December 20
69: General Vespasianus occupied Rome on the same day that the Emperor Vitellius was murdered. Vespasianus is better known as Vespasian, the Roman general who was in charge of putting down the Great Revolt in Judea. He broke off his military action to come back to Rome and seize power. His son Titus would destroy the Temple in 70. Before leaving for Rome, Vespasian gave permission for the establishment of what would become the community of scholars at Yavneh.
629: The reign of King Chintilla who had effectively banned Jews from living in his realm when he decreed that only Catholics could living in Spain came to an end today.
1192: Richard the Lionhearted captured in Vienna. Richard was returning home after the Third Crusade when he was taken prisoner by Leopold, duke of Austria. Leopold then sold him to the Henry VI, the Holy Roman Emperor. Henry offered to return Richard to his homeland if his brother Prince John paid the ransom. The Jews of England paid 5,000 marks towards the ransom. This was three times the rate paid by the Christian citizens of the realm.
1497: Isaac Abravanel completed the “Yeshu'ot Meshiḥo" (The Salvation of His Anointed).
1522: Suleiman the Magnificent accepts the surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate the Isle of Rhodes. Based on references in the Book of the Maccabees, Jews had lived on Rhodes since the second century BCE. However, in 1500, The Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes “expelled all the Jews who did not choose to convert to Christianity” making the Island “Jew Free” for a couple of decades. Suleiman the Magnificent conquered the island “he invited Jews from various parts of his empire to come to Rhodes and start a new community. The Jews that came were Sephardim, the ones who had found refuge in the Ottoman Empire following the expulsion from Spain in 1492. These Jews brought with them their culture, their customs and traditions, one of the cultural aspects was linguistic, the language they spoke was Espanyol, as they called it, also known as a "Ladino" and "Judeo-Spanish" The Jewish Quarter of the city was affectionately known as "La Juderia". Suleiman is also the Sultan who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem and was the patron of Dona Gracia and Joseph Nassi.
1629: Edward Pococke, the Hebrew scholar who wrote Porta Mosis, extracts from the Arabic commentary of Maimonides on the Mishnah, was ordained as a priest in the Church of England today.
1673: Sir Thomas Raymond and his wife gave birth to Robert Raymond, who while serving as Attorney General “was asked to decide whether a Jew born in England but of foreign parentage could purchase and enjoy an estate in fee” ruled that such a Jew “was fully capable of purchasing and enjoying the land and that the law had put no disability upon him account of his religion”
1704: Johann Andreas Eisenmenger “the most dangerous libeler of the Talmud who wrote a two-volume, two thousand page book on the “wickedness of the Talmud” entitled Endecktes Judenthum” passed away today.
1718( 27th of Kislev, 5479): Rabbi Naphtali Cohen, the son of Rabbi Isaac Cohen and the great-great-great grandson of Rabbi Judah Loew Ben Bezalel died in Constantinople today as he was trying to make his to “the Holy Land.
1764 (26th of Kislev, 5525): Second Day of Chanukah
1767(29th of Kislev, 5528): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1772(24th of Kislev, 5533): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah candle
1780(22nd of Kislev, 5541): Naphtali Cohen the Ukrainian born rabbi who was the son of Isaac Cohen great-great-grandson of the Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, died in Constantinople today as he made his way to the Holy Land
1775(27th of Kislev, 5536): Third Day of Chanukah
1778(1st of Tevet, 5539): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah
1783(25th of Kislev, 5544): As Jews in America observe Chanukah, the holiday that celebrates the defeat of a tyrant takes on a special meaning since this is the time the holiday is celebrated after the close of the American Revolution.
1786: In Charleston, SC, Rebecca De Pass, the daughter of Doctor Raphael De Pass who was originally from Jamaica married Joseph Da Costa.
1788: In Philadelphia, Miriam Simon and Michael Gratz gave birth to Jacob Grata, the father of Robert Henry Gratz.
1791(24th of Kislev, 5551): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah
1791(24th of Kislev, 5551): Rabbi David Tevele Schiff was buried today in the Alderney Road (Globe Rd) Jewish Cemetery.
1794: New York native Moses Myers and Eliza Judah gave birth to Moses Myers.
1796:The first printing of the "Book of the Intermediates" - Tanya - was completed today in Slavita, including Part I - Sefer Shel Benonim, - Part II - Chinuch Katan - and Shaar Hayichud Veha'emunah.
1803: The Louisiana Purchase is completed at a ceremony in New Orleans as huge swath of land stretching from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains became part of the United States. Jewish settlement in the region had been hampered by the anti-Semitic codes and practices of the European powers – Spain and France – that had owned the land. Now that it was the hands of the United States, the territory Jews could settle and thrive in a land that would come to include cities like New Orleans, St. Louis, and Denver each with their own thriving Jewish communities.
1808(1st of Tevet, 5569): Seventh Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1808(1st of Tevet, 5569): “Elchanon ben Solomon” was buried today at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”
1816(1st of Tevet, 5577): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1816(1st of Tevet, 5577): Simon Bondi who wrote, together with his brother Mordecai, the "Or Ester" (Light of Esther), a Hebrew dictionary of the Latin words occurring in the Talmud, passed away today in his native Dresden.
1821: Birthdate of Michel Levy, the native of Phalsbourg who became a prominent French publisher.
1826: Woolf Levy married Catherine Lazarus today at the Great Synagogue.
1826: Meir ben Gedaliah married Rachel bat Phineas today at the Western Synagogue.
1827: In New Orleans, a group of Jews with Germanic roots led by Jacob Solis formed Shaarei Chesed, an Orthodox Synagogue. In 1881, the congregation merged with Neufutzot Yehuda to form what would become Touro Synagogue, one of the Crescent City’s leading Reform congregations.
1828: Birthdate of 4.Friedrich Korányi “Hungarian physician and medical writer who earned his doctor’s degree at Budapest in 1851.
1834: In Saxony during the reign of King John, “affairs of Jewish culture and instruction were placed under the Ministry of Education.”
1844(10th of Tevet, 5605): Fast of the Tenth of Tevet
1844(10th of Tevet, 5605): Sixty-four year old Nathan of Brselov, “the chief disciple and scribe of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, founder of the Breslov Hasidic dynasty who is credited with preserving, promoting and expanding the Breslov movement after the Rebbe's death” passed away today.
1844: The Jewish Chronicle challenged Nathan Marcus Adler, the new chief rabbi, to handle the controversy between “those who wished to move ahead quickly, too quickly, and those who would rather not move at all” in a “temperate” way.
1848(25th of Kislev, 5609): As Jews observe Chanukah, the term Chanukah Gelt takes on a special meaning as this is the first time the holiday is celebrated after the start of the California Gold Rush.
1849: Birthdate of Jacob Samuel Speyer, the native of Amsterdam who earned his Ph.D. at Leyden in 1872 and became a leading philologist.
1857: In Russia, Alexander Vineberg and his wife Anna who died in childbirth gave birth to Hiram Nahum Vineberg, the husband of Lena Bernheimer and graduate of McGill University who went on to become the attending gynecologist at St. Vincent’s Hospital, Mount Sinai Hospital and the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids.
1858 In Cincinnati, Ohio, Julius and Duffie Freiberg gave birth to Julius Walter Freiberg, who was also known as Jacob Walter Freiberg, the husband of Stella Freibeg.
1860: Two days after he had passed away, 51 year old Naphtali Hart, the husband of Elizabeth Solomon with whom he had had four children, was buried today in the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”
1860: South Carolina becomes the first state to secede from the United States. Jews had been living in South Carolina since colonial times. It was in South Carolina that a Jew was for the first time elected to serve in the legislature. The Jews of South Carolina served with distinction in the American Revolution and Beth Elohim has been a part of Charleston since the beginning of the 19th century. When war the Civil War began Benjamin Mordecai donated $10,000 to “The Cause” and at least 182 Jews from South Carolina fought with the CSA. [During the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War, Charleston will be site of a symposium on the role of Jews, Slavery and the Civil in 2011.]
1861:In the U.S. House of Representatives Congressman Williams S. Holman’s of Indiana “resolution, instructing the Committee on Military Affairs to report a bill amendatory of the present laws, so as not to exclude in the appointment of chaplains any religious societies, was adopted. Mr. Holman mentioned that at present Jewish Rabbis were excluded, notwithstanding there were large numbers of Hebrews in the army.
1861: Arnold Fischel, a Rabbi from New York City who had gone to Washington, DC to seek President Lincoln’s help in changing the law so that Rabbis could serve as chaplains in the Union Army wrote a letter to Henry Hart describing his visit to the city, the fruits of his labor and a detailed description of his visits to the camps and hospitals of the Army of the Potomac which, according to him the number of Jews is very large.
1861: During the Civil War, Philadelphian C.D. Goldenberg began serving with Company F of the 110th Regiment.
1862(28th of Kislev, 5623): Parashat Miketz; Fourth Day of Chanukah
1862: In Cleveland, OH, “Aaron and Sarah (Newman) Schanfarber gave birth to University of Cincinnati and Hebrew Union College trained Rabbi and husband of Carrie Phillipson who served congregations in Toledo, Fort Wayne, Baltimore and Mobile before settling in as the leader of “Kehilath Anshe Maariv” in Chicago for quarter of century.
1863(10th of Tevet, 5624): Asara B’Tevet
1863: Seventy-four year old Anglo-Jewish aristocrat Sarah Goldsmid, the “daughter of Joseph Elias-Eliahu Montefiore and Rachel Abraham Montefiore” who was first married to Solomon Ben Masud Ben Abraham Sebag with whom she had two children, Sir Joseph Sebag-Montefiore and Jemima Sebag-Montifore and then married Moses Asher Goldsmid
1863: Hevrat Mefizei ha-Haskalah (Society for the Promotion of Culture Among the Jews of Russia) was founded was founded in Russia.
1867: Austrian laryngologist Johann Schnitzler and Luis Markbreitr, his wife, gave birth to their third child and first daughter Gisela.
1870: The Executive Committee in charge of the Hebrew Charity Fair voted to donate an assortment of items valued at $1,000 to the Soldier’s Orphan Fair taking place at the armory on Broadway. The donation is the committee’s way of thanking the non-Jewish community for their support of the Jewish fundraising event.
1872: In the Leopoldstadt district of Vienna, Samuel Schonberg, a native of Bratislava who was a shopkeeper, and his wife Pauline gave birth to their daughter Adele the older sister of composer Arnold Schonberg.
1872: Birthdate of Mitau, Latvia native and Cornel Medical College trained “serologist and pathologist” David M. Kaplan who had come to the United States in 1889 and served in the “Army Medical Corps during WW I” while raising a son, Stanley and a daughter with his wife.
1877: Birthdate of Latvian native and Cornell Medical College trained serologist and pathologist David M. Kaplan, a WW I veteran who “was one of the early experimenters in the use of penicillin.”
1878(24th of Kislev, 5639): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah
1880(18th of Tevet, 5641): Sixty-six year old Rebecca Cohen Isaacks Hart, the “daughter of American Revolutionary War veteran Sampson Means and Catherine (Cohen) Isaaks and the wife of Abraham Hart who was an active member of “Synagogue Mickveh Israel” in Philadelphia where she served for thirty years as “President of the Female Hebrew Benevolent Society” and helped to managed the Jewish Foster Home passed away today.
1880: It was reported today that 2,000 people attended a meeting in Berlin during which a resolution “was passed in favor of the suppression of the liberty of the Jews.” They also passed resolution to oppose the return of any Liberal to Parliament who would not vote “for such suppression and to buy nothing from Jewish shops or firms.”
1881: Edward Elias Sassoon and his wife gave birth to Sir Ellice Victor Sassoon
1882: It was reported today that former New York Assemblyman Charles W. Dayton is representing Abraham Meyer, a Jewish merchant who did business on Sunday. In his opening remarks, Dayton said that while there should be a “day of rest” the Jews, under the Constitution, had a right to choose on which day they should rest. Too force him to stay closed for two days would work an undue hardship on Meyer.
1882: Henry Phillips, a leading member of the Sephardic (Spanish and Portuguese) Congregation Mickvé Israel of Philadelphia, presided at the "bar dinner" given to Chief Justice Sharswood on the retirement of the latter. This was the last public occasion in which he participated as a member of the Philadelphia bar, of which he had become a leader.
1882(10th of Tevet, 5643): Asara B’Tevet
1882(10th of Tevet, 5643): Seventy two year old Philipp Ehrenberg, the second son of Henriette and Samuel Meyer Ehrenberg who “succeeded his father as principal of the Samsonschule in Wolfenbuettel” passed away today.
1885: Birthdate of Albert C. Cohn who served as Justice on the New York State Supreme Court. He was the father of Roy Cohn, the infamous lawyer who worked for Joe McCarthy.
1885: Through its first five days, the Ladies Fair has brought in $21,196 which will go to support the Hebrew Free School Association.
1886: It was reported today that 185 young Jewish men have “signified their intention of joining” the newly organized Young Men’s Hebrew Association.
1888: Birthdate of Yitzhak Baer a German-born Israeli historian whose expertise was medieval Spanish Jewish history and whose works include Land of Israel and Exile to the Medieval Ages and History of Jews in Christian Spain.
1888: Birthdate of Newark, NJ native and early professional bowler Mort Lindsey.
1888: In Tukums, Latvia, “Herman Magidsohn, a merchant born in Russia in July 1863, and Bessie Magidsohn, born in August 1864 in Russia” gave birth to Joseph “Joe” Magidoshnm, the All-American halfback at the University of Michigan where he was the first Jew to earn a letter for athletic performance before going on to a career was a civil engineer in Chicago where he lived with his wife Jennie Gold and two children.
1889: A revival of Halevy’s “La Juive” starring Paul Kalisch as “The Jew” will be featured tonight at the Steinway Music Hall in New York.
1890: Birthdate of Bella Fromm the German journalist who covered the rise of Hitler until she fled to the United States where she published “Blood and Banquets. A Berlin Social Diary: A Berlin Social Diary.”
1890: “Coroner Levy” is scheduled to deliver a “lecture today at the Eldridge Street Synagogue for the benefit of the Hebrew Sheltering House on Madison Street” entitled “The Condition of Jews in Russia.”
1890: “Judas Maccabaeus,” a five act dramatic presentation of the Jewish war with Antiochus by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is scheduled to “presented by the Edwin Forrest Amateur Dramatic Society this evening at Turn Hall in New York City.
1891: “Among the Philadelphians” published today described civic activities in the City of Brotherly Love including the $100,000 offer made by the Mercantile Club, a Jewish social and business organization to by the building on North Broad Street that had been the home to the now defunct Delaware Club.
1891: The summary of the annual report by the President of Johns Hopkins included among the school’s accomplishments a lecture by Dr Herbert B. Adams at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association on Confucius.
1892: Members of the State Board of Arbitration are in Woodbine, NJ, the Jewish colony to “see what they can do to settle the differences between the cloakmakers and the New York ‘sweater’ contractors who have become an evil in the settlement.”
1895: A.M. Palmer, Agustin Daly, Daniel and Charles Frohman, Tony Pastor, Kirke La Schelle and W.A. Brady are among those who will participate in benefit performance at Palmer’s Theatre that will provide additional funds for the charity fair being held at Madison Square to raise money for the Hebrew Technical Institute and the Educational Alliance.
1895(3rd of Tevet, 5656): Fifty year old Leopold Jacob, the son of Cantor the German born Socialist and Poet passed away today in Zurich.
1896: Birthdate of Alfred Henry Sachs, the native of Poland who came to the U.S. in 1910 where he attended JTS, CCNY and Columbia before practicing law and becoming a leader in Jewish communal as can be seen by his service as the Executive Director of the Board of Jewish Education and as an officer with ZOA.
1896: In Hoboken, NJ, “Morris and Julia (Greenwald) Eichler gave birth to NYU trained lawyer George M. 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.
1897(25th of Kislev, 5658): Chanukah celebrated for the first time during the Presidency of William McKinley.
1897: In Ukraine, “Reuben Wolf Hassman and Bertha Beila Hausman” gave birth to Louis Hausman.
1898: Jacob H. Schiff the donated a new building to the Young Men’s Hebrew Association located at Ninety-Second Street and Lexington Avenue in New York City.
1898: Following the end of the Spanish –American War, Sergeant George M. Klein and Private Sydney Frank, both form Vicksburg, were among those mustered out of the 1st Mississippi Volunteer Infantry.
1898: Following the end of the Spanish-American War, Private Hans Meyers was mustered out of the 2nd Mississippi Volunteer Infantry.
1898: 1898: Following the end of the Spanish-American War Jacob Schrob and Bernard Schwarzenberg were mustered out with the other members of Battery B of the 1st Regiment Connecticut Volunteer Artillery at Bridgeport, CT.
1898: Following the end of the Spanish-American War Corporal Nathan Bernstein and Privates Harry Bernstein and Isidore Cohen all of Richmond were mustered out with the other members of Company A of the 2nd Virginia Volunteer Infantry.
1899: "The retired British priest and die-hard Egyptophile Greville Chester" wrote a letter today describing the destruction of the Ben Ezra building in Cairo
1901: Birthdate of Louis I Kahn. This world famous architect had trouble getting commissions early in his career because he was Jewish. His work can be found from the Yale Campus, to the Salk Institute, to Fort Worth to Bangladesh. He passed away in 1974.
1900(28th of Kislev, 5661): Fourth Day of Chanukah
1902: Birthdate of columnist Max Lerner whose famous quotes include “When you choose the lesser of two evils, always remember that it is still an evil.” “Either men will learn to live like brothers, or they will die like beasts.”
1902: In Brooklyn, Austrian Jewish immigrants Jennie and Isaac Hook gave birth to philosopher and author Sidney Hook.
1903(1stof Tevet, 5664): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah
1903: Today, the Seventh Day of Chanukah has been designated as “Shekel Day” a Zionist fund raising event which its supporters hope will become an annual event.
1904: At a meeting of the Council of Jewish Women Mrs. Solomon Schechter presented a paper entitled "The Problem of Religious Observance" which contended that congregational singing is an important factor in the religious services of the Jews, and pleaded for a return to the use of beautiful ancient melodies, which at present are sadly neglected and almost disappearing.
1905: Forty-four year old Henry Harland who, early in his career wrote the “Jewish Tribology” – As It Was Written, Mrs. Peixada and The Yoke of the Torah– under the penname of Sidney Luska passed away today.
1906: Dr. Solomon Schechter, President of the Jewish Theological Seminary presided over a mass meeting in Cooper Union which was sponsored by the Zionist Council of Greater New York. When Dr. Schmarja Levin, a member of the recently dissolved Russian Duma, was introduced the crowd waved small Zionist flags in the pattern adopted by the Zionist Convention held in Basle, Switzerland in 1897. Speaking in Yiddish, Levin presented the Zionist argument that Jews would always be treated as outsiders and needed to establish their own nation in their historic homeland.
1907(15thof Tevet, 5668): British educator and communal leader Abraham Levy who had been born in 1848 passed away today.
1907: Albert Abraham Michelson wins the Nobel Prize for Physics. The physicist was the first American to win a Noble Prize in a field of science.
1908: Ossip Gabrilowitsch was injured today in Danbury, Connecticut, when he rescued Clara Clemens from run-away sleigh that overturned when the horse pulling the sleigh bolted. Clemens is the daughter of Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain, the famous American author. [Gabrilowitsch was a Russian-Jewish pianist, composer and orchestra conduct who had settled in the United States. He would marry Clara in 1909 and would be the father of Samuel Clemens’ only grandchild.]
1909(8thof Tevet, 5670): Mendel Tostowsky passed away today.
1911(29thof Kislev, 5672): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1911(29thof Kislev, 5672): Seventy-seven year old CSA veteran Benjamin F. Jonas, the Kentucky born son of Abraham Jonas and the former Louisa Block whom Lincoln named as the successor to the role of Postmaster after her husband’s death and who was the second Jew to serve as U.S. Senator from Louisiana passed away today.
1911: Birthdate of New York native Hortense Calisher, the daughter of a Southern Jewish perfume-maker and a German immigrant, who has written about her own family in three memoirs. The most recent, Tattoo for a Slave (2004), traces the history of her father's family from before the Civil War to her own lifetime. A 1932 graduate of Barnard College, Calisher published her first short story, "The Middle Drawer," in 1948. She did all of this while raising two young sons. Like much of her later work, this O. Henry Award-winning story drew upon themes of Calisher's own life. Most of Calisher's fiction features Jewish characters, but their ethnic identity is usually background rather than a dramatic element. Calisher has been a Guggenheim fellow twice and a National Book Award finalist three times. Though popular fame has eluded her, she has been lauded as a "writer's writer" with a wide imaginative and formal range, and has been praised for both intricate plot and rich character development. (As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archives)
1911: Birthdate of Harry C. Friedman
1911: Caricature of Lucien Wolf with the caption “Diplomaticus” was published in Vanity Fair. Born in 1857, this native of London was journalist, historian and advocate of Jewish rights who passed away in 1930.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lucien_Wolf_Vanity_Fair_1911-12-20.jpg
1912(10th of Tevet, 5673): Asara B’Tevet
1912(10th of Tevet, 5673): Sixty-two year old Texas businessman Isaac Gordon passed away in Beaumont today.
1912(10th of Tevet, 5673): Seventy-five year old Rabbi Abraham Werner passed away today in London.
1913: “More than 2,500 friends and admirers” of Solomon Bloomgarden, the poet who writes under the name of “Yehoash” “attended a farewell reception at Carnegie Hall tonight” for the man known as the “Yiddish Milton” who will be leaving for Palestine in the first month of 1914.
1914(3rd of Tevet, 5675): Eighth Day of Chanukah
1914: “The American Jewish Relief Committee for War Suffers of which Felix M. Warburg is Treasurer raised and additional $18,000 today bringing the fund’s total to $222,122.
1914: The Jewish Emancipation Committee received this statement tonight; “Advices from Jerusalem and Jaffa indicate that close 50 000 Jews are on the verge of starvation there and that relief is need immediately to save hundreds from perishing.”
1914: During WW I, opening of the Battle of Champagne in which a large number of “Oriental Sephardim,” many of whom had lived in the Ottoman Empire where they were educated by the Alliance Israelite Universelle schools fought and died because they “felt they owed a debt to France
1915: Louis Marshall, Chairman of the American Jewish Relief Committee said today that a fund of $5,000,000 must be raised immediately in order to bring effective relief to the thousands of Jews” suffering from the effects of the war in Europe.
1915: During World War I the last ANZAC troops evacuated Gallipoli. If Gallipoli had succeeded, the Allies would have been able to open a supply route to Russia and end the stalemate on the Western Front. This would have meant no Russian Revolution and no humiliating peace that would give the Nazis a road to power. The Zion Mule Corps served at Gallipoli. The Jewish unit acquitted itself with distinction and help. This helped to convince the British to create regiments of Jewish troops that would help to liberate Palestine under General Allenby. The Zion Mule Corps is one of the progenitors of the modern IDF.
1915: Birthdate of Anaheim, CA, native Delmer Elsey Daniel Berg who at the time of his death, would “the last living veteran of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.” (As reported by Sam Roberts)
1915: Louis Lipsky is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “The Organization and Institutions of Zionism” sponsored by the University Zionist Society.
1916(25th of Kislev, 5677): Chanukah is observed for the first time with Lloyd George as Prime Minister of Great Britain.
1916: In New York City, Charlie Scwhartz, an immigrant who left Russia to escape serving in the Czar’s army and his wife gave birth to Morris “Morrie” S. Schwartz, “a sociology professor at Brandeis University and author” who was the subject of the best-selling book Tuesdays with Morrie, which was written by Mitch Albom
1916: Today, “the passage across the Russian frontier of thousands of Rumanians who have abandoned their houses and property in the face of the invading Germans and Bulgarians cast the shadow of a new refugee problem on the Russian Empire” which “has only partially succeeded in…assimilating the millions of homeless…Jews and members of other races who fled” there during the first year and a half of the World War.
1917(1st of Tevet, 5664): Rosh Codesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah
1917: This afternoon, during an address during a ceremony that involved the “presentation of a service flag in honor of the boys of Public School 129 in Brooklyn” where 80 percent of the population is Jewish Samuel H. Cragg, a member of Local Draft Board 24 said that “there ae three epochs in the life of the Jewish boy’ first at birth, circumcision; second, at 13, confirmation; third at 21, exemption.” (Editor’s note – this canard implying that Jews were draft dodgers which flew in the face of statistical reality, cost Cragg his position)
1917: Cheka, the first Soviet secret police, which eventually become the feared NKVD is founded. Regardless of its various names, Jews could be counted among the members of, and victims of the Secret Police. For example, Genrikh Grigor'evich Yagoda whose father was a Jewish watchmaker (his mother was a Russian) was head of the NKVD during the 1930’s where he oversaw the show trials and murders of such Old Bolsheviks as Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev both of whom were born Jewish before giving up Moses for Marx and Lenin. Yagoda himself would fall victim to Stalin’s wrath and would arrested and executed by the same NKVD.
1917: Colonel Sir Ronald Storrs, the newly appointed British Military Governor for Jerusalem, arrived in the City of David.
1917: Despite a heavy rain tonight British forces used pontoon bridges and boats to cross the Auju River at Jaffa and taking advantage of the element surprise and using their bayonets instead of bullets forced the Ottomans to retreat five miles to the west.
1917: Birthdate David Bohm, American-born physicist, philosopher, and neuropsychologist. Bohm worked on the Manhattan project. Like many others who worked with Oppenheimer, Bohm fell afoul of the spirit of McCarthyism in the 1950’s
1917: “According to a cable message from Petrograd received by Zionists” in New York 36 year old David Ben Borochow (Dov Ber Borochov) “founder of the Jewish Social Democratic Labor Party Poale Zion (Workers of Zion) of Russia” who worked in the United States from 1914 to 1917 while in exile from his native land has passed away.
1918: During Senate Committee hearings today, Kuhn, Loeb & Co. was defended against charges that it had ever taken part in the German plan to use it as a conduit for financing German propaganda when the war broke out in 1914.
1919(28th of Kislev, 5680): Parashat Miketz and the Fourth Day of Chanukah
1919: Rabbi Schulman is scheduled to lead services this morning at Temple Beth-El in New York.
1919: Rabbi Enelow is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Need Jews Become Ethical Culturist” at services this morning at Temple Emanu-El.
1919: Birthdate of Everett Grennbaum, the Buffalo native who the script writer whose span of creativity went from the banal – The Love Boat—to the sophisticated – MASH.
1920: Birthdate of Aharon "Aharale" Rabinovich Yariv, the native of Moscow who made Aliyah at the age of 15 and became a key member of the Israeli intelligence service and advisor on counterterrorism.
1920: Rabbi H. G. Enlow is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Patriarchs to Saul” and Rabbi Max Reichler is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “How To Teach Hebrew” at this evenings meeting of the Association of Religious School Teachers of New York.
1920: Columbia University graduate Lewis Einstein, the New York born son of David and the former Caroline Fatman began serving U.S. Minister to Czechoslovakia
1921: It was reported today “several hundred Jewish businessmen” have pledged $380,000 to supported the work of the American Palestine Corporation.
1922(1st of Tevet, 5683): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1922: The New York Times reported that "A rumor is circulating here that Henry Ford is financing Adolf Hitler's nationalist and anti-Semitic movement in Munich.”
1922: In Bucharest, Romania, “Lajos and Eszter (Katz) Abraham” gave birth to Adolf Abraham who gained fame as American professor Randolph L. Braham, the author of The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary and the foremost expert on the genocide of the Jews in his home country.
1922(1st of Tevet, 5683): Eighty-five year old French banker Louis Raphaël Cahen d'Anvers the son of Meyer Joseph Cahen d'Anvers and Clara Bischoffsheim both of whom were members of prominent French banking families passed away today.
1923: Birthdate of New York native Dr. Irving Geschwind, “a member of the faculty in the Department of Animal Husbandry at UC Davis” passed away today.
1924: Adolf Hitler freed from jail before completing his full sentence. This attests to his growing political power and popularity. Hitler had spent 8 months in Landsberg Prison for his role in the famed, failed 1923 Beer Hall Putsch in Munich. The term was a slap on the wrist and presaged the anarchy that would envelop the Weimar Republic. While in prison, Hitler wrote Mein Kampf, his “literary masterpiece” that was a blueprint for the havoc he would unleash on the world.
1924: Spanish newspapers published a signed decree from the king of Spain saying Sephardic Jews dispersed along the Mediterranean coast and in other countries, which "in one way or another" claim descent from families, which once lived in Spain can apply for full Spanish citizenship.
1925: Fifteen year old Rudi Ball, a future Olympic medal winner “decided to become a hockey player” tonight after “a friend of his took him to a game at the Berliner Sportpalast between two of Europe’s top teams at that time, Berliner SC against Wiener EV.”
1925: One day after he had passed away, 55 year old James Henry Oxberry, the husband of Hannah Oxberry and the “leader and founder of Buffaloism (The Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes) in the Far East” was buried today at the “Happy Valley Jewish Cemetery in Hong Kong.”
1926: Birthdate of David Levine, painter and artist who is famous for his caricatures.
1927(26th of Kislev, 5688): Second Day of Chanukah
1927: Federal Judge Grover M. Moscowitz who “has accepted the chairmanship of the Brookly Division of the 1928 United Palestine Appeal” is scheduled to speak tonight at the organizations “annual Brooklyn Conference.”
1928: Tel Aviv Mayor, David Bloch, is scheduled to arrive in New York today aboard the SS Leviathan. Mayor Bloch is coming to the United States to seek financial support for the development of Zionist programs in Palestine. A delegation of “Jewish and labor leaders headed by Abraham Shiplacoff the former Assemblyman of Brooklyn” is scheduled to greet the Mayor and his associated including Dr. C.H. Arlasaroff and Miss Goldie Meyerson. Miss Meyerson would gain lasting fame as Golda Meir, Israel’s first female prime minister.
1928: Ernest Bloch’s “America: An Epic Rhapsody in Three Parts for Orchestra,” has its first performance at today’s matinee performance of the New York Philharmonic.
1929: Today Rabbi Jacob Slonim of Hebron provided explicit details of the murder of five his relatives during last summer’s Arab riots to the British commission investigating this matter.
1930(30th of Kislev, 5691): Parashat Miketz; Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1930: At services this morning, Rabbi Louis Newman will deliver a sermon on “Compassionate Marriage and Other Marriage Problems” at Rodeph Shalom in New York City
1930: At services this morning, Rabbi Israel Goldstein will deliver a sermon on “Compassionate Marriage: What is wrong with it?” at B’nai Jeshurun in New York City.
1930: Cleveland’s Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver will deliver a sermon on “The Role of Religion in a Changing World” at the Free Synagogue which is meeting in Carnegie Hall.
1930: Rabbi Nathan Krass is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “If I Were a Jew” at Temple Emanu-El.
1931(10th of Tevet, 5692): Asara B’Tevet
1931(10th of Tevet, 5692): Eighty-four year old Carl Edvard Cohen Brandes Danish politician, critic and author, and the younger brother of Georg Brandes and Ernst Brandes as well as the father-in-law of Norwegian chemist George Dedichen passed away today in Copenhagen.
1932: “The Blue of Heaven,” produced by Gabriel Levy and with a screenplay by Max Kolpe and Billy Wilder was released today in Germany.
1933: Funeral services are scheduled to be held this afternoon at the Riverside Memorial Chapel for John J. Bockar, the husband of Iva K Bockar and the brother of the former Anna Bockar, Isaac Bockar and Aaron Bockar
1934(14th of Tevet, 5695): Ninety year old Caroline Meyer Mehrbach, the widow of Moses Mehrbach, passed away at White Plains, NY.
1934(14th of Tevet, 5695): Eighty-year old Alice HannahTeller Fleisher, the daughter of David and Rebecca Teller and the wife of Moyer Fleisher passed away after which she was buried in the Mount Sinai Cemetery in Philadelphia.
1936: “The Truth About Christopher Columbus” published today provides a review The Truth About Columbus and the Discovery of America by Charles Duff who “emphasizes the Jewish contribution in encouragement, court influence and money to Columbus’s success and the tragic irony of that contribution at the time of the persecution and expulsion of the Jews in Spain
1936: “Three Smart Girls” a musical comedy produced by Joe Pasternak and directed by Henry Koster was released in the United States today.
1936: State Supreme Court Justice Albert Cohn served as toastmaster for the dinner tonight at the Hotel Commodore attended by “more than 400 members of B’nai B’rith” were celebrating the 93rd anniversary of the founding of Jewish fraternal organization.
1936: Details of the pressure being brought to bear on the Jews of Tripoli by the Governors, Marshal Italo Balbo to vacate their shops and move back into the city’s old quarter which have resulted in the flogging of at least two Jews “were revealed today with the arrival in Rome of the Jewish newspaper Nostra Bandiera of Turin which printed extracts from a local Tripoli newspaper, Avvenire di Tripoli.”
1936: This morning, during a service led by Rabbi Jonah Wise that was part of the celebration of the 19th anniversary of the Central Synagogue, “James G. McDonald of the New York Times and the former League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees” delivered a talk in which he said “the supreme tragedy of the present threats to freedom lies in the fact that they menace the true things that give mankind hope for the future.”
1936: An appeal signed by several prominent clergyman seek to raise money for Christians suffering under the Nazi regime noted that “the response of the Jews in America to the needs of their brethren sets a heroic example for us to follow.”
1936: Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr. “told a joint meeting of the brotherhoods of sixteen Baltimore synagogues tonight that only under a democratic system of government can the welfare and liberties of minority groups be preserved.”
1936: “Arturo Toscanini and his wife arrived by plane today from Alexandria, Egypt and then drove to Tel Aviv where he will conduct the Palestine Symphony Orchestra.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that Simon Less, 24, a milkman, was killed near the Jerusalem quarter of Beit Hakerem. Shlomo Ben-Nun, 27, a policeman, was kidnapped and later murdered by armed Arabs near Kfar Hittin. A police squad killed one Arab terrorist and jailed another. Jewish buses were shot at and a number of passengers were wounded. In Berlin, Herr von Schwabach, a prominent half-Jewish banker, committed suicide when refused permission to marry his Aryan fiancée. The Lwow University closed owing to renewed anti-Jewish violence.
1938: After waiting for two months, Madison, Wisconsin native, George Rublee, American executive director of the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees today was invited to go to Berlin discuss plans for “taking almost 700,000 Jews out of Germany.”
1938: After having fought with the Lincoln Brigade 26 year old Edward Isaac Lending returned to the United States aboard Ausonia, after which he would put his military training to go use while serving with the U.S. Army as part of an anti-aircraft united the European Theatre of Operations.
1939: Miss Sophia Harris daughter of Mrs. Louis I. Harris and the late Dr. Harris, one-time Health Commissioner of New York was married tonight at the Hotel Whitehald to Rabbi Leo Geiger of Congregation Sha'arey Israel in Macon GA. Rabbi Nachman Arnoff performed the ceremony.
1940: Bing Crosby (who was not Jewish) turned “A Nightingale Sang in Berkley Square” a British song with lyrics by Eric Maschwitz into an instant “standard” when he recorded it today.
1940: Starting today, “various humanitarian aid organizations” including “Jewish French organizations tolerated by the Vichy Regime” “intervened to lend their services to the inmates at Gurs by setting up “posts” inside the French fascist concentration camp.
1940(20thof Kislev, 5701): Seventy-year old “Mrs. Isabella Peyster Unger” the wife of Tammany Hall political power and Municipal Court Judge Henry W. Unger and the mother of Albert Unger and Herbert Unger, of blessed memory, passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1940/12/21/96212435.pdf
1940: A group of Zionist met today in Bendzin, Poland.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/december/03.asp
1940: Captain America Comics #1 — cover-dated March 1941 went on sale today. Captain America was the creation of Joe Simon (born Hymie Simon) and Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg)
1941(30thof Kislev, 5702): Parashat Miketz; Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1941: At Temple Emanu-El in New York, Rabbi S.H. Goldenson is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The Maccabees and Religious Freedom.”
1941: In New York, at Temple Rodeph Sholom, Rabbi Louis I. Newman is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “No. 2, Red, White and blue Herring, A Maccabean Answer.”
1941: In New York, at Temple Israel, Rabbi William F. Rosenblum is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Now It Is Our Battle.”
1941: In New York, at the West End Synagogue, Rabbi Hyman J. Schachtel is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The Maccabees Defeated Hitler.”
1941: In New York, at the West Side Jewish Center, Rabbi Leo Ginsburg is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Our Fathers’ Triumphant Wars and Now.”
1941: In New York, at the Fort Washington Synagogue, Rabbi Alexander Segel is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “A Maccabee in This Generation.”
1942: The Nazis shot 560 Jews in the Rakow forest. “The story of the massacres that took place at the Rakow forest is typical of the Nazi atrocities during the WWII. The Nazis liquidated the ghetto of Piotrokov, the first ghetto built by the Germans in Poland. While most of the inhabitants of the ghetto were deported to be murdered at Treblinka, one group of 560 Jews was shot to death in the forest outside of town.”
1943: The United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously approved a resolution by sponsored by Iowa’s Senator Guy Gillette and 11 of his colleagues proposing “that President Roosevelt set up a commission of diplomatic, economic and military experts to devise ways ‘to save the surviving Jewish people of Europe from extinction at the hands of Nazi Germany.’ The Nazis were charged in the resolution with having ‘exterminated close to two million’ Jewish men, women and children in Europe.”
1944: During negotiations with the Germans to save Hungarian Jews, Dr. Rudolf Kastner arrived in Switzerland.
1944: In response to the activities of Lechi (the Stern Gang), Churchill “dropped all discussion of the Jewish state proposal that had been scheduled for promulgation on this date.”
1944: Lazar Kaganovich ended his term as People’s Commissar for Transport in the Soviet Union.
1945: Fifty-two Palestinian Jews detained at a camp at Latrun halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv…were transferred to military custody today and deported to Eriterea.” The British believe that the Jews are part of an “underground terrorist organization” but have not formally charged them with any crimes. The 52 join 300 Jews already imprisoned at Eriterea under similar conditions. When other prisoners at Latrun found out about the deportations they began a hunger strike.
1945: In “Baghdad Worried by Zionist Issue and the Russian’s Activity,” published today,Clifton Daniel reported that “Iraq is probably the fountainhead of the pan-Arab movement and hotly anti-Zionist.”
1945: Council Law No. 10 was signed by 23 countries establishing the war crimes commission at Nuremburg. Approximately 5000 people were tried with 600 receiving the death sentence
1945: The British deport 52 suspected Jewish terrorists who have been held at Latrun to Eritrea.
1945: The Minnesota Starvation Experiment, for which Max Kampelman served as a voluntary subject because he was a conscious objector came to an end today.
1946: Birthdate of Romanian born author and poet Andrei Codrescu. Codrescu is a naturalized American who teaches at LSU and is a regular contributor on National Public Radio.
1946: Today the Jewish Agency for Palestine announced establishment of an annual grant to the Children's Foundation of the Holy Land in memory of Miss Henrietta Szold founder of Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, on what was the 86th anniversary of her birth.
1946: In Tel Aiv Itzhaak Geller (Gellér Izsák), a retired army sergeant major, and Manzy Freud a distant relative of Sigmund Freud gave birth to Israeli psychic Uri Geller.
1947: “Dr. Emanuel Neumann, president of the Zionist Organization of America, and a member of the American Section of the Jewish Agency Executive, announced today that he had called a special meeting of Zionist leaders of Greater New York for next Tuesday night at the Barbizon-Plaza Hotel to review the latest developments in Palestine.”
1948: Canada recognized the state of Israel.
1948(18thof Kislev, 5709): Seventy-seven year old French born and educated Felix Weill, a French professor at City College since 1901 and the chairman of the Romance Language from 1935 to 1939 who with his wife Else raised their daughter Ellen, passed away today.
1948: Laurence Duggan (who was not Jewish) jumped to his death after having been “named” (as a Communist spy) by Isaac Don Levine.
1948: As Israel began to grow its air force, Jack Cohen led six Spitfires from Kunovice today
1948: King Abdullah of Palestine appoints Sheikh Hussan Medin Jarallah as mufti of Jerusalem. Haj Amin el Husseini is recognized as mufti of Jerusalem by other Arab states.
1949(29th of Kislev, 5710): Fifth day of Chanukah
1949(29th of Kislev, 5710): Sixty-two year old Russian born American sculptor and painter Alexander Portnoff whose models included Shalom Aleichem “died suddenly today in Philadelphia, PA.”
1949: The UN Trusteeship Council asks Israel to call off transfer of its government to Jerusalem.
1949: The UN Economic Survey Mission plans several projects to be covered by the aid program for Arab refugees including irrigation and hydroelectric development in Arab Palestine and Arab countries. No funds are allotted for Israel which is absorbing thousands of Jewish refugees who have been forced to flee from the Arab and/or Moslem countries in which they have been living.
1950: “Ten short-wave diathermy machines and other medical equipment were donated to Israel today by the American Committee for the National Sick of Palestine as special ceremonies held in the offices of the J. Beeber Company,” the manufacturers of medical equipment responsible for the donation.
1951: “Death of Salesman” the cinematic treatment of the play by Arthur Miller directed by László Benedek and produced by Stanley Kramer was released in the United States.
1952(2nd of Tevet, 5713): 8th day of Chanukah
1953: Thirty year old CPA and investor Bertram Frankenberger, the son of Bertram and Thelma Frankenberger married Marjorie Green with whom he had two daughters, Linda Sue Reason and Wendy Beth Goldstein.
1953(14thof Tevet, 5714): Fifty-five year old William B. Ziff, the advertising agency owner turned publisher who founded and chaired Ziff-Davis Publishing company, whose service “as an aviator in World War I with 202nd Aero Squadron led him to become an advocate for military airpower as can be seen in his best-seller The Coming Battle of Germany and whose support for Zionism was the inspiration for The Rape of Palestine, passed away today living his son William Ziff, Jr. to run his publishing enterprises.
1954(25thof Kislev, 5715): Chanukah
1954: U.S. premiere of “The Silver Chalice” which much to his later shame marked the debut of Paul Newman with music by Franz Waxman.
1956: In New York City Jack Garfein, “a Czech Jew and Holocaust survivor” and actress Carroll Baker who had converted to Judaism gave birth to Blanche Garfein who gained fame as actress Blanche Baker.
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 Finland a day after having had its Swedish premiere.
1957: The :comedy shorts unit closed today marking the end of Jack White’s (Jacob Weiss) career with Columbia where he had made so many films with the Three Stooges.
1960: Auschwitz-commandant Richard Bär was arrested in German Federal Republic.
1961: “Lover Come Back produced by Martin Melcher and Stanley Shapiro who also co-authored the script and co-starring Tony Randall was released in the United States today.
1961(13th of Tevet, 5722): Dramatist Moss Heart passed away.
1963: Birthdate of Tal Friedman, the native of Kiryat Ata who served in the Israeli Sea Corps and went on to become a popular comedian, actor and a musician.
1963: “Contempt” a satire produced by Joseph Levine was released today in France.
1963(4th of Tevet, 5724): Eighty-three year old Franciska (Franzi) Schwimmer, the daughter of Max and Bertha Schwimmer who “graduated from the National Music Academy in Budapest and became a piano and music teacher” passed away today in New York City.
1963: Guy de “Rothschild was on the cover of TIME magazine in a story that said he took "over the family's French bank during the disorder of war and defeat, changed its character from stewardship of the family fortune to expansive modern banking.”
1963: “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” a song from the album “Funny Girl,” was recorded today at Barbra Streisand.
1964: Rachel Rubin became Rachel Adler today when she married Rabbi Moshe Adler.
1964: “An Evening with Fred Astaire” with music by David Rose and his Orchestra and produced by Bud Yorkin was re-broadcast this evening.
1964: Prime Minister Levi Eshkol formed his cabinet and became head of the Israeli government. Eshkol was a compromise candidate of whom little was expected. In one of the irony of history, Eshkol would be Prime Minister when Israel was faced with its greatest military challenge in May and June of 1967. Under Eshkol’s leadership, the Israeli forces won the Six Days War, which among other things, resulted in the re-unification of the city of Jerusalem.
1966(7th of Tevet, 5727): Seventy-two year old Amram Aburteh the native of Morocco who became “the Chief Rabbi of the Sephardic congregation in Petah Tikva, Israel and author of Netivei Am, a collection of responsa, sermons, and Torah teachings” passed away today.
1966(7th of Tevet, 5727): Sixty-eight year old NYU trained attorney Joseph H. Wasserman, a specialist in tax law, the husband of the “former Leah Chayes” and the father of Dr. Norman Wasserman, died of a heart attack while driving his car in Brooklyn.
1966: Albert Günther Göring, the younger brother of Nazi leader Hermann Göring who worked to save Jews from Hitler and was an anti-Nazi, passed away.
1966: Gene Klein and business associate Sam Schulman, plus a group of minority investors, obtained the National Basketball Association franchise for the city of Seattle, Washington
1966: A Chanukah Festival for Israel featuring Sophie Maslow and company is scheduled to be held at Madison Square Garden.
1967(18th of Kislev, 5728): Sixty-three year old Boston native Alfred Henry “Truck” Miller who played in the backfield for Harvard in the late 1920’s before spending one year as a player with professional Boston Bulldogs passed away today in Detroit, Michigan.
1968(29th of Kislev, 5759): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1968(29th of Kislev, 5759): Eighty four year old Israeli author and Editor Max Brod, the editor of the works of Franz Kafka of whose estate he was executor and whose most work was The Redemption of Tyco Brahe passed away today.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/article-1G2-2587503572/brod-max.html
1969: “New Journalism Dean” published today described the life and career of Elie Abel, whom the trustees of Columbia University have just named “as the new dean of its Graduate School of Journalism.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/12/20/78549813.pdf
1969: Peter, Paul & Mary's "Leaving on a Jet Plane" reaches #1
1969: In Zurich, Jacqueline (née Burgauer) and Gilbert de Botton gave birth to author, philosopher and television personality Alain de Botton. De Botton’s father was part of a prominent Egyptian Jewish family that was expelled by Nasser along with most of the rest of the Jews living in Egypt. (This part of the Middle East refugee problem that you did not hear about)
1970: The 6th Asian Games in which Esther Roth-Shachamorov won golds in 100m hurdles and pentathlon and a silver in long jump came to an end today in Bangkok.
1971(2ndof Tevet, 5732): 8th Day of Chanukah
1971(2ndof Tevet, 5732): Sixty-eight year old West Hoboken, NJ native and NYU Law School trained attorney Walter Leichter, a president of the New Jersey Bar Association and president of the North Hudson Jewish Community Center who was the husband of “the former Irma Cohen” passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1971/12/21/archives/walter-leichter-68-led-jersey-bar-association.html
1972: In Oakland, CA, Sharon and Lawrence Slutzker gave birth to New Jersey raised tight end Scott Slutzker who played at the University of Iowa before going on to pro career with the Colts, Saints and Jets.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/scott-slutzker
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/S/SlutSc00.htm
1972: Neil Simon’s "Sunshine Boys" premiered in New York.
1973(25th of Kislev, 5734): First Day of Chanukah
1973(25th of Kislev, 5734): Sixty-seven year old San Francisco born, U.C. Berkley grad Frederick L. Ehrman, the “former chairman of the board of Lehman Brothers” and the husband of “the former Edith Koshland with whom he had one daughter – Edith—passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1973/12/21/91062489.1973: A terrorist attack was thwarted when authorities arrested “10 Turks, 1 Palestinian and 1 Algerian…in a villa near Paris.”
1973: “The Laughing Policeman” directed and produced by Stuart Rosenberg and starring Walter Matthau was released in the United States today.
1974: After having premiered in New York City a week ago, “The Godfather Part II” featuring Less Strasberg, James Caan and Abe Vigoda and edited by Peter Zinner opened in theatres throughout the United States tdoay
1974: Thirteen people were injured in Jerusalem when terrorists exploded a bomb “on a crowded street.”
1974: “The Jackson-Vanik Amendment was overwhelmingly approved by the U.S. Congress, making U.S. trade concessions and low-interest loans to any “non-market economy” (communist) conditional on “respect for the right to emigrate.”
1975: Seven months after having opened in France, “Seven Beauties,” co-starring Shirley Stoler was released today in Italy.
1976: Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin resigned. Rabin was forced to resign over a financial indiscretion that took place while he had been Ambassador in Washington. His resignation opened the way for the election of the Likud and Menachem Begin. Up until then, Labor had controlled the Israeli governments chosen since 1948. This opening for the Right wing changed the political equation in Israel both in foreign and domestic affairs.
1977: “The Water Engine,” “a play by David Mamet that centers on the violent suppression of a disruptive alternative energy technology” opened today at The Public Theatre.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported from Cairo that Egypt and Israel agreed to incorporate all principles of UN Resolution 242 on their agenda. In the Knesset a number of members of Likud, Labor and the National Religious Party expressed fears about Menachem Begin's peace plans for Judea and Samaria and asked for explanations. It became evident that the prime minister faced a serious challenge from many of his own ardent supporters. The chief editor and political analyst of the Egyptian influential daily al-Ahram, Ali Hamdi el-Gammal, welcomed Begin's peace proposals as "very promising and encouraging."
1978: In a strange multi-cultural twist “Steam Heat” the show tune by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross was sung by the African-American cast of “Good Times.”
1979(30th of Kislev, 5740): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1981: Today “the Cabinet of Israel convened for a weekly meeting, in which Defense Minister Ariel Sharon and the Chief of Staff (Ramatkal) Rafael Eitan presented the "Big Plan" for an invasion of Lebanon, which included seizure of the Beirut-Damascus Highway” which was cancel due to Cabinet opposition despite Prime Minister’s Begin support of the plan,
1982(4th of Tevet, 5743): Ninety-five year old pianist Arthur Rubinstein passed away.
1983: In Los Angeles, “Sharon Lyn (née Chalkin), a costume designer and fashion stylist, and Richard Feldstein, a tour accountant for Guns N' Roses” Jonah Hill, the multi-talented brother of Jordan and Beanie Feldstein, two of whose most memorable performances were as the “geek” in “Moneyball” and as one of the money crazed “brokers” in the “Wolf of Wall Street.”
1984(26thof Kislev, 5745): Fifty-one year old Dr. Stanley Milgram, the noted psychologist, passed away today. (As reported by Daniel Coleman)
1985: Howard Cosell retired from television sports after 20 years with ABC.
1986(18th of Kislev, 5747: Parashat Vayishlach
1986(18th of Kislev, 5747): Sixty-eight year old Connecticut born lightweight and featherweight contender Julius “Julie” Kogon who wore a Star of David on his boxing trunks passed away today after which he was buried in the Garden of Sinai Cemetery in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
1987: "Nuts" with Barbra Streisand premieres.
1987:Today, Egypt summoned the Israeli Ambassador, Moshe Sasson, to the Foreign Ministry to express concern over what it called ''the brutal, oppressive measures taken by Israel against the Palestinian people.'' It was the fifth protest statement issued by Egypt in the eight days.
1989:On the day of the American invasion, Mike Harari, a 62-year-old retired agent of the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, rumored to have been an Israeli spy, a gun-runner, and a military adviser to General Manuel Antonio Noriega vanished from Panama
1990: “Godfather Part III” featuring Eli Wallach premiered today in Beverly Hills.
1991: “Father of the Bride” co-produced by Howard Rosenman and Nancy Meyers who also co-authored the script and featuring Eugene Levy was released in the United States today.
1992(25th of Kislev, 5753): First Day of Chanukah
1992(25th of Kislev, 5753): Eight-eighty year old Brooklyn born Max Hodesblatt, the graduate of Boys High whose basketball and baseball skill earned him membership in CCNY Athletic Hall of Fame as well as a successful coaching career at Jefferson High Schoo.
1992(25th of Kislev, 5753): Eighty-eight year old Nathan Milstein, the Russian-born violin virtuoso, died yesterday at his home in London. (As reported by Harold C. Schonberg)
1992(25th of Kislev, 5753): Ninety-one year old “Stella Adler, an exponent of Method acting whom many considered the leading American teacher of her craft, died today at her home in Los Angeles. (As reported by Peter B. Flint)
1995:The trial of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's confessed assassin opened today only to be postponed for a month, while Israelis received an unexpected replay of the killing in an amateur video not made public before.
1996(10th of Tevet, 5757): Astronomer and science celebrity Carl Sagan passed away at the age of 62. (As reported by William Dicke)
1996(10th of Tevet, 5757): Asara B'Tevet
1997(21st of Kislev, 5758): Parashat Vayeshev
1997: In “The Celebration of Hanukkah, Then and Now” published today Steven R. Weisman describes the rift in the Jewish community in the days of the Macabees and compares it to the challenge facing the state of Israel in the clash between its Orthodox and non-Orthodox citizens.
1998(1st of Tevet, 5759): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah
1998: The New York Timesfeatures reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The House of Rothschild Money's Prophets, 1798-1848 by Niall Ferguson and The Lord Will Gather Me In: My Journey to Jewish Orthodoxy by David Klinghoffer
1999(11th of Tevet, 5760): One hundred one year old British born American director Irving Rapper whose career began in 1941 with “Shining Victory” and ended with “Born Again” in 1978 passed away today.
2000: As of today, “Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon, the Likud Party leader, are the sole contestants for the Feb. 6 elections for prime minister.”
2001: “As Israeli military pressure on Yasir Arafat eased slightly today…Dr. Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, a top political leader of Hamas, said today that Hamas's military wing intended to continue sending suicidal attackers against Israel.”
2002(15th of Tevet, 5763):An Israeli rabbi was shot and killed on the Kissufim corridor road in the Gaza Strip while driving with his wife and six children to attend a pre-wedding Sabbath celebration in Afula. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.
2002(15th of Tevet, 5763):An Israeli rabbi was shot and killed on the Kissufim corridor road in the Gaza Strip while driving with his wife and six children to attend a pre-wedding Sabbath celebration in Afula. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.
2003(25th of Kislev, 5764): Parashat Vayeshev; First Day of Chanukah
2003: The Klezmatics perform "Holy Ground: The Jewish Songs of Woody Guthrie," at the 92nd Street Y, featuring songs inspired or written by Guthrie's mother-in-law, Aliza Greenblatt.
2004: Paula Abdul the daughter of Syrian born Jew Harry Abdul and Canadian born Jew Lorraine Rykiss was involved in an automobile accident today in Los Angeles.
2005(19th of Kislev, 5766): Eighty-two year old Hyman Morris who served as Lord Mayor of Leeds from 1941 to 1942 passed away today.
2005: The Jerusalem Postreported on clean-up efforts at Beth El Synagogue in New Orleans. The work is being done by college students who are using their winter break to help clean up damage left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Beth El was covered by ten feet of water and was the only synagogue in New Orleans completely destroyed by the storm.
2006: The Inspector General reported today that Sandy Berger, a high ranking foreign policy advisor to President Clinton had removed four classified documents from the National Archives reading room” in 2003.
2006: “Cantors in Concerto” featuring Eliezer Kepecs, Yehuda Rossler, Davide Montefiore, Alex Stein and Michael Trachtenberg will take place at 8 o’clock this evening at Merkin Concert Hall.
2006: Haaretz reported on a case of technology, academia and physical courage converging to protect the history of the Jewish people. Emory University is planning to translate a professor's Web site on Holocaust denial into Arabic, Farsi and other languages common to countries where anti-Semitic views are widespread. Professor Deborah Lipstadt, who runs the site Holocaust Denial on Trial (www.hdot.org), said she hopes the translations will provide resources to people who have no historical accounts of the Holocaust in their native tongue. "I'm convinced that there are people in predominantly Muslim countries, especially in the Middle East, who are being inundated with Holocaust deniers' claims and don't know that the deniers are fabricating and distorting," she said in a news release. Robert Paul, dean of Emory College, said the university is creating a $2 million endowment to help enhance the Web site. The site's stance on anti-Semitic views could create some security concerns for the university, he said. "That's always a threat, but that's the risk you take in a free society," he said in a telephone interview. Emory is located in Atlanta, Georgia, the same city from which Jimmy Carter sent forth his comparison of Israel with the Apartheid of South Africa.
2006(29th of Kislev, 5767): Fifth Day of Chanukah
2006(29th of Kislev, 5767): Rabbi Dovid Barkin the son-in-law of Rabbi Eliyahu Meir Bloch and former Rosh Yeshiva of the Telshe Yeshiva passed away today.
2007: In the afternoon, Palestinian terrorists fired three rockets toward southern Israel with one hitting about forty yards from a school in downtown Sderot forcing twelve students to seek treatment for shock.
2007: Basell, a company created by Leonard "Len" Blavatnik, completed its acquisition of the Lyondell Chemical Company for an enterprise value of approximately $19 billion. The resulting company, LyondellBasell Industries then became the world's eighth largest chemical company based on net sales
2007: In the evening five Palestinian terrorist were killed and Israeli soldier was badly wounded in fighting in Gaza about a mile from the border with Israel as forces of the IDF sought to put an end to the continuous missle attacks on southern Israel including the town of Sderot.
2007: According to an unnamed sources in Los Angeles, the Spinka Rebbe has hired top criminal defense Attorney Donald Etra to defend him.
2007: In “Keeping the Peace” published today Yehuda Lev described what it was like to be married to his wife Rosie, woman with strong beliefs who was not afraid to share them.
2008(23rd of Kislev, 5769): Twenty-three year old Emma Bee Bernstein the first born child of poet and college professor Charles Bernstein passed away today.
2008:”Imagine This!,”a five million Pound West End production depicting the tragic story of the Warshowsky Family theater group who defy the oppressors and the ghetto's meager resources to put on a musical on the siege of Masada and warn their audience of the fate awaiting them in Treblinka, closes only a month after its official opening at the Drury Lane New London Theatre.
2008: In New York, as part the JCC Manhattan, Beit Midrash Yonatan Gefen facilitates a presentation entitled, “Why Do I Write? (Zionism as an Anti-depressant)” Poet, playwright, author of 20 books, translator, lyricist and satiric performer, Yehonatan Geffen has been a correspondent for Maariv since 1992 and his column appears there every Friday. A third generation member of the renowned Dayan family, he served as an officer in the Israeli Paratroopers and in the Golani infantry brigade. His talk will focus on writing as a weapon, as an attempt to find out the truth, as communicating and therapy, writing as falling in love and finally, the significance of writing in a language that was dead for over 1900 years.
2008: The slender Saturday edition of the Cedar Rapids Gazette reads like a Jewish newspaper with articles entitled ‘Israeli election hopefuls siik the Obama touch” (complete with a picture of the President-elect at the Western Wall), “Hamas declares end of truce with Israel,” “Jewish Festival of Lights begins Sunday” and “Potential buyers showing interest in Agriprocessors.”
2009: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently released paperback editions of Hot, Flat and Crowed: Why We Need a Green Revolution — And How It Can Renew America by Thomas L. Friedman and A Photographer’s Life: 1990-2005 by Annie Leibovitz.
2009: The Washington Postfeatures reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Herblock: The Life and Work of the Great Political Cartoonist by Haynes Johnson and Harry Katz.
2009: Mathieu David Schneider left the Vancouver Canucks “due to a reported dispute about his playing” which led to his being waived and being shipped down the AHL in January,
2010: The 92nd Street Y is scheduled to present a program entitled “The Chosen Peoples and Their Enemies” featuring Michael Walzer and Jackson Lears, Todd Gitlin and Liel Leibovitz.
2010:The Los Angeles Times featured a review of The Memory Chalet by Tony Judt, of blessed memory.
2010:An IDF soldier reported that three individuals attempted to stab him near a gas station in Givat Ze'ev in Jerusalem. According to the soldier, the three individuals exited their vehicle with one holding a knife. After the soldier loaded and aimed his personal weapon at the three, they returned to their red Toyota and fled.
2010: Three days after he had passed away funeral services are scheduled to be held this morning for 67 real estate executive Stuart Arthur Arnheim at Rodef Shalom Temple at Shadyside.
https://www.post-gazette.com/news/obituaries/2010/12/20/Obituary-Stuart-Arthur-Arnheim-President-of-prominent-real-estate-firm/stories/201012200169
2010: Seven mortar shells were fired from the Gaza Strip into the Eshkol regional council today.
2010: Nearly 50 Conservative (Masorti) rabbis have signed a halachic statement allowing home rentals or sales to non- Jews in Israel, in a move to counter the statement recently signed by nearly 50 city rabbis that prohibited just that.
2010:Roni Daloomi released her debut album titled "Ktzat Acheret" (A Little Different)
2010(13th of Tevet, 5771): Seventy-four year old “Steve Landesberg, an actor and comedian with a friendly and often deadpan manner who was best known for his role on the long-running sitcom ''Barney Miller,'' died in Los Angeles today. (As reported by Hamilton Boardman)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/21/arts/television/21landesberg.html?_r=0
2011(24th of Kislev, 5772): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah
2011(24th of Kislev, 5772): Ninety year old “Jacob E. Goldman, a physicist who as Xerox’s chief scientist founded the company’s vaunted Palo Alto Research Center, which invented the modern personal computer” passed away today.” (As reported by John Markoff)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/22/business/jacob-e-goldman-founder-of-xerox-lab-dies-at-90.html?_r=0
2011: The Mobile Menorah Parade is scheduled to roll through uptown, downtown, and the French Quarter as Chabad celebrates Chanukah
2011: The Sephardic Music Festival is scheduled to open in NYC
2011:Girl-power aficionado Gloria Steinem is scheduled to join the activism-inclined five-piece pop rock band Betty for their late show.
2011:A jazz ensemble, featuring David Freeman, Oren Neiman, Doug Drewes and Ivan Barenboim, is scheduled to perform original compositions inspired by Chanukah, as well as new arrangements of music from the YU Museum’s “Jews on Vinyl” exhibition.
2011:Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak condemned violence by right-wing extremists today, vowing to use all means to eradicate the phenomenon.
2011:A State Comptroller report released today revealed significant gaps in coordination for a possible emergency scenario between local and state authorities..
2011: “The 'Iranian Schindler' who saved Jews from the Nazis” published today described the exploits of Abdol-Hossein Sardari who risked his life to saved thousands of Iranian Jews from the Holocaust.
2012: Following a screening of “Roman Holiday” at the 92nd Street Y, Andrew Dickos is scheduled to lead a presentation on “Hollywood’s Blacklisted Filmmaker,” a disproportionate number of whom were Jewish.
2012: Today, Peter Madoff, the brother of Bernie Madoff and the “Chief Compliance Officer” who “ran the daily operations for the past 20 years” “was sentenced to 10 years for” for his role in what may have been the world’s biggest Ponzi scheme./
2012: “Martha Marcy May Marlene” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2012(7th of Tevet, 5773): Eighty-eight year old WW II veteran Bernard G. Palitz, the brother of Clarence Y. Palitz with whom he founded the Financial Federation corporation passed away today.
2012: It was announced today that stating in January, Jake Tapper would join CNN where he “would anchor a weekday program and serve as the network’s Chief Washington correspondent.”
2012: Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor today called on Europe to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.
2012:Former IDF chief of staff Lt.-Gen. (res.) Amnon Lipkin-Shahak was "a true hero," Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said at his funeral this afternoon.
2013: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is scheduled to tour Jerusalem’s Old City and visit the Western Wall before leaving Israel for Algeria. (As reported by Raphael Ahren)
2013: “A program of the best Israeli songs from all time from Argov through Naomi Shemer: is scheduled to be performed by “the soloists of the Israeli Opera’s Meitar Opera Studio.
2013: In Coralville, Iowa, Agudas Achim under the leadership of Rabbi Jeff Portman is scheduled to host a complimentary Shabbat Dinner followed by a musical service welcoming the Sabbath Queen.
2013: “Washington Square,” the cinematic version of the novel by Henry James, is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2013: Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree today to pardon jailed Jewish tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky (As reported by Nataliya Vasilyeva)
2013:“The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah warned today that the Israelis would be "punished" for killing a leader of the Shiite party, an assassination in which Israel has denied any involvement.”
2013:”The U.S. Senate voted 59–34 for cloture on Janet Yellen's nomination
2013(17thof Tevet, 5774): Seventy year old Marjorie Katz passed it way.
http://articles.philly.com/2013-12-24/news/45512931_1_lewis-katz-oprah-winfrey-margie
2014: The Kol Ami Community Chanukah Party is scheduled to take place in Arlington, Va.
2014: “The War of the Buttons” and “Jadoo” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2014: In Rockville, MD, the Magen David Sephardic Congregation is scheduled host “Light it Up” it’s annual Chanukah Party.
2014: In another example of the strange logic of terrorists, Hamas today threatened to attack Israel after her jets struck several targets belong to the group which came after a rocket had been fired into the Eshkol region from Gaza.
2014(28th of Kislev, 5774): Eight-five year old Louise Goldblatt, the mother of Dr. Fred Goldblatt and Laurie Silber, wife of Dr. Bob Silber passed away today in Cedar Rapids, IA.
2015: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Art of Grace: On Moving Well Through Life by Sarah L. Kaufman and the recently released paperback editions of How About Never – Is Never Good For You?: My Life in Cartoonsby Bob Mankoff, The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution by Jonathan Eig, Living the Secular Life: New Answers to Old Questions by Phil Zuckerman and The Country of Ice Cream Star by Sandra Newman.
2015: The Broadway revival of “Fiddler on the Roof” co-sponsored by the Challah Connection is scheduled to begin tonight in New York City the Broadway Theatre in New York City.
2015:Miss Israel, 19-year-old Avigail Alfatov, is scheduled to compete in the Miss Universe Pageant airing tonight on U.S. television.
2015: Veteran Likud politician Silvan Shalom resigned from political life today, as pressure mounted over an increasing number of allegations of sexual harassment by women who had worked with him.
2015: Jewish film director J.J. Abrams, whose Star Wars reboot had the biggest North American debut of all time today, initially turned down the request to direct the film.
2015: Israel Defense Forces artillery units shelled targets in South Lebanon this evening, shortly after at least three rockets were fired from across the border into Israeli territory.
2016(20th of Kislev, 5777): Eighty-nine Vienna born American cartoonist Paul Peter Porges passed away today.
2016: “According to a letter that emerged” today “the Jerusalem rabbinate has called on hotels in the city not to erect Christmas trees or host New Year’s Eve parties.”
2016: “A ship carrying 450 kilograms of cannabis set sail for Tel Aviv” today which activists claimed was part of a protest against “the government’s refusal to decriminalize marijuana.”
2016: “A bronze penny minted by the Greek tyrant from the Hanukkah story was recently stumbled upon by archaeologists amid the ruins of Jerusalem’s Tower of David during routine cleaning of the site, the museum said in a statement” issued today.
2016: The 92nd Street Y is scheduled to host “Jim J’s Jukebox,” providing a look at the music and lyrics of “Vaudeville, Tin Pan Alley, Broadway and Hollywood.”
2016: “The Band’s Visit” a musical based on the screenplay by Eran Kolorin is scheduled to be performed at the Linda Gross Theatre where its run has been extended by another week into January, 2017
2017: Naida Michal Brandl, PhD, an Assistant Professor at the Chair of Judaic Studies, Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Zagreb in Croatia and the recipient of the 2017 Fred and Ellen Lewis/JDC Archives Fellowship, is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Jewish Life in Croatia 1945-1952” at the Center for Jewish History in New York.
2017 The American Jewish Historical Society and the American Society for Jewish Music are scheduled to host The Annual Chanukah Concert “with Zalmen Mlotek, Artistic Director, National Yiddish Theater-Folksbiene; Yiddish folk and theater songs, with singers and piano and klezmer clarinet plus a Chanukah sing-along and special story for the holiday.”
2017(2ndof Tevet, 5778): Eighth Day of Chanukah;
2018: In Washington, DC, Professionals in the City is scheduled to host a “Jewish Dating Event” at Finn and Porter in the Embassy Suites Hotel.
2018: Chabad of the South Hills is scheduled to sponsor “Kids in the Kitchen” where children learn the joys of “international kosher cooking.”
2018: The Squirrel Hill JCC is scheduled to host an evening of Israeli Dancing
2018: In Albany, NY, Congregation Ohav Shalom is scheduled to host “the Noodle Pudding Players performing Jeffrey Sweet’s ‘The Value of Names’” a play that “described the impact of the Hollywood blacklisting” on those working in the entertainment industry
2019: Deadline for submitting applications “for the first-ever Sephardic trip for Jewish young professionals to Germany.”
2019: In Atlanta, the Breman Museum, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is scheduled to play a medley of Chanukah music “and other selections by Jewish Composers.”
2019:Cultural activist/musician & composer Raul Rothblatt is scheduled to host a neighborhood tour of Brownsville, “New York’s largest historic Jewish neighborhood.”
2019: It was reported today that “New York State has awarded $10 million for the protection of “religious-based institutions and non-public schools from hate crimes…”
2019: It was reported today that “newly reelected British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged to fulfill an election campaign promise to introduce legislation aimed at undermining the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.”
