would unite the Mediterranean with the Red Sea. Benjamin Disraeli, then the Chancellor of the Exchequer, dismissed the notion: ''The operation of nature would in a short time defeat the ingenuity of man.'' For the greatest maritime power on earth, this would prove a grave miscalculation, ceding construction of the canal to French capital and engineers, backed by Egyptian forced labor. By the time the canal opened in 1869, it had redrawn the map of the British Empire. The sea journey that had stretched 10,800 nautical miles from London to its imperial jewel, India, was slashed to 6,300 miles. Luckily for the British, the Khedive provided the British with a chance to remedy their blunder only six years later. A profligate borrower, addicted to luxury and Pharaonic projects, Isma'il Pasha became hopelessly indebted and could stave off his creditors only by selling his controlling stake in the Suez Canal Company. Very likely it was Lionel de Rothschild, head of the British bank, who tipped off Disraeli to the historic opportunity. The Prime Minister had to act with maximum secrecy and dispatch, sending his private secretary to sound out Lord Lionel on the huge advance of 4 million [pounds]. As legend has it, the reserved and circumspect Rothschild asked, ''What is your security?''''The British Government,'' the secretary replied. The tale has been embellished with other, possibly fanciful, details -- the most common being that the financier savored muscatel grapes as they talked, spitting out pits between rejoinders -- but the moment needs no apocryphal adornment. With a nod, Lord Lionel had conferred upon the British crown mastery of one of the world's principal crossroads. In retrospect, the feat represents a high-water mark of banker power. For its services, N.M. Rothschild exacted a steep and controversial fee: a 2 1/2 percent commission on the advance, plus 5 percent annual interest. The Rothschilds defended these terms, noting that they had put a considerable portion of their capital at risk during the perilous interval before Parliament voted for payment. Hobbled by the lumbering pace of politics and fearing a leak of information, Disraeli, like other 19th-century statesmen, employed an elite private bank as a screen behind which to conduct secret statecraft. The deal held up for a remarkable 81 years, binding together the outposts of the British Empire until President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, in a blaze of rhetoric, nationalized the Suez Canal Company in July 1956. In a rear-guard defense of colonial privilege, the British, the French and the Israelis pounced on Egypt in a brief but abortive invasion that only underscored the limits of Western influence in the region. The advent of larger vessels has somewhat diminished the canal's importance. Supertankers now economically ship oil by the traditional route around the Cape of Good Hope. Even so, the hundred-mile canal remains the pivot of much Middle East commerce and diplomacy.

1876: Birthdate of Kiev native Louis Cohen, the University of Chicago and Columbia University trained engineer whose many inventions in the fields of “radio and cable telegraphy” included the U.S. Navy’s “Cohen receiver” and who raised one daughter with his wife Ethel

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1948/09/29/101518843.pdf

1876: Birthdate or Russian native Isidor Leo Marrow, who in 1888 came to the United States where he rose to the presidency “underware makers” Harwood Manufacturing Company while serving as “a director of the Israel Zion Hospital” while raising two sons and four daughters with “his wife Rebecca.”

1877: Rabbi Henry S. Jacobs of the 34^th Street Synagogue officiated at the funeral of Jacob Grau, the impresario. The Hebrew Mutual Benefit Society had attended the body before the ceremony which was attended by a large throng. Burial was at the Washington Cemetery.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F04E2D9173EE73BBC4F52DFB467838C669FDE

1878: Sixty-seven year old German author Karl Ferdinand Gutzkow an advocate for the emancipation of the Jews in his writings including “Uriel Acost” his play that would “later become the first classic play to be translated into Yiddish and became a longtime standard of the Yiddish theatre” passed away today.

1878: Max Blatt and his wife gave birth to Joseph Blatt the graduate of the University of Cincinnati and Hebrew Union College who served as the rabbi of Congregation B’nai Israel in Columbus, GA.

1879(1^st of Tevet, 5640): Rosh Chodesh Tevet

1879: The Young Men’s Hebrew Association hosted a Chanukah reception at the Academy of Music.

that included a series of tableaux that depicted the Jewish victory over the Syrians http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A06E2DC163EE63BBC4F52DFB4678382669FDE

1880: It was reported today that_the Union Presbyterian Church of Alexandria, VA which does not have a building in which to hold services has accepted the offer of a local synagogue to use its facility.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F02EFDB123FEE3ABC4E52DFB467838B699FDE

1880: Frank Leslie’s illustrated published a woodcut of Chanukah celebration hosted by Young Men’s Hebrew Association at the Academy of Music in New York.

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3c03362/

1880: In “Gilnitz, Polish Lithuania,” Joseph Jacob Altman and Leah Oberschmieds gave birth to Rebecca Annetta Altman, the resident of Steubenville, OH, who wrote “essays, poems, sketches and translations from German, Hebrew and Yiddish for American Jewish newspapers and the Steubenville Herald.

1881: It was reported today that the tableaus on display at the ball sponsored by the Young Men’s Hebrew Association that “reproduced some of the most famous scenes in the Biblical story” “were selected by Rabbis H.P. Mendes and Henry S. Jacobs” and “carried out under the supervision of Messrs. I. and B. Kiralfy.

1881: It was reported today that the Commissioners of Emigration have sent 200 of the 250 Jewish immigrants from Russia who arrived aboard the SS Suevia to Ward’s Island. The rest of them will be sent there in a day or two.

1882: Rabbi Gustav Gottheil of Temple Emanu-El testified before a committee headed by Senators Boyd and Browning that was investigating “the subjects of corners and futures and the effect which they have upon commerce and public morals.”

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D07E6DF153DE533A25754C1A9649D94639FD7CF

1883: It was reported today that “Mme. Janauschek” will be starring in an upcoming performance of “Zillah, the Hebrew Mother

1883: “Shall Jews Marry Christians” published today summarized the views of Rabbi Isaac M. Wise on the subject on intermarriage of which he spoke approvingly. To what extent the fact that one of his daughter married an Irish Catholic influenced his attitude is unknown.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9807E3D8103BE033A25755C1A9649D94629FD7CF

1883: In Rochester, NY, members of Berith Kodesh are scheduled to vote today on adopting the new English ritual for their services which they began using at Shabbat services this past weekend.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9E0DE7D8103BE033A25756C1A9649D94629FD7CF

1883: Birthdate of French film pioneer, Mix Linder.

1883: “Revision” published today described some of the changes that can be found in the latest translation of the Old Testament Among them is changing the garment that Jacob gave to Joseph from a “coat of many colors” to “a tunic with long sleeves.”

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F40E12F93B5F15738DDDAF0994DA415B8384F0D3

1883(17^th of Kislev, 5644): Sixty-six year old Maximilien Charles Alphonse Cerfberr of Medelsheim, “a French journalist, writer and government official” passed away today.

1884: It was reported today that vice cases were treated differently based on religion as could be seen by the fact that, Herman Schneider, a 28 year old Jew, was indicted and held without bail on the same charge for which the light haired and fair skinned Frank Snyder was allowed to post bail.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F50D10F7355F15738DDDAF0994DA415B8484F0D3

1884: Birthdate of Metz native and German trained architect Walter Curt Behrendt who came to the United States in 1934 where he continued his career as visiting lecturer and college professor at Dartmouth and the University of Buffalo.

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/archival/collections/ldpd_8507461/

1885: It was reported today that the Ladies’ Fair being held at the Metropolitan Opera House has already raised $10,000 which will got to the Kindergarten and Industrial Schools of the Hebrew Free School Association

1885: In San Francisco, Julius C. Koosher was one of four men arrested today on charges that they planned to assassinate 20 prominent Californians including Leland Stanford and Charles Crocker and then blow up the city’s Chinatown. Koosher, who is also known by the name Kowalski is a Jew who escaped Russia after suffering unspeakable persecutions and came to the United States where he became an agent of the Jewish Relief Society. His animosity towards the railroads stemmed from being swindled by railway magnet Henry Villard who had promised to pay me $600 for every family that helped become homesteaders.

1886: In Detroit, a dispute erupted at the Commercial National Bank between insurance man William Parkinson a Jew named Weinberger over $75 that the former owed to the latter.

1887: Lieutenant Louis Ostheim, the Philadelphia native and graduate of the U.S. Military Academy was detached to take charge of Fort Myer in Virginia.

1889: Dr. Anton Zolki, a Jewish “journeyman dentist” attacked Dr. C. H. De Lamater while the being treated for a dental problem.

1889: A large contingent from the B’nai B’rith is expected to attend the events this evening at the “Hebrew educational fair” being hold at the American Institute Building.

1889: “Foreigners In The Trades” published today reiterates the stereotypes among immigrants including “the Chinamen who seem to be able to do little else besides washing lines” and Jews who continue to involve themselves “in callings in which compound interest figures prominently.” (Another way of calling Jews moneylenders and usurers)

1891: In Munich, Joseph Schülein, the son of Joel (Julius) Schülein and Jeanette Schülein and Ida Schülein gave birth to Kurt Schülein

1891: Plans were published today for the construction of a new synagogue to be built at Plainfield, NJ to serve the Jews of that town as well as the Jews living in North Plainfield, Bound Brook and Somverville.

1892: Rabbis Theodore Guenzburg, David Chan and Henry S. Jacobs led services this evening which part of the jubilee exercises celebrating the 50^th anniversary of Rodeph Shalom in New York City which featured a sermon by Dr. Gustav Gottheil, the Rabbi of Temple Emanu-El.

1892:"How They Regard Ham. Views of Local Rabbis on Mr. Rosenburg's Expulsion” published today described the results the Brooklyn Eagle found when it visited local rabbis after “Hyman Rosenberg was expelled as rabbi of Beth Jacob synagogue for eating ham.” “While George Taubenhaus, rabbi of Beth Elohim stated, "I do not believe my congregation would expel me if I ate ham", Baith Israel's rabbi Friedlander responded, "While there are some differences between the reform and orthodox Jews, I do not think it is the place for any Jewish minister to eat ham. The reformers do not so strictly observe the old Mosaic Law, but it does not seem to me a good example for a rabbi to set to his congregation."

1894: At Temple Emanu-El Rabbi Silverman “gave the third of the series of sermons on ‘Answers to Jewish and Christians Inquirers,’” entitled “The Essential Basis for a Religion of Humanity.”

1894: A list published today of the officers of the New York Hebrew Mutual Benefit Association included M.D. Michaels as President and Philip Benjamin as Treasurer.

1894: Funeral services were held today for Abraham Keyser, a retired grocer who had originally been buried in a grave without a marker because nobody knew who he was when he mysteriously passed away.

1894: It was reported today that Sir Julian Goldsmid, “a member of the House of Commons for the South Division of St. Pancreasa” presided at a meeting of the Russo-Committee where “communications” were shared that the Czar had taken steps to modify “actions taken under the May Laws” and the laws regarding the expulsion of Jews from Russian

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F70711F93C5415738DDDAF0994DA415B8485F0D3

1894:

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F50711F93C5415738DDDAF0994DA415B8485F0D3

1895: After being closed yesterday, the Educational Fair, a fundraiser sponsored by prominent New York Jewish families re-opened today. So far the fair has raised almost $100,000.

1895: It was reported that a near riot broke in front of the Thalia Theatre where a concert given by “The Hebrew Mechanics’ Association under the management of Max Hirsch’s dramatic agency.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FA0711FD355416738DDDAF0994DA415B8585F0D3

1895:

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F7071EFD355416738DDDAF0994DA415B8585F0D3

1895: It was reported today that the opening night of the second season of concerts at the Arion Society’s concert hall included Louis Blumberg playing “Max Bruch’s transcription of the old Jewish prayer, Kol Nidre.”

1896: Solomon Schechter left England bound for Egypt and Palestine so he could study Hebrew manuscripts including those in the Geniza at Cairo. Although there were reports of the Geniza dating back to the 1750’s, Agnes and Margaret Smith, known as the Westminster Sisters, were the ones who saw it in 1896 and told Schechter about what would become the greatest literary treasure trove found in Jewish history. Schechter’s involvement would vault him to a leading spot among Jewish intellectuals which led to his becoming the President of the Jewish Theological Seminary; a position from which he would try to rescues Judaism from the extremes of radical reform and stultifying orthodoxy.

1897: West Point graduate Harry J. Hirsch was promoted to the rank of First Lieutenant in the 18^th Infantry of the United States Army today.

1898: In London, Emma and Karl Kirchberger gave birth to their daughter author Amy Blank, the wife of Rabbi Sheldon Blank, the Nelson Glueck Professor of Bible at HUC and the editor of the Hebrew Union College Annual for six decades, as well as the author of books like Jeremiah: Man and Prophetand Prophetic Thought

1900: Last day on which the Barge Office was used as the processing station for immigrants, including tens of thousands of Jews, entering the United States through the port of New York. This was the second time that the Barge Office was used for this purpose. It had been temporarily re-opened due to a fire at Ellis Island, the place most people think of as the entry point to America.

1901: Birthdate of American anthropologist Margaret Mead.

http://kligs23.wordpress.com/2012/06/11/margaret-meads-jewish-mother/

1901: Arnold Schonberg began serving as the Music Director of Berlin’s "Überbrettl" today.

1903(27^th of Kislev, 5664): Third Day of Chanukah

1903: In Rochester, NY, the District Council of Zionists is scheduled to hold a Chanukah Concert today.

1903: As of today, the balance in the account of The Educational League for the Higher Education of Orphans with headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio which had been organized in 1896 whose members included Rabbi Moses J. Gries of Cleveland, Rabbi Leo M. Franklin of Detroit, Michigan, Rabbi Tobia Schanfarber of Chicago, Illinois, Rabbi Abram Simon of Washington, D.C. and Rabbi Louis Wolsey of Little Rock, Arkansas stood at $5,989.69.

1905(18^th of Kislev, 5666): Parashat Vayishlach

1905: In Kiev, the Czar’s forces crush the four day old Shuliavka Republic whose founders had called for an end to pogroms aimed at Jews.

1905: It was reported today that “many wealthy Jews are leaving” Warsaw because “of the raids on their residences by bands of revolutionary coreligionists” who call themselves “Anarchist.”

1905: A review Balthasar Huebmaier – The Leader of the Anabaptists by Henry C. Vedder published today noted that while he served as “preacher in the Cathedral of Regensburg” he “took part in persecuting the Jews.”

1905: “Arnold Kohn, Vice President of the State Bank and a member of the National Committee which is raising the two-million dollar fund for the relief of the suffers by Russian massacres” today “received a number of letters” including ones from Messrs. Perelmutter and Kligman providing the “details of the atrocities” at Kishinev.

1905: In Salonika which was then a part of the Ottoman Empire Isaac Carasso and his wife gave birth to Daniel Carasso who founded what would eventually become Dannon Yoghurt.

1908: Birthdate of New York native Louis “Lou” Spindell, who played for CCNY from 1928 to 1930 before moving on to the American Basketball League.

1909: Confirmation of Rabbi Chaim Bidjarano’s election as Chief Rabbi of Adrianople.

1909(4^th of Tevet, 5670): Seventy nine year old Lina Morgensten, the German feminist activist who was the wife of Theodor Morgenstern and the mother of Olga Morgenstern passed away today.

1909(4^th of Tevet, 5670): Mrs. Schosche Malke Kiwowitz passed away today.

1911(25^th of Kislev, 5672): Chanukah

1911: Seventy-three year old Rabbi Moses A. Schreiber passed away today in New York City.

1911: Educational institutions in Jaffa raise funds for the Ottoman Navy League.

1911: Celebration of the 25th anniversary of the first Jewish colony in Argentine. The colony was made up of 200 families from Constantinople. By mid-1917, Ashkenazim made up 80% of the Jews in South and Latin America, the other 20% being Sephardim.

1913: Birthdate of Lipa Zabrowsky, the native of Vilnius who made Aliyah in 1920 and gained famed as Aryeh Ben-Elizer, the member of Irgun who became an MK.

1913: The Supreme Court of Georgia heard the appeal of Leo Frank for a new trial following his conviction for murdering Mary Phagan.

1913: Charlie Chaplin began his film career at Keystone for $150 a week.

1913(17^th of Kislev, 5674): Sixty-six year old Albert Wolfson, the son of jurist Isaac Wolfson, a liberal lawyer who was courageous enough to defend Friedrich Geffcken, an opponent of the Iron Chancellor and who was denied a seat in the Hamburg Senate because he was Jewish, passed away today.

1914(28^th of Kislev, 5675): Fourth Day of Chanukah

1914: “The Senate’s debate today on the Immigration was largely devoted to the question of Jews from Russia, specifically an amendment offered by Senator Thomas of Colorado, suggested by Louis Marshall., “intended to extend the exemption to those not literally persecuted because of their religion but simply discriminated against in the statutes of their countries.”

1915: Albert Einstein published his "General Theory of Relativity.”

1916(2st of Kislev, 5677): Parashat Vayeshev

1916: In response to a request made by the Joint Distribution Committee sermons are scheduled to be delivered in every synagogue and temple throughout America “exhorting the congregants to support the plans for the relief of Jewish war sufferers” that are being made for 1917.

1917(1st of Tevet, 5678): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah; in the evening kindle the eighth candle

1917: The Anshe Emes Religious School is scheduled to hold a “Chanukah entertainment” this afternoon.

1917: Tonight, Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein told members of the International Synagogue meeting at the Mount Morris Theatre that “The men who fought under Judas Maccabean have left their descendants among us at Yaphank at every other” Army “camp in the United States, on the soil of France or wherever else a good Jew may find himself. From them the Jews of the world look for a good, a glowing and a glorious report.”

1917: At Temple Emanu-El, Dr. Joseph Silverman” predicted “that the fall of Jerusalem would probably cause a change in the ancient Jewish ritual of worship” because “the holidays of the Jewish calendar are of the joyous sort. With the possible exception of the observance held by the orthodox Jews on the anniversary of the fall of Jerusalem, there is not a melancholy note in our ritual. Now that the ancient city has been captured by the British forces, I imagine that this melancholy ceremony will now be and abandoned and the occasion turned into one of praise and thanksgiving.” (Editor’s note – One wonders what term he would use to describe Yom Kippur.)

1917(1st of Tevet, 5678): During World War I, Naaman Belkind was hung by the Turks as a spy. Naaman Belkind was born in 1889. The nephew of Bilu founder Israel Belkind and the son of Bilu pioneer Shimshon Belkind, Naaman Belkind was born in Eretz Yisrael. Bilu was founded in 1882 and was a pre-Herzl Zionist movement. Bilu is an acronym based on a verse from Isaiah (2:5), "Beit Ya'akov Lekhu Ve-nelkha/Let the house of Jacob go!" BILU's founders believed that the time had come for Jews not only to live in Israel, but to make their living there as well. He grew up in the Bilu community of Gedera, and was later employed in the wine cellars of Rishon LeTzion. Along with his cousin Avshalom Feinberg and his brother Eytan, Belkind joined the Nili espionage group, which was formed in 1915 to assist the British against the Turkish authorities. The group encountered much opposition to its operations, in part from the British themselves, but largely from the members of the Yishuv, who regarded the espionage as subversive and endangering Jewish settlements. Nili's independence from mainstream Zionist politics also lent it a controversial nature, but the group maintained its activities. In September, 1917, Belkind set out for Egypt to look into the circumstances regarding Feinberg's death earlier that year. Caught by Bedouin in the Sinai, he was handed over to the Turks and brought to Damascus. Shortly after, the principal Nili figures were arrested and the group incapacitated. Belkind was convicted of spying and was hanged along with Nili leader Yosef Lishansky. He was later re-interred in Rishon LeTzion.

1917: In London, Herbert Samuel one of the highest ranking Jews in the British political firmament wrote a letter to his son stating that “The fall-or rather the liberation-of Jerusalem has caused much emotion in this country. I have received dithyrambs from all sorts of people, mostly strangers.”

1917: The New York Timesreported Jacob Schiff’s announcement that The New York Jewish community had just successfully completed its first $5 million campaign for Jewish war relief, its share of a $10 million national campaign. In making the announcement Schiff commented, “Fifty-two years ago, when I came to this country, I don’t believe the combined wealth of American Jewry was equal to $5,000,000. See where we have arrived; see where our unity and strength have brought us.”

1917: The Un-Christian Jew a story of Jews in the United States, by Lawrence Sterner was among the books found on today’s “Latest Publications” list.

https://books.google.com/books?id=EPdEAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA175&lpg=PA175&dq=The+Un-Christian+Jew:+A+story+of+Jews+in+the+United+States+by+Lawrence+Sterner&source=bl&ots=S1G5UaST_V&sig=BcfPWIBnDQnzmqEk7HX-83oFz88&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjbxaSayffQAhWHWCYKHVyFBnoQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=The%20Un-Christian%20Jew%3A%20A%20story%20of%20Jews%20in%20the%20United%20States%20by%20Lawrence%20Sterner&f=false

1917: It was reported today that “many inquiries have been received by the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society of America from Jewish refugees in the countries along the Eastern front asking for news or relatives and friends in” the United States and that many of them have been located and are now in communication with relatives and friends in Europe.”

1917: It was announced tonight “that the 150 Jews in Sing Sing Prison had contributed $200” to the five million dollar fund being raised for Jewish war relief and that they “wished to give their earnings for the rest of the year” to the fund, a move that Rabbi Samuel Buchler, the visiting chaplain at Sing Sing will seek to get approved by the State Superintended of prisons.

1917: In Baltimore, MD, two hundred leaders of Zionist organizations from the United States and Canada including the Canadian Federated Zionist Societies, presided over by Rabbi Stephen Wise began to make plans for “the re-assimilation of the promised land that will include the creation of $100,000,000 fund” a million of which was raised in pledges this evening.

1918: In Philadelphia, at a meeting of the American Jewish Congress, plans were formulated to send a delegation of Jews to the Versailles Peace Conference which will push the claims of the Jews for full civil and political right in all lands.

1918: Rabbi Hyman Gerson Enelow wrote today from LeMans, that he is charge, for the present, of the center for the Jewish Welfare Board that has been established in the French city which “is going to be known as embarkation camp” through which a large number of Jewish soldiers will pass through on their way back to the United States.

1918: In New York City, two Jewish immigrants from Russia, garment business owner Meyer Gendel and his wife “Anna (Alpert) Gendel, who had been a seamstress on the Lower East Side of Manhattan before and who was arrested for hitting a nonunion worker with an umbrella during a long strike at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory” gave birth to Columbia University trained “art critic” and photographer Milton Gendel. (As reported by Richard Sandomir)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/02/obituaries/milton-gendel-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

1919(24^th of Kislev, 5680): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah light

1919: It was reported today that “with the coming of sunset this evening will begin…the world world-over, the celebration of Chanukah or the Festival of the Dedication. Although rated in the traditional calendar as a minor festival, Chanukah, which is also known as the Feast of Lights is of major significance, as it commemorates one of the most heroic and far-reaching victories for the fatherland and the faith.”

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A03E3D8123BEE32A25755C1A9649D946896D6CF

1920: President Morris Handle and Recording Secretary Herman Natal send out invitations inviting their co-religionists to “attend the celebration of the organization of Congregation Beth-El in Camden, NJ.

1920: Rabbi Hyamson delivered a lecture on his experience in Poland and Lithuania at today’s meeting of the New York Board of Ministers which was held at Temple Emanu-El

1921: It was reported today that “the late Lazarus Kohns, the brother-in-law of the late Isidor Straus and of Nathan and Oscar S. Straus, left an estate which has been appraised as worth net almost $525,000.”

1922(26th of Kislev, 5683): Sixty-four year old Eliezer Ben-Yehuda the father of the Modern Hebrew Language succumbed to TB in Jerusalem today.

http://www.zionism-israel.com/bio/E_Ben_Yehuda_biography.htm

1922:SS Albert Ballin was an ocean liner of the Hamburg-America Line which was named after Albert Ballin was launched today.

1922: Lord “Curzon decided that he would remain at the Conference of Lausanne over the Christmas holiday in order to expedite the conference’s conclusion

1922: Gabriel Narutowicz, President of Poland was assassinated by a right-wing nationalist. The right-wingers derided him as the “President of the Jews.”

1922: Birthdate of Isidore Cohen, the native of Brooklyn who became a world renowned violinist who was a member of both the Juilliard String Quartet and the Beaux Arts Trio.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/arts/music/isidore-cohen-82-violinist-in-premier-chamber-groups-is-dead.html

1923: Birthdate of Menahem Pressler a German-born pianist who fled to Palestine before settling in the United States where among other things he has spent 60 years on the faculty of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University

1924: Birthdate of Nissim Ezekiel, the native of Bombay who was an Indian Jewish poet, playwright, editor and art-critic.

1925: Today, Grover Moscowitz was nominated by President Calvin Coolidge, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York

1927: In Germany, premiere of Family Gathering in the House of Prellstein starring S.Z. Sakall, Sig Arno, Ilka Grüning, Fritz Spira and Max Ehrlich. The latter two would not be able to escape the Holocaust.

1928: “The Jews of America have not done their full duty to establish Palestine as the national Jewish homeland, Dr. I.M. Rubinow, executive director of the Zionist Organization declared” this “afternoon at a conference of more than 100 east side Jewish organizations” meeting “at the Hotel Pennsylvania” where plans were made for the dive of the United Palestine Appeal in the east side and Harlem, which will begin in January.”

1929: “Sir Boyd Merriman, counsel for the Jewish case before the British Commission of Inquiry” meeting in Jerusalem, “announced this morning that an Arab witness who had testified on behalf of the Jews…and whose cross-examination had not been completed had sent a letter saying he had been suddenly compelled to leave the country, and in order not to do injury to his compatriots he would not appear again.”

1930: An Arab mob attempted to prevent Jewish settlers from plowing land near Herzlia. British police came from Tel Aviv and arrested the Arabs at which point the Jews went back to their farm work.

1930: “Six Jewish laborers were sentenced today to three weeks’ imprisonment for participation in an unruly unemployment demonstration at Ness Ziona, near Jaffa.”

1931: As German spirals into political chaos the Social Democratic Party (SPD) with the Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, the Reichsbanner and workers' sport clubs formed The Iron Front an anti-Nazi, anti-monarchist paramilitary organization designed to “counter the right-wing Harzburg Front.”

1932: “Narcotics” co-starring Peter Lorre and directed by Kurt Gerron who along with his wife would gassed at Auschwitz in 1944 was released today in Germany.

1932: “The Half-Naked Truth” a comedy produced by Pandro S. Berman, with music by Max Steiner was released in the United States by RKO.

1933: In address at the fourth annual Maccabean Festival held in Madison Square Garden to celebrate Chanukah, Samuel Untermeyer charged the German Ambassador, Dr. Hans Luther, with “insincerity and hypocrisy.” “Mr. Untermyer said the activities of the Friends of New German and other Nazi organizations constituted a ‘criminal conspiracy against the sovereignty and neutrality of our country’ and that the purpose of these organizations was to propagate German national socialism which that ‘American citizens are to propagate on American soil the disenfranchisement of Jewish American citizens.”

1933: In Washington, DC, Philip Sylvan Peyser and Helene Hattendorf gave birth to Charles Alan Peyser.

1934: In Camden, NJ, Congregation Beth-El hosted its annual dinner and installation of congregational officers’ ceremony.

1934: David Jacob Sandweiss, the University of Michigan trained physician married Freda Levin today

1935: Having lost his job as a mathematics professor in Germany because he was Jewish, sixty year old Issai Schur was invited to the Mathematical Seminars Conference in Zurich.

1936: Magistrate Jeannette G. Brill will deliver an address entitled “Everyday Problems” at the annual luncheon of the metropolitan branch of the Women’s League of the United Synagogue of America being held today at the Hotel Commodore in New York City.

1936: The Pope created Emmanuel Suhard, who would write “a public protest against the deportation of the Jews of Paris in 1942” was created Cardinal Priest of S. Onofrio.

1936: “The Catholic bishopric of Berlin” protested today against the libeling of the Church and its clergy by the official National Socialist Party newspaper, the Angriff which published an article that said that “Jews and Catholics are in league to combat racial purity” and showed “a photograph of a meeting of rabbis and Protestant pastors in Riverside Memorial Church.”

1936(2^nd of Tevet, 5697): 8^thDay of Chanukah

1937: Stan Francis, the Program Director the Associated Broadcasting Company Limited in Toronto wrote Louis Herman asking him to come to Francis’ office so that discuss the recording of his radio company.

1937: The Palestine Post reported from London that the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Ormsby Gore, told the House of Commons that in Palestine leading Arab notables were murdered by Arabs, which was "terrorism of Arabs by Arabs." This form of Arab violence has continued down to our own times. In many ways, the current Arab leadership are the survivors of their own intra-communal violence.

1937; The Palestine Post reported that Jews in the Old City of Jerusalem were surprised when ordered to pay for the costs of the 20 supernumerary constables appointed to guard them from frequent attacks by their Arab neighbors. Talk about adding insult to injury. This was almost as bad as when the Jews had to pay for cleaning up the broken glass after Kristallnacht.

1937: Birthdate of Morris Dees Jr., co-founder of the Southerner Poverty Law Center. Dees is not Jewish but his father Morris Seligman Dees Sr. was named after a Jewish Merchant in Montgomery whom Grandpa Dees admired. Joe Levin (no relation) who is Jewish was the other Co-Founder of Southern Poverty Law Center.

1938: In Rome, “the Cabinet under the leadership of Premier Benito Mussolini today decided to create a special board for the purchase, management and resale of property owned by Jews in excess of the maximum allowed under the law approved on November 10.” (Editor’s Note – so much for the quaint notion that the Italian fascists were not anti-Semites.)

1938: Today, Ambassador Joseph Kennedy who had made a special trip back from London to the United States was today “particularly outspoken in his condemnation of Jewish persecution in Germany which he has called ‘the most terrible thing I have ever heard of.’”

1939: Girls in Lodz were seized to clean a latrine using their own shirts. When done, the Nazis wrapped the woman's faces with these same shirts. By this time Jewish population of Warsaw and Lotz has risen to over 1,000,000.

1939: The Nazis excluded the Jews from all employment benefits.

1939: Jewish girls in Lódz, Poland, who have been impressed for forced labor, are forced to clean a latrine with their blouses. When the job is complete, the German overseers wrap the filthy blouses around the girls' faces.

1940: It was reported today that Willie Rubenstein had scored ten points for the New York Jewels when they went down to defeat in an American Basketball League game against Philadelphia.

1941: Isidore Newman who was training with the SOE “received a postcard from the Jewish Chaplain congratulating him on his promotion” to 2^ndLieutenant

1941: In Romania, the government dissolved the Federation of the Unions of the Jewish Communities

1941: Hans Frank, governor-general of Occupied Poland, notes in his diary that some 3,500,000 Jews live in the region under his control.

1941: The second of the three day murder of Jews in Skede, Latvia in which almost 3,000 Jews, mostly women and children were murdered.

1942: A Jewish ghetto is established in Kharkov, Ukraine.

1942: Heinrich Himmler orders that Roma candidates for extermination be deported to Auschwitz.

1942(8th of Tevet, 5703):David M. Bressler, who was widely known for his activities in Jewish, State and municipal relief and in charity organizations, died this afternoon at the office of his physician to which he had been taken from his office at 75 Maiden Lane after he had suffered a heart attack. Mr. Bressler, son of Julius and Sarah Rothenberg Bressler, was born in Germany on May 1, 1879, and came here in 1884. He rendered service to thousands of immigrants whom he helped to settle throughout the country. Outstanding was his work as director of the Industrial Removal Board during the first decade of the century. He directed immigrants from the Eastern States to communities in the South and Middle West and provided them with the opportunities for their Americanization. By his plan, as he described it himself, he avoided over-crowding of New York and other large Eastern cities, and organized the Jewish community of America to divert the stream of Jewish immigration. The Removal Office thus was a clearing house for Jewish immigrants and prevented congestion at the port of entry. Among the many charity drives which he conducted was the United Jewish campaign of New York that raised more than 56,000,000 in 1926. After a campaign that lasted but a little more than a month, the goal was exceeded by $656,000. Another drive conducted by Mr. Bressler as national chairman was the Allied Jewish campaign of 1930. The plan, commended by President Hoover, was conceived in Washington, where Mr. Bressler was one of 800 representative Jews from all parts of the United States, who mapped out the details of the campaign. Mr. Bressler's philanthropic and social service career covered more than forty years. During that time he served many agencies. He extended his chief field of Jewish activities, to State-wide efforts when Governor Lehman appointed him a member of the New York State Planning Board in 1934, and when he became a director of Sydenham Hospital. Previously, Governor Lehman had made him a member of the Appeal Board of Unemployment Insurance, and in 1931 he was named vice chairman of the National Council of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, of which Felix M. Warburg was chairman. Mr. Bressler attended City College, the Jewish Theological Seminary and the New York Law School. He was admitted to the bar in 1900, and from 1900 to 1917 was general manager of the Industrial Removal Board. While he centered his business interests on insurance, he also served in a voluntary capacity as board member of the American Hebrew Congregations, the American Jewish Committee, the Palestine Economic Corporation, the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies and the National Refugee Service. As a member of a survey commission appointed by the Joint Distribution Committee, Mr. Bressler went to Europe in 1922 and 1929 to study the situation of Jews there, and published several reports on his observations. He was chairman of the New York War SufferersCampaign in 1922 and 1926, and served in 1930 as national co-chairman of the Allied Jewish Campaign of the Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Agency for Palestine. He was a Mason and a member of B'nai B'rith and the Metropolitan Club.

1943: Two days after he had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held this morning at Temple Emanu-el is New York for fifty-eight year old New York born and Columbia trained gynecologist Samuel H. Geist, the husband of Juliet Beecher Geister and father of Joyce B. Jacobson

1943: Birthdate of producer Steven Boncho, creator of several hit shows including Hill Street Blues, LA Law and NYPD Blue.

1943: In an example of Himmler’s belief in the “final solution to the Jewish question, he told a group of Kriegsmarine commanders today, “I have basically given the order to also kill the wives and children of these partisans, and commissars. I would be a weakling and a criminal to our descendants if I allowed the hate-filled sons of the sub-humans we have liquidated in this struggle of humanity against subhumanity to grow up.”

1944(30^thof Kislev, 5705): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; in the evening light 7 Chanukah candles

1944(30^thof Kislev, 5705): Fifty-five year old Philip Guedalla the British barrister, author and unsuccessful candidate for Parliament died today while serving as a Squadron Leader with the RAF."History repeats itself. Historians repeat each other."

1944: As part of Ben-Gurion’s plan for breaking the power of the Irgun and the Stern Gang, Eliahu Golomb who had called the clash between the Yishuv and these groups “a struggle between Zionist democracy and Jewish Nazism” held a secret meeting with Nathan Friedman-Yellin one of the leaders of the Stern Gang. Friedman-Yellin would only agree to halt attempts to assassinate Churchill and not much more.

1944: As the Battle of the Bulge began, Captain Bert Katz, who would become a leader of the Cedar Rapids Jewish and business committees, was one of those facing the unexpected onslaught of Hitler’s Panzers. Among other Jewish soldiers who faced down Hitler’s last gasp attack was J.D. Salinger and Leste Milton Bornstein the father of author and Ambassador Michael Oren.

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-battle-of-the-bulge

1944(30^thof Kislev, 5705): Fifty-five year old Philip Guedalla, author, barrister and extremely unsuccessful candidate for a seat in the House of Commons passed away today. He served as a squadron leader in the RAF during WWII making him one of the oldest people, I would guess, to hold that rank. He was also noted for his quick wit, a few examples of which can be found below.

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/p/philip_guedalla.html

1946(23^rdof Kislev, 5707): Award winning 83 year old American artist Albert Sterner, the London born son of Julius and Sarah Sterner passed away today.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=940CEFDB1F3AEE3BBC4F52DFB467838D659EDE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Sterner#/media/File:Albert_Sterner_painting_war_posters_for_the_Government._International_Film_Service.,_ca._1918_-_NARA_-_533471.tif

1946: Birthdate of Manhattan native and Sarah Lawrence College graduate Dori Levine, who gained fame as Emmy award winning actress Dori Levine.

http://variety.com/2000/scene/people-news/dori-brenner-1117796509/

1946: It was reported today that Lazarus Joseph said it was “the duty of every American citizen, Christian or Jew, black or white” to help in “the rehabilitation of 1,500,000 Jewish survivors of the Holocaust.

1946: In France, Leon Blum named Premiere.

1947(3^rdof Tevet, 5708): Forty-eight year old Romanian born and Harvard trained lawyer, Nathan R. Margold who worked “as an attorney for minority groups including the NAAC and various Indian tribes with claims against the Government’ before serving as the Solicitor General for the Interior Department because he shared an interest in Indian affairs with Secretary Ickes passed away today while serving as a Judge of the Municipal Court in Washington, D.C. (Some sources show his date of death as December 17)

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1947/12/17/104391750.pdf

https://legallegacy.wordpress.com/2017/07/21/july-21-1899-birthdate-of-nathan-ross-margold/

1947: Capitol record released a recording “You Were Meant for Me” a popular song with lyrics by Arthur Freed first published in 1929.

1948: Egypt charged that the Jews announced a new attack on the garrison at Faluja.

1949: Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion announced that Jerusalem will be become the capital of Israel on January 1, 1950.

1950: Birthdate of “Claudia Lynn Cohen, a high-profile gossip reporter for television and newspapers who was a frequent subject of the gossip columns herself, partly because of her marriage to, and remunerative divorce from, the billionaire businessman Ronald O. Perelman”.(As reported by Margalit Fox)

1952: Yitzhak Ben-Zvi “assumed the office of President of Israel and continued to serve in the position until his death on April 23 1963.

1952(28^thof Kislev, 5713): Fourth Day of Chanukah

1952(28^thof Kislev, 5713): Seventy-six year old Etta Karesh Levin, the wife of Julius Levin and the mother of Sidney L. Levin passed away after which she was buried in KKBI Cemetery in Charleston, SC.

1952:The Jerusalem Post reported that the extraordinary meeting of the Israeli-Jordanian Mixed Armistice Commission broke down with each side accusing the other of border violations. Israel accused infiltrators of firing at the guards, and stealing arms and ammunition. Jordan complained that Israel had laid mines and attacked the Arab Legion post in the Mount Scopus area.

1952: Birthdate of Susan Estrich, graduate of Harvard Law, and “liberal” foil on FOX News.

1953: Birthdate of “Héctor Timerman, a former Argentine foreign minister who was charged with treason in 2013 for his role in negotiating an agreement with Iran relating to the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires” (As reported by Daniel Politi)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/31/obituaries/hector-timerman-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

1954: Birthdate of Bright Kanyontore Rwamirama Ugandan State Minister for Animal Industry who represented his government at the 2012 ceremony commemorated the raid on Entebbe that took place at the Old Entebbe Airport where Yonatan Netanyahu lost his life saving those who were threatened with death by Palestinian terrorists.

1954: “There's No Business Like Show Business” produced by Sol C. Siegel, with songs by Irving Berlin and a screenplay by Phoebe and Henry Ephron was released in the United States today by 20^thCentury Fox.

1955: In Queens, the former Jacqueline Boklan, “the daughter of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania and Russia” and Alfred G. Paulson gave birth to NYU and Harvard trained billionaire hedge fund owner John Paulson, the husband of Episcopalian Jenny Zaharia and the father of Danielle and Giselle Paulson.

https://nypost.com/2019/06/13/paulson-to-sell-almost-half-of-steinway-factory-to-robert-de-niro-group/

1955 After 888 performances the curtain came down at the Belasco Theatre on the original Broadway production of “Fanny” a musical with a book by S.N. Behrman and lyrics and music by Harold S. Rome.

1957: “In a letter dated today, the "Steering Committee of Temple Sinai," a small group of Temple Emanuel members who felt that the close family atmosphere of the Temple had been lost and that religious observance had become more conservative over the years, informed the secretary of the board of Temple Emanuel that they intended to create a second Reform congregation in Worcester.

1959: U.S. premiere of “The Gazebo” produced by Lawrence Weingarten featuring Carl Reiner as “Harlow Edison,” Mabel Albertson as “Miss Chandler,” Martin Landau as “The Duke” and Robert Ellenstein as “Ben.”

1959: “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” a film adaptation of the novel by the same name directed by Henry Levin, with a script co-authored by Walter Reisch and music by Bernard Hermann was released today by 20^th Century Fox.

1960: “Wildcat,” a musical with lyrics by Carolyn Leigh and music Cy Coleman opened at the Alvin Theatre.

1966(3^rd of Tevet, 5757): Eighty-one year old Alexander Trachtenberg the native of Russia who earned a Master’s from Yale and was a leader in the Socialist Party of America as the CPUSA as well as the founder of International Publishers passed away today.

1967(14^th of Kislev, 5728): Parashat Vayishlach

1967(14^th of Kislev, 5728): Seventy year old to NYU trained lawyer George M. Eichler, the Hoboken born son of Morris and Julia Eichler, “a state deputy attorney general in New Jersey” and “general counsel for the New Jersey Motor Bus Association” who was the husband of “former Sally Jacobs,” with whom he had one son and daughter passed away today

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/12/17/93227969.pdf

1968(25^th of Kislev, 5729): Chanukah

1968: Birthdate of Peter Orszag, an American economist, who was VP with Citigroup and Director of the Congressional Budget Office.

1968: “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” with songs by the Sherman Brothers – Richard and Robert -- was released in the United Kingdom today by United Artists.

1968: The Spanish government officially voided the order of expulsion of 1492.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=950CE1D71730E034BC4F52DFB4678383679EDE

1969: Release date for “Cactus Flower” a film that would not have been made if it weren’t for the Jews – director Gene Saks, writers Abe Burrows and I.A.L. Diamond, actor Walter Matthau and actress Goldie Hawn.

1969:Elimelekh Rimalt began serving as Communications Minister.

1969: Release date for the film version of “Hello Dolly” starring Walther Matthau and Barbra Streisand and written and produced by Ernest Lehman with music by Jerry Herman.

1970(17^th of Kislev, 5731): Fifty-five year old Oscar Lewis, the history who changed his major to anthropology at the behest of his brother-in-law Abraham Maslow passed away today.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9E06EFDF1E30E337A2575BC1A9649D946190D6CF

1970: U.S. premiere of “Puzzle of a Downfall Child direct by Jerry Schatzberg who also co-authored the script.

1970: The movie version of Erich Segal’s novel Love Story directed by Arthur Hiller was released in the United States today.

1971: “Never Underestimate Power of a Woman Even at Princeton” published today described the life at an Ivy League elite school experienced by future civil rights attorney Abby Rubenfeld, the daughter of Milton Rubenfeld, the WW II war hero who in 1948 was one of the founders of the IAF.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9803E2DF173DEF34BC4E52DFB467838A669EDE

1971: The Bangladeshi Liberation War, during which Henry Kissinger shaped U.S. policy so that it favored Pakistan, came to an end today with Bangladesh winning its independence which would appear to have the so-called foreign policy expert on the wrong side of history.

1973: “Hell Up in Harlem,” a sequel to “Black Caesar” directed by Larry Cohen who co-produced the film with Samuel Z. Arkoff, a Jewish native of Iowa, was released today in the United States.

1973: “Papillion” a French prison film co-starring Dustin Hoffman and with music by Jerry Goldsmith was released in the United States today.

1975: CBS aired the first episode of “One Day at a Time” the popular sit-com starring Bonnie Franklin as Ann Romano that lasted for nine years.

1978: In Jerusalem, 22 people including five Americans were injured by a bombing on a bus.

1979: More than 800 guests attend special ceremonies to mark what Mayor Edward I. Koch has proclaimed as "Congregation Orach Chaim 100th Anniversary Day.”

1979: First broadcast of the made for television “An American Christmas Carol” starring Henry Winkler.

1981: Defense Minister Ariel Sharon flew to the newly annexed Golan Heights today for a meeting with military commanders amid reports of Syrian troop alerts across the border.

1981: Eighty-one year old Victor Kugler, one of those who helped to hide Anne Frank and her family passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/1981/12/17/obituaries/victor-kugler-81-hid-anne-frank.html

1982: Sofia Cosma, a Jewish concert pianist who defied long odds to rebuild her career after seven years in Soviet prison camps played pieces by Chopin, Haydn and Rachmanioff at first concert at the 92^nd Street Y.

1984(22^nd of Kislev, 5745): Sixty-six year old “Harold P. Manson, director of the office of Academic Affairs of the American Friends of the Hebrew University and the husband of “Mrs. Natanya Neumann Manson, a member of the Martha Graham Dance Company” passed away today

https://www.nytimes.com/1974/04/25/archives/mrs-harold-p-manson.html

1984: “Diamonds” a revue with music by Cy Coleman, Betty Comden and Adolph Green opened Off Broadway at the Circle in the Square Downtown theatre today.

1984: William G. Blair described a rent strike that is continuing at 4-6 East 65^thStreet, properties which had formerly belonged to the Union of American Hebrew Congregations are across the street from Temple Emanu-El

http://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/16/realestate/at-4-6-e-65th-st-a-rent-strike.html?pagewanted=print

1986: In “Altheimer Praised for Fostering Study in Agriculture Field” Bruce Kinzel described the contribution of Benjamin Joseph Altheimer Sr. the Pine Bluff born Jew to the activity which has historically been the economic backbone of the Razorback state.

1987(25^thof Kislev, 5748): Chanukah

1987: U.S. premiere of “Broadcast News” directed, produced and written by James L. Brooks co-starring Albert Brooks.

1989: “Lesléa Newman publishes the groundbreaking children’s book, Heather Has Two Mommies”

http://jwa.org/thisweek/dec/16/1989/leslea-newman

1990: The New York Times reported that last week, Dr. John Strugnell, a Harvard divinity professor, was dismissed as chief editor of the scrolls after having called Judaism "a horrible religion" in an interview published in November in a Tel Aviv newspaper. Several colleagues, who said they were horrified at the remarks, attributed them to Dr. Strugnell's "mental condition" and to a drinking problem. A spokesman for Harvard said Dr. Strugnell, a Roman Catholic, was being treated in a hospital, but he wouldn't say where or why.

1991: The U.N. General Assembly rescinded its 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism by a 111-25 vote.

1992: The body of IDF Sergeant Nissim Toledano, who had been kidnapped by Hamas, was found today. Toledano had been stabbed to death while his hands were bound.

1992: The Bangor Daily News reported that Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin told a stunned and angry nation…that he would “strike pitilessly” against Muslim fundamentalists who kidnapped and killed and Israeli trooper. But he promised Israel would not abandon the U.S. – sponsored Mideast peace talks.

1992: Israel ordered deportation of 415 leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad from the West Bank and/or Gaza after escalating terrorist activity.

1992 (21st of Kislev, 5753):Simon M. Jaglom, a New York businessman and financier, died today at New York University Medical Center. A Manhattan resident, he turned 96 last Saturday. A native of Ukraine, he moved to what was then the Free State of Danzig, where he became general director of the Ministry of Foreign Trade. He went to London in 1937 to establish a business and came to this country two years later. He became president and later chairman of the New York Commodities Corporation and the Overseas Barters Corporation and continued to head both concerns until last month. He was a longtime supporter of Israel and Jewish causes. He was a past president of the American-European divisions of the United Jewish Appeal and of the Organization for Rehabilitation Through Training. He and his wife donated a wing to the Tel Aviv Museum.

1993: The New York State Legislature elected G. Oliver Koppell “to fill the unexpired term of New York State Attorney General Robert Abrams.

1993: The West End revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd” transferred to the Lyttleton Theatre.

1994: Tower Airlines, which has several flights from New York to Tel Aviv reported today that that someone, probably an employee, had cut electrical wires on three cargo planes and two or three passenger planes at Kennedy International Airport in October and early November, disabling monitoring systems. Terrorist activity, which would be of special concern to those on flights to Israel, has been ruled out as a cause.

1994: “Speechless” a comedy with music by Marc Shaiman was released today in the United States today.

1995: Rabbi Ronald B. Sobel officiated at the wedding of Ruth Goldestein Israels and William Rosenwald. The bride is an 82 year old graduate of Hunter College. The groom is the 92 year old son Julius Rosenwald, the longtime chairman of Sears, Roebuck & Company

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/17/style/weddings-ruth-g-israels-william-rosenwald.html

1997:Janet Rosenberg was elected President of Guyana, making her the first American-born woman to be elected president of any country. Although she had been involved in the country's governance for over half a century, she was only elected president after her husband's death. Rosenberg is considered by many in Guyana to be the mother of the nation. A documentary film, Thunder in Guyana, has been made about her life. Rosenberg was born in Chicago in 1920. In 1943, she married Cheddi Jagan, a Guyanese dental student. When Rosenberg was 23, the couple moved to the then-colony of British Guiana. Together, in 1950, the couple founded the People's Progressive Party, the colony's first modern political party. In 1953, Guyana held its first universal election. Rosenberg was elected minister and deputy speaker of parliament, the first woman to hold those positions. Although Jagan was elected prime minister, his government was deposed by Winston Churchill after only 133 days. Both Jagan and Rosenberg were at times jailed and placed under house arrest. Jagan was elected as prime minister in both 1957 and 1961, but intervention by the U.S. and Britain kept him out of office until free and fair elections were held in 1992. Jagan was again elected to lead Guyana, and served as Guyana's president until his death in 1997. Following Jagan's death, Rosenberg was elected as President, a position she held until resigning due to ill health in August 1999. She is considered by the Guyanese as the mother of their nation.

1998: “The Prince of Egypt,” an animated film based on the Book of Exodus and the life of Moses, co-produced by Jeffrey Katzenberg, with a screenplay co-authored by Nicholas Meyer, music by Hans Zimmer and Stephen Schwartz and featuring Jeff Goldblum as “Aaron” and Ofrz Haza as “Yocheved” was released in the United States today.

1999: “Letter to an Expecting Parent” by Yehuda Lev published today provides advice for Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie.

http://www.jewishjournal.com/articles/item/letter_to_an_expecting_parent_19991217

2001(8th of Tevet, 5646): Helmut Flieg the German-Jewish writer who used the pseudonym of Stefan Heym passed away.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/18/arts/stefan-heym-marxist-leninist-novelist-dies-at-88-on-lecture-tour-in-israel.html?pagewanted=all

2001: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about subjects of Jewish interest including The Hidden Hitler by Lothar Machtan; translated by John Brownjohn. Notes translated by Susanne Ehlert, Heidegger’s Children: Hannah Arendt, Karl Löwith, Hans Jonas, and Herbert Marcuse by Richard Wolin, One Scandalous Story: Clinton, Lewinsky, and Thirteen Days That Tarnished American Journalism by Marvin Kalb and Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truceby Stanley Weintraub. (Yes one of the best Christmas stories ever written has a Jewish author.)

2004(4^th of Tevet, 5765): Louis J. Herman, the son Canadian Cantor Samuel Herman, who became the Cantor of Congregation Beth El at Camden, NJ, in 1957, passed away today – a death that was mourned by, among others, his son David who is “a Rabbi in Baltimore MD, and is the executive director of Maryland Friends of Boys Town Jerusalem, a school for disadvantaged youth in Israel.”

2005: After premiering at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival in May, “Free Zone” directed by Amos Gitai and starring Natalie Portman was released today on a limited basis in the United States.

2005: “Hoodwinked” a computer animated comedy film produced by Maurice Kanbar premiered today in Los Angeles.

2005: The US House of Representatives passed a resolution that conditioned future financial aid to the Palestinian Authority on the exclusion of Hamas from the upcoming parliamentary elections next month.

2005: Representative Henry Waxman announced “he would introduce a bill to the U.S. House of Representatives that would lift the ban on federal money for subway tunneling in his congressional district.”

2005: Soer Trondelag became the first province in Norway to bar the purchase of Israeli goods when the provincial board voted to impose a boycott. A board representative from the far-left Red Electoral Alliance said she hopes the boycott will spread to other Norwegian provinces. The Norwegian national government has not imposed or called for any such boycott.

2006(25th of Kislev, 5767): First Day of Chanukah

2006: In Boston on the first day of Chanukah, Rob Tannenbaum and his pal David Fagin, who fronts the New York band the Rosenbergs, came to Boston with his latest Jewish-themed act, “Good for the Jews.” The duo performs songs such as the sarcastic "Good to be a Jew on Christmas" and "Jdate," an ode to the popular dating website.

2006(25th of Kislev, 5767): Rabbi Yehosuha Yagel, who headed the Midrashiyat Noam Yeshiva High School since its founding in 1945 passed away at the age of 91. Midrashiyat Noam, located in Pardes Hannah, was the first yeshiva high school in the country and has become on of the flagship yeshivas of religious Zionism in Israel. Yagel received the President’s Prize for life achievement in education in 1998.

2007: The Association for Jewish Studies (AJS) opened its 39^th annual conference.

2007: The Sunday Washington Post featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics related to Judaica including a marvelous text entitled How To Read The Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now by Professor James L. Kugel, The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs, Churchill and the Jews by Martin Gilbert and Henry James: The Mature Master by Sheldon M. Novick.

2007: The Sunday New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics related to Judaica including Prince of Darkness: Richard Perle by Alan Weisman, Love Falls by Esther Frued great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud and Beethoven Was One-Sixteenth Black by South African author Nadine Gordimer, both of whose parents were Jewish.

2007: The New York Times features an article on conflicts surrounding Gerard Schwarz’s tenure as conductor of the Seattle Symphony where he “is known for his fund-raising and civic involvement, but where he has made enemies and generated ill will among the players.”

2007: Julius Shulman attended a showing of his architectural photography at the Los Angeles Public Library.

2008:Mort Gerberg presents “Last Laughs: Cartoons About Aging, Retirement...and the Great Beyond” at the Washington DCJCC. Longtime New Yorker cartoonist Mort Gerberg has assembled an all-star cast of gifted and popular cartoonists including George Booth, Roz Chast, Frank Modell, JB Handelsman, Sidney Harris and Jack Ziegler to join him in this exclusive collection confronting, illuminating and celebrating the inevitabilities of life. Everything from cloning to cryogenics and more is tackled with humor and pathos. Mort Gerberg’s cartoons have appeared in The New Yorker, Playboy and The Huffington Post, as well as in syndicated newspaper features and on television. He has written, illustrated or edited nearly forty books, including his textbook, Cartooning: The Art and the Business, More Spaghetti, and Joy in Mudville: The Big Book of Baseball Humor.

2008 (19 Kislev, 5769):Celebration of Yud-Tes Kislev, the 19th of Kislev. “The 19th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev is celebrated as the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidism. It was on this date, in the year 1798, that the founder of Chabad Chassidism, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi was freed from his imprisonment in Czarist Russia. For Chassidim this event is more than a personal liberation. They see this as a watershed event heralding a new era in the revelation of the ‘inner soul’ of Torah. This is also the celebration of the birthday of Avraham Elimelech ben Yosef Dov, the Coca Chef.

2008: Award winning Israeli-born photographer, Michal Chelbin delivers a lecture at New York’s School of Visual Arts Amphitheater followed by a book signing

2008: Andy Statman joined the Flecktones in a concert at the Kimmel Center in Phildelphia. The venue was named in honor of Sidney Kimmel.

2008:The Israeli version of “Big Brother,” a reality show alternately beloved and reviled by Hebrew speakers, wrapped up today in exactly the manner in which it was broadcast all season: as a ratings juggernaut. Early estimates suggest that a record 39.2% of the country’s television audience tuned in on Tuesday evening to watch as Shifra Cornfeld, a 28-year-old designer from Jerusalem, was announced as the show’s debut winner over 56-year-old Ashkelon resident Yossi Boublil. Cornfeld took home 1 million shekels and a place in the country’s pop culture pantheon.

From the start of its three-month run, “Big Brother” served as a consistent source of controversy — especially after Boublil, a Jewish contractor of Moroccan descent, began to refer mockingly to the show’s Ashkenazic participants as, collectively, “the Friedmans.” An instant catchphrase, the moniker only intensified the disapproval of the show’s already numerous critics, who condemned “Big Brother” as celebrating superficiality and anti-intellectualism — and even, in many cases, as degrading the country’s culture and moral values. Protest rallies timed to coincide with the season finale were held in Akko, Beersheba and at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Based on a Dutch concept later adapted in dozens of countries, “Big Brother” isolates its contestants in a single house, recording their activities 24 hours a day and assigning them weekly challenges as competitors are eliminated.

2008: After having lost $3million dollars in Ascot Partner, The New York Law School filed a suit against Ascot partners and Ezra Merkin charging him with “recklessness, gross negligence and breach of fiduciary duties” contending that Merkin was running “a feeder fund” for Bernie Madoff

2009: In Cedar Rapids, IA, Hadassah Book Club meets at the home of Charlene Wolf to discuss Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner.

2009: Professor Ari Y. Kelman discusses his new book, "Station Identification: A Cultural History of Yiddish Radio in the United States," as part of the Nextbook series' 2009 season being held at the D.C. Jewish Community Center.

2009: Jonathan Sheehan of UC Berkeley is the Keynote Speaker at workshop entitled "The Bible and Secularism" at The Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies in Philadelphia, PA.

2009:Iran test-fired its most advanced ballistic missile, capable of hitting Israel and parts of Europe. The missile tested, according to Iranian reports, was an upgraded version of the Sajjil 2, a sophisticated ballistic missile that has a range of close to 2,000 kilometers, can carry a nuclear warhead and is powered by a solid-fuel propellant which gives it greater accuracy and range. With solid fuel, the missile can be stored in underground silos, making it more difficult to detect before launch. "This missile can threaten Europe," one Israeli defense official said. "If Israel were their only enemy, why would they need missiles that can reach Europe?" According to the official, the Super Green Pine Radar, which works in conjunction with Israel's Arrow missile defense system, detected the launch of the Sajjil, as did the US-manned X-Band Radar located in the Negev. "We closely follow what happens in Iran," the official said, adding that the IDF was familiar with the Sajjil, which had been tested for the third time today. The missile, officials said, was still in final development and testing stages and would soon enter mass production.

2009: US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was name Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” for 2009 today.

2009: Today Jon Scheyer “scored 24 of a career-high 36 points in the first half to lead Duke past Gardner-Webb. He shot 11-of-13 and hit a career-best seven 3-pointers while grabbing eight rebounds and getting nine assists.”

2009: The third annual Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism opens today in Jerusalem.

2009: Britain’s Supreme Court declared today that it was illegal for a Jewish school that favors Jewish applicants to base its admission policy on a classic test of Jewishness – whether one’s mother is Jewish.

2009: Today approximately 400 El Al passengers had to wait for almost seven hours in a grounded airplane in a U.S. airport due to a fuel leak. Throughout these hours passengers were not permitted to leave the aircraft and received no food except drinks and light snacks. The grounded Boeing 747-400 - El Al flight LY028 - was scheduled to take off at 1:30 P.M. on December 16 from Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey and land about 10 hours later at Ben-Gurion Airport. The airline did not report the incident to the media.

2010: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present the” Chamber Music of Barber, Britten and Brahms” featuring the Phoenix Chamber Ensemble.

2010: Janis Spindel is scheduled to present a program entitled “Men and the City: Where Are all the Men in New York?” at the 92^nd St Y in, of course, New York City.

2010: A judge has ordered members of the family that owned a kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa to pay more than $2 million after defaulting on financial agreements with one of their former banks. A federal judge ruled today in favor of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Value Recovery Group and against brothers Sholom and Tzvi Rubashkin and their father, Aaron. The family owned the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, which was sold after a 2008 raid in which 389 illegal immigrants were detained. The $2 million covers a $300,000 loan the Rubashkins received from Omni National Bank, interest on that loan and equipment leases with the bank. Omni sued to collect the money before it collapsed last year. FDIC was appointed its receiver.

2010(9^thof Tevet, 5771): Ninety year old violinist and concert master Eric Rosenblith passed away.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2010/12/21/eric_rosenblith_90_violinist_of_acclaim_tireless_teacher/

2010(9^thof Tevet, 5771):Irwin M. Abrams, a longtime professor of history at Antioch College, a pioneer in the field of peace research and a global authority on the Nobel Peace Prize, died today at the Friends Care Center, just a block away from the house on Xenia Avenue where he had lived for almost 60 years. He was 96. Irwin was born in San Francisco in 1914. He graduated from Lowell High School in December 1930 at the age of 16. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and a master’s degree and PhD from Harvard University. In 1936–37, Irwin traveled to Europe to do research for his dissertation. It was a formative experience. He met many outstanding leaders and scholars of the international peace movement and delved into previously unknown source materials.

2010: Starting today the Galilee will be hosting its first annual international ornithological festival. The result of a joint effort and a million-shekel investment by all of Israel’s nature protection organizations and Galilee promoting bodies, the new festival seeks to attract bird and nature lovers from across the country and the world in an aim to maintain the birds’ natural habitats.

2010: Judith Malina’s production of “Korach” “a new play based on the Biblical account of Korach, ‘the first recorded anarchist in history,’ opened at The Living Theatre in New York.

2011: A brunch honoring Rabbi Eric Yoffie is scheduled to take place at today’s session of the Union for Reform Judaism Biennial.

2011: Andrew Fastow, the CFO of Enron, was released from prison camp today where he had been serving time for the financial chicanery that destroyed the company and, among other things, so distorted the economy in California that brought about a recall election that paved the way for Arnold Schwarzenegger to become that state’s chief executive.

2011: Before delivering the keynote address at the Union for Reform Judaism conference in Maryland today, President Obama met with Defense Minister Ehud Barak. The Defense Ministry said in a statement that in the 30 minute-long meeting, the two discussed regional issues and the challenges facing the Middle East, the United States and Israel. Barak thanked Obama for strengthening the security ties between Israel and the United States during his term.

2011:President Obama told a gathering of Reform Jewry not to let anyone challenge his record of support for Israel, which he said was "unprecedented.""No U.S. administration has done more in support of Israel's security than ours -- none," he said in an address this afternoon to more than 5,000 people at the biennial conference of the Union for Reform Judaism. "Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise. It is a fact." The crowd at a hotel in the Maryland suburbs outside of Washington gave him a standing ovation. Obama listed areas of close cooperation, including missile defense and Iran sanctions. Of the sanctions, he said they were the "hardest hitting" ever. He repeated his pledge that he would take "no options" off the table when it comes to forcing Iran to back down from its suspected nuclear weapons program. Obama peppered his speech with Jewish references, starting with "Shabbat Shalom" and joking about his daughter Malia's eagerness to attend bar and bat mitzvahs. His speech was based on the story of Joseph's declaration "Hineni" -- "Here I am" -- to his father, Jacob. To repeated applause, Obama ran through his domestic policy achievements on health care, and women's and gay rights, among others.

2011:The High Court of Justice ruled today to reject a petition asking to delay the second stage of the prisoner exchange deal brokered with Hamas to release kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Schalit. The release of 550 Palestinian security prisoners is now expected to proceed as normal. In a unanimous ruling, Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch, Justice Asher Dan Grunis and Justice Elyakim Rubinstein, said that the government must "make good its commitment to the agreement it has signed and approved. The ruling, written by Justice Grunis, noted the the court decided in October not to intervene in the release of 1,027 security prisoners as part of the first stage of the Schalit deal, after terror victims and their families filed High Court petitions opposing the releases "The court did not intervene in the first phase [of the deal]... and there is no reason to intervene now in the implementation of that agreement's second phase," Grunis said. The Israel Law Center (Shurat HaDin) and terror victims Michael Norzich and Dr Alan Bauer filed the petition yesterday, arguing that the government should formulate clear criteria for determining which prisoners should be released. The petitioners conceded that Israel must honor the prisoner exchange deal, but said that as Schalit is now safe at home the government could delay the deal's second phase of releases while it established such criteria. The petitioners asked for an injunction ordering the government to publish the list of prisoners scheduled for release at least 14 days prior to the release date. This, they said, would give terror victims sufficient time to check whether any prisoners scheduled for released were terrorists involved in attacks that harmed them or their relatives. The petitioners noted that the Prison Service published the prisoner list just four days ahead of the release. However, in its response to the court, the state contended that, with the exception of two women prisoners, the 550 prisoners scheduled for release on Sunday does not include Hamas or Islamic Jihad members, and that none of the prisoners on the list had been directly involved in any attacks that resulted in death or injury. Four hundred of the prisoners on the list have served two-thirds of their sentences, the state said. Justice Grunis also criticized the petitioners for failing to file the petition weeks ago, and demanding that the state release the list of prisoners then, since he said they were aware the second phase of the Schalit deal would occur two months after the first prisoner release in October.

2011: In an interview published today, “renowned Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt says that American and Israeli politicians who invoke the Holocaust for contemporary political purposes are engaging in ‘Holocaust abuse,’ which is similar to ‘soft-core denial’ of the Holocaust.”

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/top-holocaust-scholar-blasts-holocaust-abuse-by-u-s-israeli-politicians-1.401821

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/full-interview-with-holocaust-historian-deborah-lipstadt-1.401823

2012: In “Martin Baron’s Plan to Save The Washington Post” Paul Starobin described the plans that “a bespectacled and scruffily bearded Jewish boy from Tampa” for the “hometown” newspaper of the nation’s movers and shakers.

https://newrepublic.com/article/111173/martin-barons-plan-save-washington-post-invest-metro-coverage

2012: Monni Must, acclaimed photographer and author of Living Witnesses: Triumph Over Tragedy, a portrait book trilogy that captures the lives and experiences of over 400 Holocaust survivors is scheduled to appear at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.

2012: The Third Israeli-Russian & International Russian Émigré Film Festival sponsored by the Russian American Cultural Center is scheduled to take place in New York City.

2012: The last performance of “Bad Jews” a comedy by Joshua Harmon is scheduled to have its final performance at the Roundabout Underground’s Black Box Theater. (As reported by Charles Isherwood)

http://theater.nytimes.com/2012/10/31/theater/reviews/bad-jews-by-joshua-harmon-at-black-box-theater.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&hpw=&adxnnlx=1355555428-UQjruELeAnQVgzDPmgbmuw

2012: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Marc Blitzstein: His Life, His Work, His World by Howard Pollack and The Polish Boxer by Eduardo Halfon

2012: Rabbi Shaul Praver of Temple Adath Israel in Newtown is scheduled to officiate at the funeral of six year old Noah Pozner, the first grader who was the youngest person killed in the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School

2012: “Amour” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.

2012: The JCNVV is scheduled to present a performance of “Clever Rachel,” a Moses Goldberg’s dramatic adaptation of a book by Debby Waldman.

2012:Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman formally submitted his resignation from the government to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this morning, ending a turbulent term as the country’s top diplomat.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/avigdor-liberman-resigns-as-foreign-minister-to-battle-breach-of-trust-case/

2013: MoMA is scheduled to host the North American premiere of “Footsteps in Jerusalem.”

2013: The San Diego Center for Jewish Culture is scheduled to host The Holocaust & Churches in Nazi Germany: Examples of Complicity & Resistance

2013: Weather permitting, the “Stranger by the Lake” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.

2013: IDF Master Sgt. Shlomi Cohen a resident of Afula who was killed “in a cross-border attack” from Lebanon yesterday, was buried in Haifa today.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/soldiers-killer-surrenders-to-lebanese-authorities/

2013: “

An association of American professors with almost 5,000 members has voted to endorse an academic boycott of Israeli colleges and universities, the group announced today, making it the largest academic group in the United States to back a growing movement to isolate Israel over its treatment of Palestinians.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/17/education/scholars-group-endorses-an-academic-boycott-of-israel.html?hpw&rref=us&_r=1&&pagewanted=print

2014(24^thof Kislev, 5775): In the evening kindle the first Chanukah light.

http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/

2014: Arthur and Shirley Sotloff, the parents of Steven Sotloff, an American-Israeli journalist murdered by the Islamic State in September, are scheduled to celebrate the first night of Hanukah this week by lighting the Chabad center’s outdoor public menorah-lighting in Miami. (As reported by Justin Jalil)

2014: The 16^th Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to start today.

2014: In Coralville, IA Agudas Achim is scheduled to host a Chanukah Party – the last one under the leadership of Rabbi Jeff Portman.

2014: US Vice President Joe Biden is scheduled to assist in the lighting this year of the Hanukkah menorah on the ellipse in front of the White House. (As reported by JTA)

2014: Police arrested Benzi Gopstein, “the head of extreme anti-assimilation group Lehava” and nine others this morning “amid suspicion’s that they incited violence and acts of terror. (As reported by Stuart Winer)

2014: Israel’s channel 10 news reported tonight that tomorrow, the EU is “temporarily” removing “Hamas from its list of designated terrorist organizations.”

2014: “The Central Elections Committee announced today that the budget allocated for the March 17 elections would stand at NIS 242 million ($62.04 million), NIS 5 million ($1.28 million) less than for the run-up to the polls in January 2013.”

2014: American actress Sarah Silverman is scheduled to attend the 16th Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival

2015(4^thof Tevet, 5776): On the Jewish calendar “Yahrzeit of Rabbi Joshua Isaac Shapira, a leader of 19th century European Jewry known by the nickname Reb Eisele Charif.”

http://www.aish.com/dijh/Tevet_4.html

2015(4^thof Tevet, 5776): On the Jewish calendar Yahrzeit of HaRav Moshe Zev of Bialystock, zt”l, author of Marot Hatzovot and Agudat Aizov and “the founder of Gemilat Chassadim Beit Medrash, Bialystok’s most prominent Torah center.”

2015: It was reported today that “the billionaire casino magnate and Republican donor Sheldon Adelson is behind the mysterious purchase of The Las Vegas Review-Journal for $140 million”

2015: Temple Emanu-El is scheduled to host a screening of “Stateless” a moving about Soviet Jews who were stranded in Italy in 1988 “followed by a Q&A with Producer/Director Michael Drob and Kiev-born human rights and LGBTQ activist Yelena Goltsman, who stars in the film.”

2016: Today “a busload of East Midwood members and at least 500 other people filled the auditorium of the 1 Police Plaza to honor EMJC’s Rabbi Emeritus, Dr. Rabbi Alvin Kass, the legendary Chief Chaplain of the NYPD, on his 50 years of service.

http://www.emjc.org/honoring-rabbi-emeritus-dr-rabbi-alvin-kass-50-years-service-nypd/

2016: “On the Map” a film that “tells the against-all-odds story of Maccabi Tel Aviv’s 1977 European Championship, which took place at a time when the Middle East was still reeling from the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the 1972 Olympic massacre at Munich, and the 1976 hijacking of an Air France flight from Tel Aviv” is scheduled to be shown for the last time at the Cinema Village.

2016: Today, King Mohammed VI of Morocco at the rededication ceremony of the Ettedgui Synagogue in Casablanca, Morocco,

2016: The Skirball Center is scheduled to host Human Rights Shabbat with “civil rights advocate Roberta Kaplan, who represented Edie Windsor in “the landmark Supreme Court case United States v. Windsor that resulted in DOMA being declared unconstitutional.”

2017: In London, JWE3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Menashe,” the first Yiddish-language feature film that has been made in several years.

2017(28^thof Kislev, 5778): Parashat Miketz; Fourth Day of Chanukah;

2018: In London, the Jewish Museum is scheduled to host a talk by Kindertrasnport “Kid” Ruth Barnett who “was four years old when she arrived in Britain with her brother.”

2018: The Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines is scheduled to host a screening of “1945” the award winning movie that tells the story of “two Jewish survivors of the Holocaust who arrive in a Hungarian village in August 1945, and the paranoid reactions of the villagers, some of whom fear that these and other Jews are coming to reclaim Jewish property.”

2018: In London, “Artist-in-residence Tommy Berry” is scheduled to work in the gallery space creating works based on the survival story of Kindertransport survivor, Bea Green and her son Paul Green” at the Jewish Museum.

2018: “Jonathan Brent, Executive Director and CEO of YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, is scheduled to speak about the Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Collections Project, begun in 2015, to conserve and digitize YIVO's entire prewar library and archival collections located in NYC and Vilnius, Lithuania, reuniting them through a dedicated web portal.

2018: “With Israelis bracing for expected consumer price increases” and “proposed cuts to the Welfare Budget, it was reported by “Latet” that there are more than two million Israelis including a million children defined as poor, a number which differs with the National Insurance Institute’s findings by approximately one half million. (As reported by Telem Yahav)

2018: In a sign of the time moment, in Cedar Rapids Temple Judah is scheduled to host a member of the CRPD who will “conduct safety awareness training, including active shooter training.”

2018: Jewish Silk Road Tours Inc. in partnership with Bukharian Jewish Congress of USA and Canada, Center for Traditional Music and Dance are scheduled to host a walking tour of several neighborhoods in Queens, NY that will include a visit to the Bukharian Jewish Museum to increase understanding of the Silk Road and Burkharian Jewish culture and as lunched catered by the Bukharian Restaurant.

2019: In London, JW 3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Citizen K.”

2019: The Streicker Center is scheduled to “a conversation with Andrea Bocelli” during he will talk about “the man, the artists” and “the music.

2019: The Sonoma County Jewish Community Center is scheduled to host the “Friendship Circle Chanukah Party.”

2019: Award winning pianist Roman Rabinovich is scheduled to perform with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players at the Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church.

2019: It was reported today that Israeli boutique hotel chain Brown, together with IT company Aman Group, has won a tender to open a hotel at Ben Gurion Airport

December 17

520 BCE (24^th of Kislev): “The foundation-stone of the Temple was laid” (As reported by Jewish Encyclopedia)

630: Modestus of Jerusalem who replaced Zacharias as Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem when the latter was killed following destruction of Jerusalem by Chosroes II passed away today. (Editor’s note – the conquerors come and go but Jerusalem remains the City of Daivd)

1141 (Tevet, 4902): After leaving Cairo, Jehuda Halevi arrived at the port of Damietta where he was warmly received by his old friend Abu Said Chalfon.

1261: Pope Clement IV, who in 1264 “renewed the prohibition of the Talmud promulgated by Gregory IX, who had it publicly burnt in France and in Italy” and who “ordered that the Jews of Aragon submit their books to Dominican censors for expurgation” was “created” as a Cardinal by Urban IV

1187: Gregory VIII, the Pope who called for the disastrous Third Crusade, passed away. Each of the crusades was a disaster for the Jewish people in way or another. On top of everything else, the Third Crusade removed the protective hand of King Richard from England and left the Jews to suffer under the anti-Semitic Prince John.

1398: Tamerlane, also known as Timur, defeated the armies of Sultan Nasir-u Din Mehmud's in Delhi.This battle was part of the war between the Persians and the Mongols. According to one source, Timur brought Persian Jews to his kingdom so that they could help develop the textile industry. For more on this subject see Tamerlane and the Jews by Michael Shterenshis

https://www.amazon.com/Tamerlane-Jews-Michael-Shterenshis/dp/1138010693

1489: Today Italian rabbi, Obadiah ben Abraham Bartenura wrote that “he had moved to Hebron where he found the atmosphere much more conducive, and a small Jewish community numbering some twenty households who were of a better temperament than those in Jerusalem, and where they lived along one alleyway.”

1490: Yucef Franco went on trial today charged with “trying to attract conversos to Judaism as well as having participated in the ritual crucifixion of a Christian child on Good Friday.”

1531: A Bull was issued by Pope Clement VII establishing the Inquisition in Portugal. Frei Diogo da Silva was made Inquisitor General.

1538: Pope Paul III excommunicates Henry VIII of England. Henry had reportedly sought support from Italian rabbis in making the Biblical case for his annulment. The Italian Jews were fearful of the Pope among whom they lived than they were of a distant monarch who did not let Jews live in his kingdom. The excommunication led to a weakening of the Church and the strengthening of the Protestant Reformation which helped to contribute to the Jews return to England in the 17^th century.

1595: In Lima, Peru, ten people were accused of violating the law by practicing the Jewish religion including Francisco Rodriguez who was later burned at the stake.

1600: King Henry IV of France married Marie de' Medici. She is most famous as the mother of Louis XIII in whose name she reigned for seven years as Queen Mother and regent. During that time she defied the ban on Jews living in France by retaining Elijah Montalto as court physician. To gain his services Marie agreed to let him practice his religion and not to have to work on Shabbat. When Louis came of age he reverted to the practice of his predecessors and reaffirmed the ban on Jews living in his kingdom.

1651: “A forced of more than 1,000 Barbadian militia” under the command Francis Willoughby, under whose leadership a group of Sephardic Jews migrated to Suriname” were defeated in clash with pro-Parliament forces.

1762(1^st of Tevet, 5523): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah

1767(26^th of Kislev, 5528): Second Day of Chanukah

1728: Congregation Shearith Israel purchased a lot on Mill Street in lower Manhattan, to build New York's first synagogue.

1773(3^rdof Tevet, 5534): Eighth Day of Chanukah

1775(24^thof Kislev, 5536): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah light

1775: Moses Dobruška a cousin of Jacob Frank, the founder of the Frankist sect, “converted from Judaism to the Catholic faith and took the name of Franz Thomas Schönfeld.”

1778(28^thof Kislev, 5539): Fourth Day of Chanukah

1787: Birthdate of Amsterdam native Roseanna Linderman, the wife of Levi Abrahams and the mother of their Philadelphia born children, Hester and Maria Abrahams.

1789: Birthdate of Bavaria native Isaac Nordlinger, the husband of Eugenie Schweizer and the father of Wolf, Rosali, Fredricka, Bernhard and Marie Nordlinger, all of whom were born in Alsace.

1791(21st of Kislev, 5552):Chief Rabbi David Tevele Schiff passed away. He was the chief rabbi of the United Kingdom and the rabbi of the Great Synagogue of London from 1765 until his death. He was the son of Solomon Schiff, member of a famous and learned family from Frankfurt am Main. Tevele Schiff was educated in the schools of Rabbis Jacob Poper and Jacob Joshua Falk. He served as maggid in Vienna. He also was head of the Beth Midrash in Worms, and later Dayan in Frankfurt.

1792(2^ndof Tevet, 5553): Eighth day of Chanukah

1792: Lilie Marx and Samuel Strauss gave birth to their daughter Sprinz Strauss.

1792(2^ndof Tevet, 5553): According to Gotthard Deutsch, this was the day on which “Teble Schiff, the rabbi of London” passed away. (Editor’s note – any help will be greatly appreciated in resolving the discrepancy)

1794:William Moultrie completed his second term in office as Governor of South Carolina. In 1794, during his final year in office, Moultrie attended the consecration of Congregation Beth Elohim in Charleston, SC.

1796: Birthdate of Charleston, SC native Judith Hyams, the wife of London native Henry Hyams with whom she had eight children and who, like her husband, was buried in New Orleans.

1797: Birthdate of Prussian native and London resident Helena Horn, the wife of Lehman Meyer Gluckstein, with whom she had nine children

1800(1^stof Tevet, 5561): Sixth Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet is observed for the first time in the 19^th century.

1806: Birthdate of German historian Theodor Hirsch who like a certain segment of Jewish society at this time converted to Christianity in order to further his career and/or gain greater social acceptance.

1807: In Charleston, SC, Caroline Lazarus and Aaron Phillips gave birth to Philip Phillips a lawyer who served as Representative from Alabama’s First Congressional District before the American Civil War.

1808:Today, “a central consistory for the Jews in Holland was authorized by royal decree.”

1819: Simón Bolívar declared the independence of the Republic of Gran Colombia in Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar in Venezuela). Jews served in Bolivar’s army and provided him with the financial backing that was necessary for his ultimate success.

1822(3^rdof Tevet, 5583): Joseph Aguilar the husband of his first cousin Grace Aguilar and the grandfather of author Grace Aguilar passed away today.

1823: Solomon Levitt married Ann Isaacs at the Great Synagogue today.

1830: Simon Bolivar, the liberator of Venezuela and Columbia known as the “George Washington of South America” passed away. “Simon Bolivar found refuge and material support for his army in the homes of Jews from Curaçao. Jews such as Mordejai Ricardo and the brothers Ricardo and Abraham Meza offered hospitality to Bolivar as he fought against the Spanish, thus establishing brotherly relations between Jews and the newly independent Venezuelan republic. Several Jews even fought in the ranks of Bolivar's army during the war.” “The Jews of Curacao became involved with Simon Bolivar and his fight for the independence of Venezuela and Colombia from their Spanish colonizers. Two Jewish men from Curacao distinguished themselves in Simon Bolivar’s army, while another supplied moral and material support to Bolivar, as well as refuge for him and his family.”

1833: In Philadelphia, PA, Benjamin and Harriet Marx Etting gave birth to Frank Marx Etting who became Paymaster of the United States Army during the Civil War.

1832(25^thof Kislev, 5593): Chanukah

1836: In Dover, UK, the Dover Telegraph reported that "Mr. Danofsky, of King Street, St James, Westminster, has married Mrs. Hughes, widow of the late Mr. Moses Hughes formerly of Albion Hotel, Dover.”

1837: Three days after he had passed away, Jacob Abrahams, the father of Abraham, Joel, Henry and Naphtali Abrahams, was buried today at the “Canterbury Jewish Cemetery.”

1839(10^th of Tevet, 5600): Asarah BeTevet

1839(10^thof Tevet, 5600): Joseph Flesch, the son of Abraham Flesch, whose accomplishments included translating the works of Philo into Hebrew, passed away today in his native Moravia.

1839: In Paris, Baron Anselm von Rothschild and Charlotte von Rothschild gave birth to their second son, Ferdinand James Anselm von Rothschild an English politician and art collector, and a member of the prominent Rothschild family of bankers who would pass away exactly 59 years later on his birthday.

1846: In Vienna, Moritz Pollak and Julia Benjamin gave birth to Emile Pollak, the husband of Carrie Benjamin who “came to Cincinnati in 1865” where he became President of the Block-Pollak Iron Company and a leader of the Jewish community as can be seen by his membership on the board of directors of Hebrew Union College and the United Jewish Charities.

1846: Jeaneta Mallan and Kent, England native Joseph Davis gave birth to Rosetta Davis.

1851: In Baltimore, MD, Members of the Kaschurn Lodge, No. 3, a Jewish fraternal organization, met with Lajos Kossuth, the exiled Hungarian leader. They gave him seventy-five dollars. They also gave him three banners. The largest one had three full length pictures of Moses, Washington and Kossuth. Moses represented Asia; Washington represented America and Kossuth represented Europe. The two smaller banners contained the statement, in both Hebrew and English, “Thy enemies shall come against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. In thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.”

1852: Benjamin Disraeli finished serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer. He will be replaced by Gladstone. This is the first of three times that Disraeli will hold this office in the English government.

1852(6^thof Tevet, 5613): Jacob Prince was buried in the “Lauriston Road Jewish Cemetery” after he has passed away today.

1857: Iranistan, a Moorish Revival mansion in Bridgeport, Connecticut designed by the Austrian-American architect Leopold Eidlitz caught on fire tonight.

1859: British political leader Henry Fitzroy, the husband of Hannah Rothschild and the son-in-law of Nathan Mayer Rothschild passed away.

1859: During his sermon at the Greene Street Synagogue, Rabbi Raphall delivered “a fervent appeal on behalf” of the Jews who had been forced to seek refuge at Gibraltar because of the war between Spain and Morocco. The Jews fled because of their justified fear of attacks by the enraged native population. Several thousand had been forced to leave all of their possessions behind and were now living in tents provided by the British colonial government and eating food provided by funds from the Jews of England. The congregation responded by immediately raising several hundred dollars to aid their suffering co-religionists.

1859: It was reported today that “From Austria, amid the echoes of Hungarian dissatisfaction, and Tyrolese boldness, come the reports of promised reform. It is stated as a certain fact that in a few days the Emperor will issue a decree, relieving the Jews from many disabilities under which they now lie. The law which forbade a Jew to have a Christian servant is already repealed; and the emancipated Israelite can now rejoice in the possession of a cook who hasn't a conscientious objection to getting up and making a fire, of a Saturday morning. The expected decree will abolish the old law, by which no one of the three witnesses required for a Christian's will could be a Jew -- a blind provision, which has been the source of more trouble to Christians than Jews. Then the rule, still on the statute-books in Austria, that a Jew's evidence in a civil case against a Christian should be considered as "doubtful," will be done away; as also the present prohibition, which prevents any but a Christian from filling the office of Notary. This last provision is no older than 1855. Before that year Jews were allowed to be Notaries, and it is said that there is a Jewish Notary in Prague, who was appointed under the old law, and holds his office still. It is proper that the Government should concede these rights to an oppressed class; but one cannot but notice how, through these reforms, it hopes to escape more pressing and important demands from its subjects. Hungary demands her constitutional rights, and the Emperor grants a couple of reforms to Venice. Tyrol desires her ancient and guaranteed privileges, and he emancipates the Jews at Prague! No matter -- the day is coming

1860: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Henry S. Jacob officiated at the weeding of Daniel S. Hart and Priscilla Lopez, “the only daughter of David Lopez.”

1860: “Affairs in France” published today described the conflict between the French Empress and Achille Fould, the Jewish financier and political leader whom she used to value as an advisor. The Empress has changed her view of Fould due to the influence of the Catholic clergy. Fould is not bothered by the possible loss of the Pope’s temporal power while the clergy and the Empress are greatly distressed by such a possibility. It is rumored that the Empress has said she will not return from England until Fould has been dismissed from office.

1862(25^thof Kislev, 5623): Chanukah

1862: Birthdate of Bagdad native Madelien Ellis, the wife of Ellis Ezekiel Isaac Ellis, who, like her husband would be buried in China.

1862: Birthdate of Moriz Reosenthal, the native of Lemberg who became a world renowned pianist and composer.

https://www.amazon.com/Moriz-Rosenthal-Word-Music-Nineteenth/dp/0253346606

1862: General Grant, in issuing his infamous Order 11, ordered all "Jews as a class" expelled from his lines. In New York City 7000 Jews marched in protest against his decision. Lincoln rescinded his order. Grant never explained the order. Grant had shown something of a nativist streak in the 1850’s when he reportedly supported the Know Nothing Party. As President, Grant maintained cordial relations with Jewish leaders. After leaving the Presidency, Grant lent his name to petitions protesting the treatment of Russian Jews and he made a contribution to the newly formed Adas Israel Congregation in its formative years! (For more see When General Grant Expelled the Jews by Jonathan D. Sarna , a “must read” and Jews and the Civil War edited by Johnathan Sarna and Adam Mendelsohn)

1863: Eleven year old Frederic Hymen Cowen gave “his first genuine public recital at the Bijou Theatre of the old Her Majesty’s Opera House.

1864:La belle Hélène (The Beautiful Helen), an operetta by Jacques Offenbach to an original French libretto co-authored Ludovic Halévy “was first performed at Paris's Théâtre des Variétés” today.

1868: Three days after he has passed away, Joshua Israel Brandon, the son of Abraham Israel Brandon and Emily Ascoli and the husband of Jesse De Symons, was buried today as the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1870: This evening will mark the close of the Hebrew Fair which has been held for several days at the 22^nd Regiment Armory in New York City.

1871: Birthdate of Lazarus Goldschmidt, the Lithuanian trained Rabbi who “in 1888 went to Germy and in 1890 entered the /Berlin University…where he devoted himself to the sudsy of Oriental languages” with an emphasis on “Ethiopic.”

1872: In Lebro, Sweden, “architect Emil Victor Langlet and his wife author Clara Mathilda Ulrika Clementine Söderén” gave birth to Swedish publish Valdemar Langlet, who along with his Nina Borovko-Langlet “is credit with saving many Jews” living in Budapest “from the Holocaust by providing Swedish documents saying that these people were waiting for Swedish nationality.”

1873: Birthdate of Vilnius native Hyman Elias Goldstein who gained fame as British magician Horace Goldin.

1874: At today’s meeting of the Board of Alderman in New York, the resolution submitted a t a previous meeting in favor of permitting the Hebrew Benevolent Orphan Society to sublet their premises” which is property own by the city “was called up and laid over.”

1875: The three men convicted of killing a Jewish peddler named Abraham Weissburg are scheduled to be executed today in New York.

1875: It was reported today that in the Hebrew Charity Fair’s contest for most popular minister Dr. Einhorn is in first place with 43 votes followed by Dr. Isaacs with 37 votes. This is just part of the many activities connected with this pre-Chanukah fundraising fair.

1875: P. Nathan Rubenstein was identified as the man who had bought the knife that was used in the murder of Sarah Alexander. The same witness said she had not sold this unique item to Lewis Rubenstein, Nathan’s brother. Both of the young men are Jewish.

1876: Today’s edition of The Sunday School Helper focused on Acts xii. 1-11 which described how King Herod killed James “and because he saw it pleased he Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also.” (Editor’s Note – these depictions of the evil Jews persecuting Christians provided the soil from which ant-Semitism has grown.)

1877: In Germany, Joseph and Rosalie Kahn gave birth to Mollie Kahn who in 1906 became Mollie Kahn Fuchs when she married University of Michigan trained civil engineer Walter Mortiz Fuchs, the mother Miriam, Elizabeth and Walter Paul Fuchs.

1878: Garnier and Schaefer will play tonight at the Hebrew Fair in Tammany Hill.[ Garnier and Schaefer were locally famous billiard players and this match must have been part of the fair’s fundraising activities.]

1880: Ernst Henrici delivered a speech propagating his anti-Semitic ideas at the Imperial Hall.

1881(25^thof Kislev, 5642): Chanukah

1882: It was reported today that Herr Belchman has come to the conclusion that there are both blond and dark haired people among the Jews living in Western Russia. Furthermore, they have “narrower chests” and “shorter heads” than their non-Jewish counterparts.

1882: It was reported today that Rabbi Gustav Gottheil had testified before Senators Boy and Browning who are investigating “corner and futures and the effect… they have on commerce and public morals.” The Rabbi said he could not speak about the business aspect of the topic. But as to the moral implication he cited the Jewish prohibitions against allowing a man who engaged in gambling to serve as a Judge as a witness. Furthermore, the lure of gambling misled young man and was comparable to putting a stumbling block before the blind.

1883: Madame Fanny Janauschek will appear in tonight’s production of “Zillah, the Hebrew Mother” at the Third Avenue Theatre in New York

1883: A Jewish peddler named Simon Holzman was assaulted and nearly killed near Eatontown, NJ.

1885: Julius C. Koosher, a Russian Jew who came to this country after his business was destroyed in his native land because of his religion and who worked in the United States worked as a land agent but was cheated out the money owed to him by the railroad tycoon Henry Villard, was being held by authorities after having been arrested yesterday for trying to murder 20 prominent Californians and blow up Chinatown

1887: In Chicago, Charles and Mary Haas, gave birth to Rose Alice Alschuler, the child educator and Zionist who was the wife of Alfred Samuel Alschuler, Sr.

https://jwa.org/people/alschuler-rose

1887: Simplicius, a story of the Thirty Years' War, with a libretto by Victor Léon was produced at the Theater an der Wien today.

1888: In Philadelphia, PA, Mat Goldberger went to trail today for the murder last April of Mrs. Annie Schuleberg

1888: The Republican Club of 450 5^th Avenue blackballed Benjamin F. Peixotto and James W. Moses this evening

1889: Mrs. Martin M. Lewis took a leading part in the activities at today’s Hebrew Fair.

1889: A fire broke in a tenement on Eldridge Street that housed several Jewish owned businesses as well as a synagogue and school used by Jewish immigrants from Russia.

1889: Anton Solki, an itinerant Jewish dentist will be arraigned today in Yorkville for having attacked Dr. C.H. de Lamater, after the latter had treated him for a dental problem. The accused does not remember the attack and can give no reason for having done what he is accused of doing.

1890: The Auxiliary Society of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society is scheduled to host a reception at Terrace Garden this evening.

1891: “Under Cover Of Her Child’s Right” published today described the case of Hannah Bocks a Russian Jewess who will be allowed to stay in the United States because her child was born here and “the law will not permit her to be separated from her child” who is an American by birth.

1891: Alexander Becce, a Russian Jew living in San Antonio, TX filed suit today in Federal court against the Hamburg-American Packet Company for $5,000 in damages after the company refused to honor the tickets it had sold him or to refund his money.

1891(16th of Kislev, 5652): Benedict Zuckermann, an observant German-Jewish mathematician and astronomer passed away today. He was a colleague of Henrich Graetz and a supporter of Zacharis Frankel.

1892: Birthdate of American biochemist Edwin Cohn. In 1940 the hard-driving Harvard biochemist Edwin Cohn broke plasma down into its different proteins — and saved millions of soldiers' lives Most fatalities in World War I occurred not from the direct physical damage of bullet wounds but from loss of blood. In the spring of 1940, as another war seemed inevitable, finding a way to replace lost blood became a medical priority. Edwin Cohn, a Harvard biochemist, took on the problem of breaking down blood plasma to isolate a protein called albumin that could be stored for long periods without spoiling, shipped efficiently and used easily on a battlefield to save lives. Patriotic blood drives yielded whole blood from which a small inventory of albumin had been accumulated by December 7, 1941. It was rushed to Pearl Harbor where it proved enormously successful in the first battlefield setting. Cohn headed up a government effort to oversee the production of albumin. His work throughout the war to improve the process and the consequent successes of blood products on the battlefield were one of the keys to victory for the Americans in World War II. He passed away in 1953.

1892: Rabbi David Cahn conducted services this morning as Rodeph Shalom continued the celebration of its fiftieth anniversary which included a sermon, delivered in German, by Rabbi Wise entitled “Retrospective Glances” that traced the history of the congregation

1892: In an attempt to exercise better control over the Jews, “the Russian Senate has promulgated a law requiring that Jewish artisans shall only reside in places where official boards of trade exist.”

1892: Samuel Muhr a leading Philadelphia Jewish merchant and Mayer Sulzberger a prominent Jewish Philadelphia lawyer were among the dignitaries who attended a dinner at the Art Club in Philadelphia honoring the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania who was also the Chairman of the National Democratic Committee.

1892: The celebration of the 50^th anniversary of the founding of Rodeph Sholom continues today with services starting at 9:30 a.m.

1893: Birthdate of Erwin Piscator.The German born Piscator has been described as one of the most renowned figures of modern theater famous for his avant-garde productions at the Epic Theater in Weimar Berlin and his innovative contributions to the American stage.

1893: Rabbi Joseph Silverman delivered a sermon on “Shall We Give State Aid to Denominational Schools?” this morning at Temple Emanu-El

1893: In “France and Autocracy” published today Gabriel Monod of The Contemporary Reviews writes “we cannot go on feigning ignorance” of the persecution of the Jews by the “Russian autocratic government.”

1894: Birthdate of Arthur Fiedler. Fiedler gained fame as the conductor of the Boston Pops which he turned into an American institution. He passed away in 1979.

1895: “The Sweat-Shop Problem” published today described the growth of the clothing industry which “has been built up…largely on the cheap labor of poor Jews who have sought refuge here from oppression in other countries.

1895: The New York Life Insurance Company made a donation of $500 to the Hebrew Educational Fair which was conveyed to Oscar Straus in the form of a check from its president, John A. McCall.

1895: Max Schindler was injured today when he tried to stop a fight between Italian and Jewish pushcart peddlers on Essex Street which was being repaved.

1895: In Cincinnati, Louis H. and Ada Landman gave birth to Solomon Landman, the husband of “the former Rita Boehm,” father of Doris, Joan, Louis and Nathan Landman and graduate of the University Cincinnati and Hebrew College who began his rabbinic career B’rith Sholom Temple in Springfield, Il, founded the Hillel Chapter at the University of Wisconsin and was leading Temple Isaiah in Kew Gardens, Queens at the time of his death.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1951/05/21/87260846.pdf

1897: New Yorkers who were contributing to American kolel “incorporated today as ‘The American Congregation, Pride of Jerusalem.’”

1898(4^thof Tevet, 5659): On his 59^th birthday, Liberal MP Ferdinand James Anselm, Freiherr von Rothschild who had become a British citizen, endowed the Evelina Hospital for Sick Children in Southwark, south London in memory of his wife who had died in childbirth and held leadership position in the Anglo-Jewish community including Warden of the Central Synagogue and Treasurer of the Jewish Board of Guardians passed away today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Baron_Ferdinand_de_Rothschild.png

1900(25^thof Kislev, 5661): First Chanukah of the 20^th century

1900: Birthdate of Henry Calechman, who would be buried at B’nai Jacob Memorial Park seventy-seven years later.

1900: British soldier and diplomat Sir Matthew Nathan began serving as the Governor of the Gold Coast.

1900: New buildings were opened on Ellis Island as it returned to operation following fire which had meant that immigrants, including tens of thousands of Jewish immigrants, had been processed at the Barge Office.

1901: Birthdate of Lee Strasberg. Strasberg was an actor and a director. But his greatest fame came from teaching others to act. He passed away in 1982.

1903 (28^th Kislev, 5664): On the fourth day of Chanukah The Wright Brothers made their first powered and heavier-than-air flight in the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. According to some, the success of the Dayton bicycle men was based on early work by Otto Lielenthal who died during a flight test seven years before. Arthur L. Welsh, a young Jew from Dayton, was one of the early pilots who were taught to fly by the Wright brothers. When Welsh died in 1912 during a test flight, he was the only pilot employed by Wrights who were close friends as well as his mentors. Finally, Hart O. Berg played a critical role in helping the Wright Brothers promote their aircraft on their first European tour and his wife was one of their first, if not the first woman to fly with the Wrights

1904: T.C. Evans reviewed “he Life of Lord Beaconsfield” by Walter Sichel, a “biographical study of the remarkable man, wit, statesman, novelist, the celebration of whose centenary is now at hand.”

1905: “After weeks of anxious waiting the national committee which is raising the relief fund for the victims of the Russian massacres” today received from “Sir Samuel Montague and Lord Rothschild the first reports concerning the distribution of the $1,000,000 already sent” from the United States and Jews in western Europe.

1905: It was reported today the relief fund for the Jews suffering from the massacres in Russia totaled $1,172,639 including $424 from the “Orthodox Hebrews of Jacksonville, Fla.”

1905: A map published today “shows at a glance where…massacres of the Jews have occurred “in Russia.

1906: Oscar Straus became the third U.S. Secretary of Commerce and Labor.

1909: Muslims in Tunis protested when Jews were going to be put under French jurisdiction. Muslims stated that this was discriminatory and a violation of treaties, even though it was the Muslims the French were going to protect the Jews from.

1912: In Chicago, Sinai Temple is scheduled to host the Chicago Woman’s Aid for Opera Day this afternoon.

1912: The funeral for Ernest J.D. Rappaport, the eighteen year old son of Rabbi and Mrs. Julius Rappaport is scheduled to take place this afternoon.

1913: Birthdate of American business man Sol Linowitz who served as Chairman of the Board of Xerox Corp and negotiated the return of the Panama Canal.

1913: It was reported today that Judge Leonard S. Roan who had presided over the original Leo Frank trial and refused to grant a new trial “said that he personally was not absolutely convinced of the accused’s guilt or innocence.”

1914(29^th of Kislev, 5675): Fifth day of Chanukah

1914: At Clark University, the school’s president gave the after-dinner address at the first banquet of the Menorah Society.

1914: “Albert Lucas, Secretary of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America announced today that he had received a letter from the Secretary of the Jews’ Temporary Shelter in London saying ‘If you can see your way of further assisting us in our extremely heavy outlay by making a grant to our funds you can be sure that the money will be put to the best possible purpose, especially for food and lodging for the Yiddish-speaking and refugees from Belgium.’”

1914: It was reported today that Senator Ellison Smith the South Carolina bigot and racist who was Chairman of the Committee on Immigration expressed his opposition to any change to the immigration laws that might be of benefit of Jews Russia.

1914: In New York, Herbert L. Satterlee “announced that he had completed arrangements with Felix Warburg who was at the head of the committee for the relief of the Jews in Poland, whereby the Polish American Relief Committee and the Polish American Relief Committee and Mr. Warburg’s committee would work in unison in relieving the distress of the Poles.”

1914: The Turks expelled the Jews of Tel Aviv, sending them to Egypt. Many of the Jews were native Russians. Since Russia and Turkey were enemies during World War I, the Turks saw these Russian Jews as potential enemy agents or worse.

1914: This “afternoon Bedouin police raided the Ghetto at Jaffa, arrested 1,600 persons and drove them at the point of the bayonet” While being forced aboard the already overcrowded Florio, “sever of the men resenting the brutalities to their wives were thrown overboard by boatmen and drowned before the eyes of the women.” (Editor’s note – these Jews were transported to Alexandria where they found temporary refuge at the Hotel Metropole)

1915(10^th of Tevet, 5676): Asara B’Tevet

1915(10^th of Tevet, 5676): Seventy-one year old Imperial Councilor Adolf Schrmack passed away today in Vienna.

1915: Today “The National Workmen’s Committee on Jewish Rights, a body representing 500,000 Jewish workers organized ‘to assist in obtaining rights for Jews in countries of the present war zone where they are deprived of their rights,’ received a letter …from Samuel Gompers which included a set of resolutions adopted by the American Federation of Labor at its recent convention in San Francisco in which the federation took steps to co-operate with the committee.”

1916: “The Joint Distribution Committee which is led by Chairman Felix M. Warburg and Treasurer Herbert H. Lehman continued to receive “large contributions from all parts of the country” including $5,500 from the Baltimore Committee and $2,000 from the Omaha Committee.

1916: It was reported today that the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War of which Harry Fischel is the Treasurer received $225 from the committee in Sioux City, Iowa, $124 from Rokeach and Sons and $35 from the committee in Marshalltown, Iowa.

1916: At tonight’s annual meet of the Brooklyn Federated Jewish Charities, Edward Lazansky the former Secretary of the State for New York was President of the organization succeeding Benjamin H. Namm who had held the job for the past four years.

1916: Tonight, “a recommendation that the Eastern Council of Reform Rabbis representing more than 1,000,000 Jewish in the Eastern and New England States, officially indorse the German peace proposals and a pleas that a federation of synagogues be formed at once to check the spread of Jewish religious indifference were made…by Rabbi Joseph Silverman at Temple Emanu-El in his Presidential message to eighty rabbis assembled for the Autumn conference of the council” which was chaired by Justice Irving Lehman.

1916: Today, 750 person heard a sermon delivered by Rabbi Jesse Bienfeld at the dedication of “Judah Halevi Temple, a $30,000 white brick structure at 106^th Street and Morris Avenue” which was atteneded by Judge Otto Rosalsky and Charles Eno.

1916: Felix M. Warburg, the President of the Manhattan Federated Jewish Charities and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise expressed their support for the “amalgamation” of the Brooklyn and Manhattan federations.

1917(2nd of Tevet, 5678): Eighth Day of Chanukah

1917(2^nd of Tevet, 5678): Sixty-four year old Julia Matilda Cohen, the daughter of Jacob and Matilda Waley and the wife of Nathaniel Cohen who was the longtime president of the Union of Jewish Women and author whose works included The Children’s Prayer Book…with a Prayer Book for Home Use in Jewish Families, Infants’ Bible Reader and Addresses to Children, passed away today.

1917(2nd of Tevet, 5678): Thirty-six year old Dov Ber Borochov, one of the founding fathers of the Labor Zionist movement, passed away.

http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Borokhov_Ber

http://streetsofisrael.wordpress.com/2013/04/10/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-dovberborochov/

http://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page/this-day-in-jewish-history-a-great-zionist-mind-dies-young.premium-1.485342?trailingPath=2.169%2C2.216%2C2.221%2C2.489%2C

1917: Birthdate of Jacob Landau, the native of Philadelphia who gained fame as an artist “known for his evocative works on the human condition.

1917: A newly independent Finland moved to make Jews full-fledged today when “Parliament approved an act concerning ‘Mosaic Confessors’” that made Jews “Finnish nationals.”

1917: “According to the Messaggero, the Pope has addressed a circular to all Bishops in the belligerent countries declaring that if any Christian State aids the Turks in an attempt to retake Jerusalem it will be condemned by the Hoy See.”

1918(14^th of Tevet, 5679): Vilna born “Rabbi Isaac Zev Vendrovksky, the author of many works on Jewish law and literature” who in 1895 “went to South America where he was placed in charge of a division of the Baron de Hirsch colonies” before moving to New York in 1900 where became “consulting editor for religious work on the Jewish Daily News” passed away today.

1918: Release date for “Carmen” a 1918 German silent drama film directed by Ernst Lubitsch

1919(25^th of Kislev, 5680): Chanukah

1920: It was reported today ant one-eighth of the 2,000 students attending the University of Chicago are Jewish.

1921(16^th of Kislev, 5682): Parashat Miketz

1921: In Chicago, Morton David Cahn, the son of Joseph and Miriam Cahn, and Julia Elizabeth Cahn gave birth to Alan Hofeller Cahn

1922: In “Blindness Waning in Palestine” published today Rabbi Stephen S. Wise described how the British, with the help of the Hadassah society have successfully waged war against trachoma.

1923: Early in his career, Sid Terris fought a future Lightweight Boxing Champion “to a ten round draw at Madison Square Garden” in New York City.

1924: Birthdate of Yohai Ben-Nun, the sixth commander of the Israeli Navy.

1925: “An important discovery was made near Jaffa” when “archaeologist unearthed a mausoleum containing a hall, two chambers and a small niche

1926: “Dig Up Jerusalem Walls” published today described the ongoing excavation of “the course of the third wall of the City of Jerusalem” “undertaken by the Hebrew University and the Jewish Archaeological Society under the supervision of Dr. Sukenik.”

1927(23^rd of Kislev, 5658): Parashat Vayeshev

1927: It was reported today that Rabbi Edward Lissman of the Riverside Synagogue has said that “Christianity and Judaism traditionally run parallel in the latitudes of human experience and if the ethics of civilization are to be save, let the ideals of the two beliefs predominate in the interests of perpetual righteousness.”

1928: Aaron Copland was part of a group participating in a musical event at the New School for Social Work today.

1928: New York Municipal Court Justice Panken presided over a meeting of the American Ort tonight at the Pennsylvania Hotel where he said today “anti-Semitism runs rampant” in Russia and Nathan Chanin of the Jewish Socialist Federation said “Jewish children were discriminated against in Russian vocational schools” while “Jews were prohibited from buying food in the Soviet cooperatives” which meant they “were obliged to deal directly with farmers who exacted exorbitant prices.”

1929: In New York City, Oliver C. and Ida Panish Safir gave birth to William Safire. Unique among the Jews of his generation, Safire was a conservative Republican who was a speech writer for President Nixon. He spent almost three decades as a political columnist for The New York Times.

1929: In Pensacola, FL, the two-story brick building on East Chase Street which was the home to Temple Beth El whose original building had burned down in 1895 was struck by a devastating fire that “almost completely destroyed the structure.”

1930: According to reports published today, Arabs have failed to stop Jewish settlers from plowing their land at Hedera after they lost a lawsuit designed to keep the land from the Jews. After the police intervened, the Arabs agreed to await the outcome of the appeal before taking any further action. The Arabs said that they understood the recently issued White Paper to mean that all land in Palestine belonged to them.

1931: “Tonight or Never,” a comedy directed by Mervyn LeRoy, produced by Samuel Goldwyn, with music by Alfred Newman and co-starring Melvyn Douglas was released in the United States today.

1931: In Manhattan, Blanche and Milton Frankfurt gave birth to Stephen Owen Frankfurt “an advertising executive who helped lead the transformation of television commercials from straightforward sales pitches in the 1950s to sophisticated, art-designed productions” (As reported by Leslie Kaufman)

1931: The meeting of the World Islamic conference came to an end in Jerusalem. The conference agreed to deny Jews access to the al-Aksa Mosque as a first step to undermining efforts of the Zionists to live peacefully side by side with their Arab neighbors.

1933:In today’s Advent sermon Michael von Faulhaber, the Cardinal Archbishop of Munich “spoke to the "People of Israel" about the "Old Testament" and declared "This treasure did not grow in your own garden... this condemnation of usurious land-grabbing; this war against the oppression of the farmer by debt, this prohibition of usury, is certainly not the product of your spirit!". (Editor’s Note: Guenter Lewy concludes: "It, therefore, is little short of falsification of history when Faulhaber's sermons in 1933 are hailed by one recent Catholic writer [Yves Congar] as a 'condemnation of the persecution of Jews)

1934: In Chicago Samuel Petlin, who went from being a cantor to Poland to working in a cleaning plant in the United States and “Rose (Cohen) Petlin” gave birth to painter Irving Petlin who lost at least 49 members of his family in the Holocaust. (As reported by Richard Sanomir)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/obituaries/irving-petlin-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

1935: Based on votes counted so far, Meier Dizengoff trails Laborite Joseph Aronowitz in the Tel Aviv mayoral election held on Sunday.

1936: Governor Herbert H. Lehman is scheduled to deliver the opening address at the Jewish Theological Seminary in what will be the first in a series of programs designed to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the institution.

1937:Temple Shaaray Tefila began a weekend of services dedicating their reconstructed sanctuary. The Temple had been the victim of an arsonist’s fire in March necessitating this rebuilding project.

1937: The Palestine Post reported that three Arabs were killed when British troops and police fought a large Arab gang near Tulkarm.

1937: The Palestine Post reported that a Jewish boy of 16 was killed when a Polish hooligan shot him and threw a bomb at a shop in the village of Czarna, near Warsaw, completely demolishing it. Polish officials were reported to be planning to deport, with French approval, some 30,000 Jewish families, 120,000 persons to Madagascar, within the next six years. France demanded that the refugees be supplied with sufficient capital to make their planned farms profitable.

1938: After almost two weeks of terrorist activities in Haifa during which three Arabs and four Jews have been killed, Haifa enjoyed a third day “of tranquility.”

1939(5^thof Tevet, 5700): Fifty-seven year old Congressman William Irving Sirovich passed away today.

http://history.house.gov/People/Detail/21701

1940: Thanks to the efforts of Marge Iverson, the wife of Phillip Iverson, The St, Johnsbury Jewish Woman’s Club held its first meeting in St. Johnsbury, Vermont.

1940: Drunken SS guards at the Sachsenhausen labor camp awaken Jews during a frigid night and order them to roll in the snow.

1941: Fifty-six year old Oskar Blumentahl was transported today from Prague to Terezin, the first step on a journey that would lead to his murder in the first month of the New Year.

1941: Presidential Executive Order 8982 created the Board of Economic Warfare among whose employees was Raphael Lemkin the Polish lawyer who created the term “genocide” in 1944.

1941: The slaughter of the Jews of Skede, which began on December 15, came to an end. German security police and Latvian police marched almost three thousand Jews to a ditch, forced them to strip and then shot them in groups of ten. For those who doubt the truth, Yad Vashem has a photograph that was taken by one of the German or Latvian killers.

http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/december/06.asp

1941: German Christian church leaders of Saxony, Nassau-Hesse, Mecklenburg, Schleswig-Holstei, Anhalt, Thuringia and Lubeck announced that the “severest measures” should be taken against the Jews, who should be expelled from German territories.

1941(27th of Kislev, 5702): Dr. David Dubslo and two of his colleagues died of spotted typhus while treating Gypsies who had been sent to the Lodz ghetto. The Gypsies lived in a special section of the ghetto and had no doctors of their own.

1942: Celebration of the 80^th birthday of Moriz Rosenthal.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9C0CE2D6173FE33BBC4B52DFB4678389659EDE

1942: “Random Harvest,” the film version of the novel with the same name directed by Mervyn LeRoy, with a screenplay co-authored by George Foreschel and filmed by Joseph Ruttenberg was released today United States.

1942: Dr. Samuel Goldenson is scheduled to officiate at the funeral services for David M. Bressler at Temple Emanu-El

1942: The Yishuv announces a 30-day period of mourning to commemorate the tragedy of the Jews in Europe.

1942: Pressure from members of Parliament, from Jewish groups in England, from the Anglican Church, from the British press, and from the Polish government-in-exile persuades the Allied governments to publish their first official recognition of atrocities in Poland. The Allied nations--Great Britain, United States, Soviet Union, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Luxembourg, Holland, Norway, Poland, Yugoslavia, and the French National Committee--officially condemn the Nazis'"bestial policy of cold-blooded extermination." They vow to punish those responsible. Several U.S. State Department officials try to block this declaration. All previous and following declarations neglect to mention Jews.

1942: Accepting the United States government’s position that the Jews being massacred by the Germans can be helped only by a total and unconditional Allied victory over Germany, the American press continues to treat the Holocaust as just another war story, and is unwilling to discuss the systematic annihilation of the Jews. Given the Allied governments' knowledge of the Holocaust at this time, waiting until the Allied Armed Forces have achieved a total victory over the Germans indicates that the Allied governments have accepted the probability that the majority of European Jews will be killed before the Germans can be stopped.

1942: Jewish inmates at the labor camp at Kruszyna, Poland, near Radom, attack guards with knives and fists. Six prisoners are killed and four escape.

1942:The Allies issued a statement saying Jews were being taken to tBirkenau, the part of Auschwitz devoted to extermination and killed.

1943 Sixty year old German actress who was forced to divorce her Jewish husband actor Fritz Spira by the Nazis and was the mother of Camilla Spira whom she saved from the Weterbork transit camp (a first stop on the trip to death in the East) and actress Steffie Spira passed away soon after hearing that Fritz had died in a concentration camp in Yugoslaia.

1943: Transport 63 departed with a cargo of French Jews being sent to Nazi-Germany

1943: Jews are executed at Kovno, Lithuania, as reprisal for an escape of several Jews from the ghetto.

1943: Birthdate of Barbara Berman who as Barbara Berman Dobkin, the wife of Eric Dobkin became “the pre-eminent Jewish feminist philanthropist of the end of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first century.”

http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/dobkin-barbara

1944(1^stof Tevet, 5705): Rosh Chodesh Tevet coincides with the 2^nd day of the Battle of the Bulge.

1944: On the second day of the Battle of the Bulge Sergeant Roddie Edmonds who refused to tell the Germans which of his troops were Jewish saying definitely that “We are all Jews here” ate his last meal.

1945(13^thof Tevet, 5706): Eighty-year old music publisher, Edward Bennet Marks, the son of Bennet and Pauline (Spero) Marks, the husband of Miriam Chuck with whom he had three children who was a “member of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Council for Coordination Industry” and the President of the highly successful Edward B Marks Music Corporation whose works included “Kaddish of My Ancestry” passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1945/12/18/88322520.pdf

1945: U.S. Senate votes for Wagner-Taft resolution calling for free entry of Jews into Palestine and establishment of Jewish commonwealth. Wagner is Senator Robert Wagner, a New York liberal Democrat. Taft is Senator Robert Taft a conservative Republican from Ohio. This shows the bipartisan support the measure had.

1945: Birthdate of Novisibrsk native Ariye (Arik) Paz (Feingold) who parents Zelda and Simcha immigrated to Israel in 1948 where he served on the Submarine Dakar which was lost on January 25, 1968 at the age of 22.

1946: With the assistance of Rabbi Louis Gerstein, Rabbi David de Sola Pool of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue conducted the funeral service for 84 year old “American social worker, labor activist and suffragist” Maud Nathan whose prominent relations included Emma Lazarus and Justice Benjamin Cardozo” followed by a burial at the Cypress Hills Cemetery in Queens.

1946: Sylvia Fine and Danny Kaye gave birth to their daughter Dena,https://parade.com/234327/scottneumyer/dena-kaye-remembers-her-father-during-danny-kayes-centennial-celebration/

1946: Land purchases and budgetary matters were discussed at a meeting of the World Zionist Congress.

1946: Birthdate of Hamilton, Canada native Eugene Levy the writer and comedic actor is best known to Americans for his role in “American Pie.”

1947: Birthdate of Russian violinist Zakhar Bron.

1947: Birthdate of Eddie Antar who was the cofounder of the electronics retail chain Crazy Eddie, Inc. He fled to Israel in February, 1990 to avoid. Later, he was extradited and convicted of securities fraud and racketeering.

1947: In the face of mounting violence and fearing that worse was to come, the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem opened a blood bank with goal of producing 1000 doses of plasma.

1947: The U.S. State Department expressed its fears that the Soviet Union is supplying arms to both sides of the Palestine conflict.

1947: The Arab League Council announced it will stop the proposed partition of Palestine by force and begins raids on the Jewish communities in Palestine.

1947: The State Department reported that the Arab League Council had begun buying weapons to implement its policy of thwarting the partition of Palestine.

1947: Moshe Shertok, Jewish Agency political head, charges that British are obstructing partition and that British administration does not protect Jews from Arab attacks, yet they prevent Jews from defending themselves. Dr. Nahum Goldmann,

1947: The Jewish Agency executive, reports Jewish plans for Swiss-like neutrality.

1947: Pinchas Ben-Porat, a pilot with Sherut Avir, the air arm of Haganah, boarded his single engine RWD-13 and flew a medical doctor to the small town of Beit Eshel.

1947: After completing his flight to Beit Eshel, “Ben-Porat was assigned a support role to Nevatim, a Jewish settlement in the Negev desert. When Nevatim came under attack by Arab irregulars, Ben-Porat flew an RWD 13 or Auster to Nevatim. Upon arriving, he removed the right door of the plane and set up a Bren gun and gunner with several hand grenades. Ben-Porat and his gunner flew a half-hour of close air support. The tactic was emulated by many Jewish pilots and crew in the Israeli War of Independence.” Once he completed that leg of the mission Ben-Porat was supposed to fly to Nevatim, but learning that 200 Arabs were assaulting it, he removed the doors of his aircraft to install a Bren Gun, and with a volunteer gunner and some hand grenades, took off for the village

1948: Four thousand, one hundred Jews set sail from Yugoslavia for Israel.

1949: Today marked the final performance of the original Broadway production of “Regina” a Mrc Blitzstein opera based Lillian Hellman’s “The Little Foxes” conducted by Maurice Abravanel, choreographed by Anna Sokolow and starring Brenda Lewis “Birdie.”

1950: Actress Ruth Roman, the daughter of Lithuanian-Jewish parents, married Mortimer Hall.

1951: In Chicago, Bernard Meltzer, “a former prosecutor at the Nuremberg war crimes trials” and his wife gave birth to Daniel Julius Meltzer, the Harvard Law School Professor who was an adviser to President Obama.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/daniel-meltzer-law-professor-and-legal-adviser-to-obama-white-house-dies/2015/05/27/9576d372-0486-11e5-8bda-c7b4e9a8f7ac_story.html?utm_term=.c9d23ba7e2ec

1952:According to a report issued today by Moshe Kol, co-treasurer of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, and chairman of the Youth Aliyah management committee in Israel twenty million dollars has been expended by Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, on its Youth Aliyah (youth immigration) activities in Israel in the last eighteen and a half years.

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the new Mapai-General Zionists coalition won 73 seats in the Knesset.

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that in New York, more than 19,000 persons, attending the Hanukkah Festival of Lights, at the Madison Square Garden, purchased $2,575,000 worth of Israel Bonds.

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that officers and men of the Jerusalem Area Police Force contributed IL 136 to the Post's Hanukkah Toy Fund, the largest amount given by any organized group of workers, and assisted the newspaper's volunteers in the distribution of toys and sweets in the Jerusalem Corridor's outlying ma'abarot.

1953(11^thof Tevet, 5714): Seventy-four year old Carrie Davidson, “a founder of the National Women’s League of the United Synagogue of America,” “the editor for 24 years of The Women’s League Outlook” and the widow of “Dr. Israel Davidson, the Professor of Medieval Hebrew Literature at JTS” with whom she raised two daughter passed away today after a week long illness.

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/davidson-carrie-dreyfuss

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1953/12/19/83742253.pdf

1956: In London, Conservative politician Nigel Lawson, and his first wife socialite Vanessa Salmon gave birth to journalist Dominic Lawson

1956: Time magazine “panned" Jewish playwright’s “Night of the Auk” saying “that a good case of actors…were unhappily squandered on a pudding of a script…that sounded like cosmic advertising copy.”

1958: In Cedar Rapids, IA, George and Joyce Skinner gave birth to Kevin Skinner, a loyal member of Temple Judah.

1959: “The fourth Knesset started with David Ben-Gurion's Mapai party forming the ninth government” today.

1959:Haim-Moshe Shapira replaced Israel Bar-Yehuda as Internal Affairs Minister.

1959:Yisrael Barzilai completed his term in office as Communications Minister.

1959: Rabbi Ya'akov Moshe Toledano returned to his position as Minister of Religions.

1959: Violinist Isaac Stern and his wife gave birth to symphony conductor Michael Stern.

1960(28^thof Kislev, 5721): Fifty-nine year old Bella Weretnikow Rosenbaum, the first Jewish female attorney in the state of Washington, passed away today.

http://jwa.org/thisweek/jun/06/1901/bella-weretnikow

1960: After 488 performances the curtain came down on “Take Me Long” a musical whose book was co-authored by Joseph Stein and with lighting by Jean Rosenthal.

1963(1^stof Tevet, 5724): Seventh Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet observed for the first time during the Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson

1964: At the Terrace Room of the Plaza, “Rabbi Moshay Mann” officiated at the marriage Miss Elissa Pamela Landau, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Gustave J. Laudau” and “Barry Steven Glassman, son of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Glassman.”

1964: Nobel Prize winner Victor Francis Hess passed away. A native of Austria, the non-Jewish Hess fled his native country because his wife was Jewish.

1964:Dr. Luther L. Terry, Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, announced today the Dr. Stanley F. Yolles, the husband of Dr. Tamarath K. Yoles, has been named director of the National Institute of Mental Health and Assistant Surgeon General of the Public Health Service.

1965(23^rdof Kislev, 5726): Seventy-three year old Louis Cohen, the acting Postmaster of the Bronx who made a career as functionary in the Democratic party starting with Mayoral election of 1913 and the husband of “the former Belle Lazarus and father of Robert and Joseph Lazarus, passed away today.

1965: AstronomerDavid H. Levy began his search for comets.

1966: “El Dorado” a western co-starring James Caan was released today in Japan.

1966: Birthdate of Aryeh Judah Schoen Nusbacher, the New York native who “became a Senior Lecturer at Sandhurst, a captain in the Territorial Guard and Baal Koreh at the Guilford Synagogue” and who has been Lynette Nusbacher “since her gender change in 2007.”

1968(26^thof Kislev, 5729): Second day of Chanukah

1968: It was reported today that the announcement of the rescinding of the order of expulsion of the Jews by Ferdinand and Isabella took on an additional significance because it also marked “the opening of the first synagogue built in Spain in 600 years.

1969: A planned attack by two British national on an El Al plane in London was “forestalled” today.

1970: “Alex in Wonderland” a comedy directed and written by Paul Mazursky and featuring future Oscar winner Michael Lerner was released today in the United States.

1970(19^thof Kislev, 5731): Seventy two year old Aiken, SC native and University of South Carolina trained attorney Benet Polikoff, Sr, “a partner in the New York law firm of Polikoff and Clareman” passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/1970/12/18/archives/benet-polikoff-sr-counsel-to-actors.html

1972: Release date for “Avanti!” a comedy produced and directed by Billy Wilder with a screenplay by Billy Wilder and I.A. L. Diamond.

1972: “The chairman of the Jew ish Agency, Louis A. Pincus, said today that this year 56,000 new settlers arrived in Israel, 30,000 of whom came from the Soviet Union.”

1972: “The Heartbreak Kid” a comedy directed by Elaine May, written by Neil Simon and Bruce Jay Friedman and co-starring Charles Grodin and Jeannie Berlin was released in the United States today.

1973: Arab terrorist killed 32 passengers when they tried to attack a Pan American jet at the Rome airport.

1973(22^ndof Kislev, 5734): Ninety-two year old Belle May Loewenstein, the Cleveland born daughter Ameilia and Nahum Hexter and the wife of Moses Lowenstein and Solomon Emanuel Ullman (not at the same time) passed away today in Richmond, VA.

1973: At the Rome airport Arab terrorist hijacked a Lufthansa jet and flew to Kuwait 12 live and one dead hostages were released and the Kuwaitis released the terrorist to the PLO after refusing to extradite them to Italy.

1974(3^rdof Tevet, 5735): Seventy-three year old Estonian born award winning of University of Pennsylvania trained architect Louis Isadore Kahn, passed away today.

https://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/ar_display.cfm/21829

1974: Birthdate of super chef Duff Goldman.

1974: Release date for “Front Page,” the cinematic adaptation of Ben Hecht’s play made possible by the writing team of I.A.L. Diamond and Billy Wilder who also served as the director, starring Walter Matthau and featuring Harold Gould as “The Mayor” and Allen Garfield as “Kruger.”

1975: Irene Shubik produced “Rumpole of the Bailey” broadcast today on “Play for Today.”

1976(25^thof Kislev, 5737): Chanukah for the last time during the Presidency of Gerald Ford

1977: “Capricorn One” a Mars based mystery directed by Peter Hyams, with music by Jerry Goldsmith and starring Elliot Gould was released in Japan today.

1978: Channel 2 (WCBS) broadcasts “Lamp Unto My Feet – Chanukah in Romania” at ten o’clock this morning.

1978(17^thof Kislev, 5739): Ninety-two year old University of Pittsburgh trained lawyer and the “11^th national President of the American Jewish Committee” passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/1978/12/18/archives/louis-caplan-exhead-of-jewish-committee.html?searchResultPosition=1

1978(17th of Kislev, 5739: Eighty-year old Irving Jacobson, a star of the Yiddish theatre who made the successfully transition to the world of American film and legitimate theatre passed away today.

1979: CBS broadcast the first episode of “House Calls,” a sit com that included Richard Lewis playing Dr. Leon Promethesu.

1980(10^thof Tevet, 5741): Asar B’Tevet

1982: “Tootsie,” starring Dustin Hoffman, with a script by Larry Gelbart, Murray Schisgal, Barry Levinson and Elaine May was released today in the United States.

1982: In the U.K. and U.S. opening of Frank Oz’s “The Dark Crystal.”

1982: “Best Friends” with a script by Barry Levinson and co-starring Goldie Hawn and Ron Silver was released in the United States today by Warner Brothers.

1982: Israeli born cellist Ofra Harnoy, a winner of the 1982 Concert Artists Guild Award, made her debut this evening at the Carnegie Recital Hall at the age of 17.

1984: Three people were injured when terrorists hurled grenades at a Tel Aviv bus stop.

1986: “The Name of the Rose” a medieval murder mystery featuring Ron Perlman as “Salvatore” and Elya Baskin as “Severinus” was released in France today.

1988: Abdeen Jabara, the 45-year-old president of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, an American citizen, was barred from entering Israel today. According to a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry the decision was based on Jabara’s record which includes “activities as a lawyer defending terrorists, attempts to prevent the collection of money for Israel, trying to legally prevent the entry of Prime Minister Shamir into the U.S., and an F.B.I. investigation against him.''

1989: The New York Times reviewed “Birth Power: The Case for Surrogacy” by Israeli lawyer Carmel Shalev.

1989: The first episode of “The Simpsons” whose developers included James L. Brooks and Sam Simon was broadcast today.

1991(10th of Tevet, 5752): Asara B'Tevet

1992:After more than 18 months of racial and ethnic unrest, Jews and blacks joined hands tonight in an emotional session at Harlem's historic Apollo Theater to recall their past alliances and pray for future healing. The reason for the gathering was the showing of a documentary on the black soldiers who liberated Jews from Nazi concentration camps at the end of World War II.

1992: As violence from Palestinian terrorist escalated 415 terrorist leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad were flown to Israel’s northern border and deported to Lebanon.

1992: At the Apollo Theater in Harlem, another screening of “Liberators,” directed by Williams Miles and Nina Rosenblum, was held before an audience of 1,200 prominent Jews and blacks, hosted by three influential politicians: Congressman Charles Rangel, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau and Jesse Jackson. Elie Wiesel, who didn’t appear in the film, sent a videotaped message of support, and the event was broadcast on WNET. (As reported by Mark Schulte)

1993: Today Judith Rodin became the first graduate of the University of Pennsylvania to serve as the president of that school and she became the first woman to serve as president of an Ivy League university.

1993(3^rdof Tevet, 5754): Fifty year old actress Janet Margolin lost her battle with ovarian cancer and passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/18/obituaries/janet-margolin-film-and-tv-actress-50.html?_r=0

1993: “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” a comedy directed, produced and written by Mel Brooks and co-starring Richard Lewis was released in France today.

1994: In Los Angeles, “jazz pianist Michael Wolff and actress Poll Draper” gave birth to actor and music Nathaniel Marvin Wolff, the older brother of singer/songwriter Alex Wolff.

1995:”Vatican Reaffirms Its Policy on Jerusalem” published today takes issue with Leah Rabin’s description of the Pope’s comments about the Israeli capital city.

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/17/world/vatican-reaffirms-its-policy-on-jerusalem.html?ref=leahrabin

1995: The New York Times featured a review of the recently published paperback edition of Yehoshua Kenaz’s The Way To The Cats, an “Israeli novel that presents old age with all its ravages” as seen through the life of its protagonist “Yolanda Moscowitz, 76, who is recuperating from a broken leg in a rehabilitation center in Tel Aviv, where she hopes that her dignity won't go the way of her beauty.

1996(7th of Tevet, 5757): Song writer Irving Caesar passed away. Born in 1895, he was originally known as Isidor Caesar. He wrote lyrics for "Swanee,""Sometimes I'm Happy,""Crazy Rhythm," and "Tea for Two," one of the most frequently recorded tunes ever written.

1966: “Unlike Agnel” a Christmas made-for-television movie featuring Eli Marienthal as “Matthew” was broadcast for the first time by CBS.

1998:“Parade,” “a musical with a book by Alfred Uhry and music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown” “premiered on Broadway at the Vivian Beaumont Theater.”

1999: “Sunshine” a marvelous film that traces a Hungarian Jewish family for five generations from the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution began a limited opening in three Canadian cities.

1999: “Stuart Little” a film version of the novel by the same name directed by Rob Minkoff was released today in the United States.

2000: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about subjects of Jewish interest including Maestro: Greenspan's Fed and the American Boomby Bob Woodward, Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision by Louis Breger, Schmidt Delivered by Holocaust survivor Louis Begley and Sex and Power by Susan Estrich.

2000: In entitled “A Haunting Legacy in Provence” published today Michael Frank provides a brief informative view of the history of a French Jewry.

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/17/travel/a-haunting-legacy-in-provence.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

2001(2^ndof Tevet, 5762): Ninety-four year old Jeanne Mandello the Jewish photographer who fled from Germany and France to escape the Nazis and who finally found refuge in Uruguay passed away today.

http://jeannemandello.com/about-part-10-her-work/

2002: The money that South African businessman Cyril Kern had lent to the campaign of Ariel Sharon was returned to him today.

2003: It was reported today that “Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters” will honor “Mark Canton with the Sydney J. Rosenberg Lifetime Achievement Award at the 12th Annual Dinner & Auction Gala” being held at the Century Plaza Hotel next month.

2005: On SNL, Andy Samberg co-starred in the Digital Short "Lazy Sunday", a nerdcore hip hop song performed by two Manhattanites on a quest to see the film The Chronicles of Narnia.

2006: Sir Arnold Wesker, the Jewish dramatist was the castaway on Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4

2006: The Times of London names Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky (translated by Sandra Smith) as number one on its list of “The Best Books of 2006.” This recently discovered volume written by a French Jewish author describes life in France in the early days of World War II. The book was written as Nemirovsky fled from the Nazis. She perished in the death camps before she had a chance to complete the work or edit it.

2006: The Jewish people should develop a long-term strategic planning mechanism to address the threats that endanger all Jews, according to recommendations submitted at today’s cabinet meeting. 2006: In Boston, WGBH-FM (89.7) airs"Chanukah: A Time for Superheroes" The radio special is about the connection between superheroes and Judaism. It has input from Stan Lee, "Spiderman" director Sam Raimi, Bryan Singer of the X-Men movies, and Michael Chabon, an author who dissects comics and Judaism in his book "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay."

2006: The Association for Jewish Studies (AJS) opened its 38th Annual Conference, San Diego, California.

2006(26th of Kislev, 5767): Dodger Pitcher Larry Sherry, who with his brother Norm formed the only all brother, all Jewish battery in baseball history that led a team (the 1959 Dodgers) to a World Series Championship, passed away.

2007: After only 3 months with the team, punter Josh Miller was released by the Tennessee Titans of the National Football League.

2007: In Chevy Chase, MD, historian Walter Isaacson discusses his most recent book, Einstein: His Life and Universe, at the Friendship Heights Village Center.

2007: The Jerusalem Post reported that for the first time since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, a chief rabbinical chaplain is servicing the spiritual and religious needs of Jewish soldiers in Russia's armed forces and various security services. The position is currently being filled by thirty four year old Rabbi Aharon Gurevich.

2007: The owners of the 2^nd Avenue Deli “literally cut the salami and officially welcomed hungry patrons to its new address on 33^rd Street near Third Avenue in Manhattan. Jeremy Lebewohl, the nephew of its founder, is the new proprietor. Once again we can savor the best tongue sandwich and meat knishes in the known world.

2008: “The Wrestler,” a sports movie directed and co-produced by Darren Aronofsky and with a screenplay by Robert Siegel “was released in a limited capacity” today in the United States.

2008: In New York, Chamber Music at the Y features acclaimed Jerusalem born pianist, Benjamin Hochman

2008:The rocket that shattered the front windshield of Pinchas Cohen's bright yellow hatchback this evening narrowly missed his wife and son. So as he stood with his arms folded in front of him in the dark parking lot outside the Victory supermarket in Sderot on this evening, Cohen thanked God for saving his family. He turned his eyes in the direction of the sky. "Who else but God could have saved them?" he asked. This was the second time his family had been spared. Only last year, he said, a rocket fell meters from his Sderot home while he, his wife and their three children were vacationing in Jerusalem.

2008: Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, announced today that it had invested $90 million with Bernard Madoff, who has been charged with securities fraud. This means that “The Madoff Scam” may cost Hadassah the entire ninety million dollars.

2009: The Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation and the Potomac Chapter offer a program entitled “Harry Truman and the Founding of Israel” featuring Allis and Ronald Radosh, authors of A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel.

2009(30 Kislev, 5770): Rosh Chodesh Kislev.

2009: The third annual Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism comes to a close today in Jerusalem.

2009: Shamai Kedem Leibowitz, an American lawyer and blogger also known as Samuel Shamai Leibowitz, who is the grandson of Yeshayahu Leibowitz also known as Samuel Shamai Leibowitz, “pleaded guilty to knowingly and willfully disclosing five Secret level FBI documents in April 2009, to a blogger, who then published information derived from those documents on the blog.”

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-fbi-contract-linguist-pleads-guilty-leaking-classified-information-blogger

2009: Germany announced today that it was donating 87 million dollars to a new endowment for Auschwitz-Birkenau to preserve barracks, gas chambers and other evidence of Nazi crimes at the former death camp.

2010(10^thof Tevet, 5771): Yarhtzeit of Judy Rosenstein (nee Levin)

2010(10^th of Tevet, 5771): Fast of the Tenth of Tevet

2010:"A Day in the Warsaw Ghetto: A Birthday Trip in Hell" is scheduled to open at Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Michigan

2010: A traditional Friday Night Shabbat services with MesorahDC complete “with soulful melodies, contemporary insights, and stories followed by a three-course dinner is scheduled to take place at the Historic 6^th& I Synagogue in Washington, D.C.

2010: The Los Angeles Times published David Ulin’s list of the ten top books of 2010 which included three works by Jewish authors – Almost Dead by by Assaf Gavron, Freedom by by Jonathan Franzen and The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg by Deborah Eisenberg.

2010(10^th of Tevet, 5771: Mary Jane “M.J.” Bear, a journalist and Internet pioneer who built websites around the world, died today at the age of 48. Bear, a native of Des Moines, Iowa, worked for TV and radio stations. At National Public Radio she became a vice president. She also worked for Online, Radio Free Europe in Prague and Microsoft, in Vienna, Austria. She launched websites for Microsoft in Greece, Poland, Israel and Turkey, as well as TV programming in Kyrgyzstan and Georgia. During her illness from leukemia, Bear created a website on Caring Bridge, which provides free and private websites “that connect people experiencing a significant health challenge to family and friends.” The site is now filled with touching tributes from friends and family. Bear took an active role in Jewish communities in every city in which she lived, and was a founding board member of the Online News Association, which is establishing an endowment fund in her name for young journalists.

2010: In “Beneath the Dead Sea, Scientists Are Drilling for Natural History,” published today Isabel Kershner, describes how “an international team of scientists has been drilling beneath the seabed to extract a record of climate change and earthquake history stretching back half a million years.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/18/world/middleeast/18deadsea.html?pagewanted=print

2011: “Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg” is scheduled to be shown at Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos, CA.

2011: The third weekend of Hamshoushalayim is scheduled to come to an end.

2011: Havdalah, Board Installation and Centennial are scheduled to take place this evening at the Union Of Reform Judaism Biennial.

2011: Opening night of the 13^th annual Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival

2012: The Conservative Synagogue of Fifth Avenue is scheduled to host “Living A Serious Jewish Life” which will examine what it mean to be an “observant Jew’ using The Observant Life as the basis for the presentation.

2012: Director Mariano Wainsztein is scheduled to discuss his film “The Mitzvah makers which premieres tonight at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue.

2012: “Jud Süss” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.

2012: Dorit Beinisch, the first female President of the Supreme Court of Israel became an Officer at The French "National Order of the Legion of Honour

2012: A memorial service was held today for director, writer, actor and impresario Isaiah Sheffer

http://forward.com/articles/167976/isaiah-sheffer-remembered-for-lullaby-voice-and-en/?p=all

2012: Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, the spiritual leader of one of the largest congregations in London and a former chief rabbi of Ireland, was named Britain's chief rabbi-designate today.

2012:The state informed the High Court of Justice today that it will evacuate the two Jewish families living in four rooms in Hebron’s Beit Ezra building.

2012: Funeral Services were held today for six-year old Noah Pozner, the youngest victim of the slaughter at Sandy Hook Elementary School and the only Jew who was killed

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/12/17/3114736/ahead-of-mondays-funeral-for-newtown-victim-noah-pozner-temple-opens-fund-for-family

2013: The UK Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to sponsor a screening of “David” directed by Joel Fendelman and “Don’t Tell Santa You’re Jewish.”

2013: Weather permitting, the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to show “Jews for Sale” which tells the story of “the sale of Jews of Romania to the State Israel starting with WW II and climaxing during the rule of Nicolai Ceausescu.

2013: After having been indicted on charges of “obstruction of justice, child endangerment, failure to report child abuse and conspiracy” the Dauphin County Judge ruled that Graham Spanier’s attorneys “would not be allowed to call to the stand Cynthia Baldwin” the attorney for Penn State who had testified against him before the Grand Jury as part of a guarantee for immunity. (Spanier was the child of Holocuast survivors who served as the head of Penn State who was charged with not fulfilling his duties during the Jerry Sandusky child molestation investigation.)

2013: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is due to arrive in Israel tonight for a high-profile visit, which is expected, for the first time, to focus on political issues such as Iran and the peace process in addition to efforts to foster economic cooperation. (As reported by Raphael Ahren)

2013: Today Shia , LaBeouf released his short film Howard Cantour.com to the Internet” following which “bloggers noted its close similarity to Justin M. Damiano, a 2007 comic by Ghost World creator Dan Clowes” which led to charges of plagiarism.

2013(3^rdof Tevet. 5583): Eighty year old Dr. Robert Neuwirth, “a pioneering gynecologist” passed away today. (As reported by William Yardley)

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/30/us/dr-robert-neuwirth-a-pioneering-gynecologist-dies-at-80.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&_r=0

2014: “Tito’s Glasses” and “Closer to the Moon” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.

2014(25^thof Kislev, 5775): Chanukah – one hundred years ago Jews in Vienna provided provisions for Jewish refugees who fled the battlefields held by the Russians to help them celebrate the holiday.

2014: “Canada and Australia announced that they would not attend a Geneva Convention conference hosted by Switzerland on the situation in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem today.’ (As reported by Lazar Berman)

http://www.timesofisrael.com/olive-oil-dating-back-8000-years-found-in-north/

2014: “Olive oil was used in the Land of Israel as early as 8,000 years ago, archaeologists working at an antiquities site in the Lower Galilee said today, heralding the earliest evidence for use of the staple in the country and possibly the entire Middle East.”

2014: “American Alan Gross has been released from a Cuban prison after five years, as part of an agreement that also includes the release of three Cubans jailed in the United States.”

2015: The Skirball Center is scheduled to host Jeffery Gorsky, author of Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain as he talks about “the incredible arc of the dramatic 1,000-year history of Spanish Jewry.

2015: Andy Sandberg served as host at the Emmy Awards

2016(17th of Kislev, 5777): Parashat Vayishlach http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/

2016: The Brotherhood Synagogue is scheduled to host is “Annual Eyal Vilner Big Band Concert followed by continuous vodka and latkes.”

2016: The 14^th Street Y is scheduled to host the penultimate performances of “Hannah and the Moonlit Dress.”

https://vimeo.com/192161820

2016: In Memphis, TN, Temple Israel is scheduled to host “Pankcakes and Prayer.”

2017: The Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines, Iowa, is scheduled to host a screening of “I’m Dreaming of a Jewish Christmas” a comedy “set entirely in a Chinese restaurant.”

2017: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Promise at Dawn: A Memoir by Romain Gary, The Kites by Romain Gary, Girls Trip by Tiffany Haddish, a former “energy producer at Bar Mitzvahs” and the recently released paperback edition of Judas by Amos Oz.

2017: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a special Chanukah party that includes events for history buffs, artists and music lovers of all ages.

2017: Matisyahu, Neshama Carlebach and Eli Schwebel are among the artists scheduled to perform at today’s concert at Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York which is “a benefit concert to support JQY or Jewish Queer Youth.”

2017: In London, JWE3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Menashe,” the first Yiddish-language feature film that has been made in several years.

2017: Kosher Cajun restaurant is scheduled to “be frying up tons of fried chicken and latkes” for this afternoon’s annual community Chanukah celebration at the Jewish Community Center on St Charles Avenue in New Orleans.

2017(28^thof Kislev, 5778): Fifth Day of Chanukah

2018: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Three Identical Strangers.”

2018: In Columbus, OH, the Tifereth Israel Men’s Club is scheduled to host “Hockey with Tifereth” at Nationwide Arena as the Blue Jackets play the N.Y. Rangers.

2018: In Chevy Chase, MD, Ohr Kodesh is scheduled to host a lecture on “Russian Jewry in 2018: What’s New?” in which Harvey Leifer provides an update on the life of the “million refusniks” who made Aliyah after the Soviet Union changed its immigration policy.

2018: The International Academy for Russian Music, Arts, and Culture (IARMAC) and Agudas Achim Congregation are scheduled to present pianist Polina Shepherd performing “Songs of the Steppes.”

2018: In response to the recent wave of violence, Israelis now use hitchhiking and bus stops that are more like fortifications completed with a compliment of armed soldiers.

2019: Following earlier reports that “Israel’s famed Mossad intelligence agency recently helped bust a major terrorist cell in Denmark as part of an ongoing policy of collaboration with Western intelligence agencies, it was reported today that Austrian authorities have thwarted what appear to be ISIS inspired Christmas season attacks.

2019: In Walnut Creek, CA, the National Council of Jewish Women is scheduled to host its “Hanukah Party,” the annual fundraiser that includes “a silent auction, raffles, bake sale, lunch and entertainment.”

2019: In Palo Alto, CA, the Oshman Family JCC is scheduled to host “Yiddishe Khanike” a “trio including vocalist-accordionist Jeanette Lewicki performs Yiddish songs and klezmer music.”

2019: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host Drs. Jay Berkovitz, Lisa Leff and Maurice Samuels as they discus “Jews and Judaism After the French Revolution.”

2019(19^thof Kislev): On the Jewish calendar, The “New Year” of Chassidism.

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/335659/jewish/19-Kislev-The-New-Year-of-Chassidism.htm

2019(19^thof Kislev): On the Jewish calendar, 75^th birthday of Avraham Elimelech ben Yosef Dov

2019(19^thof Kislev): On the Jewish calendar Yahrtzeit of the “Maggid of Mezrech (1710-1772), the successor of the Baal Shem Tov.”

https://www.aish.com/dijh/Kislev_19.html

December 18

1271: Kublai Khan renames his empire "Yuan" (元 yuán), officially marking the start of the Yuan Dynasty of China. Reportedly, Marco Polo found several influential Jews at the court of Kubla Khan. These Jews would have been descendants of Persian Jews who probably came to China the 11^th century as merchants. In the 13^thcentury, Marco Polo, traveling in China spoke of meeting Jews or hearing about them during his travels in the Middle Kingdom. Polo recorded that Kublai Khan himself celebrated the festivals of the Muslims, Christians and Jews alike. Historical sources also describe Jewish communities at various cities, including Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Ningbo, and Yangzhou. Only the community in Kaifeng (Henan Province) survived since its founding around 240 BCE

1312: Today, during the Council of Vienne which had already dealt with issue of teaching Hebrew at the principle universities in Europe, Clement V issued Lice Dudum, a bull dealing with the disposition of the property of the Templars.

1338: Pierre Roger, the future Pope Clement VI who in 1342 would have a portion of Sefer Milhamot Ha-Shem, ("The Wars of the Lord") by Levi ben Gershon (Gersonides) containing “an elaborate survey of astronomy” translated into Latin passed was created a Cardinal today.

1495: King Alphonso II of Naples passed away. Both Alphonso and his father employed Isaac Abravanel the biblical scholar who was also a financial wizard.

1585: Canon lawyer Ippolito Aldobrandini, who would become Clement VIII during whose Papacy Jews were forced to attend “conversionist sermons,” prohibited from “dealing in new articles of clothing” and forced to allow copies of the Talmud to be burned in 1601, was named as a Cardinal today.

1621: Today, the House of Commons affirmed the “Protestation of 1621,” a “reaffirmation of the right to freedom of speech” was drafted by John Selden ““the first Talmudist in England since the expulsion of the Jews…who recognized the humanness of Jewish marital law and found in Deuteronomy and the Talmud a model for the proper relationship between the judicial and executive branches of government” and who wrote The Jewish Wife, a work “on the theory and practice of Jewish marriage and divorce law.”

1626: Birthdate of Christina, Queen of Sweden who became a Catholic and moved to Rome in December 1655 where she made Clement X prohibit the custom of chasing Jews through the streets during the carnival. In 1686 she issued a declaration that Roman Jews stood under her protection, signed la Regina – the queen.

1655: Oliver Cromwell presided over the fourth, and what he hopes will be the final, debate over allowing the Jewish people to return to England. Much to his chagrin, Cromwell cannot get a majority to support the return of the Israelites despite his argument that “The pure (Puritan) gospel must be preached to the Jews, to win them to church. ‘But can we preach to them, if we will not tolerate them among us?’” Cromwell closed the meeting and announced that he would decide the issue on his own.

1725: Birthdate of Johann Salomo Semler the biblical commentator and historian who“was the first to take due note of and use for critical purposes the opposition between the Judaic and anti-Judaic parties of the early church.”

1757: Rose Bunn and Joseph Simon gave birth to Myer Simon who was buried in Philadelphia when he passed away in 1825

1749: The will of Moses Abbady, which named Solomon and Israel Abbady as executors, was probated today.

1744: In Prague, Empress Maria Theresa banished the Jews. A few weeks earlier, Frederick the Great took Prague in the Wars of Succession and the populace ransacked the ghetto. He soon left and the Croats returned. They accused the Jews of treason and again their quarters were sacked. At this point and then again January 7, Empress Maria Theresa banished all the Jews of Bohemia and Moravia. Due to the protests of the Jews and the governments of England and Holland, the decree was dropped everywhere but in Prague. To put this in perspective, this happened five months before the outbreak of the American Revolution. In other words, while the Old World was continuing to find ways to persecute Jews, the New World was about to enjoy a new birth of freedom that would include the Jews.

1762(2^nd of Tevet, 5523): Parashat Miketz; 8^th Day of Chanukah

1764(24^th of Kislev, 5525): In the evening, Kindle the first Chanukah candle.

1764: Birthdate of Solomon Levy, the husband Rebecca Eve Hendricks and the father Hayman, Julia and Augusta Levy, each of whom passed away in the United States.

1767(27^th of Kislev, 5528): Third Day of Chanukah

1767: As Jews get ready to kindle the Fourth Chanukah Candle “an agent of England’s Wedgwood potteries finished extracting several tons of fine white clay from the mountains of North Carolina.”

1773(4^th of Tevet, 5534): Parashat Miketz

1775(25^thKislev, 5535): As Americans spend the first winter in rebellion against King George, Jews on both sides of the Atlantic celebrate Chanukah.

1776(2^nd of Tevet, 5637): Eighth Day of Chanukah

1776: Birthdate of Bavaria native Beerle Gutman, the husband of Bluemle Levi and the father of Mathilde and Hannele Gutman.

1778(29^th of Kislev, 5539): Fifth Day of Chanukah

1787: New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Like many of the original thirteen colonies, New Jersey had religious restrictions for holding office that were not removed until the 19^th century. By the 1840’s Patterson, NJ, “launched a congregation” and in 1857, the Jews of Elizabeth began meeting for regular worship services. New Jersey’s Jewish experience would prove to be unique because of the success of the agricultural movement that began in 1882 when Michael Heilprin helped a group of European immigrants establish Carmel in southern New Jersey.

1791: In Andover, MA, Dorcas Faulkner and John Adams gave birth to Hannah Adams.

1800(2^ndof Tevet, 5561): Seventh Day of Chanukah

1803: Fifty-nine Johann Gottfried Herder, the German philosopher who “argued that Jews in Germany should enjoy the full rights and obligations of Germans, and that the non-Jews of the world owed a debt to Jews for centuries of abuse, and that this debt could be discharged only by actively assisting those Jews who wished to do so to regain political sovereignty in their ancient homeland of Israel.[5] Herder refused to adhere to a rigid racial theory, writing that "notwithstanding the varieties of the human form, there is but one and the same species of man throughout the whole earth".

1804(17^th of Tevet, 5565): Rabbi Yaakov Wolf Krantz, zt"l, the Maggid (itinerant preacher) of Dubno, particularly known for the parables (meshalim) he employed in his sermons and writings passed away today.

1805(27^th of Kislev, 5566): Third Day of Chanukah

1805(27^th of Kislev, 5566): Seventy-two year old Machteld Mathilda Michela, the daughter of Jochem Jochanan Mozes Hannover and Anna Hindche Joseph Salomon Hannover the wife of of Liebman Liepman Elieser Arnsteiner and Meyer Samson Wolfenbuttel passed away today in Amsterdam.

1813: Birthdate of David Spangler Kaufman, the first Jew elected to the U.S. Congress from the state of Texas.

1813(25^th of Kislev, 5574): Chanukah and Shabbat

1813(25^th of Kislev, 5574): Fifty-one year old “Bohemian Talmudist and Hebraist” Baruch ben Jonah Benedict Jeiteles, eldest son of Jonas Jeiteles and father of Ignaz Jeiteles passed away today in his native Prague.

1815: Birthdate of David Judah Alberga, the husband of Henrietta Delgad and the father of Theresa and Eugene Alberga.

1816: Andrew Asher and Rosa Joseph were married today at the Great Synagogue.

1816(28^th of Kislev, 5577): Fourth Day of Chanukah

1816: John Lyon Pyke and Dinah Joel were married today at the Great Synagogue.

1820(13^th of Tevet, 5581): Moseh Sofer, the Chief Rabbi of Pressburg and Sarel Sofer gave birth to Rabbi Shimon Sofer

1824: Birthdate of Austrian native Abraham Woolner, the husband of Magdelena Wollner with whom he had five children – Sophie, Hannah, Maximillian, Isabella and Gisela.

1835(27^th of Kislev, 5596): Third Day of Chanukah

1835: Birthdate of Hanover, Germany native Moritz Rothenstein, the husband of Bertha Rothenstein and the father of Charles, Blanche, Emily, Louisa, William and Albert Rothenstein, all of whom were born in Yorkshire, England.

1836(10^th of Tevet, 5597): Asara B’Tevet

1838: In Budapest, Caspar Schoney and Golde Ehrentreu gave birth to Lazarus Schoney, the husband of Theodosia Secor Fowler who trained as a rabbi and a doctor, served as surgeon in the Union Army during the Civil War after which he served for ten years as a “professor of Pathology and Clinical Microscopy at New York Eclectic Medical College.”

1839: Birthdate of German physiologist Julius Bernstein

1843(25^th of Kislev, 5604): Chanukah

1849: Birthdate of Nahum Meir Schaikewitz, the Minsk born novelist and playwright who began by writing short stories in Hebrew who eventually moved to New York in 1888 where he wrote “over two hundred novels” in Yiddish.

1850(13th of Tevet, 5611): Daniel Meijer’s sister, Eva, passed away. Daniel was the first Jewish lawyer in the Netherlands and one of the youngest members of the bar in that nation’s history.

1852: The New York Times described a recent major address by Chancellor of the Exchequer Benjamin Disraeli before the House of Commons on the Budget and plans to make major revisions in the tax code. The speech and proposals are so well received that the Times concluded by saying that “”The Chancellor evidently wins new laurels at every fresh display of his truly remarkable ability.”

1856: Birthdate of Alfred Steckler, a graduate of Columbia Law School who served as a judge of the Fourth District Court of New York City and before serving on the Supreme Court of the First Judicial District of New York County.

1857: The brother of P.T. Barnum the owner of Iranistan a Moorish Revival mansion in Bridgeport, Connecticut that was designed by Austrian born Jewish architect Leopold Eidlitz sent word that the mansion had effectively burned to the ground.”

1860: Birthdate of Salomon Linneweil, the Dutch born husband of Rebecca Van Biene

1861: During the Civil War, 2^nd Lt. Leo Charles who was the regimental adjutant with the 27^thRegiment began his service in the Union Army.

1861: In Chicago it is reported that a young girl who had run away from her parents’ home in Maine to live with an uncle in Wisconsin now is in critical condition in Chicago following an attempted suicide. While making her way back to Main, the young girl allegedly met young Jew named Laselle with whom she stayed at various hotels including the Tremont, the Stewart House and Sollitt House where “he effected her ruin.” He then allegedly turned the girl over to another Jew named Stein who brought her “to an assignation house.” Within half an hour the police “pounced” on the house arresting Stein and several others at which time the girl tried to kill herself. The investigation is at a standstill until she recovers so that authorities can question her.

1862: At St. Pancras, London, Edward Levy-Lawson, 1st Baron Burnham and his wife Harriette Georgiana Webster gave birth to Harry Lawson Webster Levy-Lawson, 1st Viscount Burnham.

1863(8^thof Tevet, 5624): Jacob Miller, who had been serving with Company A of the 16^thRegiment – Third Cavalry died today as a result of the wounds he had sustained while fighting at Mine Run, VA last month.

1864: Birthdate of Shropshire native Samuel Parkes Cadman, an American clergyman whose support of Jews can be measured by his appearance at a non-sectarian mass meeting in 1916 to raise funds for the relief of Jews in the war zones of Europe as well as by his calls to boycott the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany.

1863(8^thof Tevet, 5624): Thirty-eight year old Louis Schwarkopf, the husband of the former Dora Block, the son-in law of Daniel Block and one of the founders of Congregation B’nai B’rith in St. Louis.

1865: Slavery ended in the United States as the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was declared in effect. Yes there were Jews who owned slaves and yes there Jews who served with Confederacy. But the majority of the Jews supported the Union and Jews played a role in the movement to gain freedom for slaves. For example a visit to the Lloyd Street Synagogue in Baltimore includes a demonstration of its role in the Underground Railroad. This role was quite risky in a city in slaveholding Maryland.

1866: Bithdate of Alexander Protopopov who as Chairman of the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce and Minister of the Interior, while working for the adoption of a new commercial treaty between his country and the United States in 1916 told Joseph Kruk in London that he did believe in “equal rights for Jews in Russia” and said that “regarding the Jews, I can say this much, that it is a shame for one to be a Russian if he is compelled through that to fear somebody.”

1867: Birthdate of Wilmington, Illinois native “Dr. Isaac A. Abt, an international authority on children’s diseases” and a pioneer in the field of pediatrics.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/498358

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1955/11/24/91379058.pdf

http://uncap.lib.uchicago.edu/view.php?eadid=inu-ead-nua-archon-309

1867: In Frankfurt, Selig Meier Goldschmidt and Clementine Fuld gave birth to their youngest child Johanna Goldschmidt, the future wife of Adolph Stern.

1869: Julie and Adolph Marx Oppenheimer gave birth to Eugen Oppenheimer

1869(14th of Tevet, 5630): Forty year old Louis Moreau Gottschalk the son a Jewish businessman from London and a white Creole Haitian in New Orleans who was an American composer and pianist, best known as a virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano pieces passed away today in Rio de Janeiro.

1870: “The Jews in America” published today traces this people’s history with an special emphasis on religious practice starting with the earliest settlers, to the arrival the Germans as well as the role of such leaders as Rabbi Merzbacher and Rabbi Samuel Adler.

1872: George Geiger re-enlisted today and was attached to Troop H of the 7^th Cavalry, the military unit that would be under the command Custer at the Little Big Horn.

1872: Two days after he had passed away, 23 year old Michael Emanuel, the son of Lawrence Emanuel and Eve Braham, was buried at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.

1876: The Hebrew Charity Fair which is a fund-raiser for the Ladies’ Benevolent Society opened this evening at the Masonic Hall in New York. Despite the inclement weather, the event was well attended.

1877: Sergeant George Geiger who earned the Medal of Honor for his bravery at the Battle of the Little Big Horn was discharged today “for medical reasons.

1878: Birthdate Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union. Stalin recognized the state of Israel at the moment of its birth and he did allow the Czechs to sell fighter planes to the new-born Israeli Air Force. But these measures were a reflection of his fight against British Imperialism and not a reflection of any love for the Jewish people. Stalin did employ Jews in his regime before and during the war. But he also conducted bloody purges aimed at the Jews. Stalin did enjoy support among some Jews – those who were loyal party members and those who regarded him as a savior because the Soviet Army was the force that liberated much of Europe from Nazis. The reality was that Stalin was an anti-Semite who began a series of murderous purges aimed at the Jews of the Soviet Union and that he died before he could carry out his own version of the Final Solution.

1878: “The editor of a prominent Jewish newspaper said this afternoon” that Jewish institutions including Mt. Sinai Hospital and the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, have no choice but to reject donations from anybody tied to Judge Hilton who has banned Jews from staying at his hotel.

1878: It was reported today that the Jews of New York are planning on rejecting the donations made by Mrs. A.T. Stewart through Judge Hilton. The gifts included $500 for Mount Sinai Hospital, $250 for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and $250 for the Hebrew Home for the Aged and Infirmed. These Jewish organizations have received donations from Mrs. Stewart in the past. However, this year the notices of the donations were worded in such a way that it would have required Jewish leaders to come to Judge Hilton’s office to get the money. Considering the fact that Judge Hilton has banned Jews from his hotel in Saratoga Springs, such an arrangement is totally unacceptable.

1878: In St. Louis, Dr. Washington E. Fischel and “educator Martha Ellis Fishel” gave birth to Edna Fischel Gellhorn, and the wife of Dr. George Gellhorn who is remembered by many as the mother of photographer Martha Gellhorn, passed away today.

1878: Randolph Herr, a New York lawyer who was a partner of Judge Bloom, shot himself through the head today.

1879: Birthdate of Frieda Hesslein, who as Frieda Herzberg was shipped from Berlin to Terezin where she was murdered on October 19, 1942.

1881: Anti-Juif,,a weekly, was published for the first time in Paris. This would be the first of four publications with this name all of which had a common anti-Semitic theme.

1881: It was reported today that an unnamed American who was performing in a circus at St. Petersburg received orders from the Russian government to leave the capital city because he was Jewish. (This is part of the pattern of discriminating against American citizens because they were Jews that would be protested by President Arthur in his message to Congress)

1882: It was reported today that Mount Sinai Hospital is one of the “most imposing structures” in New York. It has a capacity to serve 160 patients and has added to new units in the last year – an eye and ear department and an “isolation house.” While the hospital is almost totally dependent on the Jewish community for financial support, it provides services to one and all regardless of religious affiliation.

1882: “A Hebrew Colony Broken Up” published today described the demise of a colony that had been “established a year ago on Sicily Island in Concordia Parish by several families” of Jewish immigrants from Russia. According to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Association representative in New Orleans, so many of the colonists were stricken with swamp fever that they were unable to care for themselves let alone work at building the settlement. After returning to New Orleans, the immigrants have been sent to either Chicago or New York.

1882: “Value of the Bible” published today provided some of the views of Reverend Richard Heber Newton, an Episcopalian minister and theologians, on the ancient text. Among other things, that Bible did not included “the whole of Hebrew literature” because “many of the Hebrew writings had been lost.” But the Bible contains “the best of the Hebrew writings” because it’s a sifted and winnowed library” that represented “the literature of a race whose religion grew until it became a universal religion for all men.”

1883: George Reeveys is in jail at Freehold, NJ because he has been charged with an attack on a Jewish peddler named Simon Holzman whom authorities fear may die from his wounds.

1883: In the Westchester County Court at White Plains, NY, Judge Pratt sentenced Theodore Hoffman to be hanged after he had been convicted of kill a Jewish peddler, Zife Marks.

1885: In New York, Rabbi Joseph Zeisler, the Hungarian born son of Eduard and Josefine Zeisler and Irma Zeisler gave birth to Cornelius Zeisler

1886: After two weeks, the fair that was raising funds for the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids came to a close tonight. The successful event was held in New York’s Central Park Garden.

1886: It was reported today that during the year, the Hebrew Free School Association had provided services to 2,698 students as compared to 2,046 students in 1885.

1886: The Hebrew Free School Association held its annual meeting today. During the meeting it was announced that prominent educator Julia Richman has been chosen to serve on its board of directors. Ms. Richman along with Ms. Froelich are the first two women to serve on the board.

1887: Al Hayman, the partner of Charles Frohman, who managed the Baldwin and California Theatres in San Francisco left to New York today to return to “the city by the Bay.”

1887: The Ladies’ Deborah Nursery and Child’s Protectory held its Chanukah reception at 95 East Broadway. After the children sang in Hebrew, Mrs. Deborah Alexander distributed fruit and candy to the youngsters.

1887: Birthdate of Capt. Artur Carlos de Barros Basto, “a decorated Portuguese military officer, a hero of Portugal's 1910 revolution and World War I and leader of the open return to Judaism of the Crypto-Jews of Portugal. Barros Basto died in 1961, almost blind, a disappointed man. He has never been exonerated by the Portuguese Army of the decision of 1943 of the Minister of the War under the Fascist regime of Antonio Salazar who stripped him from the Portuguese Army Officer Corp for the simple fact of his being Jewish and being a defender of religious tolerance and of the Portuguese Crypto-Jews in particular. The attempts and efforts to rehabilitate him continue to this day. He was born in the Portuguese city of Amarante on December 1887, and was given a Catholic education. When he was nine years old his grandfather told him they were descendants of Jews forcibly converted in 1497. Raised by his mother in Porto, he attended the Portuguese Military Academy and participated in 1910 in the founding of the Portuguese Republic. He later commanded a battalion of the Portuguese Corps in World War I, as lieutenant on the Western front. There he met a French rabbi who likely further influenced him. Upon his return to Portugal from the war he began to study Judaism and Hebrew. Rebuffed by the Israeli community of Lisbon, he went to Tangier to formally return to normative Judaism, adopting the name of Abraham Israel Ben-Rosh. He married the daughter of a prominent Lisbon Jewish family and settled in Porto where in 1923 he created the Israeli community of Porto, still active today[4] Barros Basto became known as the "Apostle of the Marranos", the title of a short biography by noted historian Cecil Roth who met Basto in 1930 and described him as the most charismatic man that he had ever met. Basto had been recommended in 1926 by Lucien Wolf of the London Marranos Committee to be the recipient of funds to establish a Jewish school and lead the return of thousands of descendants of Jews forcibly baptized in 1497 (New Christian, Conversos, or Marranos, more politically correct known as "Anusim", Hebrew for "forced one"). Basto established "Rosh Pinah", described by him as a "theological seminary", the first Jewish school in 500 years. In 1929 the first stone of a new synagogue was laid. A magnificent art nouveau synagogue, Mekor Haim was inaugurated, in 1939, the year of Kristallnacht. Basto had led a successful international fund raising campaign from Jewish communities with historical connection to Portugal such as Amsterdam, London, New York, Hamburg and Paris. Paul Goodman, friend, and president of the Portuguese Marranos Committee attended; so did Moses Amazalak, president of the Lisbon Israeli community. Rabbi David de Sola Pool of New York was an avid supporter and a room in the synagogue is named after him. "Adonai (God) is with me and I will not fear"[5] was his motto, and he was not afraid to canvas the interior of Portugal to make surveys, the contacts, to defend the Jewish identity of the Crypto-Jews at the same time having the goal of returning them to modern Judaism. Upon his return to the city of Oporto, he established the Israelite Community in 1923, and was one of the founders of the synagogue of the city of Oporto in 1938. Given the difficulties that he found in Portugal, most of all financial, he left Portugal. In London the Committee of Portuguese Marranos was created, that raised £10,000 for the construction of a community centre with a synagogue and a reading room, and to hire a resident rabbi”

1888: Birthdate of Robert Moses. The son of Emanuel Moses, a department-store owner, and Bella Silverman Moses, the Moses family was part of the well-to-do circle of New York German Jews known as ''our crowd.'' Moses was public works planner who re-shaped New York and its environs. Two of his more famous works were the Lincoln Center and Shea Stadium. He passed away in 1981.

1888: Rabbi Henry S. Jacobs read the opening prayer at the dedication ceremonies marking the official opening of the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids were held today. Isaac Eppinger, Chairman of the Building Committee then presented a ceremonial golden key to Jacob H. Schiff, President of the Montefiore Home.

1888: In Philadelphia, PA, the murder trial of Jewish businessman Mat Goldberger entered its second day. He is accused of murdering Annie Schuleberg who fell to her death while trying to escape a fire that Goldberger had set to collect the insurance for his business which was on the ground floor of the building where Mrs. Schuleberg lived with her husband and eight children.

1889(25^thof Kislev, 5650): Chanukah

1889: Birthdate of Margareta Hellerová who in 1942 was deported from Prague to Ujazdow where she was murdered by the Nazis.

1889: Three Russian Jewish shoemakers – Harris Elias, Solomon Elias and Abraham – are being treated for burns and smoke inhalation following a fire at their tenement on Eldridge Street. The three were the only ones injured when the five story building went up in smoke, (Fires like these were all too common and were run of the reasons that some Uptown Jews formed committees to look into conditions in these buildings that dominated the Lower East Side)

1889(25^thof Kislev, 5650): Mrs. Martin M. Lewis (nee Lizzie Lazarus) passed away unexpectedly this evening. Her husband is a prominent importer of woolen goods. She was the daughter of Alfred Lazarus, the Secretary of the Third Avenue Railroad Company. She is survived by her seven year old son and seven month old son and a sister-in-law, Mrs. Charles Lewis.

1890: Birthdate of Neville Jonas Laski, the younger brother of Harold Laski, who was a jurist and leader of the Anglo-Jewish community.

1890: Colonel George P. Clark will give a lecture this evening at 55^thStreet and Lexington sponsored by the Young Men’s Association of Congregation Ahawath Chesed.

1891: The body of a well-dressed man, thought to be a Russian Jewish immigrant was found in flour mill today at Petersburg, PA.

1892: Almost 1,500 people attended the third and final day of the celebration of Rodeph Shalom’s 50^th anniversary which featured the 300 children attending the religious school under the direction of Benjamin Blumenthal.

1892: Rabbi H. Rosenberg was expelled from Temple Beth Jacob in Brooklyn, for eating pork.

1892: The United Hebrew Charities Society has reportedly refused to give any more support to the striking cloakmakers because the society “received a good deal of support from the cloak manufacturers and these men refused to give any more money to support the persons who were fighting against them.

1892: As gold leaves Europe for America and America moves to restrict the exportation of the precious metal, the Austrian government has reportedly “concluded a gold loan of 50,000,000 florins from a Rothschild Syndicate” in an attempt to stabilize its economy.

1892: Three hundred religious school schools under the direction of Benjamin Blumenthal were the center of attraction at today’s third and final day of celebrations marking the jubilee year of Congregation Rodeph Shalom at 63^rd and Lexington in Manhattan.

1892: “The admissions by [Isidor] Loewe, the Jewish small arms manufacturer the offered to supply France with the machinery necessary for the manufacture of Lebel rilfles has caused renewed viruluence in the Judenhetze.” [German anti-Semites] They overlook the “open fact” that the Krupp, the great German arms manufacturer has continued to supply Russia with guns and ammunition, even when the two nations seemed to be on the verge of war.

1892: The Cologne Gazette attacked Loew’s offer to supply France “as strengthen the assertions of the anti-Semites that the Jews have no national feeling, that they never amalgamate with any people and that they are dominated by the idea that they are a privileged nation that may prey upon but be absorbed by other nationalities. (These sentiments expressed by a prominent German paper pre-date Hitler by forty years providing more proof that German anti-Semitism was not a Nazi aberration but a part of the German social fabric)

1893: Twelve Jews were held at the Essex Mark Police Court “on charges of violating the law by keeping their places of business on Essex, Hester, Ludlow, Orchard, Rivington and Canal Streets open on Sunday.

1893: Must Have No State Aid published today described Rabbi Joseph Silverman’s views on public funds being used to support parochial schools.

1894: In Manchester, UK, David Rodker and his wife gave birth to John Rodker one of the “Whitechapel Boys” and a leading figure in the world of British literature.

1894: In defending a “closed court” in the trial of Captain Dreyfus Le Petit Journal wrote that the closed court is our impregnable refuge against Germany" and La Croixwrote that it must be "the most absolute closed court.”

1895: Antonio Cappel is being held by authorities today on charges that he assaulted a Jew named Max Shindler when Jewish and Italian pushcart peddlers clashed on Essex Street yesterday.

1895: Today is “Fraternity Day” at the two-week long charity fair which is raising funds for the Educational Alliance and the Hebrew Technical Institute. Music was supplied by the band from the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and the Victor Herbert Orchestra.

1896: In Frankfurt am Main Ida and Karl Ferdinand Mortiz Flesch who held a Dr. of Jurisprudence degree gave birth to Hans Flesch

1896: Two days after he had passed away, 72 year old Michael Abrams, the son of Samuel and Catherine Abrahams and the husband of Fanny Levy with whom he had five children, was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1897: Emmanuel Célestin Suhard, who would speak out against the treatment of the Jews by the Vichy government, was ordained as a priest today.

1898(5th of Tevet, 5659):Baron Ferdinand James de Rothschild, M. P., passed away on his 59^th birthday.

1899: The McKinley administration submitted an agreement to Congress that had been negotiated by Oscar Straus, the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, in which Sultan Abudul Hamid II promised to tell the Moros (Moslems living in the Philippines) not resist U.S. rule of the islands.

1899: Fanny Barnard, the daughter of David Michaelson and Anne Davies and the husband of Daniel Barnard with whom she had had two daughters – Annie and Rosie – was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.

1899: In Philadelphia, Harry and Ethel Daroff gave birth to clothing manufacturer Joseph Alfred Daroff, the husband of Sylvia Daroff and father of Marilyn Daroff.

1902: After Alexander Lvovich Parvus, (Israel Lazarevich Gelfand) had “struck a deal with Maxim to produce his play “The Lower Depths” it premiered today in Moscow.

1902: Great Britain expressed support for the sending of a small commission to the Sinai Peninsula to report on conditions and prospects. This was part of plan to start a Jewish settlement in the Sinai which could eventually lead to a Jewish home in Palestine itself.

1902: In Bremen, Julius Biebow, “an insurance company director” and his wife gave birth to Hans Biebow the murderous chief administrator of the Lodz Ghetto whose attempt to escape punishment for his crime ended with his hanging in 1947.

1902: N. Taylor Phillips chaired a contentious meeting of Zionists and those opposed to Zionism at Temple Emanu-El in New York City.

1903: Arnold Schonberg began composing “Natur” (Nature) op.8, No.1 today, a work which he would finish in March, 1904.

1903: In Łanowce, Podolia, Khanina Auerbakh and his wife Mania (nee Kimelman), gave birth to Rokhl Auerbach who “was one of the three surviving members of the covert Oyneg Shabes group led by Emanuel Ringelblum that chronicled daily life in the Warsaw Ghetto, and who initiated the excavation of the group's buried manuscripts after the war” passed away. (Editor’s Note: For more on this see Who Will Write Our History)

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/auerbakh-rokhl

1904: The New York Times reports that Lionel de Rothschild is building a 250 Horse Power auto boat as an entry for the Harmsworth Cup race to be held in July of 1905.

1904: Birthdate of New York City native Benjamin Hanft, a “prominent public relations executive for a number of national Jewish organizations” and the husband of Esther Haft, with whom he had three children including actress Helen Haft.

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/06/theater/helen-hanft-master-of-camp-way-off-broadway-dies-at-79.html

https://www.jta.org/1985/11/14/archive/benjamin-hanft-dead-at-80

1905: Sarah Bernhardt and Mark Twain were among those who entertained today at the benefit matinee for the Jewish suffers in Russia which was held at the Casino in New York City.

1905: In New York, the Federation of American Zionists received official word that “the central organization of the Zionists in Europe has decided to hold a special international congress of Jews” which will “take action on the situation in Russia.”

1905: Based on letters from written from Russia in November that are now in the hands of those raising funds for the victims of the Russian massacres, “it appears that in many localities funds were at once raised locally to meet” the initial emergency which according to Jacob Schiff is a good signed because “it shows that there is recuperative power in the people in spite of their sore affliction.”

1906: The Czar approved a bill presented to him by the Russian Council of Ministers which purported to give greater liberties to Jews living in the 15 provinces of western Russia known as the Pale of Settlement.

1907: Today, Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa who as Pope Benedict XV denounced anti-Semitism in response to a petition by American Jews and who gave Nahum Sokolov an extended audience where he presented the case for a Jewish state in Palestine to the Pontiff “received the episcopal consecration from Pope Pius X.”

1908(24^thof Kislev, 5669): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah light.

1908: Thirty-two year old Schije Kuperstein, 19 year old Miriam Wolfe, 15 year old Blumah Wolf and 11 year old Michel Wolfe, all of whom had died aboard ship while making their way from Russia to England were buried today at “Nunsthorpe Jewish Cemetery,” near Grimsby.

1908(24^thof Kislev, 5669): Fifty-seven year old Benjamin Levy, the native of New South Wales, Australia who was the husband Zara Levy passed away today in London.

1908: Rabbi Panigel was forced to surrender his seals of the office of Hahambashi of Jerusalem. Rabbi Hiskia Shabbatai filled the office temporarily.

1910: Birthdate of Abe Burrows. Born in Brooklyn, this successful composer won a Tony in 1951 for the Broadway hit, “Guys and Dolls.”

1910: Birthdate of Leon Greenman, the native of White Chapel, London, who ended up in Auschwitz and wrote about his experiences in An Englishman In Auschwitz.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/mar/10/secondworldwar

1910: In New York City, Katie and Joseph Goodman gave birth to Thelma Goodman who gained fame as singer and actress Thelma Leeds who was the wife of comedian Harry Einstein and the mother of Albert Brooks, Bob Einstein and Clifford Einstein.

1911: Three days after he had passed away Alexander Isaac, “the son of the late Alexander Isaac” and Sophie Ley was buried today at the “Balls Pond Jewish Cemetery.”

1911: Birthdate of Cleveland, Ohio native and cartoon animator David Hilberman.

http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jul/21/local/me-hilberman21

1911: In Middletown, CT, Berthe Vogel and Samuel Dassin gave birth to director and victim of the Hollywood blacklist, Julius “Jules” Dassin.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/movies/01dassin.html

1912: “Miss Henrietta Weber” is schedule to a “lecture on Faust, Lohengrin and ‘The Cricket on the Hearth’ this evening at the Chicago Hebrew Institute.

1912: La sorcière, an opera composed by Camille Erlanger, premiered in Paris.

1912: Founding of Temple Beth El in Muncie, Indiana.

1914(1^stof Tevet, 5675): Sixth Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet

1914: Jacob Furth’s conviction on charges of financial irregularities related to a bank in La Conner, Washington, was over-turned today. Furth was an Austrian born American businessman and banker who played a prominent role in the development of Seattle, Washington. The removal of this blemish on his record was bittersweet since it came six months after he had passed away.

1914: Those listed today as contributors to the fund for “the relief of Jews through the war included the Hebrew Ladies’ Relief Association of Kansas City, The Dallas Texas Committee, the Salem Mass. Hebrew Ladies’ Association and Katz Rosenthal Company of Columbus, Ohio.

1914: “With the consent of the military censor,” today’s “Russkoe Znamen published the observation that ‘treason runs in the blood of the Jew, and no Jew can be trusted not betray the army even though the ranks may be full of volunteers” while also declaring “that being easily susceptible to fear and panic, the Jews by their flight create holes in the ranks of which the Germans are quick to take advantage.” (Editor’s note: This represents an official, on-going policy of anti-Semitic attack on Russian Jewish soldiers fighting for the Czar’s empire)

1914: As of today it was reported that an additional $42,147.53 has been collected to aid the Jews of Europe suffering the effects of the war.

1914: “Poles In Need of Help” published today described plans to provide aid to those caught on what has become a battleground between German and Russian armies including a joint effort by the American-Polish Relief Committee and the committee that Felix Warburg had formed to aid Jews in Poland.

1915: It was reported today that “Israel Cohen, Secretary of the International Zionist organization and a British subject, who was interred in a detention camp at Ruhleben near Berlin” at the start of the war and was finally released at the start of this month, is planning on coming to the United where he plans on giving a series of lectures on “Jewish Suffering of the War.”

1915: It was reported today that Samuel Gompers has sent a series of resolutions adopted by A F of L including one that states “that the American Federation of Labor requests the Government of the United States to urge upon the governments of the nations of other countries to cease discriminations wherever they exist and now practiced against the Jewish people” to the National Workmen’s Committee of Jewish Rights.

1916: After ten months, the Battle of Verdun which claimed a total of 800,000 casualties on both sides came to an end with neither the Germans or the French having anything to show for what has been described as “the longest, and possibly the deadliest, battle in history” which “could be judged the unnecessary battle in an unnecessary war.” (Editor’s Note – the gruesome blood bath elevated Marshall Petain, the man who would lead Vichy, to a position of almost mythic proportion. The monumental casualties would help to account for the failure of France to respond to the rise of Hitler in the 1930’s and the quick fall of France in 1940 which had such dire consequences for the Jewish population.)

1916: It was reported today that in the view of Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, “since 1880 Jews had been steadily migrating from New York to Brooklyn and the poverty problem which once confronted the Manhattan organization had now crossed the East River.”

1916: “A motion endorsing the desire for peace and appointing a committee to draft appropriate resolutions was adopted” this morning “at the Fall of Assembly of the Eastern Council of Reform Rabbis” being held at Temple Emanu-El.

1916: At a dinner given tonight at the Hotel Biltmore, the guest of honor Felix M. Warburg, the Chairman of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies call for “a non-denominational, non-racial merger of activities for war relief based on a plan to raise one hundred million dollars for Europe’s stricken people.”

1916: Leon L. Waters presided over a dinner at the Hotel Astor at which Simon Bamberger, the Governor-elect of Utah, who was “the first Jew and non-Mormon to be selected as the executive of that State.”

1916: Tonight, “at the annual meeting of the Board of Trustees of Temple Emanu-El…Louis Marshall was elected president of the board, M.H. Moses was elected vice president” and Irving Lehman, Henry Fidenberg and Henry M. Toch were elected to the Board of Trustees.

1917: Major General, Charles-Arthur Gonse who refused to admit that Dreyfus was innocent and continue to work to keep him in prison even after being shown conclusive evidence of his innocence passed away today.

1917: Hermann Frenkel a partner of the Jacquier and Securius Bank was one of the founders of Universum Film which was established today in Germany as a direct response to foreign competition in the realm of film and propaganda.

1917: As British forces prepared for an assault across the Auju River which would make it possible to use the Port of Jaffa tonight “the 161st (Essex) Brigade from the 54th (East Anglian) Division and the Auckland and Wellington Mounted Rifles Regiments, from the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade, moved into the front line replacing the 52nd (Lowland) Division.”

1917: During World War I, the American Joint Distribution Committee issues $50,000 for the Jews of Salonica, $25,000 for the Jews of Turkey living outside of Palestine and $3,500 for the Jews of Alexandria. These funds are to purchase wheat for the baking of Matzah for the upcoming Passover.

1917: It was reported today that British artillery did not respond to heavy shelling from the Turks during the battle for Jerusalem because the generals were afraid that shelling would damage the city.

1918: Birthdate of Daniel Mazia, an American a cell biologist who was notable for his work in nuclear and cellular physiology. His research centered on the broad question of cell reproduction, especially the division and regulation mechanisms involved in mitosis (the process by which the chromosomes within the nucleus of a cell double and divide prior to cell division). Mazia is best known for his isolation (1951, with Japanese biologist Katsuma Dan) of the mitotic apparatus, the structure responsible for cell division. This brought understanding of the mechanisms of cell division and intracellular motility. A study in the early '60s on centrosomal reproduction, until recently an unappreciated structure, led to Mazia's interest in this cell organelle and the publication of a seminal paper. He passed away in 1996.

1918: Nine days before his 46^th birthday, “German born American Jewish lawyer, the founder and first president of ADL married Hilda Valerie Freiler today.

1918: Birthdate of Savannah, GA, native Hal Kanter, an Emmy Award-winning comedy writer, and a director and producer whose career included writing for Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, directing Elvis Presley and creating a landmark 1960s TV series starring Diahann Carroll. (As reported by Dennis McLellan)

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/nov/08/local/la-me-hal-kanter-20111108

https://www.jta.org/2011/11/17/jewish-holidays/hanukkah/hollywood-writer-and-director-hal-kanter-dies-at-92

1919(26^thof Kislev, 5680): Second Day of Chanukah

1919: It was reported today that in response to the government “taking measures to prevent any violent outbreak of anti-Semitism,” “the Pan German Press” has declared “that these measures are a violation of the political rights of citizens, since it asserts the anti-Semitic movement is merely political.”

1920: Jerusalem celebrated the third anniversary of its liberation by General Allenby during which “Sir Herbert Samuel, the High Commissioner for Palestine and all the leaders of the various faiths participated in a review and service held in St. George’s Cathedral.

1921: “Several hundred Jews from four States and the District of Columbia met today at the Jewish Relief Conference in the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel for the inauguration of a $14,000,000 nation-wide campaign for the relief of Jews in Eastern Europe.”

1922: In the Bronx, David Zimmer and Pauline Geller Zimmer gave birth to Esther Miriam Zimmer who gained fame as microbiologist Esther Lederberg who was ‘a pioneer in the field of bacterial genetics.”

http://www.estherlederberg.com/Anecdotes.html

1923(10th of Tevet, 5684): Asara B'Tevet

1923: Today, Federal Judge Julian W. Mack scored the police and the prohibition forces for spending so much time rounding up petty offenders of the Volstead act and failing to concentrate attention on the big offenders.”

1924(20th of Kislev, 5685) California Republican Congressman Julius Kahn, Chairman of the Military Affairs Committee dies paving the way for his widow Florence Kahn to begin her active political career in the same legislative body.

1924: Birthdate of San Francisco native Herbert Allen “Herb” Gorman the WW II Coast Guard veteran and minor league star whose only major league appearance was as a pinch-hitter for the Cards in 1952.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Herb_Gorman

1924: “A protest again the attitude of the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of nations with regard to Jewish immigration into Palestine was adopted today the conference of the representatives of the Jewish settlements and communities which is in session in Tel Aviv for the purpose of creating better facilities for the arriving immigrants.” The conference also adopted resolutions “demanding immediate abolition of restrictions on Jewish immigration into Palestine” and the assignment funds to building inexpensive housing to accommodate those making Aliyah.

1925: In Budapest, “stormy parliamentary debates in the past two days over ‘numerous clauses’ of the law restricting the number of Jewish university reached a climax this afternoon when the Minister of Education challenged opposition Deputy Sandor to a duel.”

1926: Birthdate of actor Walter Lassally, the native of Berlin who was not Jewish but whose Jewish ancestry forced his family to flee to England just before the outbreak of WW II.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/27/obituaries/walter-lassally-oscar-winning-cinematographer-dies-at-90.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=region&region=region&WT.nav=region&_r=1

1926: Eighty-four year old Civil War veteran and Congressman John B. Weber who was motivated to serve “as one of the general agents of the Hirsch Fund” and to help straighten “out the kinks and snarls” at the Woodbine Colony which is the home to 500 people” after having visited Russia and seen the conditions under which the Jews live, passed away today.

1927(24^thof Kislev, 5688): In the evening, Kindle the first Chanukah candle.

1927: According to today’s New York Times, “The organization of two Jewish Fascist groups in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv is reported in recent dispatches from Palestine to German newspapers. It is averred that the self-assumed task of the new organizations consists in fighting Socialist and Communist ideas and the Yiddish jargon brought to Palestine by immigrants from Poland and Russia. The Jewish Fascists insist that the use of Yiddish handicaps the establishment of Hebrew as the common language of Palestine Jews.”

1928: It was reported today “that Jews in South Africa had contributed $100,000 towards” supporting the efforts of ORT to supply training and supplies for the Jews in Russia.

1929: Following yesterday’s fired at Temple Beth-El in Pensacola on-lookers “saw that the structure was almost completely destroyed, with the scrolls so ruined that they had to be buried and the only salvageable items were the organ, “the memorial table” and “the Ten Commandment Tablet above the Ark.”

1930(28^thof Kislev, 5691): Fourth Day of Chanukah

1930: It was reported today that “Arab clashes with Jewish settlers have been reported from the south and north of Palestine, necessitating the immediate dispatch of British police reinforcements from Jerusalem.”

1931: Birthdate of record producer and manager Allen Klein whose clients included Sam Cooke and the Rolling Stones. (As reported by Ben Sisario)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/arts/music/05klein.html

1931: In Manhattan, “fashion designer Jo Copeland and cigar manufacturer Edward J. Regensburg Jr. gave birth to novel Lois Gould the wife of psychiatrist Robert E. Gould and the mother of Anthony and Roger V. Gould.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/31/arts/lois-gould-a-writer-on-women-s-inner-lives-dies-at-70.html

1931: “My Leopold” a comedy starring Camilla Spira was released today in Germany.

1932(19^thof Kislev, 5693): “Rosh Hashanah of Chassidism.”

1932(19^th of Kislev, 5693): Eighty-two year old Eduard Bernstein a German social democratic political theorist and politician passed away today.

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bernstein/index.htm

http://spartacus-educational.com/GERbernstein.htm

1933: In New York,“Sophie A. Udin, a feminist leader and activist who sought equality between the sexes, including equal pay for equal work and equal representation for women” and “Pinhas Ginguld, a Poale Zion officer and head of the network of secular Yiddish Folk Schools and Teacher’s Seminary, in New York” gave birth to their second child and first daughter Marcia Ginguld Ford who moved to Israel to raise her family.

1934: Birthdate of Marcell David Reich, the Antwerp born commodity trader Marc Rich, the fugitive financier who purchased a Presidential Pardon from Bill Clinton.

1935: It was reported today that “plans for a campaign to raise $500,000 to aid Polish, German and other non-Russian Jews to settle in the recently created autonomous territory of Birobidjan in the Soviet Union were announced on December 17^that a luncheon in the Bankers Club of the American committee for the settlement project.”

1935: In Berlin, “the year's last Cabinet session has come and gone without producing the long-heralded general law for new economic restrictions on Jews, designed to complete their segregation from the German people.”

1936: In Warsaw, Foreign Minister Josef delivered a speech to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate talked about the need to find an “outlet for Poland’s surplus population, especially the Jews” declaring “that Jewish problem in the whole of Eastern Europe presented great difficulties now because of the fact that a very large number of Jews who have been making their livelihood as middle-men and traders are now losing their means of support and have no possibilities of assuring work for the younger generation in view of changes in the economic structure of various countries.”

1936(3rd of Tevet, 5697): Dr. Henry Moskowitz, a leader in civil, political and labors circles” passed away at the age of 57 in his New York Home. A native of Romania, Moskowitz graduated from NYC public schools and City College before moving to Germany where he earned his Doctorate. Moskowitz was active in the settlement house movement, an ally of Governor Al Smith and served as chairman of the Civil Service Commission and Commissioner of Public Markets. Moskowitz was active in Jewish affairs He was on the board of directors of American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Social Service. His most notable achievement may have been being one of the founders of the National Association of Colored People (NAACP).

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F40814FA3959167B93CAA81789D95F428385F9

1937(14^thof Tevet, 5698): Parashat Vayehci

1937(14^thof Tevet, 5689): Forty-nine year Viennese native “Dr. Richard Hermann Jaffe, chief pathologist at the Cook County Hospital who has resided in Chicago since 1922 and taught at both the University of Illinois and University of Chicago Medical Schools while raising his son Ernst with his wife passed away this evening at a time when “he had played a leading role in the investigation into the death of 13 infants stricken with an unusual form of dysentery at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, passed away this evening.

1937: On Shabbat (Saturday), Temple Shaaray Tefila continued with the dedication of its new facilities in New York City.

1937: After 289 performances the curtain came down on the original Broadway performance of “Babes in Arms” a “musical comedy with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart and book by Rodgers and Hart.”

1938(25th of Kislev, 5699): First Day of Chanukah; kindle the second light in the evening

1938: “Sheik Said el Khatib, who was a leader at the Mosque of Omar was shot dead by Arabs in the Old City of Jerusalem this morning… The killing eliminates another important Arab from the opponents of the exile Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el Husseini.”

1938(25th of Kislev, 5699): Chanukah

1938(25th of Kislev, 5699): “One Jew was killed and two were wounded when a Jewish-owned bus, traveling on the new coastal road between Haifa and Tel Aviv was fired on by “unidentified assailants” while an Arab woman was shot dead by another Arab in the Old City of Jerusalem.

1938: Birthdate of Bronx-born, Oscar winning song writer, Joel Hirschhorn. He and his partner Al Kasha won in 1972 for “The Morning After” from The Poseidon Adventure and We May Never Love Like This Again" from The Towering Inferno in 1974.

1938: Thousands of Father Charles Coughlin's followers take to the streets of New York City, chanting, "Send Jews back where they came from in leaky boats!" and "Wait until Hitler comes over here!" Many Christian policemen are sympathetic to the Coughlinites. The protests will last until April 1939. They are opposed by other Catholic organizations and by leftists and liberals.

1939: Birthdate of Hartford, CT, native David Margolis ‘a brash and revered prosecutor who in more than 50 years at the Justice Department helped it navigate through some of its most difficult chapters…” (As reported by Eric Lichtblau)

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/16/us/david-margolis-a-justice-department-institution-dies-at-76.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

1939: Birthdate of Harold Varmus, an American virologist and co-winner (with J. Michael Bishop) of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1989 for their work on the origins of cancer - that cancer genes (oncogenes) can arise from normal cellular genes, called proto-oncogenes. Oncogenes are normal genes that control growth in every living cell, but which under certain conditions can turn renegade and cancerous. They believed that the growth of cancerous cells is not the result of an invasion from outside the cell, but rather a misuse of a normal gene by a retrovirus, as a result of exposure to some aggravating carcinogen, such as radiation or smoke. Their research in the mid '70s has led to great strides in the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of a variety of cancers.

1940: Birthdate of Hadera native Eli Cohen the award winning Israeli actor and movie director.

1940: The South Shore Group of the Women’s League for Palestine is selling tickets for today’s matinee performance of “The Corn is Green” at the National Theatre as part of their efforts to raise funds for refugee relief. Proceeds of the sale will “augment a $25,000 Emergency Refugee Relief Fund for young women refugees living the two homes of the Women’s League in Haifa and Tel Aviv.

1940: Hitler prepared his directive for war with Russia. He changed the name from Fritz to "Operation Barbarossa." Barbarossa was the mythic Emperor of Medieval Germany, destined to rise again and lead Germany in glory and victory. Hitler fixed May 15, 1941as the date of invading Russia. Because he had to rescue the Italians from their military misadventures in Greece, Hitler would not invade until June. This month long delay cost the Nazis dearly. Their offensive ground to a halt in the Russian winter and despite victories in 1942 never regained sufficient momentum for final victory. Unfortunately for the Jews, Operation Barbarossa carried a companion piece that included sending liquidation squads in on the heels of the invading German Army. Their mission was to murder Jews and Bolsheviks. This was the first step in the plan to annihilate the entire Jewish population of Russian to create “living room” for Hitler’s Aryan Master Race.

1941: Three months before the deportations of the Jews in France began in earnest, Alfred Rosenberg, the Nazi Party’s chief ideologue and its leading plunderer, requested Hitler’s personal authorization to seize all the household effects and personal possessions belonging to Jews and to distributed parts of them among party members and the Wehrmacht staff.

1941: In Brooklyn, “high school teacher Sam Wallach” and the former Lottie Tannenbaum gave birth to historian Joan Wallach, the Brandies and University of Wisconsin trained historian whose intellectual breadth included French history and gender history who became Joan Wallach Scott when she married Donald Scott.

1941: “H. M. Pulham, Esq” a movie version of the novel by the same name starring Hedy Lamarr was released today in the United States.

1941: An entry in Heinrich Himmler’s diary today read “What to do with the Jews of Russia” to which he later wrote was “exterminate them as partisans.”

1942(10^thof Tevet, 5703): Asara B’Tevet

1942(10^thof Tevet, 5703): Seventy-nine year old Henry W. Unger, the Tammany Hall political leader, assistant district attorney and B’nai B’rith activist who was the husband of Isabella Peyser Unger and father of Albert and Herbert Unger passed away today.

1942: When Jewish forced laborers at Kruszyna, Poland, refuse to board trucks, more than 100 of them are shot.

1942: British Ambassador to the Vatican Francis d'Arcy Osborne asserts that Pope Pius XII "does not see that his silence is highly damning to the Holy See." He had provided the Vatican with detailed information on the killings of Jews and pleaded for a clear denunciation of this horror in the Pope’s Christmas Eve broadcast to the world.

1943: In Neve Sha’anan, Malka and Israel Levin gave birth to Israeli dramatist Hanoch Levin

1945(18^thof Tevet, 5706): Fifty-six year old Russian born and Columbia trained physician Dr. Jacob Lattman who specialized in the treatment of tuberculosis and who raised one son Laurence and two daughters Frances and Joy with his wife Yetta passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1945/12/19/88323726.pdf

1945: Birthdate of Cantor Marsha Fensin.

1945: The father of Aryeh ben Eliezer, a former member of the American Committee to Save the Jews of Europe who was deported from Palestine to Eritrea in October of 1944, failed in his attempt gain his son’s freedom in suit brought before the high court in Jerusalem.

1946:Sir William Fitzgerald, chief justice of Palestine, says Jerusalem will be divided into Jewish and Arab boroughs.

1946: An Arab landowner is assassinated because he sold land to Jews.

1947: Birthdate of “Eddie Antar, the Brooklyn-born man who created the chain of Crazy Eddie electronics stores only to watch it collapse when an underlying fraud was exposed.” (As reported by Niraj Chokshi)

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/12/business/eddie-antar-retailer-and-felon-who-created-crazy-eddie-dies-at-68.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

1947: Arab guerilla forces that have been recruited in Damascus and Beirut gathered in the Syrian capital as they prepare to invade Palestine.

1947: Birthdate of Shabtai Kalmanovich

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/6489381/Former-Israeli-double-agent-shot-dead-near-Putins-office.html

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3799688,00.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3o-AAZxMWE

1947: Birthdate of Steven Spielberg. Born in Cincinnati, this famous director has given us everything from “ET”, to “Close Encounters,” to “Jaws” to fictional and documentary cinema about the Shoah.

1947: “Miracle on 34^th Street” produced by William Perlberg and featuring Jack Albertson as postal service employee that begins at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and tells the tale of Santa Claus who among other things brings peace between Macy’s and Gimbel’s department stores was released today in Australia.

1948: During the “Operation Velvetta,” which was part of the clandestine movement to provide the new Jewish state with modern aircraft, a flight of Spitfires left Czechoslovakia for Israel but was forced to turn back because of “poor weather conditions.”

1948:UN mediator Ralph Bunche announces that a final solution to Palestine conflict is well on its way.

1949: The Palestine Post reported thirty-five men and women from 12 countries signed up for a three month class to become first-aid workers for the Magen David Adom, the Israeli ambulance service. Instruction was in French, Hebrew, Judeo-Spanish and Yiddish.

1950: In New York, singer Jacqueline (née Gould) and Aaron Isaac Maltin, a lawyer and immigration judge’ gave birth film critic Leonard Maltin, the creator of Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide which appeared from 1969 until 2014.

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported from Sofia that the new Israeli Chargé d'Affaires, Gershon Avner, who presented his credentials, was assured that Bulgaria would not restrict Jewish emigration to Israel.

1953: Israel's first paper mills were dedicated today at Hadera, midway between Tel Aviv and Haifa. The enterprise, sponsored by investors from the United States, Brazil, Australia and Israel, is expected to meet most of Israel's current paper needs.

1953: Two Unit 101 squads let by Meir Har-Zion began an attack along the road running from Bethlehem to Hebron.

1955: Release in Asia today of sci-fi thriller “Lost Continent” co-starring Sid Melton.

1956: The IDF hoisted the Israeli flag on the purported site of Mount Sinai. Actually, there are at least three places on the Sinai Peninsula that lay claim to being the location for the giving of the Ten Commandments.

1956: New York premiere of “This is Baby Doll” a dark comedy starring Carroll Baker and Eli Wallach filmed by cinematographer Boris Kaufamn.

1957(25th of Kislev, 5718): Chanukah

1958: “Some Came Running” produced by Sol Siegel with music by Elmer Bernstein and a script co-authored by Arthur Sheekman was released in the United States today.

1961(11^th of Tevet, 5722): Sixty-four year old Leo F. Reisman, the popular 1920’s amd 1930’s bandleader whose orchestra launched the careers of co-religionists Eddy Duchin and Mitch Miller passed away today.

1961: Santa Monica, CA, Ronald and Clare (née Spark) Loeb gave birth to Columbia grad and founder and chief executive of Third Point, a New York-based hedge fund Daniel Seth Loeb, the husband of Margaret Davidson Munzer and the great-nephew of Ruth Handler, the creator Barbie doll.

1963(2^nd of Tevet, 5724): 8^th Day of Chanukah

1963: U.S premiere of “4 for Texas” that included an uncredited appearance by Yaphet Kotto as well as one of the final appearances of the Three Stooges including Larry Fine and Moe Howard.

1966(5^th of Tevet, 5727): Seventy-five year old “Dr. Albert Salomon, Berlin native and refugee from Hitler’s Germany Albert Salomon who became a Professor of Sociology at the New School for Social Research passed away today.

1967(16^th of Kislev, 5728: Sixty-four year old Boston native and Boston University grad Harold Sherman Gold, a member of the American Jewish Committee and Temple Israel passed away today.

1968(27^th of Kislev, 5729): Third Day of Chanukah

1968: Seventy-six year old Dorothy Garrod who “was the pioneer excavator of the famous Mount Carmel caves, where a long sequence of prehistoric cultures and human fossils was discovered” passed away today.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2830905691.html

http://www.timesofisrael.com/finding-man-israels-prehistoric-caves/

1969: Today marked the historic move of the original home of Adas Israel to its current location at Third and G Streets, NW. With help from the District, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and an Act of Congress, the Society relocated the building, now the Lillian & Albert Small Jewish Museum. The first floor was too weak to survive a move, so the structure was severed horizontally and only the second and third floors (Sanctuary and Balcony levels) made the journey by flatbed truck.

1969: Funeral services are scheduled to take place at the Riverside on Amsterdam Avenue for the son William and Gussie (Goldenberg) Feuer of Columbia Law School trained attorney Mortimer Feuer, a “partner firm Hays, Feuer, Porter & Spanier” and the first vice president of the Amsterdam Democratic who married Louis Younker Gottschall with whom he had two sons – Thomas and Richard.

1970: Eighty-nine year old Pastor Marc Boegner, the French resistance leader who in 1942 wrote to Marsh Petain protesting against the deportation of Jews and the inhuman manner in which orders for these deportations were being carried out” passed away today.

1970: “El Topo,” a “Mexican acid Western film written, scored, directed by and starring Alejandro Jodorowsky,” the Chilean born son of “Jewish-Ukrainian parents” was released today in New York City.

1972: Neil Simon’s “The Sunshine Boys” produced by Emanuel Azenberg, directed by Alan Arkin, with Sam Levene as Lewis and Jack Albertson as Clark, premiered on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre.

1973: “Cinderella Liberty” the cinematic treatment of the novel by the same name directed and produced by Mark Rydell and starring James Caan, Eli Wallach and Allan Arbus was released in the United States today.

1976: "A Star is Born," with Barbra Streisand, premieres

1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that Prime Minister Menachem Begin, upon his return from the US, prepared himself to leave for Egypt, in response to the direct invitation by President Anwar Sadat. Begin, who presented a new Middle Eastern peace proposal to Washington, was now expected to bring it with him to Cairo.

1977: In Boston, “Jacqueline (née Jordan) and Sidney Blumenthal, a writer and former aide to President Bill Clinton and aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton” gave birth to author and journalist Max Blumenthal whose works include Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel and The 51 Day War: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza.

1977: The Post described in great detail the emotional moments for Israelis who spent their first Shabbat in Cairo. There was riotous, joyful welcome for the Israeli negotiating team outside the Cairo synagogue. In his address in Tel Aviv, President Ephraim Katzir, revealed a $100m. oil deal with Mexico.

1977: “The World’s Greatest Lover” directed, produced and written by Gene Wilder who also starred in the comedy that featured Elya Baskin was released in the United States today.

1979: Amy Sheridan, who would go on to be “the first American Jewish woman to gain aviator status in any branch of the Armed Services” earned her bars as a Warrant Officer One at the United States Army Aviation Center in Fort Rucker, Alabama (As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archives)

1980(11^th of Tevet, 5741): Ninety-eight year old Fanny G. “Henka” Pofcher, the husband of Elias Harry Pofcher passed away today after which she was interred at the Imas-Roxbury Lodge Cemetery in West Roxbury, MA.

1981(22^nd of Kislev, 5742): Seventy-two year old Chicago native and Northwestern trained surgeon, Dr. Leon Judah Aries, the husband of Marie L. Aries with whom he had three daughters – Jane, Elizabeth and Nancy – passed away today.

1981: “Absence of Malice” a legal melodrama directed and produced by Sydney Pollack and starring Paul Newman and Bob Balaban was released in the United States today.

1981: “Ghost Story,” a cinema version of the novel co-starring Melvyn Douglas was released today in the United States.

1982: “The King of Comedy” co-starring Jerry Lewis and Sandra Bernhard was released today in Iceland.

1982: At Ohev Shalom Talmud Torah Congregation in Washington, rabbi Hillel Klavan officiated at the wedding of Barbara Eileen Cohen, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jay J. Cohen of Bethesda, MD and Andrew Mark Hutter, son of Dr. and Mrs. Robert V.P. Hutter of Livingston, N.J.

1982: Rabbi Israel Mowshowitz officiated at the wedding of Linda Rachel Nass, daughter of Edna Kadin Nass of New York and the late Samuel Nass and Dr. Brian Lloyd Tell, son of Frieda Tell of Jamaica Estates, Queens, and Lake Worth, Fla., and the late Dr. Meyer Tell.

1984(24^th of Kislev, 5745): Kindle the first Chanukah light in the evening.

1984: Christopher Lehmann-Haupt reviewed Albert Speer: The End of a Myth by Matthias Schmidt

http://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/18/books/books-of-the-times-157358.html?pagewanted=print

1985: “Out of Africa” the cinematic treatment of the novel of the same name (and a must see movie) directed and produced by Sydney Pollack was released in the United States today.

1986: “Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold,” a movie version of the novel produced by Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan was released today in West Germany.

1987: The Jewish National Fund New Leadership of Greater New York is sponsoring ''A New York Chanukah'' at the Crystal Pavilion, 805 Third Avenue near 49th Street.

1987: A federal judge sentenced Ivan F Boesky to 3 years in jail for insider trading.

1987: “Ironweed” the movie version of the novel of the same named directed by Héctor Babenco and co-starring Carroll Baker was released in the United States today.

1987: Israeli troops kept a tight lid on the occupied Gaza Strip today, but scattered demonstrations broke out in Palestinian refugee districts and towns in the West Bank and the Arab sector of East Jerusalem. A Palestinian shot as he stabbed an Israeli soldier in the Gaza border town of Rafa died today, bringing the death toll to at least 14 Palestinians shot by the army in the current round of violence.

1988:Israel's political leaders continued to flounder today in their nearly seven-week effort to form a new government. (Sounds like 2019)

1988: In “American-Jewish Writers: On Edge Once More,” published today Ted Solotaroff, author of A Few Good Voices In My Head examines the changes in American Jewish literature over the last quarter of a century

http://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/18/books/american-jewish-wrtiers-on-edge-once-more.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

1989:Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin said today that his ministry authorized and paid for meetings between relatives of Israeli soldiers captured during the invasion of Lebanon and representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

1989: A Congress of Jewish Organizations and Communities in the U.S.S.R. opened today in the Moscow Cinema Center.

1990: The former New York City Mayor, Edward I. Koch, was hit in the head and slightly hurt today when a stone was thrown at him as he strolled through the Arab Quarter of the Old City.

1991(11^thof Tevet, 5752): Seventy year old Samuel “Sam” Deitchman who “played guard, forward, and center at CCNY from 1940 to 1942 when the team made repeat appearances at the NIT, the premier college basketball tournament of that period, passed away today.

1992(23rd of Kislev, 5753): Seventy-seven year old television producer and game show creator Mark Goodson passed away. Born in 1915, his stable of creations included Beat the Clock, The Price Is Right, To Tell the Truth and that Sunday favorite, What’s My Line? (As reported by Bill Carter)

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/19/arts/mark-goodson-game-show-inventor-dies-at-77.html

https://www.biography.com/people/mark-goodson-9542303

1993(4^th of Tevet, 5754): Parashat Vayigash

1993(4^th of Tevet, 5754): Seventy-four year old actor, director and WW II veteran Samuel “Sam” Wanamker, the son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants who was a victim of the infamous “blacklist” passed away today.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1993/12/19/sam-wanamaker-actor-and-director-dies-at-74/04d13a69-54d7-4495-a25c-facb42485296/?utm_term=.c19c9b285d0c

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-sam-wanamaker-1468601.html

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/19/obituaries/sam-wanamaker-actor-74-who-led-new-globe-theater.html

1994(15^th of Tevet, 5755): Seventy-year old Heinz Bernard, the German born British actor, director and theatre manager passed away today.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituaries-heinz-bernard-1568974.html

1995(25^thof Kislev, 5756): Chanukah

1995(25^thof Kislev, 5756): Seventy-three year old Eliezer “Danny” Armon the Hungarian Jew who made Aliyah and who served with Naval Company of the Palmach where he skippered several ships that ran the British blockade passed away today. (James Bond, et al had nothing on this guy)

http://www.palyam.org/English/IS/Armon_Eliezer_Danny

1995 (25th of Kislev, 5756): Rabbi Chaim Pearl passed away. Born in England in 1919, Rabbi Pearl’s first pulpit was in Birmingham England. He came to the United States after World War II and officiated at a Conservative Synagogue in New York. He retired in the 1980’s and moved to Jerusalem where he lived at the time of his death. Rabbi Pearl published numerous articles in the Anglo-Jewish press. He also authored a number of books, including a translation of Sefer Ha-Aggadah, A Guide to Jewish Knowledge, and The Medieval Jewish Mind: Studies in the Religious Philosophy of Isaac Arama,as well as two volumes on Rashi. In addition, he edited the sermons of Rabbi Abraham Cohen, who was his predecessor in Birmingham; produced a number of pamphlets; and served as associate editor of The Jewish Bible Quarterly.

1995 (25th of Kislev, 5756): Eighty-six year old physicist Nathan Rosen passed away. Born in 1909, he was a U.S.-born Israeli theoretical physicist who in 1935 collaborated with Albert Einstein and Boris Podolsky on a much-debated refutation of the theory of quantum mechanics; he later came to accept the theory. The famous Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen critique of quantum mechanics was published in the 1935 Physical Review. (A New York Times obituary described The Physical Review as "one of the most impenetrable periodicals in the English language.") Rosen founded the Institute of Physics at Technion in Haifa Rosen was also the father of Dr. Joe Rosen a noted-physicist in his own right, a Renaissance Man in the truest sense of the word and a real mensch.

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/23/world/nathan-rosen-86-of-israel-physicist-worked-with-einstein.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGYWFJDL2s4

1996: “Marvin’s Room” the movie version of the play with the same name directed by Jerry Zaks, featuring Bitty Schram as “Janine” and music by Rachel Portman was released in the United States today.

1998: Release date for “You’ve Got Mail,” a comedy produced and directed by Nora Ephron with a script by Nora and Delia Ephron.

1996(8^thof Tevet, 5757): Theatrical composer and Tin Pan Alley lyricist, Irving Caesar, the son of Romanian Jewish immigrants who was responsible for such classics (which nobody knows today) as “Tea for Two” and “Swanee” passed away today at the age of 101.

https://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/18/arts/irving-caesar-lyricist-of-timeless-hits-like-tea-for-two-dies-at-101.html

https://www.songhall.org/profile/Irving_Caesar

1998: “You’ve Got Mail,” a comedy produced and directed by Nora Ephron with a script by Nora and Delia Ephron was released today in the United States.

1998: The Chesed-El Synagogue which dates back to 1905 was designated as “national monument of Singapore” today.

https://www.chesedel.org/

2001: In Tampa, Florida, the funeral is held for Charles Michael "Chuck" Schuldiner singer, songwriter, rhythm and lead guitarist of the band Death.

2002: “Two Week’s Notice” a comedy co-starring Kevin Klein but not Mark Feuerstein because his scenes were deleted was released today in the United States.

2002: In “Art Institute looks at houses of David Adler” published today Blair Kamin examines the life and career of the Jewish architect who “passed himself off as Protestant and designed in a thoroughly eclectic manner that was catholic with a small ‘c’”.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2002-12-18/features/0212180077_1_art-institute-international-style-modernism-houses

2005: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was rushed to hospital in Jerusalem after suffering a minor stroke and briefly losing consciousness.

2005: Israeli Holocaust survivor Lea Fuchs Chayen sent her e-mail address to Iowan David Cmelik so that they could communicate in a more direct, personal manner. Cmelik is the son of Frank Cmelik who was a rifleman in the 84^th Division of the Ninth Army. The 84^th Divisions was recognized a a liberating unit by the United States Holocaust Museum and the United States Army. Cmelik had been searching for Chayen because she was one of the girls his father had mentioned that he had helped to liberate when his unit entered the Salzwedel Labor Camp in the spring of 1945. His father was finally being awarded the Bronze Star that he had earned as part of the liberation effort. In her e-mail and subsequent correspondence, Chayen described the details of her liberation and her gratitude for what Frank Cmelik and his fellow soldiers had one.

2006: The "Local Testimony" photography exhibition opens in Dizengoff Center in Tel Aviv, in commemoration of Lior Ziv, an IDF Spokesman photographer who was killed during an Israel Defense Forces operation in 2003. The exhibition, held for the fourth consecutive year, shows Israeli photographic journalism of the past year. The dozens of photographs on display have been chosen from some 4,500 entries to the Local Testimony competition. This year's winners include the following Haaretz photographers: Uriel Sinai came first in the category of series of photographs documenting the results of Katyusha rocket landings in Haifa; David Bachar came third in the category of series of portraits; Nir Keidar came second in the category of series of sports photographs and Nir Kafri came first in the culture and art category.

2007: Internet voting, sponsored by The Philatelic Service of the Israel Postal Company, designed to choose the stamp to be used to mark Israeli’s 60^thIndependence Day, comes to an end.

2007: Today, Marc “Trestman was named head coach for the CFL Montreal Alouettes whom he led to the Gray Cup in 2008.

2007(9^thof Tevet, 5768): Eighty-three year old mathematician Samuel Karlin passed away. (As reported by Douglas Martin)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/us/21karlin.html

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2008/january16/karlin-011608.html

2007: David Rubenstein purchased the last privately owned copy of the Magna Carta at Sotheby's auction house in New York for $21.3 million

2007:Naftali Tzi Weisz, the 59-year-old Grand Rabbi of Spinka, and Gabbai Moshe E. Zigelman, 60, both of Brooklyn, N.Y., were named in a federal grand jury's 37-count indictment in Los Angeles.

2008: In its final evening, The 10th Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival features a screening of the 1920 classic, “The Golem.”

2008:In New York, as part of the “18 Nights of Inspiration lecture series “Dov Waxman, professor of political science at Baruch College, discusses the main issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the prospects for peace in a talk entitled "Is Peace Possible?"

2008: The largest and most hi-tech movie theater in the South is opening in Beersheba's ONE center today.

2008: Members of an Australian trade union that accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” joined Jewish officials at a Chanukah celebration.

2008:Hamas officially declared this evening that it would not extend the six-month-old truce between Gaza factions and Israel. The announcement appeared to be anti-climactic since 11 Kassam rockets and five mortar shells had already pounded southern Israel by mid-afternoon.

2008(21^st of Kislev, 5769): Centenarian Scottish sculptor Hannah Frank the daughter of immigrants from the Pale of Settlement passed away today in Glasgow.

http://hannahfrank.org.uk/

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12378258.Hannah_Frank/

2008: Today “the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University in New York announced it had acquired Norman Jaffe's architectural archives” which include architectural drawings, presentations and photographs from Jaffe's professional practice and covers more than 80 projects from the 1960s to the 1990s.

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/23/obituaries/norman-jaffe-61-an-architect-famed-for-home-designs-is-dead.html?pagewanted=1

2009: In New York, as part of the Concert Masters Series, the Baruch Performing Arts Center presents as an evening with Roman Spitzer, Principal Violist of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

2009(1^st of Tevet, 5770): Rosh Chodesh Tevet

2009: In the evening, light the eighth Chanukah candle, 5770

2009:A Las Vegas teacher has been told to stay home while district officials investigate a claim that she denied in class the Holocaust happened, a newspaper reported today. Clark County schools spokesman Michael Rodriguez said Northwest Career and Technical Academy teacher Lori Sublette was assigned to remain home, and appropriate action would follow an investigation. Student Katie Piranio told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that Sublette said during a Nov. 25 class that history books were inaccurate and Nazis in World War II lacked the technology to kill millions of Jews.

2009: Amjal Kasab, a Pakistani man standing trial for his role in the terrorist attack on Mumbai last year that included the murder of Jews at the Chabad House, recanted his earlier confession in court today saying he been framed by the Indian police.

2009: According to police reports, the infamous iron sign over the gate to the Auschwitz memorial site with the cynical phrase “Arbeit Macht Frei” – German for “Work Sets You Free” was stolen this morning between 3:30 a.m. and 5 a.m. when museum guards noticed that it was missing and alerted police.

2009: U.S. release date for “Avatar” the epic sci-fi thrill co-produced by Jon Landau

2010: In Israel, Channel Two broadcast the first episode of “Yellow Peppers,” a show that tells the tale of a family raising an autistic child.

2010: Hazak Shabbat -The United Synagogue has designated this Shabbat as HaZaK Shabbat, to recognize the older adults' groups of Conservative congregations.

2010: “Shabbat Chazak” – Finished reading Bereshit or Genesis. This is “one of the four Shabbats when we complete one of the books of the Torah (the fifth time is on Simchat Torah); just as we complete the weekly Torah reading Shabbat morning, the entire congregation rises and together calls out “Chazak, Chazak, V’nitchazaik” –“Be strong. Be strong. Let us strengthen ourselves!” Just as we have completed one of the books of the Torah, God will help us be strong and complete all of the loose end of our lives, physically and spiritually. The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that there is a superiority to the “chazak of Parashat Vayechi in that it is the first one. (The Rhinebeck Jewish Center)

2010: The 92^nd St Y is scheduled to present “Wiesel in Concert: Memories & Melodies of My Childhood” during which the “renowned scholar, teacher and advocate, with orchestra and choir, is scheduled to sing songs from his youth for a new generation—a review of Jewish melodies from the shtetl to today.

2010:Oy Vey in a Manger is scheduled to open at Theatre J in Washington, DC.

2010: “Jerusalem Rejuvenates C.R. Native” published today, describes the spiritual and professional journey made by Abbie Silber, the daughter of Dr. Robert and Laurie Silber, from growing up in Cedar Rapids to studying and performing in Jerusalem. http://easterniowalife.com/2010/12/16/cedar-rapids-native-studies-finds-a-home-in-jerusalem/

2010: On Saturday, two women were stabbed in a forest near Beit Shemesh. Kay Wilson, an olah from Great Britain, and her American friend Kristine Luken were hiking in the wooded hills west of Jerusalem.

2010(11^thof Tevet, 5771): French scholar Jacqueline de Romilly, a specialist on ancient Greece, a prolific writer and one of the first women to join the prestigious Academie Francaise, died today at the age of 97. (As reported by Cecile Roux)

http://www.startribune.com/templates/Print_This_Story?sid=112149344

2010(11^thof Tevet, 5771):Eighty-three year old “Morris L. Cohen, a book lover who shunned the practice of law because it was too contentious and became one of the nation’s most influential legal librarians, bringing both the Harvard and Yale law libraries into the digital age, died today at his home in New Haven.” (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/us/26mcohen.html?_r=0

2011: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “In The King’s Arms,” Sonia Taitz’s first novel about a Yeshiva-schooled and Vassar-scrubbed, 21-year-old New Yorker named Lily Taub and “Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World” by Richard Rhodes. Unbeknownst to most of her fans, Hedy Lamar a Viennese born Jewess whose birth-name was Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler.

2011: The Union for Reform Judaism Biennial is scheduled to come to an end.

2011: London’s Jewish Community Center is scheduled to host a family-friendly Chanukah Party this afternoon.

2011:”Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg” is scheduled to be shown at the Jewish Cinema Mississippi Chanukah Event in Jackson, MS.

2011: The Jewish Community Center Wide Chanukah Concert with Craig Taubman is scheduled to take place at the Uptown JCC in New Orleans, LA.

2011: Viewers of ION-TV are in for a musical treat as Meaghan Reider, daughter of Sue and Ronald Reider, pillars of the Cedar Rapids Jewish Community is scheduled to perform a cantorial role this morning.

2011(22^ndof Kislev): Yahrzeit of Dulcina, the wife of Eleazar Rokeach and his son Jacob and his daughters, Belat and Hannah. They were killed in 1196 by two crusaders who broke into Eleazar’s home while he was working on a commentary on “Bereshit.” Born in 1176, this native of Mainz (Germany) was also known as Eleazar ben Judah ben Kalonymus. A leading Talmudist and author his works included “Ha-Rokeah” (Perfumer) “a halachic guide to ethics and Jewish Law for the common reader. The title derives from the numerical value of the word הרקח, which corresponds to that of אלעזר. The book is divided into 497 paragraphs containing halachot and ethics; first published at Fano, 1505.” The title of the book probably was the source of his “last name.” He played a critical role in devising legislation that helped the Jews of the Rhineland survive the devastation of the Crusades. He passed away in 1238.

2011:Today, the Ministerial Committee on Legislation approved a bill that would allow Jewish couples to register for marriage with any rabbinate bureau in the country, irrespective of where they live.

2011: Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger criticized the segregation of men and women on public transportation, in an interview with Army Radio. According to Metzger, the haredi community does not have the right to impose its practices on public bus lines

2011: An Egyptian pipeline carrying gas to Israel and Jordan was bombed today, the 10th such attack this year, but no fire erupted because the line that runs through North Sinai was already disabled, a security source said.

2012: “Fill the Void” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.

2012:Mitchell Davis of the James Beard Foundation is scheduled to moderate a panel discussion with Julia Moskin of The New York Times, Stephanie Pierson – author of Brisket Book, Daniel Delaney of Brisket Town, Noah Bernamoff of Mile End and butcher Jake Dickson entitled “Let’s Brisket” in which they will discuss what was once considered to be the quintessential Jewish cut of beef.

2012: Tthousands of fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls went online today with the launch of a new website by Google and the Israel Antiquities Authority, part of a move to make the famed manuscripts easily available to scholars and casual web surfers.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/dead-sea-scrolls-go-digital/?ref=review

2013: Rev. Canon Jack E. Lindquist is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “The Holocaust and Churches in Nazi Germany: Examples of Complicity and Resistance” at the Coronado Library.

2013: The UK Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to present “Don’t Tell Santa You’re Jewish” and “David” by Director Joel Fendelman.

2013: “Fill the Void” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival, weather permitting.

2013: It was reported today that Israeli fashion model Esti Ginzburg's f”ather was suing her for allegedly failing to pay him money owed for a house he sold her and her husband.”

2013: A 22-year-old man was killed and six more were injured when the IDF exchanged fire with Palestinians during an operation in the West Bank city of Jenin tonight.

2013: The Justice Ministry unveiled the draft of a proposed bill today that will ultimately completely restructure the legal regime and sovereignty principles governing the country’s coastal waters. (As reported by Sharon Udasin and Yonah Jeremy Bob)

2013: In contrasting decisions handed down today Germany says it won’t return two paintings once owned by a Jewish businessman who fled the Nazis, even as the western city of Cologne agreed to hand back almost a dozen other valuable drawings to heirs in two separate cases.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/german-government-rejects-jewish-heirs-demand-for-art/

2013: The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court today sentenced Rabbi Mordechai Elon to six months of community service, as well as a 15-month suspended jail term, rejecting the prosecution’s demand that he be sent to prison for fondling a minor. Elon, once a celebrated mentor of Israel’s religious Zionist movement, was also ordered to pay the victim NIS 10,000 ($2,850) in compensation. (As reported by Spencer Ho)

2014: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to host its annual Festival of Lights this evening at the Center for Jewish History.

2014: The Washington, DC Jewish Community Center is scheduled to host “Authors Out Loud” featuring Boris Fishman whose latest work is A Replacement Life: A Novel.

2014(26^thof Kislev, 5775): 2^nd day of Chanukah

2014(26^thof Kislev, 5775): Eighty-nine year old Harold Schulweis, the long term rabbi at the Valley Beth Shalom synagogue in Encino, CA passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/26/us/harold-m-schulweis-progressive-rabbi-is-dead-at-89.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

2014(26^thof Kislev, 5775): Seventy-year old Mandy Rice-Davies “the showgirl” who played a key role in the Profumo Affair that brought down the government of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, and who later converted to Judaism and made Aliyah, passed away today.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/mandy-rice-davies-key-figure-in-1963-british-sex-scandal-dies-aged-70/

http://www.llanellistar.co.uk/Profumo-Affair-showgirl-Mandy-Rice-Davies/story-25740209-detail/story.html

2014: In Iowa, Chabad led by Rabbi Avrohom Blesofsky is scheduled to light the menorah this evening at Coral Ridge Mall.

2014: Israeli pianist Daniel Gortler is scheduled to perform at the Jewish Museum.

2014: “In the decision released today the Supreme Court ruled against a motion from lawyers representing Yonit Erez, whose conversion to Judaism in 2000 was revoked by Israel’s rabbinical courts. The rabbis took the radical step after concluding that Erez had misled them in promising to lead an Orthodox life.” (As reported by Amanda Borschel-Dan)

2014: “President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and generations of Mossad chiefs participated in a ceremony today held at the president's residence in Jerusalem, where citations of excellence were awarded to outstanding Mossad agents.”

2014: Of the four Hamas terrorists who reportedly were taking part in a military exercise near the Egyptian Border one was killed and three were injured following an explosion near Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

2014: A memorial service for Rabbi Isaac Neuman is scheduled to be held this evening at Sinai Temple in Champagne, Illinois.

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2014-11-18/life-remembered-neuman-messenger-hope.html

2015: Rabbi Jennie Rosenn is scheduled to speak at Temple Emanu-El as part of Human Rights Shabbat.

2015: “Son of Saul” an “acclaimed Hungarian drama set in Auschwitz” and the “winner of the Grand Prize at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival” is scheduled open at The Film Forum in Manhattan.2016: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Thanks You For Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations by Thomas L. Friedman and The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds by Michael Lewis that examines the research of Hebrew University professors Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman.

2016: WQXR is scheduled to host “a family Chanukah celebration in The Greene Space’ featuring “Parent’s Choice Award winners “The Bossy Frog Band” playing Chanukah favorites.”

2016: The Ethiopian Jewish Community’s seventh annual Sigd celebration is scheduled to come to an end today.

2016(18^th of Kislev, 5777): In Antwerp, “a diamond dealer for De Beers” and his wife gave birth to Jack Valdmonna Lunzer, the husband of Ruth Zippel and the industrial diamond merchant who was the “custodian of the Valmadonna Trust Library” a collection of more than 13,000 books and manuscripts that included a handwritten Hebrew Bible from England dating back to 1189, “a Franco-German Pentatuch from the 10^thor 11^th century” and a Haggadah “printed in Prague in 1526.”

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?pid=183166317

2017: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present an “interfaith conversation” between Ahmed Omar the Deputy Director of MALA who is a Somalilander American of Muslim heritage and Richard Sassoon, an Iraqi-American of Jewish heritage who graduated from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and studied at the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding on the subject of “overcoming extremism.”

2017: In Newark, NJ, the Maccabeats are scheduled to perform at the Prudential Central following the NJ Devils NBA game.

2017(30^thof Kislev, 5778): Sixth Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet

2018(10^thof Tevet, 5778): David Levin is scheduled to say Kaddish today at the Tel Aviv International Synagogue on the Yahrzeit of his sister Judy Rosenstein (nee Levin) the wife of Larry Rosenstein of blessed memory, the mother of Danny, David Asher and Joel Rosenstein and the sister of Mitchell Levin all of whom miss her and remember her with love and affection

2018(10^thof Tevet, 5779): The Fast of the 10^th of Tevet; Asarah b’Tevet, is a minor fast day that commemorates the date “when, according to the Tanach (II Kings 25:1-4), the Babylonians laid siege to Jerusalem.”

2018: For the second and last time, today in London, “Artist-in-residence Tommy Berry” is scheduled to work in the gallery space creating works based on the survival story of Kindertransport survivor, Bea Green and her son Paul Green” at the Jewish Museum.

2018: “Moshe Bonen and special guests are scheduled to celebrated the musical talent and pay tribute to Arik Einstein” this evening at the Loft City Winery.

2018: Beit Avi Chai is scheduled to host “Lunar Legends: Magical Soup, a play for the month of Tevet.”

2019: In Boca Raton, FL, B’nai Torah Congregation is scheduled to host Angela King, Brendan Murphy and Dr. Steven Luckert, the Senior Program Curator of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as they present “Hate and Its Impact: Sowing the Seeds of Global Antisemitism.”

2019: “Jewtopia” featuring Michael Alpert and Pete Rushefsky is scheduled to begin tonight at the Stanton Street Shul.

2019: In Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts is scheduled to host the “Hanukkah Festival of Lights.”

2019: “Maim” featuring Israeli dancer Zvi Gotheiner, which is an attempt to raise awareness about the diminishing of the world’s supply of potable water is scheduled to open in New York.

December 19

324: Licinius abdicates his position as Emperor leaving Constatine I, “the first Christian Emperor” in control of the Roman Empire much to the detriment of the Jewish people.

1154: Coronation of Henry II, King of England.With the restoration of order under Henry II, conditions of the Jews improved markedly. Within five years of his accession Jews are found at London, Oxford, Cambridge, Norwich, Thetford, Bungay, Canterbury, Winchester, Newport, Stafford, Windsor, and Reading. Yet they were not permitted to bury their dead elsewhere than in London, a restriction which was not removed till 1177. Their spread throughout the country enabled the king to draw upon them as occasion demanded; he repaid them by demand notes on the sheriffs of the counties, who accounted for payments thus made in the half-yearly accounts on the pipe rolls (see Aaron of Lincoln). Richard "Strongbow" de Clare's conquest of Ireland in 1170 was financed by Josce, a Jew of Gloucester; and the king accordingly fined Josce for having lent money to those under his displeasure. As a rule, however, Henry II does not appear to have limited in any way the financial activity of Jews. The favourable position of the English Jews was shown, among other things, by the visit of Abraham ibn Ezra in 1158, by that of Isaac of Chernigov in 1181, and by the resort to England of the Jews who were exiled from France by Philip Augustus in 1182, among them probably being Judah Sir Leon of Paris. When he asked the rest of the country to pay a tithe for the crusade against Saladin in 1186, he demanded a quarter of the Jewish chattels. The tithe was reckoned at £70,000, the quarter at £60,000. In other words, the value of the personal property of the Jews was regarded as one-fourth that of the whole country. It is improbable, however, that the whole amount was paid at once, as for many years after the imposition of the tallage arrears were demanded from the recalcitrant Jews. The king had probably been led to make this large demand upon English Jewry by the surprising windfall which came to his treasury at the death of Aaron of Lincoln. All property obtained by usury, whether by Jew or by Christian, fell into the king's hands on the death of the usurer; Aaron of Lincoln's estate included £15,000 of debts owed to him. Besides this, a large treasure came into the king's hands, which, however, was lost on being sent over to Normandy. A special branch of the treasury, constituted in order to deal with this large account, was known as "Aaron's Exchequer". In this era, Jews lived on good terms with their non-Jewish neighbours, including the clergy; they entered churches freely, and took refuge in the abbeys in times of commotion. Some Jews lived in opulent houses, and helped to build a large number of the abbeys and monasteries of the country. However, by the end of Henry's reign they had incurred the ill will of the upper classes. The anti-Jewish sentiment fostered by the crusades, during the latter part of the reign of Henry, spread the anti-Jewish sentiment throughout the nation.

1187: Clement III who was no friend of the Jews was elected Pope today. In the aftermath of the First Crusaders violent march through the Rhine, Henry IV, the Holy Roman Emperor sought to allow Jews who had been forced to convert to return to Judaism. Pope Clement III opposed Henry on this insisting that the Jews, no matter how they had come to the Church, could not leave it. To his credit, Henry ignored the Pope. He went so far as to find those who had killed his Jewish subjects and bring them to justice. From the Jewish point of view, Henry was the exception to the norm among European Princes and Prelates. We should remember him for this and not for shivering in the winter as he did penance before an arrogant prince of the Church.

1370: Pope Urban V passed away. Urban issued a bull entitled “Sicuti judaeis non debet” that forbade the molestation of Jews and condemned the forced baptism of Jews.
1483: The first edition of Talmud Babli Berakot was published in Soncino, Italy by Joshua Solomon Soncino. This is the tractate of the Babylonia Talmud that discusses the laws of Kriat Shema, Prayers and Blessing.
1483: The first edition of Talmud Betzah was published in Soncino, Italy by Joshua Solomon Soncino. Betzah is the tractate that deals rules concerning Festivals.

1488: The first edition of the Sefer Mitzvoth Gadol was published in Soncino, Italy. The Sefer Mitzvoth Gadol (The Great Book of the Commandments) was written by Rabbi Moses ben Jacob of Coucy'. Rabbi ben Jacob lived in the first half of the 13th century in Coucy, France. This work--usually designated by its acronym, the Semag—classifies Jewish law according to the traditional enumeration of 613 commandments. The work is divided into two sections. The first deals with the 365 negative precepts of the Torah, and the second with the 248 positive precepts. References to the Semag are by Section. The publishing of this and other such texts helped to enhance the culture of education that has been the hallmark of Judaism since its earliest days. Guttenberg and his printing press were definitely “friends” of the Jews.

1521: John III was crowned King of Portugal in the Church of São Domingos in Lisbon, beginning a thirty-six-year reign that included negotiations with David Reubeni over the providing a fleet to help in his competition with the Ottomans in 1525 and the introduction of the Inquisition to his realm in 1536.

1523: Giles of Viterbo, who provided a safe haven for Elias Levita with whom he studied Hebrew and who studied Zohar with Baruch de Benevento was installed as Bishop of Veterbo e Tuscania.

1757: Phillip Cuyler wrote to Jewish “insurance broker” David Franks about the “large sum of uninsured goods that he has on board the ship Charming Rachell.”

1762: Birthdate of Ephraim Zalman Margolis the Galician born rabbi who was the brother of Hayyim Mordecai Margolioth and whose works including commentaries on parts of the Shulchan Arukh.

1764(25^thof Kislev, 5525): First Day of Chanukah

1764: As Jews prepare to kindle the second light of Chanukah, those in the 13 Colonies are dealing with the impact of Sugar Act enacted early in the year which was one of the pieces of legislation that led to the American Revolution

1767(28^thof Kislev, 5528): Parashat Miketz; Fourth day of Chanukah

1767: Today, Benjamin Franklin wrote from London to his son William Franklin, the colonial governor of New Jersey that “We have had an ugly affair at the Royal Society lately. One Dacosta, a Jew, who, as our clerk, was entrusted with collecting our monies, has been so unfaithful as to embezzle near £1300 in four years. (The reference is to “Emanuel Mendes da Costa, who had been appointed clerk and assistant secretary of the Royal Society in 1763)

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/579811.pdf?seq=1

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-14-02-0205

1775(26^thof Kislev, 5536): Second Day of Chanukah

1775: As Jews prepared to kindle the third light of Chanukah, patriot forces overwhelmed the British forces on Sullivan Island leading to the building of fortifications designed to protect the port of Charleston

1777: Gen. George Washington led his army of about 11,000 men to Valley Forge, Pa., to camp for the winter. Hanukkah at Valley Forge is a children’s book by Stephen Krensky about an event that took place during that fateful winter.“On a cold December night during the height of the Revolutionary War, General George Washington surveys his weary troops at Valley Forge. He spies a soldier lighting a candle. Curious, he asks the soldier what he is doing. The soldier explains that he is celebrating the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. He goes on to relate a miraculous story—how long ago a ragtag army of Jewish soldiers defeated a much larger force of powerful Greeks, a tale that provides just the kind of inspiration General Washington needs. Stephen Krensky's fictionalized version of a poignant historical anecdote is brought vividly to life in Greg Harlin's brilliant watercolor illustrations.” The thirty two page book is designed for children from 4 to 7. While we may not know the names of all the Jews who spent the winter freezing in the Pennsylvania cold, we do know that Abraham Levy and Phillip Russell were among those who stuck it out. When the army marched out in the spring, some of the soldiers carried rifles supplied by Joseph Simon who crafted them at this forge in Lancaster, PA.

1778(30^thof Kislev, 5539): Parashat Miketz; Rosh Chodesh Tevet; 6^th Day of Chanukah

1778: Jews prepared to the light the seventh Chanukah light on the first anniversary of Washington akes his forces into winter camp at the fabled Valley Forge while on this day the Virginia legislature was enacting legislation “to encourage officers and men to remain in the Continental Army.”

1781: Joseph II abolished Leibzoll (body tax) along with the "special law taxes, the passport duty, the night duty and all similar oppressive imposts which had stamped the Jews as outcasts."
1786: Marks and Rachel Lazarus gave birth to Michael Lazarus, a leader of the Reform movement in Charleston, SC and who “opened steam navigation between Charleston and Augusta”
1787: In Germany, Kehla and Feis Moses Fraenkel gave birth to Meyer Fraenkel
1788: In Charleston, SC, Sara and Moses Clava Levy gave birth to Jacob Clavious Levy, the husband of Fanny Yates with whom he had eight children.
1788: In Pennsylvania, Michael Marks and Jochabed Isaacks gave birth to Sarah Marks the future wife of Samuel Lyons
1799: In Bonfeld, Germany, Blumel Joseph and Joseph Ruben Gummersheimer gave birth to their son Hennoch Strausburger.
1800(3^rd of Tevet, 5561): Eighth Day of Chanukah is observed for the first time in the 19^th century and for the last time during the Presidency of John Adams.
1803: Birthdate of Hartvig Abraham Von Essen, the husband of Brigitte Simon and the father of Ferdinand and Ida Von Essen
1807: Abraham Franklin married Miriam Aaron today.
1813: Barnet Franks married Jane Jacobs at the Great Synagogue today.
1816(29^th of Kislev, 5577): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1816(29^th of Kislev, 5577): Sarah Sazrzedas, the daughter of Sarah and Isaac da Costa, who had one child by each of her two husbands, Col. David Maysor and David Sarzedas, passed away today.
1821(25^th of Kislev, 5582): Chanukah
1821: Birthdate of Dutch bibliographer Meyer Roest whose best known work is the two volume Catalog der Hebraica und Judaica aus der L. Rosenthal'schen Bibliothek
1823: In Newington, Martha and Woolf Levy gave birth to David Lewis Levy, the husband of Bertha Levy.
1828:“Clari” an opera semiseria in three acts by Fromental Halévy “was first produced at the Théâtre-Italien in Paris” today.
1831: The Privy Council in England granted the Jewish community official recognition and equality on the island. Jews were then permitted to vote in the elections and, by 1849, eight of the 47 members of House of Assembly were Jewish, including the Speaker of the House. Jews became so prominent in society that in 1849, the House of Assembly did not gather on Yom Kippur.
1832(27^th of Kislev, 5593): Third Day of Chanukah
1840: Birthdate of German native Carolina Berg, the wife of Abraham Michael.
1841: Birthdate of Russian-born Austrian “rabbinical scholar” Abraham Epstein author of the Ḳadmut ha-Tanḥuma, who passed away in 1918.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/epstein-abraham
1844 (9th of Tevet, 5605): The Czar abolished all Kahals in the Russian Empire.
1849: William Wolf Collins, the son of Lewis Collins and Julia Isaacs, was buried at “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1852: Birthdate of Russian native Albert A. Michelson who taught at the U.S. Naval Academy and calculated the Speed of Light for which he won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1907.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1907/michelson/biographical/

1854: Birthdate of Joshua Moses Levy, the “elder of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue” in London and member of the Board of Deputies who served on the Licensing Committee of the Board of Shechita and the “Committee of the Bread, Meat and Coal Society.”

1855(10^thof Tevet, 5616): Aasara B’Tevet

1856: In Vienna, Simon Spitzer, the son of Moses Spitzer and his wife Marie Spitzer gave birth to Malvine Nawaski.

1856: The Huntington Trial a case being heard before Judge Capron was in recess today “because one of the jurors was a Jew and had conscientious scruples about working on his Sabbath…”

1857: Under a modification of the 1855 Naval Reform designed to remove superfluous officers, Uriah Phillips Levy began the first of three days before a Board of Inquiry that had been convened to see if he should be reinstated. Fifty -three character witnesses, including former Secretary of the Navy and historian George Bancroft, governors, senators, congressmen, bank presidents, merchants, doctors, and editors had already testified on his behalf before Phillips began testify. The most shocking statement had come from Bancroft who confirmed Levy had been purged "because he was of the Jewish persuasion." The most moving part of the testimony came with the statement of Phillips, "My parents were Israelites, and I was nurtured in the faith of my ancestors.""I am an American, a sailor, and a Jew," At the end, there was a moment's silence before the explosion of cheers, the hats flung in the air, the wild applause.

1858: In Camden, New Jersey, Maurice Traubel and Katherine Grunder gave birth to essayist, poet and follower of Henry George, Horace Traubel who was the editor of The Conservator from 1890 until his death in 1919.

http://www.whitmanarchive.org/criticism/disciples/traubel/

1859: Nine year old Israel Dov Frumkin emigrated from Russia to Jerusalem with his father, Alexander Sender Frumkin, mother and brother

1862(27^thof Kislev, 5623): Third Day of Chanukah

1862(27^thof Kislev, 5623: Thirty nine year old Abraham Solomon, the son Catherine and hat manufacturer Meyer Solomon and the brother of painter Simeon Solomon passed away today on the same day that his artistic talents were recognized by election as “an Associate of the Royal Academy.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Solomon#/media/File:A_SolomonFirst_Class-_The_Meeting,_and_at_First_Meeting_Loved._Abraham_Solomon.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Solomon#/media/File:Solomon_Abraham_The_Acolyte.jpg

1867: In Prague, Joseph and Julie Wolf gave birth to Siegfried Reginald Wolf.

1868: In Vienna, the Rudolphinum founded in honor of Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria and funded by A.M. Pollak was dedicated today.

1870(25^thof Kislev, 5631): First Day of Chanukah

1871: In Canonbury, London, Rose Jessel and Bernard Spiers gave birth to Theresa Lizzie Spiers, the wife of Solomon Conquy and the mother of Theresa Orovida Conquy.

1876: It was reported today that William J. Ree, “one of the most daring and expert swindlers and forgers” ever to operate in New York City, is among the many convicts paroled by Governor Tilden without informing the District Attorney or the criminals’ victims. Ree is reportedly from Denmark and a member of a wealthy Jewish who has two brothers who are successful merchants in London. He married the wealthy widow of the late Commodore Uriah P. Levy and proceeded to run through her fortune of $400,000. He also was the heir to a fortune left to him by one of his wife’s aunts – a fortune that he dissipated with equal speed which led him to turn to active swindling.

1876: A fair to raise funds for Hebrew Charities is scheduled to be held this evening at the Masonic Hall in NYC.

1878: It was reported today that most of the Jews of Cincinnati, Ohio, approved decision of the Hebrew Benevolent Societies decision to refuse the contributions offered by Mrs. A.T. Stewart. They feel that the involvement of Judge Hilton makes it impossible for Jews to accept the money. Several Jews have offered to make up any short-fall. A minority, including Louis Kramer and Henry Mack Southern, have expressed the opinion that charities have no right to reject contributions regardless of the source. Jews have refused to do business with Hilton and his company since he banned Jews from being guests at his fashionable New York hotel.

1879: In Laupheim, Pauline Heilbronner married Leopold Hirschfeld and became Pauline Heilbronner Hirschfeld, the mother of Laura and Bella Hirschfeld.

1880: It was reported today that Mt. Sinai Hospital, which was opened in 1852 was the third private hospital opened that provided for New York City’s destitute. St Vincent’s which was opened by the Roman Catholics in 1859 and St. Luke’s which opened in 1850 are the only two such institutions that are older than the facility funded by the Jewish community that is opened to all regardless race or creed.

1880: In New York, Reverends John Cotton Smith, R. Heber Newton and L.D. Devan expressed their concern from their respective pulpits about the wave of “anti-Jewish agitation” currently sweeping Germany. (Compare this to the relative silence that one “heard” during the 1930’s)

1880: In Belz, Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach and Basha Ruchama Twersky gave birth to Aharon Rokeach the fourth Rebbe of the Belz Hasidic dynasty who led the movement from 1926 until his death in 1957.

1880: “First Chandlery Factory In America” published today credited Jews who had come to Newport from Portugal between 1745 and 1750 with introducing this “lucrative…business” in which they had an advantage because they knew “the art of preparing the sperm for candles.” “Of the 16 people” originally “engaged in this business” three were Jews named Riveria, Lopez and Siexas.

1881: It was reported today that police in New York, Brooklyn Staten Island and Jersey City are all looking for thirty eight year old Louis Hammel, the Jewish foreman of J. Beck & Sons who has been reported missing by his relatives.

1881: Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen, who would take an active role in determining and trying to ameliorate the conditions of the Russian Jews after the passage of the May Laws, began serving as Secretary of State under President Chester A. Arthur.

1881: In New York, Julius and Sarah (Adler) Goldman gave birth to Hetty Godman, “a member of the Goldman-Sachs banking family” who made her mark in the world of academia which was unusual for a woman in her era.

http://www.brynmawr.edu/library/exhibits/BreakingGround/goldman.html

1881: In New York, Sarah and Julius Goldman gave birth to Hetty Goldman “a well know archaeologist who unearthed many new excavations that gave historians a better insight of the past in Greece” and who “was very active in sponsoring Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany.” (As reported by Seymour Brody)

1882: In New York Superior Court, Judge Arnoux heard the argument of Abraham Meyer who is seeking an injunction that will restrain police from enforcing that part of the Penal Code that would force him to close on Sunday. Meyer is Jewish and claims that under the law he can “sell goods on Sunday because he observes Saturday as his ‘holy time.’”

1882: Elizabeth Henriques, the daughter of Solomon Jacob Waley and Rachel Hort and the husband of Jacob Quixano, the native of Jamaica, was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.

1882: Birthdate of Bronislaw Huberman, the Polish born violinist who founded the Palestine Philharmonic Orchestra in 1936. After the creation of the state of Israel, a year after Huberman’s death, the orchestra would change its name to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

1883: D. Wiley Travis, the attorney for Theodore Hoffman who was sentenced to death for murdering Jewish peddler Zife Marks, “will take the case to the Court of Appeals.”

1883:Madame Fanny Janauschek will appear in “Zillah, The Hebrew Mother” today at the Third Avenue Theatre.

1885: At least a thousand people attended tonight’s session of the fair being held to raise funds for the kindergarten and industrial schools of the Hebrew Free School Association.

1886: First meeting of the “Emin Pasha Relief Committee.” Mehmed Emin Pasha was the name of a German Jew Eduard Schnitzer had taken when he had converted to Islam to further his career in the world of the Ottomans.

1886: Five hundred prominent Jews met at Temple Israel in Brooklyn, NY, this afternoon and formed the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.

1886: It was reported today that the Hebrew Fee School Association is now supporting a “Ladies Hebrew Seminary” in addition to its industrial branches for manual training and kindergartens.

1886: An auction will held today, the day after the close of the charity fair held to raise funds for the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids, which is expected to raise an additional $15,000. The fair raised $168,000 for the Home.

1887: It was reported today that the Ladies’ Deborah Nursery, founded by Mrs. Deborah Alexander, is currently providing care “for 150 young boys and babies.”

1888: It was reported today that Benjamin F. Peixotto and James W. Moses were blackballed from the Republican Club on 5^th Avenue because they “had enough Jews in the club at present.” Peixotto is a member of a distinguished Sephardic family that has served the United States for three generations. But Moses, a prominent member of the Cotton Exchange, is a Yankee from Maine without a drop of Jewish “blood in his veins.”

1888: “The Republican Club” published today described plans for this new organization which plans on blackballing Jews, a fact that the author is able to easily rationalize, but also is willing to accept contributions of Jewish money.

1888: It was reported today that the following have made donations to the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids: Lazarus Straus, $2,500; Louis Stern, $500, W.J. Cholle, $200; Henry Newman, $100 and M.W. Mendel and Jacob H. Schiff, $1,000 each.

1888: Birthdate of Fritz Reiner, Hungarian born American symphony conductor who passed away in 1963.

1889: Louis and Clara Asia Parnes gave birth to Maxwell Parnes, the husband of Sarah Blumberg Parnes

1890: It was reported today that a St. Petersburg newspaper has responded to “English remonstrances against the treatment of the Russian Jews” by charging the English with having exterminated the natives of Australia and poisoned the Chinese with opium among other crimes.

1891(18^thof Kislev, 5652): Parashat Vayishlach

1891(18^thof Kislev, 5652): Sixty-eight year old Bavarian native Isaac Kohn, the son of Abraham and Bella Kuhn and the husband of Henrietta Kohn passed away today in Phildadelphia.

1891: “The coroner is making a searching inquiry” into events surrounding the death of Maxwell Castine, a Russian Jew whose body was discovered yesterday with his throat cut from ear to ear in a “flouring mill at Petersburg

1891: Ninety Russian Jews who have been brought to the United States by Baron Hirsch are staying at the synagogue in Fall River, MA until they begin working in the local mills.

1892: The State Board of Arbitration met in Camden, NJ tonight and decided to go to Woodbine and “get the facts regarding the cloakmaker’s strike” taking place at the Jewish colony.

1892: “Fifty Years A Temple” published today the jubilee celebration that has been taking place at Rodeph Sholom which were attended by a host of dignitaries including Judges Goldfolgle, Newberger and Lachman as well as Otto J. Wise, Charles S. Cohn, A.H. Berrick and Abram Stern.

1893: Henry Solomon, Lazarus Diamond, Max Rosenthal and Leah Blumental are among the saloonkeepers were being held on charges violating the excise law which forbids the sale of alcohol on Sundays.

1894: Judge Henry Mayer Goldfogle expressed his sympathy with the striking cloakmakers who are faced with eviction and “asked the landlord to give their tenants an extension of time” – a request with which they complied so “no evictions were ordered.”

1894: In the United States, Baer and Fanni Adler gave birth to Leo Adler, the husband of Bella Adler and the father of Greta, Milton and Gunther Adler. (Not to be confused with the Oregon newspaper man with the same name born in 1895)

1894: The trial of Alfred Dreyfus began today at the Cheche-Midi Prison.

1894: Birthdate of Paul Dessau the native of Hamburg and grandson of Cantor Moses Berend Dessau, the composer and conductor whose works ranged from scores to Walt Disney moves to “the oratorio Hagadah shel Pessach after a libretto by Max Brod.”

1894: As of today the officers of the Jewish Historical Society are President--Oscar S. Straus; Vice Presidents – Dr. Charles Gross, Simon W. Rosendale, Paul Leicester Ford; Corresponding Secretary – Dr. Cyrus Adler; Recording Secretary – Dr. Herbert Friedenwald; Treasurer – Professor R.J.H. Gottheil.

1895: “Dr. Hermann Kahn will sell copies of Maritz Oppenheim’s paints of scenes from the life of the Israelites at tonight’s session of the charity fair which is a fundraiser for the Educational Alliance and The Hebrew Technical Institute.

1895: Four days after she had passed away, 72 year old Katherine Schiff, the daughter of Moses Mosely and Rosetta Samuel and the wife of Saling Schiff with whom she had had nine children, was buried today at the West Ham Jewish Cemeery on Buckingham Road.

1895: “The Anti-Semites in Vienna” described the unpopularity of the Imperial Government’s decision to reject the election of a Jew baiter, Dr. Luger, to be Burgomaster of Vienna.”

1896: “Santa Maria,” an operetta by Oscar Hammerstein I closed at the Olympia Theatre after three months of performances.

1896: The University of Wisconsin football team led by first year head coach Philip King, a Jewish native of Washington, DC lost their last game of the season to Carlisle.

1898: The American Jewish Historical Society what had been “organized at New York on June 7, 1892” was incorporated today in the District Columbia with members that included Dr. Cyrus Adler, Simon W. Rosendale, Mendes Cohen, Charles Gross and Professor Richard Gottheil.

1898: Louis Samuel Montagu, the second Baron of Swaythling and his wife gave birth to Stuart Albert Samuel Montague, third Baron Swaythling who served with the Guards during World War I and who was the person “responsible for making rear lights compulsory on motor cycles.”

1898(6^thof Tevet, 5659):Rabbi Yechezkel Shraga Halberstam, “who was famous for his disagreements with his father Rabbi Chaim Halbertam of Sanz on matters of halakha” who served as a rabbi in several towns including Shinova, passed away today.

1898: After the death of Rabbi Yechezkel Shraga Halberstam, today, his second son, Rabbi Moishe Halberstram succeeded his father as Rabbi of Shinova.

1898: After having been “organized at New York in 1892,” today The American Jewish Historical Society, whose members included Dr. Cyrus Adler, Simon W. Rosendale, Mendes Cohen, Charles Gross, Simon Wolf, Professor Richard Gottheil, Dr. Herbert Friedenwald and Professor J. H. Hollander, was “incorporated in the District of Columbia.

1898: Today, “an indenture was recorded by the Register of Deeds for Camden County, New Jersey for a property consisting of three lots at the southeast corner of South 8th Street and Sycamore Street to Congregation Sons of Israel, who were acquiring the property from George W. Jessup.”

1899: Eighteen year old Adele Bauer, the daughter of “banker Moritz Bauer and Jeannette (Honig) Bauer married “industrialist Ferdinand Bloch, who was 17 years her senior” to become Adele Bloch-Bauer.

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/bloch-bauer-adele

1900(27^th of Kislev, 5661): Third Day of Chanukah

1900: Today Sir William Lyne, who when he came out in favor the Federation of the Australian states was accused if consorting “with the Sydney Jews and pub-keepers” was appointed “the Commonwealth’s first Prime Ministe by the Governor-General of Australia.

1901: In Pottsville, PA, Annie and Maurice Mordechai Mohr gave birth to Jennie Mohr.

1901: In Berlin, Else Preuss, the daughter of Carl and Antonie Lieberman and Dr. of Jurisprudence Hugo Preuss gave birth to Hans Helmuth Preuss

1902: ‘Lively Zionist Meeting” published today described a speech given by Jacob De Haas Secretary of the Federation of American Zionists which was supposed to be part of a debate between him and Rabbi Silverman, who was an opponent of Zionist. The debate did not take place because Silverman failed to show up.

1902:Birthdate of British violinist and orchestra leader, Leonard Hirsch. He was a conductor of the Royal Air Force Symphony Orchestra.

1903:Chaim Zelig Louban, a 27 year old student, attempts to assassinate Max Nordau at a Chanukah ball of the Paris Zionist society. He approaches Nordau, cries "Death to Nordau, the East African" and fires two shots. Nordau writes to Herzl: "Yesterday evening I got an installment on the debt of gratitude which the Jewish people owe me for my selfless labors on its behalf. I say this without bitterness, only in sorrow. How unhappy is our people, to be able to produce such deeds." This incident goes to show the depth of feeling surrounding the “Uganda Plan.”

1903: “Camden Hebrews to Have Synagogue” published today described the purchase of the church building at the southeast corner of Eighth and Sycamore streets for $2,300 by the city’s Jews which will hereafter be used as a synagogue.

1903: Herzl publishes an account of the Kharkov conference in "Die Welt", together with a declaration calling upon those who had voted for the ultimatum to surrender their mandates. In a subsequent issue a digest of the minutes of the Conference appears.

1903: The Williamsburg Bridge was opened in New York City. This was America's first major suspension bridge using steel towers instead of the customary masonry towers. It was built to alleviate traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge and to provide a link between Manhattan and the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, and was the second of three steel-frame suspension bridges to span the East River. Designed by Leffert L. Buck and Henry Hornbostel, it had taken over seven years to complete. The 1,600 foot Williamsburg Bridge was the world's longest suspension bridge until the 1920s. It had cost $24,100,000 for the land and construction. For Jews it meant a connection between the Lower East Side and what would become the thriving Jewish neighborhoods of 20^th century Brooklyn.

1905: Frank F. Harding the principal of Public School 44 which is located in a neighborhood “almost entirely by Jews” discussed Christ during a Christmas entertainment in a manner that one student found objectionable and others saw as an attempt “to proselytize the children his charge.”

1905: In Manhattan, Mamie Friedman and Saul Kahn gave birth to Irving Kahn who would still be working as professional investor a hundred years later.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/business/irving-kahn-oldest-active-wall-street-investor-dies-at-109.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

1905: It was reported today that “contributions to the fund for the relief of suffers by Russian massacres” including $329 from Congregation Shaari Zedek and its Sisterhood, $2,322 from the “Orthodox Jews of St. Paul, MN” and $157 from Athens, GA, the home of the University of Georgia.

1905: “Jewish World Congress” published today described the decision by “the central organization of the Zionists to hold a special congress” to deal with the violence being aimed at the Jews of Russia.

1906: Birthdate of David I. Arkin the American “teacher, painter, writer and lyrcist” who was the father of actor Alin Arkin.

1908(25^th of Kislev, 5669): Chanukah celebrated for the last time during the Presidency of Teddy Roosevelt.

1910: Birthdate of David Raziel, one of the founders of "The National Military Organization in the Land of Israel" better known at the Irgun.

http://myrightword.blogspot.com/2009/05/68th-memorial-anniversary-for-david.html

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Raziel.html

1911(28^th of Kislev, 5762): Fourth Day of Chanukah

1912: Birthdate of “Judah Cahn, the founding rabbi of the Metropolitan Synagogue of New York and past president of the New York Board of Rabbis…” (As reported by David Bird)

http://www.nytimes.com/1984/03/26/obituaries/judah-cahn-founding-rabbiof-metropolitan-synagogue.html

1913: In Memphis, TN, Josef and Tillie Klausner gave birth to Sylvia Klausner who became Sylvia Mandell when she married Carl Mandell.

1913: One of the last advertisements for “Shon the Piper” an historical drama starring Robert Z. Leonard which now considered a “lost movie” appeared today “announcing a showing at the Airdome in Durham, North Carolina.

1914(2^nd of Tevet, 5675): Eighth Day of Chanukah

1914: In Charleston, SC, Dr. Leon Banov and Minnie Banov gave birth to Leon Banov, Jr. the Medical College of South Carolina trained proctologist, husband of Rita Landesman Banov and father of Jane and Alan Banov.

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/charleston/obituary.aspx?n=leon-banov&pid=86978509&fhid=6051

1914(2^nd of Tevet, 5675): During WW I, Captain Cecil David Woodburn Bamberger, who “had attended University College School was killed while serving with the Royal Engineers.

1914: A letter received today in New York from a journalist in Jerusalem described “conditions in Palestine since the Turkish declaration of war: that “shows how serious the hardships brought upon the population are likely to be.

1915: Joseph Trumpeldor, who took command of the Zion Mule Corps after Lt. Col. Patterson became so sick he had to return to England, “was wounded in the left shoulder by a rifle bullet today but refused to ev evacuated” and chose to say with Jewish unit which by now had dwindled to five British officers, two Jewish officers and 126 enlisted men.”

1915: Today, “the Zionist Council of Greater New York “is scheduled to “celebrate it tenth anniversary at the Central Opera House” with events including a “musical concert” the issuance of “The Decennial” a souvenir period “containing articles by Louis D. Brandeis, Dr. Schmarya Levin and Dr. Stephen S. Wise.”

1915: Among those who were reported today to have made contributions to the Central Relief Committee for the Relief of Jews suffering through the war are Sioux City Religious Association, $218; Jewish National Organization of Minneapolis, $387; Jewish Committee of Knoxville, TN, $400 and the Hadassah Aid Society of Wilkes-Barre, PA Religious Committee, $180.

1916(24^th of Kislev, 5677): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah

1916: The New York Times reported, “The celebration of the Jewish festival of Chanukah, or Feast of Dedication known also as the Feast of Lights, will begin this evening and will continue for eight days.

1917: Seventy-one year old Ernst Herter the German sculptor who” was present in New York when his Heinrich Heine memorial sculpture, known as the Lorelei Fountain, was unveiled in the Bronx, New York” after “Heine's city of birth, Düsseldorf “squelched” the project” due to the anti-Semitic sentiment that pervaded the German Reich at that time passed away today.

1917: In the early morning hours, as the Imperial forces prepared for the attack on Jaffa, “the 161st (Essex) Brigade from the 54th (East Anglian) Division and the Auckland and Wellington Mounted Rifles Regiments, from the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade, moved into the front line replacing the 52nd (Lowland) Division.”

1917: The Organization for the Defense of Eastern Jewry was established today in London.

1917(4^th of Tevet, 5678): Seventy-four year old “communal worker” Michael B. Jonas passed away today in St. Louis.

1917: “Among the additional contributions to the $10,000,000 fund raised by the American Jewish Relief Committee published today were $5,000 from M.M. Travis of Tulsa, OK, $1,2500 from the Jewish Relief Committee of Spokane, WA, $1,100 from Jewish Relief Committee of Grand Forks, N.D. and $1,000 from the Jewish Relief Committee of Nashville, TN.

1918: “On the initiative of Chaim Weiszburg, a leader of the Zionist movement, Uj Kelet, a Zionist Jewish newspaper in the Hungarian language whose writers included Rudolf Kastner, was launched as a weekly today.

1918: “The Private From the Bronx” published today praised the bravery of Abraham Krotoshinsky who earned the Distinguished Service Cross for the heroism displayed while helping to rescue the “Lost Battalion” during the fighting in the Argonne Forest.

1919(27^th of Kislev, 5680): Third Day of Chanukah

1919: The Rusland docked in Jaffa, with returning Zionists trapped in Europe by WW I on board.

1919: “The Little Café” a comedy from the days of silent pictures based on the “1911 play ‘The Little Café’ by Tristan Bernard, directed by Raymond Bernard and starring Armand Bernard was released today in France.

1919: Birthdate of Sally Ann Lowengart, the native of Portland, Oregon who gained fame as civil rights activist Sally Lilienthal, found of the Ploughshares Fund.

1919: Victor Berger was elected for a second time to serve in the House of Representatives for a district in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The House had denied Berger the right to serve after having been elected in 1918 because he a convicted felon and opponent of the Great War.

1919: In New York, David Freedman an immigrant from Romania and his wife gave birth to “American novelist and mathematician” Benedict Freedman.

1919: Today, William Shemin was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross “for battle field valor during the Aisne-Marne Offensive” during WW I.

1919: Zionist office opened in Constantinople for Jews wanting to move to Palestine.

1919: The SS Ruslam reached Jaffa with 671 people aboard. The ship was loaded with doctors, artists, and academics and had been called Israel’s Mayflower. Its arrival marked the period of what is known as the "Third Aliyah," which lasted four years. Approximately 50% of the 35,000 immigrants were from Russia and 35% from Poland. The "Third Aliyah" was idealistic and marked the time when the first Kibbutzim and Moshavim were established.

1920: Rabbi Max D. Klein of Adath Jeshuron Congregation in Philadelphia will address those attending today’s celebration of the organization of Congregation Beth-El in Camden, NJ.

1920: In New York City, Benjamin and Frances Lear Susskind gave birth to David Susskind who was known primarily as movie, stage and television producer. But during the late 1950’s he hosted one of the original late-night talk shows. It was a high-brow event with no singers, no book pluggers and no comedy monologues. The set would become wreathed in a haze of cigarette smoke as the guests discussed weighty and artsy issues of the day. Susskind passed away in 1987.

http://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/23/obituaries/david-susskind-talk-show-host-dies-at-66.html?pagewanted=all

1924: Governor General Primo de Rivera of Spain offered all Sephardim the possibility of reacquiring Spanish nationality.

1925(2^ndof Tevet, 5686): Parashat Miketz; 8^th day of Chanukah

1925(2^ndof Tevet, 5686): Fifty-four year old James Henry Oxberry, the English born son of Hannah and Thomas Oxbdrry and husband of the former Annabella Goldenberg who “managed the Hong Kong Hotel and owned the Palace Hotel passed away today in China.

1925: Birthdate of Robert B. Sherman one half of the Sherman Brothers, “American songwriting duo” whose most famous contribution included “Mary Poppins” and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.”

1926: Birthdate of Mina Arison Sapir, the native of Belz Bessarabia, Romania who is the wife Yekutiel Sapir and the mother of Micky and Shari Arison. Her daughter is reported to be one of the richest women in the world.

1926:Herbert Milton "Herb" Stempel the disgruntled gameshow contestant turned whistleblower whose testimony touched off the “Quiz Show Scandal” that destroyed that genre.

http://www.emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/herbert-stempel

1927(25^thof Kislev, 5688) Chanukah

1927: Birthdate of Norman Lamm, the modern Orthodox rabbi best known for his services the Chancellor of Yeshiva University.

1927: “Showboat” a Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II musical based on Edna Ferber’s novel of the same name finished its “pre-Broadway tour.”

1928(6^thof Tevet, 5689): Rabbi Aryeh Levin Schochet passed away today in Brooklyn after which he “was buried in Old Montefiore Cemetery in Springfield Gardens, Queens.”

https://prabook.com/web/aryeh_leib.schochet/2603191

1928: Birthdate of Morris Isaac Charlap, the native of Philadelphia who gained fame as composer Mark “Moose” Charlap whose most famous effort was “Peter Pan.”

1929: In the Bronx, Samuel Harry Bell, a dentist who had changed his name from Bolotsky and the former Edith Yudell, a singer in the Metropolitan Opera Chorus gave birth to “Dr. Bertrand M. Bell, who was instrumental in reducing the grueling shifts worked by interns and residents being trained in American hospitals.” (As reported by Sam Roberts)

http://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=1

1931: “Lost Original of Maimonides’ Third Part of “guide to Perplexed” Written in Arabic Recovered and Presented” published today tells how “the lost original of Maimonides’ third part of the “Guide to the Perplexed”, written in Arabic, has been recovered and presented to the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, by Mrs. Nathan Miller, together with two other valuable manuscripts of unrecorded religious poems written in Spain in the sixteenth century.”

1932: The NBC Blue Network broadcast the fourth episode of Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel is a situation comedy radio show starring two of the Marx Brothers, Groucho and Chico.

1932: Having written “his Ph.D. thesis on the epistemology and metaphysics of the German philosopher Hermann Cohen” and having “passed his oral doctor’s examination” in 1930, Joseph B. Solveitchik “graduated with a doctorate” today from Friedrich Wilhelm University.

1933: “The Love Hotel” a comedy filmed by cinematographer Otto Heller was released today in Germany.

1934:The projected Jewish republic in Biro-Bidjan, Russia, constitutes no menace to the Zionist movement, E.Z. Goldberg, associate editor of The Day, who recently returned from the Soviet, declared today. He was interviewed at 285 Madison Avenue, the office of the American Committee for the Settlement of Jews in the U.S.S.R., of which he is a member. Mr. Goldberg said that the Soviet territory of Biro-Bidjan was an improvement over Palestine as a home for the Jews because it was three times larger than Palestine, “had no Arab problem” and benefited from support from the government. At the same time he said that Biro-Bidjan would not be a homeland for all Jews since there would no place for Orthodox Jews “who are capitalistically minded” and can go to Tel Aviv to make money.

1934: Thomas Lovejoy, Vice Chancellor of Bristol, wrote to Churchill that he would not be able to help him in his quest to find any more places for German-Jewish medical students because “there had been a heavy rush on entry to the Faculty of Medicine that year and we have had to refuse applications for entry from all foreign counties and even from some of the Dominions.” If the German-Jewish students could gain admission to the college than they could get out of Germany and gain entrance into the safe haven of Great Britain.a

1935: Birthdate of Sidney Alvin Field, the Hollywood native who gained fame as Syd Field, author of Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting

1936: “Tribulations of the Persecuted Jews” published today provides a detailed review of Some of My Best Friends Are Jews by Robert Gessner.

http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/1930s_antisemitism_pdf

1936: In Jerusalem, Yaakov Yehoshua, a member of long standing “Jerusalem family of Sephardi origin and a scholar and author specializing in the history of Jerusalem and Malka Rosilio, who immigrated from Morocco in 1932 gave birth to Abvraham B. Yehoshua known to the world as the renowned author A.B. Yehoshua.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/19/books/review/a-b-yehoshua-by-the-book.html?_r=0

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/yehoshua.html

1936: At a tea given in the Park Avenue home of Mrs. Clarence Y. Palitz “by members of the Women’s American ORT” Lord Marley, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords, who was introduced by Mrs. Emily M. Rosenstein,said “the economic plight of Jews in Poland is growing progressively worse as the immigration of German Jews seeking escape from the Hitler regime continues”

1937: The Palestine Post reported that out of the three Arab constables ambushed by an Arab terrorist gang, two were "tried" and killed on the spot, while the third was released after he promised to report on the "trial" and undertook to leave the police force within the next three days. All three constables were robbed of all their belongings. A punitive fine of £500 was imposed on the Jureina quarter of Haifa, where Sheikh Khatib was murdered. Jewish and German Protestant residents were exempted.

1938: Tonight, in an address at “a banquet of the Cleveland Zionist Society” Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes “admonished wealth Jews to exercise extreme caution in the acquisition of their wealth and great scrupulousness in their social behavior” while also saying that “he felt that any American” like Henry Ford and Charles A. Lindbergh ‘who accepted a decoration from a dictator automatically foreswears his American birthright.”

1938: In France, Darius Paul Dassault (Darius Paul Bloch) was promoted from the rank of Corps General (général de corps d’armée) to the rank of Corps General (général de corps d’armée)

1939(7th of Tevet, 5700): Fifty-one American runner Alvah Meyer who “1914 he set a world record at 60 yards, and in 1915 he set a world record at 330 yards” and was “a Jewish member of the Irish American Athletic Club” passed away today.

1939: “Remember?” a comedy produced by Milton Bren and edited by Harold F. Kress was released today in the United States.

1939: The Nazi government officially gave Heydrich the responsibility for centralizing the implementation of his deportation plans. This was one of the basic steps in creating the organization that would lead to the slaughter of European Jewry. German efficiency and detailed planning was one of the hallmarks of the Final Solution.

1939: Three months after the German invasion of Poland, Chaim Weizmann meets with Winston Churchill who is now a member of the British Cabinet. Weizmann thanks Churchill for his consistent support of the Zionist cause. Churchill reiterates his support by agreeing that after the war he will support the Zionist “wish to have a State of some three or four million Jews in Palestine.”

1940:Zygmund William “Bill” Birnbaum married Hilde Merzbach. The two had met in Seattle while both of them were involved in assisting Jewish refugees arriving from Europe.

1940: Birthdate of Phil Ochs, singer, songwriter and social activist.

1941: Adolf Hitler becomes Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the German Army. It is realties like this that put the lie to those who apologist who tried to separate the Whermacht from the Nazi death machine.

1942: After three weeks trapped in a synagogue by hostile Ukrainian troops, 42 Jewish men are marched to the Rakow Forest and ordered to dig ditches. They resist and are then shot. A few manage to escape. Later in the day, 560 more Jews are led from the synagogue to the forest and murdered.

1942: In Norway, new tenants moved into the home of the Isak Plesansky family who had already been shipped to Auschwitz. Within three weeks the clothing of the Plesanksy family would be in the hands of the superintendent of the Berg Concentration Camp. Needless to say, the heirs of the Plesansky family were never compensated for the loss after the war.

1943(22^nd of Kislev, 5704): Seventy-one year old Russian born actor Sol Horowitz and husband of Jennie Grovitz whose movie roles are overshadowed by the fact that the he was the father of Moe, Curly and Shemp Howard, The Three Stooges, passed away today in Losing Angles.

1944: During the Battle of the Bulge Sgt. Roddie Edmonds whose unit had been outgunned and surrounded by the Nazis surrendered but showed how courageous he was a month later when he defied his captors by refusing to give up his Jewish comrades telling the commandant “We are all Jews.”

http://www.timesofisrael.com/posthumous-honor-for-us-officer-who-saved-200-jewish-gis-from-the-nazis-and-never-told-a-soul/

1944(3^rd of Tevet, 5705): Eighty three year old Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp passed away today.

http://home.earthlink.net/~knuthco1/recent/LadySadie.htm

http://books.usatoday.com/book/swing-into-%E2%80%98ok-corral-for-the-story-of-mrs-wyatt-earp/r850848

1944: In New York City, Bernice (née Herstein) and Seymour Durst gave birth to real estate developer Douglas Durst, the President of the Durst Organization.

1944: Birthdate of Philadelphian Mitchell Feigenbaum, a mathematical physicist whose pioneering studies in chaos theory led to the discovery of the Feigenbaum constant. (Makes you wonder how many more Jewish boys named Mitchell were born in Philadelphia in December, 1944.)

1945: The U.S. House of Representatives adopted a resolution on Palestine which had been approved by the U.S. Senate.

1945: In New York, Daniel Wildenstein and his wife, who had been forced to flee France after the Nazi occupation gave birth to “art deal and racehorse” aficionado Guy Wildenstein

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/12/arts/design/guy-wildenstein-is-cleared-of-money-laundering-charges.html

1945: U.S. premiere of “Leave Her to Heaven” directed by John M. Stahl, with a screenplay by Jo Swerling and music by Alfred Newman.

1946: “The Return of Monte Cristo” the third in a series of films about the swashbuckler directed by Henry Levin was released in the United States today.

1946:Johan J. Smertenko, vice president of American League for a Free Palestine, is barred from England where he had planned to start British branch of organization. He says terrorism is justified.

1946:William B. Ziff declares that negotiation by Jewish Agency would be opposed by Palestinian underground groups. Revisionists say that Ziff had been expelled for breaches of party discipline.

1947: In an attempt to deal with the looming threat to its water supply, Jerusalem householders respond to a request by communal leaders to open and clean their cisterns “in preparation for water storage.”

1947: In New York City, premiere of “The Bishop’s Wife” a romantic comedy directed by Henry Koster, produced by Samuel Goldwyn, with a script co-authored by Bill Wilder.

1948: Birthdate of Aden native Margalit "Margol" Tzan'ani, the Israeli singer and wife of Mordi Lavi with whom she had one son, Asaf who began her musical career as a 19 year old in the Israeli production “Hair.”

1948: During “Operation Velvetta” 12 more Spitfires were flown to Israel as part of the effort to create a modern air force in the heat of battle.

1949(28^th of Chanukah, 5710): Fourth Day of Chanukah

1949: The United States High Commissioner’s office announced that “five high ranking Nazi officials” including George von Schnitzer, a director of I.G. Farben, “are among the sixty German war criminals who will be freed on parole this week.”

1950: As the Allies tried to integrate Germany back into the family nations and deal with the realities of the Cold War Foreign Ministers France, the UK and US declared at the end of their lengthy meetings today “that among other measures to strengthen West Germany's position in the Cold War that the western allies would ‘end by legislation the state of war with Germany.’”

1951: Birthdate of Nikolay Mikhailovich Volkov, the Russian civil engineer who “is the former governor of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast.”

1952: David Ben-Gurion’s government resigned due to a dispute with the religious parties over religious education.

1952: In the UK and USA, release date for “Hans Christian Andersen” produced by Samuel Goldwyn, directed by Charles Vidor, with a screenplay by Moss Hart and Ben Hecht and starring Danny Kaye. (So many Jews to immortalize a Dane – only in America)

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the resolution of the UN General Assembly's Political Committee urging direct Arab-Israeli peace negotiations was hindered by a sudden Philippine and Catholic Bloc countries' amendment demanding the implementation of all old UN resolutions, including the internationalization of Jerusalem. Israel complained to the US and Britain that they continue to arm the Arab states, despite their promise that there should be no arms race in the region.

1953:: Two Unit 101 Squads led by Meir Harzion completed a night time attack during which they ambushed a car carrying Mansour Awad, “a Lebanese born doctor serving in the Arab Legion” who died during the attack.

1957: Aharon Remez, the second commander of the Israeli Air Force, resigned his seat in the Knesset. He had been elected in 1955 as a member of Mapai and was followed in office by Amos Degani.

1957: “The Pride and The Passion” a big screen epic sent during the Napoleonic wars in Spain directed and produced by Stanley Kramer, co-starring Theodore Bikel as “General Jouvet” and with an opening title sequence designed by Saul Bass was released today in Sweden.

1961: U.S. premiere of “Judgment at Nuremberg” directed and produced by Stanley Kramer, with a script by Abby Mann and music by Ernest Gold, the native of Austria who moved to the U.S. after the Anschluss because his paternal grandfather was Jewish.

1961: Six days after its London premier, “The Young Ones” with music by Stanley Black and choreographed by Harold Ross was released across the United Kingdom.

1963: “Nobody Loves an Albatross” produced by Philip Rose, directed by Gene Saks and featuring Marian Winters as “Marge Weber” opened at the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway.

1964: Twenty-one year old “film director, screenwriter and cinematographer” Peter Hyams, the grandson of impresario Sol Hurok and the stepson of “blacklisted conductor Arthur Lief” married George-Ann Spota whose children included director John Hyams.

1965(25^th of Kislev, 5726): Chanukah

1965: Two days after he had passed away, funeral services were held at the Riverside Chapel for 73 year old “Acting Postmaster of the Bronx, Louis Cohen, the husband of Belle Lazarus with whom he had had two sons – Robert and Joseph.

1966: One day after he had passed away, funeral services were scheduled to be held Albert Salomon, the refugee from Nazi Germany who became a Professor of Sociology at the New School for Social Research.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/12/19/90243199.pdf

https://archive.org/details/albertsalomon

1967: Gertrude D.T. Schimmel was “promoted to Lieutenant” and “was assigned as Commanding Officer of the ‘Know Your Police Department’ program which was an information and community relations program for children.

1968(28^th of Kislev, 5729): Fourth Day of Chanukah

1968: American Socialist Party leader and social critic Norman Thomas passed away. While he may have been a visionary liberal on many issues including the need to end racial segregation, his record regarding the Jews is more of a mixed bag. During the 1930’s, Thomas actively opposed the United States entering World War II, a view that he changed after Pearl Harbor. Thomas campaigned…in favor of opening the United States to Jewish victims of Nazi persecution in the 1930s. Thomas was also very critical of Zionism and of Israel's policies towards the Arabs in the postwar years (especially after the Suez Crisis) and often collaborated with the American Council for Judaism.
1968: MK Avraham Hirschson and his wife gave birth to their first son, Ofer.
1968: In Italy, premiere of “A Place for Lovers” produced by Arthur Cohn with music by Lee Konitz.
1969: After having first been released in France, “A Place for Lovers” produced by Arthur Cohn with music by Lee Konitz was released in Italy today by MGM.
1969(10^thof Tevet, 5730): Asara B’Tevet
1969(10^thof Tevet, 5730): Fifty-seven year old actress Sara Berner whose birth name was Lillian Herdan passed away today.
http://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2012/05/fall-of-sara-berner.html
1969: During the War of Attrition, Israeli aircraft bombed “a group of Egyptian military bases about 30 kilometers from the Suez Canal.

1969: Two pharmacists were killed in a bloody robbery. In 1974, Pierre Goldman, the illegitimate son of Jewish WW II Resistance Leader Alter Mojze Goldman, was given a life-sentence by the Paris cour d'assises, after being convicted of this crime. He denied having committed this robbery, although he admitted to three earlier robberies. He was finally acquitted of the murders that took place during the robbery, but condemned to twelve years in prison for the other three robberies

1971(1st of Tevet, 5732): Rosh Chodesh Tevet

1971(1st of Tevet, 5732): James G. Heller an American composer and rabbi passed away in Cincinnati, Ohio. “James Gutheim Heller was born in New Orleans on January 4, 1892, to the famous Reform rabbi Maximilian H. Heller. He received an undergraduate degree from Tulane University, a graduate degree from the University Of Cincinnati College Conservatory Of Music, and was ordained a rabbi at Hebrew Union College. Heller was rabbi of Congregation Bene Yeshurun (Isaac M. Wise Temple) in Cincinnati from 1920-1952, and was involved with several organizations including the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Labor Zionist Organization of America, and the State of Israel Bonds Organization. He was an active Zionist, and introduced Youth Temple, which was designed to bring young individuals together for religious education. Heller was also a composer and musician who wrote program notes for the Cincinnati Symphony.”

1971: Stanley Kubrick's X-rated "A Clockwork Orange" premiered in New York City.

1972: “Across 110th Street” a crime film co-starring Yaphet Kotto was released in the United States today.

1973(24^thof Kislev, 5734): In the evening Kindle the first Chanukah light.

1973(24^thof Kislev, 5734): Seventy-one year old Russian born, Cincinnati, OH raised Philip “Cincy” Sachs, the basketball coach for Lawrence Institute of Technology, the Detroit Gems and the Detroit Falcons passed away today.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/coaches/sachsph99c.html

1973: “The Day of the Dolphin” a sci-fi thriller directed by Mike Nichols and produced by Joseph E. Levine was released in the United States today.

1975: Berlin born, American art dealer Frank Richard Perls who moved to the United States in 1937 underwent open-heart surgery today.

1977: The Jerusalem Post published details of Menachem Begin's peace plan which outlined a mutual Arab-Jewish right of settlement in Judea and Samaria and a united Jerusalem. Palestinian Arabs were to enjoy "self-rule," their own administration and freedom to vote in Jordan. Israel was to retain full responsibility for internal and external security of the West Bank and Gaza, and recognized Egyptian sovereignty over all of Sinai. Israel was willing to consider, but not to initiate, a military defense pact with the US.

1978(19^thof Kislev, 5739): Eighty-nine year old movie actree Ethel “Queenie” Rosson Daly, the daughter of Arthur and Helene Rosson and wife of Joseph James Daly, who came from a family that was deeply involved in the film industry including award winning cinematographer Harold Rosson.

1979: “Being There” the film version of the novel of the same name by Holocaust survivor Jerzy Kosiński starring Peter Sellers, featuring Melvyn Douglas and Elya Baskin and with music by Johnny Mandel was released in the United States today.

1979: Newly minted Warrant Officer “Amy Sheridan earned her wings as an aviator for the US Army, making her the first American Jewish woman to gain aviator status in any branch of the Armed Services” (As reported by Jewish Woman’s Archives)

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL344F821CCF7DE964

1979: Results of a comparison test of White Pekin Ducks published today it was reported that the Kosher Empire Duckling (frozen) had an “extremely mushy exterior, with skin broken in several areas. It was poorly cleared with many pin feathers remaining. The meat was very mush and flavorless. At $2.25 a pound it was by far the most expensive of the ducks in the test group. [Editor’s Note – as a consumer of Empire poultry, I can honestly say that this comes as a complete surprise. In my experience, their products have always been first rate.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40811F93F5410728DDDA00994DA415B898BF1D3

1980: In San Francisco, caterer Cindi (née Sussman) Sokoloff and podiatrist Howard Sokoloff gave birth to actress Marla Sokoloff.

1980: A month after premiering in New York City, “Raging Bull” produced by Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff was released throughout the United States today.

1980: “Seems Like Old Times” a Neil Simon comedy starring Goldie Hawn and Charles Grodin and with music by Marvin Hamlisch was released in the United States today/

1981:Odessa refuseniks Yakov Mesh and Valery Pevzner, whose homes were recently searched by militia and books on Israel, Jewish culture and history as well as Hebrew textbooks were confiscated, were summoned to the local offices of the KGB, and told they will be put on trial.

1981: The Goldstein brothers, both of whom were refuseniks were kept from going go Moscow and were forcibly returned to Tbilisi.

1981(23^rdof Kislev, 5742): MK Shabtai Daniel, born Shabtai Don-Yichye in 1909, passed away today.

1982: At Congregation Schomre Israel in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Rabbi Morris Bekritsky officiated at the marriage of Grett Evonne Singer and David Rapport Lachterman.

1982: Edward Rothstein reviewed the Carnegie debut of Israeli cellist Ofra Harnoy and the 92^nd Street Y debut of pianist Sofia Cosma.

1983: “Rueben, Reuben,” with a screenplay by Julius J. Epstein was released today in the United States.

1984(25^thof Kislev, 5745): First Day of Chanukah

1984: “The River” directed by Mark Rydell was released in the United States today.

1985: After opening in Australia in May, “Goodbye, New York” a comedy produced, directed, written by and starring Amos Kollek, the son of Teddy Kollek, was released today in the United States.

1986: U.S. premiere of “Little Shop of Horrors” directed by Frank Oz, produced by David Geffen, with a script by Howard Ashman and co-starring Rick Moranis and Ellen Green.

1987: As Congress tries to finish its business before adjourning for the holidays, the House holds a rare Saturday session which has made many members re-consider their travel plans including House Speaker Jim Wright of Texas who wonders if he will be able to make his scheduled Sunday evening flight for Tel Aviv.

1989: In Moscow, the Congress of Jewish Organizations and Communities in the U.S.S.R. continued for a second day.

1990: Israeli soldiers shot and wounded 18 Palestinians today during a strike to protest Israeli plans to expel four Arabs, residents said.

1991: Professor Avishair Margalist of the Hebrew University publishes a plan in the New York Review of Books suggesting a form of joint sovereignty whereby Jerusalem would be the capital of both Israel and a future Palestinian State.

1991:”Wagner, Israel -- and Herzl” published today

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/19/opinion/editorial-notebook-wagner-israel-and-herzl.html

1991: Premier of “The Ghost of Versailles,” conducted by James Levine.

1992(24^thof Kislev, 5753): Kindle the first candle of Chanukah in the evening.

1992(24^thof Kislev, 5753): A Hamas terrorist kidnapped and murdered a policeman in Jerusalem.

1992(24^thof Kislev, 5753): Eighty-five year old legal philosopher and Oxford professor H.L.A. Hart passed away

https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/84p295.pdf

http://www2.law.ox.ac.uk/jurisprudence/hart.htm

1993: At the James Doolittle Theatre, the curtain came down on a revival production of “Conversation with My Father” by Herb Gardner featuring Judd Hirsch as “Eddie” which was 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”

1995:Roval Elimelech who lives in Kfar Saba, a suburban town north of Tel Aviv, found out that a new border had sprung up overnight not far from her doorstep. About a mile away, Palestinian policemen had moved into Qalqilya, a town on the West Bank's border with Israel, taking it over from Israeli soldiers who had withdrawn in keeping with an agreement signed in September on expanding Palestinian self-rule. 1996(9th of Tevet, 5757:Sefton D. Temkin, an author and scholar of American Jewish history, passed away in his native Liverpool, England. He was 79 and a resident of Albany. Dr. Temkin, who was associate professor emeritus of Judaic studies at the university, was chairman of the department of Judaic studies in the 1970's and had continued his research at Albany since retiring a few years ago. Dr. Temkin was an expert on the life and work of Isaac Mayer Wise, who founded Reform Judaism in the United States in the nineteenth century and oversaw its spread across the country as the founder and longtime leader of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the Central Conference of American Rabbis.

1997(20th of Kislev, 5758): Physicist David Norman Schramm passed away at the age of 52. He had a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother.

1997: Release date for “Titanic” co-produced by Jon Landau

1997: Janet Rosenberg Jagan completed her term as Prime Minister of Guyana.

1997: Janet Rosenberg Jagan began serving as President of Guyana.

1998(30^th of Kislev, 5759): Parshat Miketz; Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah

1998: The debate over impeachment of President Clinton, which was tied to his relationship with Monica Lewinsky dominated the news coverage.

1999(10^th of Tevet, 5760): Last fast of the 20^thcentury

1999(10^th of Tevet, 5760): Seventy-three year old British physicist whose honors included the Faraday Medal and the Guthrie Medal passed away today.

http://www.sissa.it/ap/activity/sciama.php

1999: The New York Times book section includes a review of Mailer: A Biographyby Mary V. Dearborn which tells “How a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn grew up to be you-know-who.”

1999: “Outside Party Lines” published today provides a complete review of Carlo Rosselli: Socialist Heretic and Antifascist Exile by Stanislao G. Pugliese

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/99/12/19/reviews/991219.19stillet.html

2000: In “Theories on a Theory” published today, Peter Hirschman wrote from Haifa that “the overview of the development and practical outcome of the quantum proves beyond doubt that Max Planck jump-started the 20th century” and that “he deserves the status of a progenitor no less than Einstein and company since it was he who broke the mold of conventional thought that was holding everything back.”

2001: Despite the fact that the Israeli government had said last week that Yassir Arafat was “irrelevant” a week ago, today “senior Israeli and Palestinian military officers met to discuss possible new security arrangements” in the wake of “suicide bombings and other anti-Israeli attacks>

2002: A revival of “Dinner at Eight,” a play by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber opened at the Lincoln Center Theatre.

2003(24^th of Kislev, 5764): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah

2004: The New York Times features a review of the paperback edition of American Music by Annie Leibovitz

2004(7th of Tevet, 5765): Herbert Brown passed away. He discovered organoboranes and received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1979. Brown was born Herbert Brovarnik in London to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. He moved to the United States at a young age and was educated at the University of Chicago, earning a B.S. and Ph.D. in 1936 and 1938, respectively. He became professor at Purdue University in 1947, a position he had held emeritus until his death.

2005: Having pulled out of Gaza, the Israeli government announced further measures to improve relations with the Palestinians. The IDF announced that Israel will ease access to Bethlehem during the upcoming Christmas celebrations in a "calculated risk" intended to let Christian pilgrims worship the holiday freely in the West Bank town. IDF Lt. Col. Aviv Feigel said pilgrims will not need permission from the army to enter the town, the traditional birthplace of Jesus. The military will try to speed the process by not checking every tourist bus, but conducting spot checks of random buses instead, he said. The Israelis are doing this despite the fact that half of the Israeli terror fatalities in 2004 came from attackers who entered Jerusalem from Bethlehem.

2006(28th of Kislev, 5767): The joy of Chanukah was marred as three yeshiva students belonging to the Lubavitch Hasidic sect were killed in a car accident on their way to light Hanukkah candles and distribute doughnuts for the holiday at Israel Defense Forces bases in the south of the country. Five other Lubavitchers traveling in the same vehicle were injured in the accident.

2007: Yonatan Dagan performs in his capacity as lead DJ of the J.Viewz proejcted, a ensenbmle that defies any clear musical classification at Jerusalem’s Yellow Submarine a venue for some of the most eclectic and innovative music styles available.

2007(10^thof Tevet, 5768): Fast of the Tenth of Tevet

2007(10^thof Tevet, 5768): Yarhtzeit of Judy Rosenstein (nee Levin)

2008:Temple Beth Rishon, in North West Bergen County, NJ, presents the Marvin Gastman Memorial Concert featuring "The Chanukah Story" sung by The Western Wind as part of its pre-Chanukah festivities.
2008: “Max Manus” a biopic about this little known Norwegian born who risked all in a clandestine war against the Nazis was released today in Norway.
2008: Allen Weinstein resigned as Archivist of the United States – a position he had held since 2005.
2008:Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the defense minister met at IDF headquarters in central Tel Aviv to approve Operation Cast Lead
2008: Haaretz reported that a rare half shekel coin, first minted in 66 or 67 C.E., was discovered by 14 year-old Omri Ya'ari as volunteers sifted through mounds of dirt from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The coin is the first one found to originate from the Temple Mount.For the fourth year, archaeologists and volunteers have been sifting through dirt dug by the Waqf, the Muslim authority in charge of the Temple Mount compound, in an unauthorized project in 1999. The dig caused extensive and irreversible archaeological damage to the ancient layers of the mountain.
2008: After serving since 2005, Allen Weinstein resigned today as Archivist of the United States after which he resumed his duties as a history professor at the University of Maryland in College Park.
2008(22^ndof Kislev, 5769): Seventy-eight year old Carol Chomsky the noted linguist who was the wife of Noam Chomsky passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/us/21chomsky-carol.html?_r=0
2009: Final performance of at Theater 3 of “Biography,” a play written by S.N. Behrman aka Samuel Nathaniel Behrman a native of Worcester, Massachusetts, who was the third child of Joseph and Zelda Behrman, Jewish immigrants living on Worcester's East Side.
2009: (2 Tevet, 5770): Eighth Day of Chanukah
2009: Final night of the 5^thAnnual Sephardic Music Festival in New York.
2010:Shaloah Sunsets, a fund raiser for the Jewish Congregaton of Maui is scheduled to host a fund-raising event – Shaloah Sunsets- at the Four Seasons Resorts Waliea.
2010: The 92^nd St Y is scheduled to present “Jews and Money: The Story of a Stereotype” featuring Abe Foxman and Allan Chernoff.
2010: The New York Timesfeatures reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently released paperback editions of Digital Barabarism: A Writer’s Manifesto by Mark Helprin and Arthur Miller: 1915-1962 by Christopher Bigsby.
2010: The body of Kristine Luken, a US citizen living in England who was visiting Israel, was found south of Mata, approximately 400 meters from the road between was discovered around 6:30 a.m. today. She was one of two women who were stabbed while were hiking in the wooded hills west of Jerusalem on Saturday.
2010: A crowd of approximately 200 people demonstrated outside the Silver Spring apartment of 34 year old Aharon Friedman demanding that he give his wife Tamar Epstein a “get.” The two have already received a civil divorce. Friedman’s refusal to grant the “get” is reportedly tied to his dissatisfaction with the visitation rights granted by the courts.
2011:The third annual Latke Festival is scheduled to take place this evening, with attendees sampling the potato-pancake offerings of local restaurants like Kutsher’s Tribeca and Veselka and judges choosing the winning recipe.
2011: “Jewish Soldiers in Blue and Gray” is scheduled to be shown at the JCC of Dutchess County/Upstate Film Festival in Rhinebeck, NY.
2011: Israel has offered to export natural gas to India, according to a report in today’s edition of the Indian daily Economic Times.
2012: The Museum of Jewish Heritage is scheduled to present an evening with Rabbi Joshua Eli Plaut, author of A Kosher Christmas: ‘Tis the Season to Be Jewish
2012: “No Man’s Land” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2012: The US prevented a UN Security Council condemnation of Israel today over a spate of settlement construction decisions, leading the other 14 countries on the 15-member council to issue separate condemnations of their own instead.
2012: Comedic actor Alan Alda is scheduled to discuss math and science with Steven Strogatz, author of The Joy of X: A Guided Tour of Math from One to Infinity at the 92^ndStreet Y.
2012:Those who “sleep with rockets and amass large stockpiles of weapons” in southern Lebanon are “in a very unsafe place,” OC Air Force Maj.-Gen. Amir Eshel said today.
2012(6^th of Tevet, 5773): Leading figures from across the political spectrum closed ranks today in paying tribute to Israel’s 15th chief of staff, Lt.-Gen. (res.) Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, who died at age 68 at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem after a prolonged battle with leukemia.
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=296559 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/world/middleeast/amnon-lipkin-shahak-israeli-peace-negotiator-dies-at-68.html?hpw&_r=0
2013: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is scheduled to meet with President Shimon Peres before going to the Yad Vashem where he will lay a wreath after which he will attend a luncheon hosted by Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman (As reported by Raphael Ahren)
2013:In the central region, KKL-JNF foresters are scheduled to distribute Christmas trees in the
Cypress grove adjacent to the KKL-JNF offices in Givat Yishayahu
2013:The Tel Aviv District Court sentenced former Bank Hapoalim chairman Dan Dankner to one year in prison, after having convicted him of fraud, breach of trust, violation of proper management of Bank Hapoalim and illegal receipt of funds and loans, as part of a plea bargain agreement
2013: Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man who opened fire on them during operations in the West Bank city of Qalqilya early this morning, the second such incident in several hours.(As reported by Lazar Berman)
2013:“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the world to deny Iran the ability to produce nuclear weapons today, while meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang.”
2013; “The Draughtsman's Contract” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Festival.
2013: At the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, the curtain came down revival of Harold Pinters “Betrayal” co-starring Rachel Weisz whose parents had been forced to flee Austria after the Nazis came to power.
2013(16^thof Tevet 5774): Seventy-seven year old publisher Al Goldstein passed away today. (As reported by Andy Newman)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/20/nyregion/al-goldstein-pioneering-pornographer-dies-at-77.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&_r=0
2014: In New Orleans Touro Synagogue is scheduled to sponsor its annual College Students Homecoming Lunch.
2014:”It was announced that Gina Gershon would guest star in Glee's sixth and final season as Pam, the mother of Blaine Anderson.”
2014: “The Big Trip” and “Samson and Delilah” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2014: In Little Rock, AR, Chabad Lubavitch led by Rabbi Pinchas Ciment is scheduled to host a Menorah Lighting ceremony complete with Latkes, Doughnuts and that warm holiday feeling that the Ciments have been bringing to the land of the Razorbacks for more than 2 decades.
2014: For the third time since the end of Operation Protective Edge “Palestinians in Gaza fired a Kassam rocket at an Israeli community in the Eshkol region near the Gaza Strip this morning.”
2014: “The Israel Air Force tonight struck Hamas targets in the southern Gaza Strip for the first time since the summer’s war.”
2014: Two weeks after having signed a two-year, non-guaranteed contract with the New Orleans Pelicans Gal Mekel was waived by the Pelicans today after appearing in just four games.
2015(7^thof Tevet, 5776): Parashat Vayiggash
2015(7^thof Tevet, 5776): Eighty-seven year old “Lord Greville Janner of Braunstone, the British Labour Member of Parliament and peer in the House of Lords” passed away today.
http://forward.com/opinion/327769/how-do-we-memorialize-lord-janner-jewish-leader-accused-of-child-abuse/?utm_content=daily_Newsletter_MainList_Title_Position-1&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20newsletter%20-%20normal%20%5BA%5D%202015-12-23&utm_term=The%20Forward%20Today%20Monday-Friday
2015: Comedian Jerry Seinfeld is scheduled to perform in Tel Aviv’s Menora Mitvachim marking his first professional appearance in Israel.
2016: Israeli violinist Itamar Zorman and Israeli pianist Roman Rabinvoich are scheduled to perform with the Jupiter Chamber players at the Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church.
2016: Today’s issue of TIME has a cover picture of Person of the Year taken by Israeli photographer Nadav Kander.
http://time.com/magazine/us/4594940/december-19th-2016-vol-188-no-25-26-u-s/
2016: Today “on the Facebook invitation for a Hanukkah event at the University of Warsaw, Konrad Smuniewski inveighed against “Jew communists” and called Judaism a “criminal ideology” of “racism, xenophobia and hatred.”
2016(19^thof Kislev): The "New Year" of Chassidism
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/335659/jewish/19-Kislev-The-New-Year-of-Chassidism.htm
http://www.jewishcontent.org/cgi-bin/calendar?holiday=chanuka34
http://www.arjewishcenter.com/library/article_cdo/aid/335659/jewish/19-Kislev-The-New-Year-of-Chassidism.htm
2016: “The unemployment rate among Americans with college degrees was just 2.3 percent in November, a number that suggests employers are now competing for well-educated workers. Janet L. Yellen, the Federal Reserve chairwoman, went to the University of Baltimore today to congratulate graduates on joining that fortunate group.”
2017(1^stof Tevet, 5778): Seventh Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet
2017(1^stof Tevet, 5778): Eighty-seven year old Clifford Irving who was best known for his creation of a pony auto-biography of Howard Hughes passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/20/obituaries/clifford-irving-author-of-a-notorious-literary-hoax-dies-at-87.html
2017: The Maccabeats are scheduled to appear at a concert sponsored by Chabad of Larchmont and Mamaroneck at the Hampshire Country Club.
2017: The Washington Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host a screening of “Bang: The Bert Berns Story.”
2018: A Jewish marriage contract, or ketubah, from 1884 made for a couple married in Kingston, Jamaica is scheduled to be auctioned as part of a sale of “Important Judaica” conducted by Sotheby’s which expects the item to sell for $8,000 to $12,000.
2018: In one of those oddments of New York urban life, former major league all-star major league centerfield Lenny Dykstra, a Christian who has no intention of converting, is scheduled to attend the Torah study group conducted by Chabad Rabbi Shmuel Metzger “in the basement of the Ambassador Wines shop.”
2018: In Cedar Rapids, IA, the Hadassah Book Club is scheduled to The Marriage of Opposites, the best-selling novel by Alice Hoffman. 2019
2018: Today, “the first synagogue built in Washington, DC” is scheduled to “roll down 3^rd Street to it new and permanent home at 3^rd and F Streets, NW.”
2018: The American Jewish Historical Society and YIVO are scheduled to present “Queer Expectations: A Genealogy of Jewish Women’s History.”
https://programs.cjh.org/event/queer-expectations-2018-12-19?bblinkid=130969193&bbemailid=11021746&bbejrid=858998793
2019: The New York Klezmer Series is schedule to present “A 10^thAnniversary Celebration of Brazil’s Kleztival, a Yiddish Cultural Festival in Sao Paolo, Brazil.”
2019: In San Francisco, the Contemporary Jewish Museum is scheduled to host “Experiments in Sonic Potential” with jazz musicians Lisa Mezzacappa and Kara Davis performing in conjunction with the Annabeth Rosen exhibit.
2019: In Davie, FL, the David Posnack Jewish Community Center is scheduled to host “Hate and Its Impact: Sowing the Seeds of Global Antisemitism.”
2019: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to a live concert with “David Broza and Friends.”
2019: It was reported today that “The heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, will visit Israel in January to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.
2019: It was reported today that “Israeli officials are preparing” for an outbreak of violence if Qatar goes through with its threat “to cut funds to Qatar.” (As reported by Alex Fishman)

1924(15thof Kislev, 5685):In Berlin, fifty-seven year old Alexander Israel Helphand, the man who negotiated with the German’s during World War I to gain Lenin’s return to Russia from Switzerland which brought about the Communist Revolution and took Russia out of World War I passed away.

1925(25thof Kislev, 5686): Parashat Vayeshev; First Day of Chanukah